EGain, which sells cloud and on-site customer interaction hub software, hasannounced the immediate availability of eGain Multisearch, search technology for web self-service and the multichannel contact center.

It’s embedded in the eGain SelfService and eGain KnowledgeAgent products. Company officials say eGain Multisearch delivers “ease of navigation, superior content findability, and result relevance, while improving contact center productivity and best-practice compliance.”

Given these capabilities, eGain SelfService and eGain KnowledgeAgent are being marketed as products for customer service knowledge management.

Some of the capabilities of eGain Multisearch include multi-access behind a simple search box, since it uses the company’s set of knowledge access methods -- keyword, metadata, natural language and intent-based search, question-matched search, and CBR-guided help (Case-Based Reasoning) -- and puts them all behind a search box.

The multi-path blended navigation for answers helps reduce unproductive searches, company officials say, adding that “where the advanced version of eGain SelfService is implemented, search with a virtual assistant interface is also included as an option.”

And to further increase findability of answers, eGain Multisearch federates and presents search results across website, contact center, enterprise, community, and social content. The underlying multichannel customer interaction hub platform, eGain OpenCIH, ensures that the contact center portion of the federated content is consistent across customer interaction channels.

In September TMC’s (News - Alert) Brendan Read reported that eGain noted on its site that in 2010, social networks collectively became the top online destination. The time spent by consumers on social networks surged 73 percent in 2009 and this megatrend is expected to continue.

“Consumers are increasingly discussing their needs, soliciting and offering advice, and sharing their views about businesses like yours in these social networks,” Read reported eGain as saying. “This free-flowing viral conversation is both a challenge and opportunity for your business. Customers expect service wherever they are—this includes communities and social networks. Savvy businesses are leveraging this opportunity for competitive differentiation by delivering superior social customer experience. On the flip side, if businesses do not address negative references in the social cloud, the consequent damage to their brand might be irreversible.”