Automation, CRM, ERP and AI glossary for small businesses

37 terms you meet when automating sales and operations, each with a one-sentence definition and an example from a Vietnamese business. Cite any entry with its # link.

AI agent

An AI agent is software that uses AI to read data and decide its own next step within a granted scope, unlike a chatbot that only follows a fixed script.

An AI agent usually pairs an LLM for language understanding with permission to call tools such as looking up a Google Sheet, sending a Zalo message, or calling an API — the agent picks which tool to use depending on the request, within guardrails that stop it acting outside its allowed scope.

A business uses an AI agent to answer customer questions on its website automatically: the agent looks up the return policy in internal documents, checks stock levels in a Google Sheet, and answers the customer without every question-and-answer script being hand-coded in advance.

API

An API is a set of rules that lets two pieces of software exchange data, allowing information to be fetched or sent without going through a user interface.

Software that exposes an API usually publishes documentation stating what data can be fetched, in what format, and what access key is required; automation workflows call the API to pull or push data instead of opening the software by hand.

A shop uses its bank's or payment gateway's API to automatically check whether money has arrived in its account, instead of staff logging into the banking app to check manually.

SLA-based maintenance

SLA-based maintenance is a contract committing to specific response and resolution times for incidents, giving both sides a clear standard when something breaks.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) typically states the maximum response time by incident severity — for example, a system outage answered within 1-2 hours, a minor bug within 24 hours — along with what work is and isn't covered by the maintenance contract.

A business outsourcing its automation workflows signs a maintenance contract with an SLA covering business-hours response, so that when the payment-reconciliation workflow breaks during a peak sales window, someone is accountable for fixing it within a committed time instead of an open-ended wait.

Chatbot

A chatbot is software that automatically converses with customers over chat, replying via a fixed script or an LLM, usually embedded on a website or a Zalo OA.

A rule-based chatbot answers from a fixed decision tree, suited to frequently repeated questions like opening hours or product prices; an LLM-based chatbot is more flexible and understands freely worded questions, but needs guardrails so it doesn't answer incorrectly.

A fashion shop embeds a chatbot on its Zalo OA to automatically answer sizing questions and order-status queries outside working hours, handing off to a real staff member when the customer's question gets more complex.

Lead scoring

Lead scoring assigns a score to each lead based on their likelihood to buy, using behavior and the information they've provided, so high-scoring leads get called first.

Scores usually accumulate from criteria such as a matching budget, repeated engagement, or belonging to the right target segment; the scoring rules can sit inside an automation workflow so a lead is scored the moment it enters the system, without sales having to review it manually first.

A B2B service business sets a rule: a lead that leaves a valid phone number and a budget above 20 million VND scores high, while a lead that only leaves an email with no other detail scores low; sales calls the high-scoring group first instead of wasting time on the rest.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to measure page experience: how fast the main content loads, how responsive clicks feel, and how stable the layout is.

The three metrics are LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), measuring how long the main content takes to render, ideally under 2.5 seconds; INP (Interaction to Next Paint), measuring click responsiveness, ideally under 200 milliseconds; and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), measuring how much the layout jumps while loading, ideally under 0.1.

A slow website makes visitors leave before they even see the product, hurting both the buying experience and search rankings; a landing page with many unoptimized, heavy images typically scores poorly on LCP and needs image compression and less unnecessary script to improve.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management software)

CRM is software that stores all information and interaction history for each customer, helping sales and support teams avoid losing track of anyone.

A CRM stores contact details, purchase history, call notes, and each customer's stage in the sales pipeline; when connected to other channels through integration, the CRM can update itself automatically whenever there's a new lead or a new order, without manual data entry.

A language center uses a CRM to track every prospective student from their trial-class signup through to tuition payment, avoiding the situation where a counselor forgets to call back a student who left their phone number.

Cron (automated schedule)

Cron is a way to schedule a task to run automatically at a set time, for example every morning at 8am or on the first day of each month, without anyone triggering it by hand.

A cron schedule is written using a syntax of minute, hour, day, month, and weekday, allowing flexible schedules such as every 15 minutes, every Monday morning, or the first day of each month; automation tools like n8n use cron to fire a schedule trigger.

A business sets a cron schedule to run its marketing report at exactly 7am every Monday, and a separate cron schedule to post Facebook ads at the peak evening time slot, without anyone needing to remember to click run each time.

Customer portal

A customer portal is a dedicated page where customers log in to view their own information, such as invoices or service progress, without having to ask staff.

A portal usually connects directly to internal data such as a CRM or a service-management system, so the information customers see is always up to date, reducing how often customers message asking 'where is my order' to support staff.

A business providing long-term contract services opens a customer portal so clients can view paid invoices, remaining contract time, and the progress of each work item themselves, instead of having to call the account manager to ask.

KPI dashboard

A KPI dashboard is a single screen summarizing a business's key metrics in real time, letting a manager see the whole picture at a glance.

A dashboard usually pulls numbers from multiple sources — ads, revenue, orders — onto one screen and refreshes on a schedule, instead of a manager opening each piece of software separately and stitching the numbers together by hand.

An online shop owner checks the KPI dashboard every Monday morning to see last week's revenue, ad spend, and new order count, instead of opening Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, and an accounting Sheet separately to piece the numbers together.

Docker

Docker is a tool that packages software together with its full runtime environment into a container, so software installs and runs consistently across different servers.

A container bundles the software with its dependent libraries, so it behaves the same whether running on a laptop or a rented VPS, avoiding the situation where something works on one machine but breaks on another due to a missing configuration.

When self-hosting n8n on a VPS, the most common approach is running n8n inside a Docker container; upgrading to a new version just means swapping the container, not reinstalling everything on the server from scratch.

Bank transfer reconciliation

Bank transfer reconciliation is checking and matching each incoming bank transfer against the correct order, to know which orders have actually been paid.

Manual reconciliation means staff open the bank statement and scan line by line for a transfer note matching an order, which is error-prone when a customer omits the order code or two orders share the same amount; automated reconciliation uses a webhook to receive the balance change the moment money arrives, then automatically finds the matching order.

An online shop receives hundreds of bank transfers a day via VietQR; an automated reconciliation system reads each transfer note, finds the order code, marks the order as paid in a Google Sheet, and only alerts a staff member when a transaction doesn't match any order.

Automated video editing

Automated video editing is a software pipeline that takes raw footage, cuts the best moments, adds subtitles and music, and exports the right format for each platform.

The pipeline usually chains several steps: transcribing the audio with speech recognition to pick strong moments and generate subtitles, cutting based on how engaging a segment is, adding subtitle templates and background music matching the channel's look, then exporting the right aspect ratio for each platform (9:16 for TikTok/Reels, 16:9 for YouTube) before publishing on schedule.

A cosmetics TikTok channel finishes a 2-hour livestream and drops the file into an automated video editing pipeline: the system selects 5 segments about product benefits, adds Vietnamese subtitles, exports them as 5 short 9:16 videos, and publishes them on schedule the same day — one person still releases enough videos every day without hiring an extra editor.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

ERP is software that centrally manages multiple areas of a business — inventory, orders, accounting, HR — inside a single shared data system.

Unlike separate software for each department, an ERP shares one database, so when the warehouse ships goods, accounting figures and stock levels update at the same time, reducing the situation where every department keeps its own numbers that don't match.

A small manufacturer uses an ERP so that when the workshop records a shipment leaving the warehouse, the system automatically deducts stock, generates the sales invoice, and updates the customer's outstanding balance without accounting having to re-enter anything manually.

Landing page

A landing page is a standalone web page focused on a single goal, such as capturing contact details or making a sale, typically used to receive ad traffic.

Unlike a homepage with many sections and navigation menus, a landing page strips away other exits so the visitor focuses on one single action; a fast-loading landing page with a clear call to action usually converts better.

A language center runs Facebook ads pointing to a landing page for its summer course, with a form capturing a phone number for a trial-class signup; that form can connect to a webhook to automatically collect entries into a Google Sheet the moment a visitor submits it.

Lead

A lead is someone who has left their contact details because they're interested in a product or service, but hasn't committed to buying, and needs further follow-up to close.

Leads usually arrive from multiple sources at once: a landing page form, Facebook Lead Ads, a Zalo message, a phone call; without gathering them into one place and alerting whoever is on duty promptly, leads easily get missed or followed up too slowly and go to a competitor instead.

A dental clinic running Facebook ads receives leads as phone numbers from people interested in a checkup; collecting those leads into a Google Sheet and alerting the receptionist over Zalo immediately noticeably raises the share of leads called back within the first hour.

LLM (Large Language Model)

An LLM is an AI model trained on huge amounts of text to understand and generate natural language, forming the core behind chatbots and AI agents.

An LLM takes text as input and predicts the most likely next word, repeating this many times to form a complete response; the clearer the context it's given — such as company data or sales policy — the more accurate the answer.

A language center uses an LLM to draft reply messages to parent inquiries, with staff reviewing the draft before sending, instead of typing each message entirely from scratch.

Low-code/No-code

Low-code and no-code are ways to build software through drag-and-drop and configuration instead of writing code from scratch, letting non-programmers build their own workflows.

No-code needs almost no code at all, suited to simple tasks; low-code allows inserting small snippets of code when a task is too complex for the drag-and-drop tools alone — n8n, for instance, combines drag-and-drop with the option to write custom code when needed.

A business owner with no coding background can still build a workflow that collects leads from a landing page into a Google Sheet by dragging and dropping nodes in n8n, only needing a technical person's help for steps that require writing more complex conditions.

n8n

n8n is a drag-and-drop workflow automation platform that lets you connect many pieces of software together through workflows without writing much code.

n8n is licensed under the Sustainable Use License (fair-code): the source is open and free to use for a business's own internal purposes, but it may not be repackaged and resold or hosted as a paid service built on n8n itself. n8n can run on the vendor's cloud or be self-hosted on your own VPS.

A language center uses n8n to connect its trial-class signup form to a Google Sheet of students and to a Zalo OA that sends class-schedule reminders, instead of staff manually entering each student every day.

Node

A node is one processing block inside a workflow; each node does exactly one job, such as reading data, filtering by a condition, or sending a message.

Nodes are connected in sequence, left to right or top to bottom, with data flowing through and being transformed at each step; some nodes branch based on a condition — one path if it's true, another if it's false.

In a bank-transfer-reconciliation workflow, one node reads the balance-change notification, the next node looks up the order code inside the transfer note, and the final node marks the order as paid in a Google Sheet.

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing means sending useful content on a regular cadence to leads who aren't ready to buy yet, staying in touch until they're confident enough to close.

A nurturing sequence usually runs automatically on a schedule — sending a how-to-use guide a few days after signup, a past customer's review a week later, a time-limited offer as the next repurchase cycle approaches — with each step spaced a few days apart so it doesn't annoy the customer.

A cosmetics shop nurtures leads who left their details but haven't bought yet with a Zalo message sequence: the first message thanks them for their interest, a later one shares tips for choosing the right product for their skin, and the final one offers a discount code if they still haven't come back to buy.

Sales funnel

A sales funnel is the journey a customer takes from first noticing a product to buying it, with the number of people narrowing at each step like a funnel shape.

A funnel is typically split into four stages: awareness (seeing an ad), interest (clicking through to a landing page), consideration (leaving details, becoming a lead), and purchase (transferring payment to close); each stage has its own drop-off rate, which can be measured to see which stage needs improving first.

A business running Facebook ads to a landing page sees 1,000 people view the ad, 100 click through to the landing page, 20 leave a phone number, and 5 transfer payment to buy — looking at this funnel shows immediately whether the landing page or the ad needs improving first.

Sales pipeline

A sales pipeline is the set of stages a prospect moves through before closing, for example first contact, in discussion, awaiting payment, closed.

A pipeline is usually shown as a multi-column board inside a CRM, with each column a stage and each customer a card that moves from left to right; looking at the pipeline immediately shows how many customers sit at each stage and where things are stuck.

A business selling online courses splits its pipeline into: new contact, consultation call done, quote sent, awaiting payment, paid — letting a manager see at a glance which customer to push forward next.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

RAG has an LLM look up internal documents before answering, so the reply is grounded in a business's real data instead of a generic guess.

When a question comes in, a RAG system finds the most relevant passages from an internal knowledge base — policies, price lists, guides — and feeds those passages along with the question to the LLM before it answers, reducing the chance of the AI making information up.

An online shop loads its full return policy and price list into a knowledge base for a RAG-powered chatbot to search; when a customer asks about the return policy, the chatbot answers correctly based on the real document instead of guessing.

RPA (Robotic Process Automation)

RPA uses software that mimics human mouse clicks and keystrokes to repeat manual steps on an existing user interface.

RPA differs from API-based workflow automation in that it operates directly on a software's interface the way a person would — clicking, typing, reading the screen — which suits older software that has no API to connect to.

A business still running an old in-house accounting program with no API can use RPA to automatically enter figures from an Excel file into that program every day, instead of staff typing them in by hand.

Self-host

Self-hosting means installing and running software on your own server instead of using a cloud service managed by another vendor.

Self-hosting gives full control over data and no cap on the number of workflows or accounts the way some usage-based cloud plans do, but in exchange the business must handle its own VPS, installation, backups, and security patching.

A business handling sensitive customer data chooses to self-host n8n on its own VPS rather than use the cloud version, so customer data never passes through any third party's server.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the set of practices that help a website rank higher in organic search results on Google, covering content, technical setup, and site authority.

SEO has three main parts: content that directly answers what searchers are looking for, technical factors such as page speed and Core Web Vitals, and authority measured by how many other sites link back; weakness in any one part makes ranking well harder.

A service business writes articles that directly answer questions customers commonly search, such as 'how much does service X cost', while also optimizing page speed, so that when a customer searches on Google, its page appears ahead of competitors.

Integration

Integration is connecting multiple separately used pieces of software together, so data flows between them automatically instead of being entered twice by hand.

Integration usually happens through an API or a webhook, with an automation tool like n8n acting as the bridge in the middle, reading data from one piece of software and writing it into another in the right format.

A business integrates its CRM with Zalo OA and an accounting Google Sheet: a new customer added to the CRM automatically appears in the Sheet and receives a welcome message over Zalo, with no staff member re-entering anything.

Trigger

A trigger is the event that starts a workflow running — it could be a webhook receiving data, a scheduled time, or a new row appearing in a Sheet.

The three most common trigger types are: a webhook trigger waiting for data sent from elsewhere, a schedule trigger that fires at a preset time via a cron schedule, and a data-change trigger such as a new row in a Google Sheet or a new email.

A sales page uses a schedule trigger to automatically post ads to Facebook at exactly 8am every day, and a webhook trigger to receive an order the moment a customer clicks buy on the landing page.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation is software that handles repetitive marketing tasks — editing video, posting, running ads, answering customers — consistently, without adding headcount.

Instead of one person manually handling each marketing task — editing video, writing posts, scheduling, answering customers, measuring ad performance — marketing automation connects these tasks into a workflow that runs on a schedule or trigger, needing only a person to approve content before the system publishes or sends it.

A coffee shop automates its marketing by letting software edit short videos from footage shot in the shop, auto-publish to Facebook and TikTok at the times customers are most active, and let a chatbot answer questions about hours and prices outside working hours — the owner only reviews content once a week.

Workflow automation

Workflow automation is using software in place of a person to carry out repeated steps under a fixed rule, without manual action every single time.

An automated process usually starts from a trigger — a new order, a payment due date, or a scheduled time — after which the software reads data, processes it under configured rules, and writes the result wherever it's needed, with no one clicking through each step by hand.

A shop receiving orders from a landing page, Zalo, and phone calls at the same time: instead of staff manually re-typing every order into a Google Sheet, workflow automation gathers orders into one place, alerts whoever is on duty over Zalo, and automatically reconciles when a customer pays by bank transfer.

VietQR

VietQR is a shared QR payment standard used by Vietnamese banks, letting a customer scan the code with any banking app to transfer the exact amount.

A VietQR code can have the amount and a transfer note — usually an order code — embedded in it, so the customer just scans and confirms in their banking app without typing an account number by hand, cutting down on mistyped amounts or missing notes.

A coffee shop prints a dynamic VietQR code at the counter for each order the customer just placed; the customer scans it, transfers payment, and an automated reconciliation system recognizes the order as paid without staff having to ask whether the transfer went through.

VPS (Virtual Private Server)

A VPS is a virtual server with dedicated resources such as CPU, RAM, and disk, letting software be installed and run as if it were its own physical server.

Unlike shared hosting where resources are split across many websites, a VPS reserves a fixed slice of resources for one business, which then has full rights to install whatever software it needs, such as n8n or a database, but needs someone with basic server-admin skills to keep it running.

A business wanting to self-host n8n for full control over its data, without depending on the vendor's cloud platform, can rent a modestly sized VPS, install Docker, and run n8n on it for a fixed monthly cost.

Webhook

A webhook is a URL that lets one piece of software notify another the instant something happens, instead of that other software having to keep asking.

When an event occurs — a new order, an incoming message — the system sends data to the registered webhook address, and the workflow waiting there receives the data and processes it right away, much faster than polling every few minutes to check for updates.

A sales landing page calls a webhook every time a customer fills in the order form; that webhook triggers a workflow that logs the order into a Google Sheet and alerts whoever is on duty over Zalo within seconds.

Workflow

A workflow is a chain of processing steps laid out inside an automation tool like n8n, running automatically whenever a trigger fires.

A workflow is made of nodes connected into a diagram: the first node receives incoming data, usually from a trigger; the middle nodes process and transform the data; the last node sends the result out, such as writing to a Sheet, sending a Zalo message, or calling an API.

An online business might have a separate workflow for each task: one workflow collecting orders from a landing page into a Google Sheet, another sending a thank-you Zalo message once a customer's bank transfer is confirmed.

Zalo OA (Zalo Official Account)

A Zalo OA is a business's official account on Zalo, used to message customers, provide support, and send controlled bulk notifications.

A Zalo OA lets a business message customers who've followed its page directly, auto-reply through a chatbot, and send bulk messages to customer segments; connecting a Zalo OA to another system requires going through Zalo's API via an automation tool.

A restaurant uses its Zalo OA so customers can scan a code to book a table, with the system automatically sending a confirmation and a reminder over Zalo instead of staff calling every customer to confirm.

ZNS (Zalo Notification Service)

ZNS is a paid Zalo notification message sent from a pre-approved template, billed per successfully delivered message.

Unlike regular Zalo OA messaging, which is free but limited in volume and sending window, ZNS is a paid channel used for transactional notifications such as order confirmations, appointment reminders, and shipping updates; each message template must be registered and approved by Zalo before it can be used.

A shop uses ZNS to automatically send an order confirmation and tracking number the moment an order is confirmed in its system, ensuring the customer receives the notification even if they've never messaged the shop's Zalo OA before.

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