Yext, Inc., the platform for Brand Verified Answers in search, announced the next generation of the Yext platform, including enhancements enabling businesses to answer consumer questions about them via search, using voice assistants and chatbots, and on their own websites. “There’s a massive paradigm shift going on in the world of search from chaotic results to brand verified answers. Today’s customer journey starts with a question, and consumers expect answers,” said Howard Lerman, Founder and CEO of Yext. “Today’s expansion of Yext allows companies to build their complete knowledge graph, which is the foundation of meeting the consumer at the precise moment of intent.”

Yext allows businesses to create and connect all the facts about themselves, so they can power their own sites and services and sync with search, voice assistants, and chatbots. New custom entities and fields make Yext adaptable to any business, so brands can connect any type of fact to the information about it consumers want to know, from a store location and open jobs there, to a menu item and its nutritional information, to a doctor and her specialty and educational background. This allows a consumer asking something like “Who is a wealth advisor in San Francisco who speaks Mandarin?” to get an accurate, direct answer.

“The customer journey starts with a question. It’s up to every business to provide the brand verified answer,” said Marc Ferrentino, Chief Strategy Officer of Yext. “Yext’s comprehensive fact platform contains hundreds of millions of connected facts about our clients’ businesses. Facts in Yext are structured for search so that businesses can meet their customers in the moment of intent.”

The ultimate authority on a business should be the business itself, according to Yext – and . businesses need a platform to provide verified answers to drive digital discovery, customer engagement, and reputation enhancement.