Comparing Traditional Machine Learning and Advanced Gradient Boosting Techniques in Customer Churn Prediction: A Telecom Industry Case Study

In this study, a range of machine learning models, including Artificial Neural Networks, Decision Trees, Support Vector Machines, Random Forests, Logistic Regression, and advanced gradient boosting methods (XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost), were examined for their efficacy in predicting customer churn within the telecommunications industry. The research utilized a publicly accessible dataset for this purpose. The effectiveness of these models was measured using established evaluation metrics such as Precision, Recall, F1-score, and the Receiver Operating Characteristic Area Under Curve (ROC AUC). The research findings emphasize the efficiency of boosting algorithms in managing the complex aspects of predicting customer churn. In particular, LightGBM was remarkable, securing an outstanding F1-score of 92% and an ROC AUC of 91%. These figures greatly exceed the performance of conventional models such as Decision Trees and Logistic Regression. This highlights the superiority of sophisticated machine learning methods in dealing with challenges posed by imbalanced datasets and complex interrelations among features.