Customer experience software

Organizations across industries are realizing the profound impact of positive customer interactions on customer loyalty, advocacy, and, ultimately, business growth. To effectively manage and enhance customer experiences, businesses turn to customer experience software as their solution.

Whether you're new to the concept or looking to upgrade your existing systems, this guide will cover the basics and identify some of the best software providers in the market. Get ready to unlock the full potential of your business and instill a customer-obsessed culture within your organization that sets it apart from the competition.

Keep reading to discover:

• What is customer experience software?

• Customer experience management software comparison chart

• The 13 best customer experience platforms

• Features of customer experience solutions

• Benefits of customer experience management platforms

• How to choose the right CX platform

• Customer experience management software FAQ

• Try customer experience management software for free

Customer experience (CX) software is a technology that allows teams to track, manage, and prioritize customer interactions throughout the entire customer journey from a unified workspace. Agents can seamlessly move across support channels and access customer data from external tools and systems, which enables them to provide fast, personalized support and drive upsells and cross-sells.

Built-in reporting and analytics based on customer insights and key performance indicators (KPIs) help businesses make data-driven decisions, while AI and automation streamline processes and reduce operational costs.

A business's unique needs and goals will influence how it effectively manages the customer experience. Here’s a collection of some of the best customer experience management (CXM) platforms to help you find a good fit.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk provides a complete customer service experience solution that is simple to use and scales with your business. Customer experience is about more than the customer. It’s about your business and your teams, too. Zendesk makes things convenient for your customers and sets your teams up for success by keeping everyone in sync. It’s everything you need in one powerful package.

With Zendesk, you can:

• Provide support over the most convenient channels for your customers, whether that’s messaging, email, voice, or live chat.
  

• Stay connected no matter how or when a customer conversation starts, so customers never have to repeat themselves.
  

• Use self-service via a knowledge base or community forum to empower customers. The AI-powered chatbot ensures they can get immediate answers around the clock.

Zendesk empowers agents, admins, and internal teams with out-of-the-box tools that are quick to set up and easy to use. Teams can track, prioritize, and respond to customers in one unified agent workspace, complete with customer context and conversation history. Built-in routing and intelligence enable agents to collect critical details and ensure customers get routed to the right agent for their inquiry.

Because Zendesk provides an open and flexible customer experience solution, users get a holistic view of every interaction throughout the customer lifecycle. Personalize experiences across the customer journey by integrating relevant customer data across systems using no-code integration options.

Zendesk also has powerful reporting and analytics software to measure and improve the entire customer experience. With it, managers can analyze hundreds of touchpoints for ways to enhance the customer experience based on customers’ needs.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Intelligent routing

• Self-service

• 1,000+ apps and integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

• Live chat

• Generative AI tools for agents

• Advanced bots

• Workflow automations

• Collaboration tools

• Knowledge management tools

• Service level agreement (SLA) management

Pricing:

• Support Team: $19 per agent/month

• Support Professional: $55 per agent/month

• Support Enterprise: $115 per agent/month

• See additional pricing plans, such as our Support Suite, plans here

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

Learn more about Zendesk

• Start a free trial

• View pricing

• Request a demo

• Take a product tour

• Evaluate the ROI of Zendesk

2. Podium

The Podium platform helps businesses handle customer communication. It includes text marketing, payment processing, online review collection, live website chat, and a unified agent inbox. Podium’s native integrations pull customer relationship management (CRM) data into its interface.

The entry-level plan, Essentials, lets small businesses manage up to 1,000 contacts and manage a customer database. The Standard plan has unlimited contacts and adds personalized onboarding. Users also get customized reports, customer branding, and multimedia messaging. The top plan, Professional, adds automations, lead routing, and automated FAQ pages.

Features:

• Advanced routing

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

• Essentials: $249 per month (up to 3 team members)

• Standard: $409 per month (unlimited team members)

• Professional: $599 per month (unlimited team members)

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

3. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot provides a customer experience platform in its Service Hub. The platform combines a ticketing system, customer service analytics, and knowledge base publishing tools. Service Hub connects to its native CRM platform to provide access to your customer data. Some free tools are available to get started, including a shared inbox and email tracking.

The Starter plan includes live chat, conversation routing, and simple ticket automation. The Professional plan provides a customer portal, feedback surveys, analytics, and playbooks. The Enterprise plan adds single sign-on (SSO), field-level permissions, and notification management, among others. New customers can opt for the Starter CRM Suite, which provides access to HubSpot’s other platforms.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

• Starter: $18 per month (2 users + $10 per additional user)

• Starter CRM Suite: $30 per month (includes 2 users)

• Professional: $450 per month (5 users + $100 per additional user)

• Enterprise: $1,200 per month

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn more about the HubSpot app for Zendesk.

4. Microsoft Customer Experience Platform

The Microsoft Customer Experience Platform gives businesses multiple tools to help with customer service. It can use predictive analytics to anticipate future customer actions. The platform also has AI technology that can provide personalized recommendations across various customer touchpoints to sustain engagement.

The Microsoft Customer Experience Platform includes access to other Microsoft products. Dynamic 365 Customer Insights pulls customer data from various sources to get a single view. Azure Purview helps teams manage the customer data that’s collected and keep it protected. Azure Synapse Analytics uncovers insights hidden within the data so businesses can put it to use.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

• Contact sales

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn more about the Microsoft app for Zendesk.

5. Birdeye

Birdeye is customer experience management SaaS company. The platform combines automation, integrations, and other tools in a centralized space. Agents can convert survey responses and customer reviews into support tickets. Agents can also receive automatic alerts when new tickets are assigned or if the status changes.

Birdeye offers competitive benchmarking, so users know how their performance measures up to industry leaders. The software has automated surveys that users can administer via email, text, or messaging apps. Birdeye also has live chat to stay in touch with website visitors, as well the option to auto-respond to questions.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

Contact sales

Free trial:

Unavailable

6. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk provides customer experience management solutions to customer service operations. It gives businesses a help center with custom email templates, tabs, and form fields, and offers instant messaging over apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat.

The Standard plan is the cheapest and has ticket management features, including merging tickets, suggesting articles, and adding prewritten responses. The Professional plan gives businesses the ability to assign tickets, with ticket sharing and collision detection features to avoid agents unknowingly working on the same ticket. The top Zoho Desk plan, Enterprise, adds live chat and guided conversations.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

• Standard: $14 per user/month

• Professional: $23 per user/month

• Enterprise: $40 per user/month

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

15 days

Learn more about the Zoho app for Zendesk.

7. Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is the software company’s CX platform. It has a suite of productivity tools, a unified dashboard, and omnichannel support. The platform has a generative AI product called Service GPT that can assist with ticket resolutions and creating personalized interactions. Salesforce self-service features help customers find answers on their own.

The Starter plan provides businesses with case and knowledge management tools. The Professional plan enables service console apps, service contracts, and computer telephony integration but excludes the knowledge base. The Enterprise plan builds on the Professional plan by adding web service APIs to connect Salesforce with external systems. The Unlimited plan includes knowledge management tools and premier services like expert guidance.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

• Starter: $25 per user/month

• Professional: $75 per user/month

• Enterprise: $150 per user/month

• Unlimited: $300 per user/month

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

30 days

Learn more about the Salesforce app for Zendesk.

8. Qualtrics CustomerXM

Qualtrics CustomerXM is a customer experience management tool that connects businesses with their customers to better understand the buyer experience. It feeds dozens of communication channels and data sources into a single platform for a unified view.

The software uses conversational analytics to follow sentiments from social media posts and comments. Plus, businesses can use omnichannel access to personalize interactions. Qualtrics' predictive intelligence engine, iQ, provides prescriptive insights into customer trends and patterns.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

Contact sales

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn more about the Qualtrics app for Zendesk.

9. Tealeaf by Acoustic

Tealeaf by Acoustic delivers customer experience tools that help businesses capture data analytics. It can identify pain points within the customer journey and recreate points of struggle. Businesses can also test their CX before and after they launch Tealeaf to compare success.

The Tealeaf software can provide real-time alerts so businesses can know when customers have problems. It can generate customer reports to help businesses evaluate how much these negative experiences might impact their operations. Tealeaf also lets users prioritize issues to fix more urgent problems first.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

• Contact sales

Free trial:

Unavailable

10. GetFeedback

GetFeedback by Momentive provides a customer experience platform that helps businesses combine customer data with their feedback to influence experiences. Businesses can collect feedback from every channel they use, including email, apps, and SMS. It integrates with platforms like Zendesk and Slack, so team members can coordinate their actions.

The Essentials plan lets businesses collect feedback on their website and via email. This entry-level plan also offers survey templates. The Pro plan adds SMS and chat feedback capabilities. Businesses can also add customer branding and manage automations. The Ultimate plan adds mobile app feedback and single sign-on.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

Contact sales

Free trial:

14 days

Learn more about the GetFeedback app for Zendesk.

11. Medallia

Medallia is a customer experience management platform that helps businesses collect customer data and gain customer experience insights. It can track touchpoints along the customer journey so a business can engage with customers in any channel. The platform can also compile data to create customer profiles.

The Medallia platform has AI features that use machine learning to identify patterns and predict customer behavior. Businesses can create dashboards that provide real-time analytics to agents and managers regarding customer actions and sentiments. Users can personalize employee reports to account for individual roles.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

Contact sales

Free trial:

Unavailable

12. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is the Freshworks service for providing customer experience solutions to businesses. Support teams can collaborate by having discussions within a ticket to deliver consistent service. Automations can handle simple processes and provide questions through chatbots.

Its Free plan has limited features but gives access to a knowledge base, ticket dispatching, and simple analytics. The Growth plan provides businesses with ticket collision detection, SLA management, custom ticket views, and help desk reports. The Pro plan has the capability to track the customer journey while giving customers the opportunity to join community forums. The Enterprise plan unlocks chatbots, skill-based routing, and workflow control.

Features:

• Omnichannel support

• Advanced routing

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

• Ticket management

Pricing:

• Free: $0 (up to 10 agents)

• Growth: $15 per agent/month

• Pro: $49 per agent/month

• Enterprise: $79 per agent/month

  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

21 days

13. Adobe Experience Manager

Adobe Experience Manager is a part of the Adobe Experience Cloud and focuses on customer experience solutions. It combines a content management system with digital asset management tools to provide personalized experiences. Users can adapt their content based on behavior patterns and regional preferences.

Businesses can test the success of different content variations and use the insights for future iterations. AI and machine learning help users generate and manage content. Adobe Experience Manager reveals granular data to reveal which aspects of your content have the greatest impact.

Features

• Self-service

• Integrations

• Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

• Contact sales

Free trial:

Unavailable

Many customer experience management systems have unique tools to offer that may appeal to your needs. But if you want to get the most out of the software and reap as many benefits as possible, look for these features.

Omnichannel support

Omnichannel support means agents can serve customers through an integrated network of communication channels. This kind of approach makes it so customers can easily reach your team through their preferred method of communication. And if a conversation needs to move from one channel to another, agents can do it seamlessly.

Omnichannel support also refers to the resources your agents have available to them. Traditional methods might have teams jumping to multiple platforms to get information for a single conversation. Omnichannel support consolidates information under a single source of truth.

Advanced routing

Advanced routing refers to the specificity with which the platform matches customers to the agent who is best suited to serve them. If a customer requires an agent fluent in a specific language or experienced in a particular technical skill, your CX software should route them accordingly. Advanced routing reduces wait times and improves the speed with which agents can reach a resolution

Self-service

Empowering customers to find their answers through self-service features is a great way to improve the customer experience. They get answers quickly without waiting for an agent, and agents aren't required to answer repetitive questions so they can address more important issues.

Self-service can take the form of:

• Knowledge base software

• Community software

• AI chatbots

Self-service features, like knowledge bases, require an initial setup period and regular maintenance, but once they’re up and running, they can drastically improve your team’s workload.

Integrations

Part of what makes omnichannel support possible is a platform’s ability to integrate with the other systems you use. If your CX software doesn’t integrate with your CRM, your employees may experience barriers to exceptional performance.

CX software that supports many integrations reduces the chances of data silos forming within your company. While some platforms have more integrations than your company could ever need, these additional offerings provide your company with options to expand as your customer base grows.

Reporting and analytics

Human observation can only reveal so much about your customers’ expectations and the motivations behind their behavior. Many companies that offer customer experience management software will provide analytics tools to track CX KPIs and reveal insights in detailed reports.

These reports can measure CX metrics like:

• Net Promoter Score®

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT)

• Average resolution time

• First response time

Use the results to gauge how your customer experience strategy is paying off and adjust if necessary.

Ticket management

Both large and small customer support teams can struggle to manage all of their support tickets. Small teams might have difficulty handling large quantities, while large teams might struggle with communicating internally regarding who’s responsible for what. Customer experience tools make it easy to manage tickets, so agents can focus on the work at hand.

Common ticket management features include:

• Creating tickets automatically from phone calls, emails, and social media

• Sharing tickets between different accounts

• Guiding agents from one ticket to the next

• Linking articles based on AI-powered recommendations

These tools make it easier for teams to collaborate and spend less time performing administrative duties.

Companies recognize the value of investing in customer experience and how it improves other areas of their operations. Here are five common benefits you stand to gain by using a CXM platform.

• Identify customer pain points and establish a customer feedback loop

  CXM platforms gather and analyze data from various touchpoints along the customer journey, including interactions, transactions, and feedback channels. By leveraging advanced analytics, CXM platforms enable businesses to identify areas where customers face challenges, frustrations, or dissatisfaction. This helps organizations identify specific pain points and address them effectively.

  Additionally, CXM platforms facilitate the establishment of a customer feedback loop by providing mechanisms for collecting, analyzing, and acting upon customer feedback. Businesses can use customer feedback tools to conduct surveys and monitor social media and other channels, allowing customers to express their opinions and make suggestions.

  The Element Electronics CX team, for example, uses Zendesk to manage its support operations and categorizes customer conversations based on the reason a customer contacted customer service. Our software then creates targeted reports identifying pressing issues. Engineering teams use this information to improve products and enhance the overall CX.

• Provide fast customer support across channels

  CXM platforms integrate communication channels like email, chat, social media, and phone into a unified interface, allowing support agents to manage customer inquiries from a centralized location. The platforms often include features like automated ticket routing, prioritization, and collaboration tools that streamline and expedite the support process.

  Agents can easily access customer information and interaction history within the platform, giving them valuable context for providing prompt and personalized assistance. Consolidating support channels and equipping agents with the right tools enable businesses to deliver fast and consistent experiences, which can improve customer loyalty and satisfaction.

• Improve agent efficiency and productivity

  CXM platforms offer agents a unified workspace where they can access all customer information. Agents don’t need to switch between multiple systems, reducing the time and effort spent searching for information.

  For example, when cleaning supplies provider RapidG switched to Zendesk, the company quickly saw the benefits of using a unified agent workspace. With all customer data and context in one place, the team was able to reduce its response time by 90 percent and its call-waiting time by 14 percent. Additionally, email orders are now processed three times faster.

  Automation capabilities like ticket routing, predetermined responses, and knowledge bases further enable agents to handle customer inquiries more quickly and accurately. These platforms also facilitate collaboration among agents and teams through internal communication channels and shared knowledge resources.

• Remove data silos with a 360-degree view of the customer

  Integrating data from sources such as customer interactions, purchase history, feedback, and preferences into a unified database helps to create a full picture of the customer. By centralizing this data, CXM platforms break down silos within different departments or systems, enabling businesses to have a holistic understanding of each customer.

  With a 360-degree view, organizations can access accurate and up-to-date customer information, personalizing the customer journey and predicting consumer behavior. This comprehensive view also enables businesses to identify trends, patterns, and insights that drive informed decision-making and the development of effective customer-centric strategies.

• Increase customer retention, upsells, and revenue

  CX software provides a holistic view of each customer, which creates a strong foundation for building lasting relationships. By understanding customer preferences, behavior, and history, businesses can proactively address customer needs and concerns—enhancing overall satisfaction. Satisfied customers are more likely to become brand advocates, leading to positive word-of-mouth referrals and increased customer retention rates.

  Global consumer goods company Thrasio uses Zendesk to gather valuable customer data to form elaborate customer profiles, which agents leverage to create targeted cross-selling and upselling opportunities. With insights into customer preferences and purchase history, businesses like Thrasio can deliver relevant product recommendations and tailored offers, maximizing revenue potential.

With so many options available, choosing the right customer experience platform for your business can feel overwhelming. It's not simply a matter of finding the solution with the best features, cost, and interface. You must also consider what aligns with your current team's capabilities, supports your short- and long-term goals, and integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure.

Additionally, it's important to note that many CX platforms are specifically designed for particular industries, such as retail, or cater to specific business models, like SaaS. Take these factors into account when choosing a customer experience solution to maximize the potential of your customer experience initiatives.

It has a fast time to value

When selecting the right customer experience solution, the initial time to value and continuous time-to-value are major factors to consider. Finding a solution that allows you to quickly get started and realize value from the outset is important. The longer it takes to get your team trained or the system up and running, the more it will cost your operation.

It’s easy to scale and flexible through change

Choosing a platform that offers flexibility and adaptability should also be a primary goal. A flexible product enables you to make swift changes and meet evolving customer needs and preferences.

By opting for a scalable platform, you can seamlessly adjust and expand your CX capabilities to align with what you require in the future—whether that’s accommodating a larger team, more customers, or new tools. A flexible CX platform makes growing pains a little less painful.

It delivers the expected return on investment

The Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2023 reveals that 81 percent of business leaders consider CX and support to be growing priorities over the next year. Throwing money at lagging performance can only get you so far.

Selecting a platform that’s proven to deliver the expected return on investment will have a greater impact than deciding solely based on price. Research the platform’s customer base to get an idea of who is partnering with the brand and what it can deliver.

It balances ease of use and functionality

Plenty of tech buyers fall into the trap of chasing functionality. They find the option with the longest list of features, for the most affordable price, and assume that’s their best bet. But features are only as good as your employees’ abilities to use them. If the processes are convoluted, your employees will quickly ignore them.

Customer service analytics, for example, is a great way to find opportunities for service improvement, but only if you can get sufficiently granular with those analytics to discover valuable insights.

Check out these common questions people have regarding CXM platforms for additional guidance throughout your search.