The Art Technology Group (ATG) has announced details of its new web-based system to help retailers improve online customer service. The firm said that its Adaptive Customer Assistance (ACA) system provides firms with "guided customer experience software".

Ian Davis, senior product marketing manager at ATG, said: "What we're offering is a tool that transforms a typical search experience into a customer answer-base and navigation aid. By understanding the (customer's) question and who is asking it, we can help them get to the right answer faster and guide them to what to do next."

ACA is designed to improve customer service and reduce costs. It includes a natural-language search engine; an answer-building application that can help departments collaborate on the creation of res- ponses to be held in its knowledge base; and a feedback system that can track and monitor the effectiveness of the responses generated. ATG added that if a response is ineffective the system would prompt more suitable answers.

The ACA system also includes a repository integration interface that can add details about the customer to the answer. These details might include information gathered from data sources such as retailers' billing systems and customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

Phil London, senior vice president of products and technology at ATG, said, "We will be extending our portfolio of customer service applications with additional products later this year, which will further cement ATG as the platform for all consumer-facing applications - through marketing, sales and service."

The company has also launched Campaign Optimiser, a tool to help organisations test multiple web site variables - such as promotions, advertising, web functionality, and product demand - and identify customer preferences.

Features include location-testing tools, to help firms identify the best places for pictures, promotional and pricing information; and functionality-testing tools, to help firms analyse how the set-up and layout of their sites work. London added, "ATG (has taken a function that) was typically difficult to manage, and put it into the hands of a business user without requiring IT support to operate it."

ATG said that Intercontinental Hotels is among the firms using these testing capabilities, and has reduced marketing and merchandising costs as a result.