e-Customer Relationship
Management — Summary Q&A

CRM (first coined mid-1990s) is "an approach to building and sustaining long-term business with customers." It evolved from Sales Force Automation (SFA) software. A good CRM manages customers across their entire lifecycle. 4 Stages of the Customer Lifecycle:

• Customer Selection — Identifying and targeting specific customer segments, including those who use e-channels.
• Customer Acquisition — Gaining new customers at low cost, focusing on high-value segments via the right channels.
• Customer Retention — Keeping existing customers by personalising offers based on their lifecycle position and purchase history.
• Customer Extension — Growing purchase scope via re-sell cross-sell up-sell reactivation referrals.

e-CRM uses digital communications technologies to maximise sales to existing customers and encourage continued use of online services. Key functions include lead generation via websites, email targeting, data mining, online customer service (FAQs, chat), and managing the multichannel customer experience. Social CRM integrates CRM tools with social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to manage customer-to-customer conversations and gain deep insight into customer behaviour and preferences. Its 6 scope areas are: Marketing Sales Service Innovation Collaboration Customer Experience. 5Ms Framework:

• Monitoring — Social listening methods and deriving insights.
• Mapping — Finding relationships between customers across platforms.
• Management — Processes for implementing and reviewing strategy.
• Middleware — Software tools and APIs used for monitoring.
• Measurement — Metrics to assess social marketing effectiveness and ROI.

Paid Search Marketing (PPC) — Advertisers pay for text ads displayed on SERPs when a key phrase is entered. Payment is only charged on clicks (pay-per-click). Position is determined by bid amount AND click-through rate (CTR quality score). Google Ads is the primary tool, offering text, responsive, image, video, shopping, and call-only ad formats. Organic Search Marketing — Improving visibility through unpaid, natural results using SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). 5 Key SEO Ranking Factors:

• Keyword Density — Frequency of key phrases in page text. Keyword stuffing is penalised. Use in h1/h2 tags and anchor text boosts relevance.
• Inbound Links (Backlinks) — More quality links = higher ranking. Google's PageRank treats each link as a "vote"; high-authority links weigh more.
• Title HTML Tag — Keyphrase in <title> significantly boosts ranking and appears as the clickable link in search results.
• Meta-tags — The description meta tag shows in search results and drives click-through. Google no longer ranks on meta-keywords, but best practice is to still include them.
• ALT Tags (Alternative Graphic Text) — Hidden text on images indexed by search engines. Also required for accessibility compliance.

AI / Machine Learning — Systems that imitate human intelligence and learn iteratively from data.

• Use cases: NLP, predicting user behaviour, sentiment analysis, personalised service, predictive lead scoring.
• Benefits: Effective data management, higher customer satisfaction and engagement, better lead management.

Chatbots — AI programs that simulate human text-based conversation, providing instant responses.

• Use cases: Answering FAQs, checking account info, guiding product selection, facilitating purchases.
• Benefits: Faster response times, cost-effective, increased satisfaction, better customer insight.

VR & AR — VR creates a fully immersive virtual environment; AR overlays digital elements on the real world (smartphones, smart glasses).

• Use cases: Virtual showrooms, virtual tours, virtual fitting rooms, guided product tours.
• Benefits: Increased customer satisfaction and engagement, cost-effective pre-purchase experiences.

Google Analytics — A free web analytics platform that tracks website performance and user behaviour to support data-driven decisions. Key insights it provides:

• Website Traffic — Unique/new/returning visitors; sources (organic, paid, social, direct, referral).
• Audience Demographics — Age, gender, location, and interests of visitors.
• User Behaviour — Pages visited, time on page, navigation paths, and bottlenecks.
• Conversion Tracking — Goal completions (purchases, sign-ups), campaign effectiveness.
• E-commerce Analytics — Revenue, transactions, average order value, product performance.
• Mobile Analytics — Mobile traffic, mobile user behaviour, and mobile conversion rates.

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) — A free tool to manage how a business appears on Google Search and Maps.

• Setup (5 steps): Sign in → Enter business name & category → Set location/service area → Add phone & website → Verify ownership.
• Benefits: Greater audience visibility, displays accurate business info, improves SEO and trust, enables responding to reviews, and provides customer insights (interactions, direction requests, website clicks).