A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

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   Identify customer life cycle groups.    Figure   9.21     illustrates  this  approach.  As  visitors  use 

online services they can potentially pass through seven or more stages. Once companies 

  Customer  extension 

  Deepening  the 

relationship with the 

customer through 

increased interaction and 

product  transactions.   

  Share of wallet or 

share of customer 

  The  proportion  of 

customer expenditure 

in a particular category 

that belongs to a single 

customer.   

advertising and sales promotions in response to questions asked by customers via the bank’s website. 

The adverts change automatically depending on their relevance to customer questions, or to products and 

services Barclays wants to promote. For example, when customers ask questions about foreign currency 

accounts, ‘Ask a question’ will provide a specific answer and display adverts for travel insurance, the use of 

debit cards abroad and foreign mortgages. As well as promoting products directly relevant to the customers’ 

search, ad serving is used to  cross‑  promote related products and services. These ads provide customers 

with an appealing call to action that speeds sales completion and increases response rates. 

 Advertising products alongside search results is producing high conversion rates with 12% of custom‑

ers responding to a product advertisement. ‘Ask a question’ is also improving usability, allowing customers 

to access all of the content relevant to them from a single click or question. By integrating ad serving with 

‘Ask a question’, Barclays have been able to achieve high levels of behavioural targeting that have previously 

only been available through expensive and complicated website analytic tools. Because advertisements and 

promotions are served in response to customer enquiries, there is no need for the system to log or track vast 

amounts of historical customer data to analyse and predict customer behaviour in order to deliver targeted 

information. This cuts the complexity of delivering targeted information and increases sales. 

  Source : Transversal (2008) UK companies fail the multichannel customer service test. Research report, March. 

  Customer  extension 

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Chapter 9  Customer relationship management

have defined these groups and set up the customer relationship management infrastruc-

ture to categorise customers in this way, they can then deliver targeted messages, either by 

personalised on-site messaging or through emails that are triggered automatically due to 

different rules.