Every prospect and customer has unique challenges, needs and goals. Your business must anticipate and act on these requirements to stay ahead of the competition.
A next best action strategy enables you to identify the most relevant action for each customer at any given moment, from initial engagement to after-sales service.
In this article, you’ll learn what next best action (NBA) is, its benefits and how to implement it to transform your marketing and other customer-facing functions.
Next best action definition: a data-driven approach to customer engagement that helps businesses identify the most relevant and effective action to take in real time based on unique customer data and predictive insights.
Unlike traditional customer segmentation or general personalization tactics that might send the same offer to a group of similar customers, NBA lets you automatically respond to customer needs as they arise – sometimes before customers themselves are even aware of it.
By combining data with artificial intelligence (AI) to predict what a customer will most likely respond to at any given moment, you can create a more personalized and meaningful customer experience far beyond basic segmentation.
For example, if a prospect has shown interest in a particular product line, you can send them a promotional discount or a guide on choosing the right solution. If the data shows a customer might be experiencing an issue with the product, you could proactively reach out and help them resolve the problem.
Traditional marketing and sales strategies generally focus on the business’s objectives – upselling products, increasing revenue and so on. NBA prioritizes the customer’s needs, meeting them where they are in their journey with the most valuable interaction possible.
While there are a few dedicated platforms, NBA is typically achieved by connecting your customer data with AI analytics and decision-making solutions.
How next best action works
What sets NBA apart from traditional engagement is its ability to dynamically analyze each customer’s journey in real time and suggest unique actions that fit seamlessly into that journey.
Rather than targeting a broad audience, NBA focuses on the individual, continually adjusting to the latest customer signals.
Download our customer journey map template
Before you can implement NBA, you need to understand the different components that drive this strategy and how they work together to create a personalized customer experience.
Collecting customer data
Accurate and comprehensive customer data is the foundation of any NBA strategy. By knowing who customers are and what matters most to them, you’ll make smart decisions about the best next action for them.
Data collection involves gathering insights from a variety of touchpoints, including:
Demographic data like job title, age, location and gender
Behavioral data like website pages visited, time spent on page and email engagement
Transactional data like previous purchases, amount spent and abandoned carts
The more data you have and the higher its quality, the more personalized and impactful the next best action will be.
Determining the next best action
Once you’ve collected and organized your customer data, the next step is deciding on the most relevant action. NBA combines business rules with AI and predictive analytics, enabling smarter, real-time decision-making.
Imagine a customer who recently browsed high-end tech products on your website but didn’t purchase. A business rule might trigger a follow-up email with a product reminder or discount.
However, by analyzing historical data and identifying patterns, AI-powered systems can take this further and recommend highly personalized actions.
For example, suppose your NBA system also identifies that this customer typically responds well to educational content. Rather than jumping straight to a discounted offer, AI can adjust the response in real time and send a product guide instead.
Once they’ve engaged with the content, you could follow up with a discount for optimal conversions.
Taking action
When you’ve identified the next best action, deliver it at the right time and through the right channel to maximize its impact. NBA systems rely on workflow automation to execute actions quickly and consistently across multiple touchpoints.
Whether it’s sending a personalized email, triggering an in-app notification or recommending a product through a website chatbot, automation means the action takes place immediately without human intervention.
Going beyond multichannel engagement, an omnichannel strategy ensures that the next best action is consistent and seamless across all touchpoints. Whether a customer engages with your brand via email, social media, your website or customer service, they should experience the same personalized action.
Returning to the customer’s abandoned cart example, NBA can trigger a follow-up action such as sending a reminder email. However, if the customer later contacts your customer service team or browses your mobile app, the same reminder should appear in those channels too.
Consistency is key. No matter where or how the customer engages with your business, the action remains relevant throughout their journey.
The benefits of using next best action
According to a report from McKinsey, 71% of customers expect a personalized experience and 76% are frustrated if that doesn’t happen.
The next best action model goes beyond basic personalization to offer a more customer-centric approach, which contributes to improved retention rates, lower customer churn and increased customer lifetime value.
Additionally, while NBA is generally seen as a marketing strategy, it can be used by all customer-facing teams, including sales and customer service.
Using real-time data and predictive insights, NBA helps these teams make smarter, faster decisions that improve engagement at all stages in the customer journey.
Next best action for sales teams
If a prospect has expressed interest in a specific product or service but hasn’t purchased it yet, NBA can recommend when to follow up and with what type of messaging or offer.
NBA can also be more effective and save you time. By automating that outreach, you can send a personalized email or schedule a sales call at the optimal time without manual input from the sales team.
NBA also helps sales teams focus their efforts on leads most likely to convert. Tools like Pipedrive Pulse (currently in beta) use an AI-powered scoring system to rank leads automatically according to buyer intent signals. Salespeople can then spend their time on leads with the highest potential, shortening sales cycles and boosting productivity.
Based on customer data, recommendation engines enable sales professionals to suggest the most relevant product or service.
For example, a customer has purchased a new coffee machine. Based on the data you’ve already collected, the next best action might be to recommend a multipack of their favorite coffee blend or a collection of mugs in their preferred design.
With smarter recommendations, your sales teams can cross-sell and upsell more effectively, increasing revenue per customer.
Next best action for marketing teams
NBA allows marketers to send the most persuasive content or offer to each customer based on their unique preferences and behaviors.
Suppose a customer frequently engages with specific types of content or products. NBA can automatically send targeted sales promotions for similar solutions, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
NBA also helps optimize your marketing’s timing. By analyzing real-time data, NBA can trigger personalized actions – like sending an email or showing an ad – when a customer is most likely to respond.
NBA contributes to more consistent, personalized messages across multiple channels, such as email, social media and mobile apps.
For example, if a customer has engaged with a brand on social media but hasn’t purchased, NBA might recommend a targeted ad or email follow-up to nudge them toward conversion.
Thanks to automation, marketing teams have more time to focus on higher-level strategy while ensuring personalized actions are delivered in real time, improving customer engagement.
Next best action for customer service teams
Customer service teams can use NBA to anticipate customer needs before they arise. With predictive analytics, you can identify customers most likely to encounter issues based on past interactions or behaviors.
For instance, if a user hasn’t completed their onboarding tasks within the expected timeframe, NBA could trigger a customer support outreach through an email or chat notification offering assistance. Taking a more proactive approach, NBA can improve customer satisfaction and increase retention rates.
The automation element means customer service teams can focus on more complex cases, improving efficiency while ensuring all customers receive timely support. At the same time, customer service teams can deliver more personalized responses by analyzing a customer’s history with the brand.
Say a user repeatedly experiences a particular problem, such as service outages or billing issues. NBA prepares your reps with the relevant information to address these concerns directly.
5 steps to implement a next best action strategy
Successfully implementing an NBA strategy requires a clear plan supported by data and technology.
Following these steps, you can use NBA to make your customer-facing teams more efficient and effective.
1. Gather and centralize your data
As we’ve already seen, accurate and reliable data is crucial for an effective NBA strategy. The model relies on real-time insights, so you’ll need comprehensive, up-to-date customer data – including demographics, behaviors and transactional information.
Many businesses struggle with fragmented data across multiple platforms. Using a customer data platform (CDP) or customer relationship management (CRM) software solves this issue by keeping all your data in one place.
CRM systems like Pipedrive collect and store information from various touchpoints such as email, social media and customer support channels. They create a single source of truth for all your customer data that will feed the rest of your NBA strategy.
2. Define your business rules and objectives
Next, establish the business rules that will guide your NBA strategy. Business rules are predefined conditions, usually in the form of “if-then” statements, that determine when and how specific actions should be triggered. The rules form an algorithm for AI to follow and act on your behalf (more on that in the next step).
For example:
If a customer has been inactive for 90 days, send a re-engagement email offering a personalized discount
If a customer’s subscription or service plan is about to expire, send a renewal reminder or upsell to a higher-tier plan based on past usage
If a lead has signed up for a free trial or demo, follow up before the trial ends to answer questions or offer guidance
You likely already have rules like these, but refining them with more detailed customer insights and automating their execution can take your strategy to the next level.
3. Use AI and predictive analytics
While using customer information to make relevant recommendations is nothing new, advances in AI technology and machine learning have made it possible to go beyond generalized segments to create uniquely personalized actions.
By analyzing large datasets, AI can identify trends and predict the actions most likely to resonate with each customer.
Many modern CRMs include AI tools that can help your NBA strategy.
For example, Pipedrive’s AI Sales Assistant automatically analyzes your customer data and suggests what actions to focus on and ways to improve your sales process. AI-powered tools like these continuously learn from customer interactions, making NBA strategies smarter over time.
If your CRM doesn’t have built-in AI tools, you can still use AI and predictive analytics with integrations. Tools like Google Cloud AI, Microsoft Azure AI and Amazon SageMaker can analyze customer data and generate insights that inform your NBA.
Ensuring these external insights are routed back into your CRM is essential to maximizing your NBA strategy.
4. Automate the process
Once your NBA strategy is in place, automation enables you to scale it across your customer base without constant manual intervention. A CRM simplifies the automation process using workflows and integrated tools to trigger actions at the right time.
Go back to the business rules you identified in step two and look at the specific moments in the customer journey where NBA actions should occur (e.g., after a customer completes a purchase, when engagement declines or before a subscription renewal).
Use your CRM to automate these actions, creating workflows for personalized follow-ups or promotional offers without additional input.
A proper NBA strategy responds dynamically to each user’s real-time behavior. For instance, it may send a personalized follow-up email immediately after a customer views a product or automatically recommend similar products based on their browsing history.
Pipedrive’s automation features allow you to send triggered emails at crucial points, such as when deals progress to the next stage in the sales pipeline. With Campaigns by Pipedrive, you can take this further and create highly personalized email marketing using your CRM data.
For tailored real-time product recommendations, you can connect to services like Vertex AI Search to go beyond static segments and build a more advanced NBA model.
While automation improves efficiency, remember to keep that human element where appropriate – especially in high-value sales or sensitive customer service scenarios.
5. Measure performance and iterate
Finally, no NBA strategy is complete without measuring its success. Review performance metrics regularly and make data-driven adjustments to keep your strategy relevant and effective.
Define the KPIs that matter most to your business and track them regularly.
For example, you could measure:
Conversion rates. How many customers took the recommended next best action?
Customer satisfaction. Are customers responding positively to NBA-driven interactions?
Engagement metrics. Are personalized marketing or sales efforts resulting in higher engagement?
Response time. Is NBA improving your customer service team’s effectiveness?
CRMs play a pivotal role here by tracking customer interactions, sales performance and marketing campaign success all in one place. Centralizing your data enables you to easily monitor your NBA strategy's performance and adjust as needed.
Use your CRM’s insights and reports features to create custom dashboards for tracking NBA-related KPIs in real time. This way, you’ll quickly spot trends and compare results across different actions or segments.
You can identify patterns and adjust your business rules or refine AI predictions by conducting quarterly reviews. NBA is an evolving strategy, and continuous measurement ensures it stays effective and aligned with your business goals.
Final thoughts
Personalized marketing has come a long way from adding a prospect’s first name or job title to your email. NBA is a powerful tool that allows businesses to be more proactive and create truly tailored customer journeys.
By harnessing the power of real-time data, AI and predictive analytics, NBA helps marketing, sales and customer service teams deliver personalized experiences that keep customers engaged and satisfied.
To begin exploring NBA, set up a few basic business rules in your CRM or try out any AI tools available within your platform. With each step, your team will gain insights and refine actions to build a robust, data-driven NBA strategy.
Whether using your CRM’s built-in tools or integrating external AI solutions, you can better understand your customers and take the best possible action for them – forging solid customer relationships for a stronger business.
