We’ve all been in situations where bad search stymies our efforts to buy from the brands we love or support the credible news sources we always turn to. For example: 

  • Searching for a specific product on a clothing site only to get a “no results found” message even though the company has exactly what you want in stock, or
  • Using a publication’s search feature to try to find a specific article you read a month ago, only to get suggestions that are completely unrelated to what you’re looking for.

In the hunt for the perfect product, a Google search often yields better results, leading you to buy a similar product on Amazon instead of the brand’s site. This is a missed opportunity to collect important information about customer behavior and make product recommendations to boost sales. 

But unsuccessful search attempts happen even more frequently at work. How many times have you searched for a specific email in your archives only to have either too few or too many unrelated emails returned as a result? Or attempted to find a specific file only to come up empty-handed? 

How can we take a magic wand and transform our stodgy intranets into an effective and critical resource? Search!

Search should enable rather than impede business. Bad search is the fastest and surest way to derail and frustrate employees. With AI-powered search, enterprises can save time employees’ time and tempers, while also driving the digital transformation mandate required to compete in today’s GenX, digital native world. Search can accelerate your digital transformation efforts in a variety of ways.

Here are a few areas where the right search technology can be the anchor of digital transformation success.

Call Center Deflection

Customer-facing businesses worldwide recognize that call centers are extremely costly. Estimates vary, but one commonly cited statistic says it costs companies $1 per minute per agent to service customers. Such costs can quickly grow to staggering amounts in just a short time. That’s why many companies try  whether through the use of live chat or by creating comprehensive websites to answer customer questions and address concerns without making customers pick up the phone.

Quality search can be a vital component of reducing call center reliance and improving customer satisfaction. AI-powered search is constantly learning from customer behavior patterns to tune answers, anticipate product questions, and solve problems faster. The result is an ever-better experience for customers and reduced call center costs.

Veritas case study: https://lucidworks.com/post/fusion-powers-support-veritas/ 

360 Degree Information Integration

Another way better search accelerates digital transformation is by providing a comprehensive view of all available customer data. For instance, if a business analyst wants to know everything about a particular customer’s purchasing history, AI-powered internal search can bring together all the relevant data. This again leads to better predictive analytics and the assurance that a company has the full picture before engaging with customers or starting a new initiative or marketing campaign.

Lenovo case study: https://lucidworks.com/ebooks/lenovo-case-study/

Asset Management

AI-powered search also improves a company’s ability to manage and optimize its assets. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), the amount of information companies have about their assets has grown exponentially. Trying to make sense of all this data is impossible without a search that can integrate and curate the information in a systemized manner. The right search can take any type of asset-based information, whether it’s survey results or IoT data, and allow analysts and employees to get the information they need when they need it.

Phyllis Kolmus video: https://lucidworks.com/videos/fusion-customer-office-secretary-defense/

Risk Management and Lot Genealogy

A third area where companies can drive digital transformation is risk management and lot genealogy. For many businesses in the manufacturing space, when something goes wrong, whether it’s tainted food or a faulty car part, it is paramount to pinpoint the source of the problem to reduce risk and provide a solution. For example, when tainted romaine lettuce suddenly appeared in supermarkets across the country earlier this year, growers couldn’t figure out which fields those infected greens were coming from. It led to a massive recall, which greatly compounded the financial loss.

With AI-powered search, companies can quickly identify where problematic items originated from, what aspects of those items were flawed, and where they were shipped. This means that when a complication arises, enterprises can provide more targeted recalls before it becomes a larger issue. 

Auto 360 webinar demo: https://lucidworks.com/videos/webinar-product-360-for-manufacturers/

Powerful Search Accelerates Digital Transformation

Search can make or break your digital transformation strategy, and have a major impact on employee productivity and the bottom line. Get started today and learn how to define digital transformation for your business with our complimentary ebook. 

About Dan Woods

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