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6 Best Customer Engagement Software Tools

Kristen Bialik profile picture
By Kristen Bialik

Published
5 min read

The customer engagement software market is crowded. Start with these fan favorites to find the right fit.

"Engage!"

Captain Jean-Luc Picard's oft-heard command doesn't just apply to the USS Enterprise crew. Businesses need to engage their customers. So, grab a cup of tea (earl grey, hot) from your nearest replicator while we set a course for customer engagement, warp six.

Customer engagement is about improving customer communication and interaction, making them more personalized, dynamic, and contextually relevant.

Customer engagement solutions are as wide-ranging as the many ways companies interact with their customers, including through customer relationship management (CRM), customer servicecustomer feedbackdigital marketingcustomer success, and live chat software. What ties these seemingly disparate tools together?

Customer engagement solutions shape interactions based on a customer's individual behaviors, feelings, or preferences.

To make your job easier, we've analyzed about 1,600 customer engagement software reviews published on Capterra in the past two years to find some of the best tools designed to improve customer engagement.

Here are six top-rated customer engagement tools to help you—as Captain Picard would say—"Make it so!"

Products are listed in descending rating order (highest to lowest), based on overall average ratings for the past two years. You can read more about our methodology here.

6 Top-Rated Customer Engagement Tools

1. ChurnZero: For software companies tracking customer success

* Analysis Accurate as of date of publication

ChurnZero is more of a niche product, designed for software companies that want to better understand how customers use their product. In addition to tracking behavior and user satisfaction, ChurnZero offers tools to automate and personalize the customer experience at touch points throughout the customer journey.

What users like

What users want

Real-time alerts and notifications

Highly customizable segmentation

Ease of use

Ways to tackle the initial steep learning curve

More robust email functionality

Who uses ChurnZero? ChurnZero is great for software vendors that have a platform and want to track customer behavior to flag customers who may need additional help.

user-profile-ChurnZero

Example of user profile information in ChurnZero ( Source)

2. Delighted: For nimble customer feedback

* Analysis Accurate as of date of publication

Delighted is a survey and customer feedback software solution with multichannel deployment options including email, websites, and SMS. In addition to simple, intuitive feedback rating tools such as five stars and thumbs up, Delighted includes specific survey tools designed to measure NPS, CES, and CSAT (some of the most popular customer experience metrics).

What users like

What users want

Easy to use and navigate

Effective integration with Slack

Detailed reporting

More ready-made integrations

More robust data-sharing capabilities

Who uses Delighted? Delighted is especially good for teams that may not have much survey design experience and want an easy, out-of-the-box survey management tool.

customer-feedback-delighted

Example of customer feedback in Delighted ( Source)

3. Feedier: For gamified customer feedback

* Analysis Accurate as of date of publication

Feedier brings a built-in reward management aspect to the traditional customer feedback landscape, providing a gamified experience for customers completing surveys. Incentive tools include sending vouchers, coupons, exclusive content, custom messages, monetary rewards, and exclusive event invitations.

What users like

What users want

The ability to reward respondents

An appealing, simple user interface

Rich in features

More ways to customize the look and feel of the surveys

More out-of-the-box integrations

Who uses Feedier? Feedier is especially great for organizations that want to motivate respondents using gamification or tangible rewards.

analytic-features-feedier

Example of analytic features in Feedier ( Source)

4. SurveySparrow: For affordable customer feedback

* Analysis Accurate as of date of publication

SurveySparrow offers surveys in a conversational interface, including mobile-first or chatbot surveys. SurveySparrow also provides ways to personalize the experience based on customer responses.

What users like

What users want

The conversational survey style

An attractive user interface

Affordability

More options to customize the look and feel of surveys

More features

Who uses SurveySparrow? SurveySparrow is especially great for organizations that want an affordable tool to collect feedback, automate responses, and personalize survey interactions.

survey-sparrow-user-interface

Example of SurveySparrow user interface ( Source)

5. LiveChat: For real-time conversation engagement

* Analysis Accurate as of date of publication

LiveChat is (surprise, surprise) a live chat and help desk software tool. It includes automatic and personalized greetings to better engage customers, as well as ticketing management and post-chat feedback tools.

What users like

What users want

Ease of use

Rich in features

Fast and efficient

More integrations or ways to transition to phone calls

Better connectivity

Who uses LiveChat? LiveChat is great for customer service departments that want to offer faster, more personalized help options for their customers.

LiveChat

Example of LiveChat's customer overview ( Source)

6. SurveyMonkey CX: For customer experience professionals

* Analysis Accurate as of date of publication

SurveyMonkey CX is a customer experience and feedback tool built around Net Promoter Score (NPS), one of the most popular metrics for measuring customer loyalty and happiness. SurveyMonkey CX lets users segment customers based on their CX score and personalize interactions accordingly.

What users like

What users want

Ease of use

Robust analytics

The user interface and dashboard

More ways to customize data access, reporting, and sharing

More survey management and design features

Who uses SurveyMonkey CX? SurveyMonkey CX is especially great for customer experience professionals who want to focus on Net Promoter Score and plan actions around NPS' corresponding groups: winning back detractors, attending to passives, and thanking promoters.

SurveyMonkeyCX

Example of customer feedback features in SurveyMonkey CX ( Source)

Next steps for customer engagement improvement

These are just some of the many customer engagement software options available to boost your efforts. If you're ready to start improving customer engagement using a software solution, you should:

  • Determine what area you want to focus on (e.g.. customer service, customer feedback, customer success, marketing personalization).

  • Determine your software budget.

  • Make sure the software integrates with any existing solutions your business relies on.

  • Create a must-have features list.

  • Contact vendors on your shortlist to demo their offerings.


all
For a comprehensive list of customer engagement solutions:


Methodology


We evaluated the products in Capterra's customer engagement software directory and included products that met the following criteria:

  • It has at least 4 out of five stars and at least 10 reviews published on Capterra's site within the past two years (as of July 29, 2019).

  • It meets our customer engagement software definition: "Customer engagement software helps foster better communications and interactions with customers."

Once we determined products eligible for inclusion, we selected the products with the highest overall rating on Capterra (out of 5 stars). Star ratings shown above reflect the average ratings within this two year period (July 29, 2017 - July 29, 2019).

The "what users like" and "what users think could be improved" sections for each product are based on feedback from users who left written reviews.

Note: The content in this piece that provides opinions and points of view expressed by users does not represent the views of Capterra.


Looking for Customer Satisfaction software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Customer Satisfaction software solutions.

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About the Author

Kristen Bialik profile picture

Kristen Bialik is a senior specialist analyst covering customer experience for Capterra. She holds B.A.'s in English and Communications from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in Journalism Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Follow her at @kebialik for insight on CX for small and midsize businesses.