The British bank Barclays wants to react more quickly and provide more targeted replies in response to customer questions via the Internet.

The solution adopted by the bank is based on new software developed by Cambridge-based Transversal. The system takes into account the customer's question, but goes beyond the traditional ask a question feature intended to deal with all possible customer queries.

Customers no longer need to contact their bank and their specific needs will be identified by the system according to the way their questions are phrased.

A customer account officer may call the customer back, but in the meantime the system will propose Barclays products depending on relevance to the customer's question.

This type of viral marketing functions by identifying the Internet user’s centres of interest. For example, a customer who has a question regarding foreign exchange rates could be targeted with adverts and offers on travel insurance or travellers cheques.

The presentation of these advertising messages is adapted to the Internet, for example in the style of the graphic banners of search engines.

Barclays expects this new technology to increase its online cross-selling.