How engaged are your customers with your business? Are you using a dedicated platform to make sure customer engagement is as high as it can be?
A whopping 90% of companies think their existing systems for tracking customer journeys need improvement.
But then again, while over half of customers believe their shopping experience was average (or worse), three-quarters of businesses falsely believe they’re offering a good or excellent personalized customer experience (CX) according to one study by Twilio.
Statistics like these reveal one thing: many businesses just aren’t providing their services how customers want.
In our digital age, there are so many ways to reach out to customers. However, for that interaction to be meaningful and timely, you need a joined-up approach using customer engagement management software.
In this article, we’ll explore exactly what you need to look for in a customer engagement tool, before lining up our top 5 platforms for customer engagement to find the right solution for your business.
Customer Engagement and Customer Experience
Customer engagement and customer experience, as you might expect, are intimately linked.
Customer engagement is really a measure of customer loyalty, and that of course is the direct product of good customer experience: with your product, with the services you provide, and with your overall brand.
Customer loyalty comes in many forms, including purchasing decisions, recommendations, and day-to-day engagement with your company (for example, customers choosing to follow you on social media).
So, if you want good customer engagement, you’ve got to ensure your customers stay loyal, and for that, you need to make sure their experience is the best it can possibly be along their whole journey.
What Should You Look For in a Customer Engagement Platform?
Picking the right customer engagement software is about understanding each of your customers really well so you can provide the products and services they really want, in the way they want them.
Here are the key things to look for in a customer engagement platform:
1. The ability to collect first-hand data. As Daniel Newman writing for Forbes magazine so elegantly puts it, ‘cookies are dying’. With the advent of things like the GDPR, the age of tracking and data collection by third-party companies has well and truly passed.
Instead, you need to find ways to get data from your customers firsthand. And, depending on how your company operates, this might need to be across multiple channels, including surveys, email, social media, and instant chat.
2. Make sure your data is timely and contextualized. Perhaps, you’re B2B and your customers have accounts that are hierarchical and complex. There’s no point in just asking one account member for their feedback every so often. The data you’ll get will be out of date, and not representative of all levels within the company.
3. Know when to act. Sure, you know that promptly closing the loop with detractors is important, but what about opportunities for upsell and referral? Nurturing strong customer engagement means you’ll know exactly when in the customer journey the time is right, and have much higher chances of success.
5 Top Platforms for Customer Engagement
When it comes to customer engagement solutions, the range is pretty vast.
And the right option for you depends on a few factors, including the size of your business, industry, business model, and exactly how you’re looking to improve.
We’ve pulled together 5 different options that are all rated highly on G2 and Gartner. They range from comprehensive voice of the customer (VoC) software and platforms for omnichannel ticketing to specific engagement tracking for web pages and apps.
Let’s take a look.
1. CustomerGauge
CustomerGauge is a comprehensive, customer experience management (CXM) platform designed for B2B.
CustomerGauge uses its Account Experience™ methodology to help you deeply understand customer perspectives on your brand, product, or service.
However, CustomerGauge is not just a research platform. With its “Measure, Act, Grow” methodology, CustomerGauge has been designed to drive action, helping businesses improve customer retention, manage complex B2B accounts, and drive revenue.
CustomerGauge was ranked the #1 VoC vendor for B2B according to Gartner’s Critical Capabilities Report 2021.
As well as having excellent overall performance for VoC, CustomerGauge boasts highly specialized tools for the B2B use case, including its ability to manage accounts with complex, hierarchical structures, root-cause analysis and uniquely, its Monetized Net Promoter® tool, which allows you to understand NPS through the lens of revenue.
G2 score: 4.6 / 5
Typical company size: Mid-market and Enterprise.
Top industries: Tech, Business Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Telecom, IT.
Gartner product category: VoC
Key features of products in this category: Feedback collection (direct, indirect and inferred), analysis and insights, tools for action (including closing the loop).
Price: Solutions typically cost $1,000 per user per year and are based on their simple pricing model.
Is CustomerGauge Right for Me?
If you’re a medium to large-sized B2B Enterprise looking for an action-focused solution to drive customer retention and revenue, then CustomerGauge could be the right fit for you.
It’s worth bearing in mind that although CustomerGauge can collect a wide range of feedback types, it does so through NPS. If you’re B2C, or don’t want to run surveys, then you might want to consider other options.
2. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a comprehensive help desk management platform. With its omnichannel capabilities, Zoho Desk can help you engage with customers over the phone, email, on live chat, through SMS, and social media.
Zoho Desk features a wide range of customer management tools, including automatic referral to specific customer success managers to help you maintain meaningful, consistent relationships with your customers over time.
Users particularly like the self-service features that Zoho Desk supplies, which helps customers resolve their issues without having to jump on the phone, improving customer satisfaction.
However, other users commented that the interface, although aesthetically pleasing, is difficult to understand and the software lacks sufficient technical support.
G2 score: 4.4 / 5 stars
Typical company size: Small Business.
Top industries: IT, Computer Software, Retail, Computer & Network Security, Telecom.
Gartner product category: CRM Customer Engagement Center.
Key features of products in this category: Customer record keeping, case management, trouble ticketing and problem resolution.
Price: 4 levels of pricing, ranging from $0 to $40 plus additional options for add-ons.
Is Zoho Desk Right for Me?
If you’re B2B or B2C and looking for a comprehensive help desk management solution, then Zoho Desk might just fit the bill, particularly if you want to engage with customers across multiple channels.
It’s worth noting that Zoho Desk is not really an analytics tool. Rather, it’s used more for engaging customers in a consistent, efficient way, which helps improve overall customer experience.
If you’re more interested in analyzing the root causes of poor customer sentiment to improve customer engagement, a dedicated VoC platform may be a better choice.
3. Freshdesk Omnichannel
The Freshdesk Omnichannel platform allows for truly integrated customer service across multiple channels.
Customer feedback can be collected via social media, live chat, phone, self-service, screen sharing, and email and is integrated into one dashboard for easy analysis and problem resolution.
Users particularly like the single dashboard approach of Freshdesk Omnichannel, as well as the ability to customize analytics reports. However, some users comment that the program’s features can be pretty basic and that user support can sometimes be poor.
G2 score: 4.4 / 5
Typical company size: Small Business to Mid-market.
Top industries: IT, Computer Software, and Internet.
Gartner product category: CRM Customer Engagement Center
Key features of products in this category: Customer record keeping, case management, trouble ticketing, and problem resolution.
Price: According to reviews on G2, Freshdesk Omnichannel tends to be less expensive when compared to the average digital customer service product. Contact directly for more information.
Is Freshdesk Omnichannel Right for Me?
If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive way to integrate customer feedback into one place then Freshdesk Omnichannel might just do the trick. However, if you’re looking for a greater range of tools to manage and improve customer engagement, then Freshdesk Omnichannel may be too limited.
4. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud, built on Salesforce Customer 360, bills itself as the world’s most complete and connected service platform.
Suitable for both B2B and B2C use cases, it enables businesses to engage with customers across a variety of channels and uses AI and automation to nurture consistent, personalized experiences for customers all on one platform.
Users comment positively on the platform's ability to integrate data from different channels, tools, and platforms and on the ease of case management.
Although users also note that the software is relatively expensive and requires trusted expertise to implement.
G2 Score: 4.1 / 5
Typical company size: Mid-market and Enterprise.
Top industries: Computer Software, IT, Internet, Financial Services, Hospital & Health Care.
Gartner product category: CRM Customer Engagement Center.
Key features of products in this category: Customer record keeping, case management, trouble ticketing, and problem resolution.
Price: 4 pricing levels available, ranging from $25.00 to $150 per user per year.
Is Salesforce Service Cloud Right for Me?
If you’re a Mid- to Enterprise-sized company looking for a customer relationship management platform with all the bells and whistles, then this software might just fit the bill.
But, if your resources are more limited, both financially and in terms of expertise, a less feature-heavy platform may work better for your company.
5. Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a specialist platform for analyzing customer engagement across your websites and applications. It’s armed with powerful analytics tools, a highly visual dashboard, and interactive reports to easily track where and when your customers tend to linger and where engagement with your product tends to drop off.
Users find the wealth of analytics tools and intuitive visualization of data really useful for optimizing products and marketing.
However, some users have noted that Mixpanel has quite a steep learning curve, and have noted some bugs and limitations, particularly with the mobile application.
G2 Score: 4.5 / 5
Typical company size: Small Business and Mid-market.
Top industries: Computer Software, IT, Financial Services, Internet, Marketing, and Advertising.
Gartner product category: Web, Product, and Digital Experience Analytics
Key features of products in this category: Web, product, and digital experience analytics tools.
Price: A range of pricing options, including a custom and free option. Contact Mixpanel for more information.
Is Mixpanel Right for Me?
If you’re looking to specifically track customer engagement across your website or mobile app, then a digital experience analytics platform like Mixpanel could meet your needs very well. However, you may need to be prepared to invest time in getting to grips with all the features and analysis tools.
Drive Better Customer Engagement With CustomerGauge
CustomerGauge is the only vendor that provides insight into customer sentiment through the lens of revenue.
So, if you’re B2B and want to see exactly how driving customer engagement is affecting your bottom line, schedule a demo with our team!
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