Raising the Search Bar: Where Are You on the Digital Experience Maturity Curve?

Digital search today is at a crossroads. According to data collected by Mailmodo, 68% of customers would not return to a site with a poor search experience. Another 52% abandon their entire cart and go elsewhere if they can’t find even just one item. And while advancements in AI are improving the search experience, challenges such as ensuring data security and retaining skilled talent persist.  

The result? Search that is frustrating, inefficient, and ultimately a reason to leave and look elsewhere.

Your site visitors expect seamless, intuitive, and personalized interactions with your business. Whether it’s a consumer searching for the perfect product, an employee retrieving a critical document, or a B2B buyer navigating a complex catalog, a mature search experience can mean the difference between success and stagnation. The high stakes of delayed decisions require sophisticated tools to meet user needs effectively.

A recent webinar with experts from Lucidworks and Dell Technologies outlined a path forward. By taking a strategic, user-centric approach and leveraging emerging technologies like generative AI, enterprises can create more intuitive, contextual search that delights customers and drives business results. The speakers shared a framework for transforming search, covering everything from data management to organizational structure. 

“The C-suite keeps hearing about how Gen AI is going to transform everything, and they’re asking, ‘Why can’t our search be like that?’” says Brian Land, VP of Global Sales Engineering at Lucidworks. “The truth is, most companies know their search can be better—they just don’t always know where to start.”

With the right plan and execution, enterprises can unlock the full potential of search to supercharge their digital experiences.

The Digital Experience Maturity Curve serves as a framework for assessing where your organization stands in terms of search and discovery capabilities. From basic search functionality to fully integrated systems powered by AI, this curve guides the evolution necessary to meet user expectations, drive business outcomes, and stay competitive in rapidly changing markets.

Understanding where you fall on this maturity curve requires careful evaluation. By examining key questions about user needs, data strategy, and AI adoption, businesses can identify strengths, uncover gaps, and determine the most effective next steps toward a more advanced and efficient search experience.

What is digital experience maturity?

Digital experience maturity refers to an organization’s ability to create dynamic, personalized, and efficient search and discovery experiences that leverage all available data. At its most basic level, this involves keyword-based search engines. At its most advanced, it encompasses AI-driven systems capable of real-time insights, contextual understanding, and cross-functional integration.

The further an organization progresses on this maturity curve, the more it can achieve a fully adaptive search experience that drives user engagement and satisfaction. 

Why digital experience maturity matters

A well-designed search and discovery system is a strategic asset that impacts nearly every aspect of an organization:

• Value for the User: When search is intuitive and responsive, users spend less time hunting for information and more time taking action. In an e-commerce setting, a shopper looking for “lightweight waterproof hiking boots” should be met with precise, relevant options rather than sifting through dozens of unrelated results. Advanced search capabilities also support personalization, allowing organizations to anticipate user intent and offer contextually relevant recommendations.
• Value for the Organization: Poor search functionality can lead to abandoned shopping carts, customer dissatisfaction, and wasted employee hours. A B2B distributor that integrates AI-powered search tools can drastically reduce the time customers spend searching for complex product specifications, while a financial services firm that enables natural language search for regulatory documents can streamline compliance workflows, reducing the burden on employees and minimizing errors.

• Value for Growth: Digital experience maturity is a catalyst for innovation and competitive differentiation. Organizations that embrace advanced search and discovery capabilities can unlock new revenue streams, expand into new markets, and build stronger customer relationships. Take manufacturing for example: with search-powered AI, manufacturers can optimize inventory management and supply chain logistics, allowing them to better predict demand.

“When customers know what they want, they need an intent-based experience where we’re just solving that objective,” says Frazer LaChance, Client Development Manager for Lucidworks. “But when customers don’t know what they want – akin to a Netflix-like experience – then discovery needs to be more serendipitous, where we’re guiding our users toward something that they didn’t even know they were looking for.”

While digital experience maturity is crucial across industries, it is particularly vital for B2B organizations. B2B buyers often make highly considered purchases based on detailed technical specifications, regulatory requirements, and long-term business needs.

Search-powered AI and machine learning can be game-changers. By implementing dynamic indexing, predictive search, and intelligent recommendations, B2B organizations can provide a search experience that mirrors the efficiency and responsiveness of top-tier consumer platforms. This not only improves user satisfaction but also accelerates decision-making and drives long-term business success.

The challenge is in getting there – and it all starts with asking the right questions to begin your journey along the maturity curve. 

Key questions for gauging your digital experience maturity

To understand where your organization sits on the Digital Maturity Experience Curve, start by asking these critical questions:

1. Understanding your users

• Do you know the key touchpoints in your users’ journeys, including search behaviors and decision-making moments?

• Have you (or can you) develop detailed user personas? For an e-commerce company, this could mean understanding the best times of day to offer discounts, or what product recommendations to make based on lifestyle habits. 

2. Aligning search with your business goals

• Do you have clear KPIs for search relevance, user engagement, conversion rate, or operational efficiency? For example, a retail company might align its KPIs to measure not only click-through rates but also average order value (AOV) and cart abandonment.
• Are your KPIs tied to broader business objectives, such as revenue growth or customer retention? Consider establishing a customer experience (CX) center of excellence to explore these questions and ensure that leaders across the organization agree to these goals. 

3. Data and the user experience

• Is your data relevant, accurate, and regularly updated? 

• Do you have strategies for dynamic indexing, data cleansing, and real-time validation? Think of how a B2B distributor might use dynamic indexing to ensure that out-of-stock items are promptly removed from search results, reducing user frustration and improving conversion rates.

4. Refining your search capabilities

• Are you addressing key pain points, such as zero-results pages, false positives or irrelevant matches?

• Are you running experiments to optimize search performance, such as A/B testing for relevance or implementing neural hybrid search to combine precision (lexical search) and context (semantic search)? For example, a furniture retailer could use neural hybrid search to ensure that consumers searching for vague terms like “small red chairs” when looking to furnish a home office received relevant results. Are you leveraging AI to enrich your data, personalize user experiences, or improve search relevance? After all, search is not a static environment. The accelerated advancement of AI is proof of this – AI-powered tools, which are evolving every day, can help you better analyze user behavior and refine algorithms to surface more relevant options. 

Your path to digital maturity begins with the Unified Experience Equation (UEE)

Digital maturity is an ongoing process that requires continuous refinement. As user expectations evolve and technology advances, organizations must regularly assess their search capabilities, optimize their data, and adapt to emerging trends to maintain a competitive edge.

The Lucidworks Unified Experience Equation (UEE) is a practical methodology for offering strategic search and discovery experiences that resonate with your digital audiences. The UEE provides a structured methodology for delivering contextual and personalized search at every stage of the customer journey, blending data and human insights to meet the heightened expectations of today’s users. 

Take the first step by revisiting your strategy, refining your data, and evolving your capabilities. 

Learn how the Unified Experience Equation can help optimize user experiences in our Playbook, “Search as a Strategy: How Unifying Around Search Improves Key Outcomes”.

Download the eBook