When Elizabeth Lee Ming joined Ster-Kinekor Theatres in May 2007, the company had just kicked off the re-design of its website, which needed to be slicker, more efficient and more user-friendly. And it had to help customers with their movie selection and allow them to book their seats, there and then.

This was the first phase of Ster-Kinekor's strategy to adopt IT solutions in order to woo more viewers into theatres. Lee Ming, who is presently completing her BCom honours dissertation in customer equity management, was brought on board as the CRM (customer relationship manager) manager "to find a way to manage each touch point the customer has with the business".