The New Search Experience

Over the years, the way users have searched for answers has certainly evolved.  In the past, an individual may have conducted a simple Google search that included a few words/phrases to find an answer to a particular question.  For businesses, perhaps a knowledge base was utilized to find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).  But now, the consumer search experience is changing the way the enterprise search is being looked at.

The consumer experience is no longer just about entering a lengthy string of words into a search field, or visiting a dedicated page for FAQs.  It is more about drilling down the search term(s) and filtering the information to find the exact answer that you need.  Similar to the idea of “semantic web,” enterprises should start thinking this way for internal support answers.

In the past at RightAnswers, we focused much of our efforts on internal (employee) support.  But now as we expand our focus to external (customer) support, we see how these two worlds collide.  Regardless of whether you are dealing with internal or external support, the basis of providing good service is having easy access to information needed to quickly (and accurately) provide customers answers to their questions.

With a number of access points – Web search engines, self-service portals, virtual agents, etc. – available to end-users, the bottom line still remains that individuals want to quickly find the solutions to their problems.  While some search practices may be new, they should all have the same end-result: improving the customer experience.