Enterprise search has long been neglected when compared to consumer search. Using AI assisted enterprise search can deliver a host of benefits for your business.

For almost as long as search has existed, the focus of search has been helping users find your website. The focus for businesses has been to increase discoverability from search engines. However, that focus on search has rarely been transferred over for use within the business’s site. Little thought has been given to helping users find answers to questions they may have once they arrive on your website. Without a solid enterprise search strategy, users are left with the digital equivalent of being blindfolded and trying to pin the tail on the donkey.

A recent study shows that 85% of users prefer to find the answers to their queries themselves versus contacting customer service for answers. The central issue with this preference is that traditional enterprise search struggles with natural language processing and understanding complex questions – resulting in customers needing to contact customer service after being frustrated trying to find the answer on the website. Fortunately, there is a better way – by using AI assisted enterprise search, all of the disparate streams of information can be efficiently searched and users are more likely to get a quality answer to their question.

What Is Enterprise Search?

Simply put, enterprise search is a way of searching all of a company’s assets to find information related to the company. For decades, search was really simplistic – Search Engines would take a query and try to match it to any and every document that contained those keywords, regardless of the context. Meaning that a lot of results could be completely irrelevant and not what the user was looking for.

Consumer search companies started to move away from this kind of search and towards algorithms that were based on natural language processing (computers being able to understand text the same way humans do – not as several discrete words but as connected entities). However, until recently, these innovations hadn’t made their way into enterprise search – which means most corporate websites had disappointing site search services, leaving customers struggling to find the answers they were looking for.

How AI Assisted Enterprise Search Works

Leveraging AI to help bring natural language processing to enterprise search makes corporate websites much more functional for all users. To do this, it leverages a multi-algorithm system to identify not only keywords, but entire phrases – just as our brains do when we’re having a conversation. The search engine is then able to respond intuitively when a user poses a question rather than returning a myriad of vaguely related search results based on each individual keyword in the search string.

For example: a user is on your site trying to find out when a service technician can come out to their house to fix their stove. Without AI assisted enterprise search, they may get a document that talks about service times and necessitates calling to book an appointment. With AI assisted search, they could be directed to the book an appointment page and book a spot that is convenient to them. The user feels empowered and happy they were able to accomplish their objective on their own.

At its core, AI assisted enterprise search enables your company to leverage the same technology Google uses to organize its content to organize your own content and create a reliable and easy to use search feature your customers will want to use.

How AI Assisted Enterprise Search Benefits the User Journey

Creating a search function that your clients can use to quickly and easily access the data on your corporate website will heighten the user experience, leaving them more satisfied with their interactions with your touchpoints. Today, more than ever, if a user can’t find what they’re looking for on your site, they’re likely to go elsewhere – maybe even to one of your competitors. Giving them a search function with the capability to deliver the answers they want helps them find what they wanted where they wanted to find it in the first place (on your site).

AI assisted enterprise search also allows for analysis of user navigation. For example, if you find that a lot of searches are going to your contact us page, you will know that the site navigation to that page may not be clear enough. Knowledge is power and knowing where the pain points are for users allows you to eliminate them. AI assisted enterprise search also offers users a more personalized experience across the brand which increases the odds that the user will feel positively about the encounter.

At Y, we believe in using the best options for our clients – and that means that for enterprise search, we have partnered with Yext. When compared to other enterprise search solutions, Yext was rated as the best product in delivering significant return on investment and for ease of implementation. One of the reasons we love Yext is because it is very user friendly. The dashboard is intuitive, the knowledge graph (a brain-like database, built to intelligently structure data, including different entities and the relationships between them) understands customer intent and gets them the information they need – without needing to contact customer service. Y can help you create a site with a strong AI assisted enterprise search function so that you can be leading the pack instead of being left behind. Contact us and find out about all the services we offer to help your site stand out from the pack.

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