I'm in love with the idea of using data to improve business processes.
The folks at Treehouse have recently done just that:
The idea is pretty simple: Create a list of users who look like they’re about to cancel, based on the past behavior of users who cancelled. Then contact this list and ask how you can help them or give them ideas on how to better utilize the service. Ideally, this should discourage them from cancelling.From http://ryancarson.com/post/23942657106/reducing-churn-with-econometrics
37signals has also had an in-house analyst for the past 2 years. When you have enough data to run interesting analysis with, I'm pretty sure the results can be amazing. It's the best way to ensure that your initiatives have actual results and to put quarrels about what you should be working on next to rest. I look forward to exploring this more within XWiki.