“Exceptional customer experiences are the only sustainable platform for competitive differentiation.” – Kerry Bodine.
But what does it take to create such delightful experiences for your customers?
It’s pretty simple. All you need to do is be mindful of every touchpoint your customers have with your business. In other words, you must focus on the quality of your customer engagement.
Customer engagement encompasses every interaction that you use to connect with customers, from sending out sales proposals to answering customer queries post-purchase. This implies that driving effective engagement requires the help of powerful business software, ranging from CRM tools to customer service applications.
To make this selection more manageable for you, we have rounded up the 14 best customer engagement software that can enhance your communication with clients. Choose the most appropriate solution for your business out of these options by comparing their salient features, pricing, pros, and cons.
Let’s get started without further ado!
Table of Contents
In a Nutshell
- Customer engagement tools empower businesses to stay better connected with customers at every stage of the customer journey.
- The best customer engagement software can help you automate interactions and analyze customer sentiment.
- Some features to look out for in a customer engagement platform include contact management, multichannel engagement, targeting options, automation, analytics, and integrations.
- In this guide, we list and compare the 14 best customer engagement software options available on the market.
- Understand your customer needs and thoroughly analyze your requirements before choosing a tool from the list.
What is Customer Engagement Software?
Customer engagement software refers to tools that enable you to track, record, manage, and optimize interactions with customers across multiple channels.
Such tools help personalize all touchpoints to enhance customer experiences. They let you deliver the most appropriate messages to your customers by centralizing all relevant data. You can track all previous touches with a client and leverage their preferences to optimize upcoming outreach using a powerful customer engagement platform.
Companies that invested in online customer engagement over the past two years witnessed a 70% average increase in revenue.
This is a testament to the fact that adjusting business strategies to focus more on customer engagement can be extremely profitable.
Using a powerful customer engagement tool can help you:
- Get more repeat sales
- Keep customers well-engaged
- Increase customer retention
- Build customer loyalty
- Track customer behavior
What Are the Essential Features of Customer Engagement Software?
While a range of engagement platforms is available on the market today, not all of them would be suitable for your business. This is why you must carry out a thorough assessment of the functionality of the top-rated tools. To begin with, here are some core features that you should consider when comparing these options.
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Contact Management
Powerful contact management capabilities are a deal-breaker when choosing the right engagement software. The software should make it easier to maintain comprehensive contact records and track interaction history. It must provide you with a way to keep customer data organized and identify customer needs, helping you drive more fruitful engagement efforts.
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Multichannel Engagement
The customer engagement platform should work as a central hub for managing interaction with customers across channels. These include email, phone, social media, and chat. Multichannel engagement can ensure that customers feel more connected and comfortable when interacting with your business.
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Targeting
The tool should enable you to foster more personalized interactions by making it easier to segment customers into distinct lists. Such targeting can help you create more delightful customer experiences and ensure that your clients receive the most appropriate help at the right time.
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Automation
The platform should enable you to automate engagement workflows so there is no inconsistency in your customer communications. You can automate email sequences, data entry, customer service responses, and post-engagement surveys to stay connected throughout the customer journey.
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Reports & Analytics
Custom reports and in-depth analytics can help you identify actions that drive the best outcomes for your customer engagement. The software should offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of your engagement efforts and help you track the most relevant attributes with ease.
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Integrations
Another essential feature of customer engagement platforms is the ability to seamlessly sync with other business applications such as marketing and analytics tools. Make sure to opt for a tool offering a number of native and third-party integrations so you can get everything done from one place.
Comparison Chart for the Best Customer Engagement Systems
| Software | Key Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| ✔️BIGContacts |
|
Starts from $5/user/month |
| ✔️ProProfs Chat |
|
Starts from $20/month |
| ✔️Dialpad |
|
Starts from $15/user/month |
| ✔️Salesforce CRM |
|
Starts from $25/user/month |
| ✔️Zendesk |
|
Starts from $49/user/month |
| ✔️Agile CRM |
|
Starts from $8.99/user/month |
| ✔️Insightly |
|
Starts from $29/user/month |
| ✔️HubSpot CRM |
|
Starts from $45/month |
| ✔️Front |
|
Starts from $19/user/month |
| ✔️Outreach |
|
Available on request |
Top 14 Customer Engagement Software Options
Explore the features, pricing, pros, and cons of the 14 best customer engagement options to find the most suitable tool for your business.
1. BIGContacts
BIGContacts by ProProfs is a robust CRM application that lets you manage and strengthen customer relationships by leveraging personalized interactions. The tool helps build a consolidated customer database, where you can track contact details, previous touches, and upcoming events. The platform also lets you automate your customer engagement management flows, so you can connect with your customers delightfully.
Starts from $19/user/month
Key features:
- Create comprehensive contact records with custom fields
- Craft personalized drip email sequences to improve customer engagement
- Capture incoming emails and log them against the respective contact record automatically
- Connect the CRM tool with any email program to manage all interactions from the same platform
- Access detailed calendar views and to-do lists to keep track of upcoming meetings and events
Pros:
- Automatically populate contact records with social media profiles
- Set up automated alerts and reminders
Cons:
- Lacks AI-powered lead qualification functionality
- The loading speed can drop at times
Pricing:
- Big- $5/user/month
- Bigger- $15/user/month
- Biggest- $25/user/month
- Enterprise- Custom pricing
2. Proprofs Chat
ProProfs Chat enables you to automate support experiences, helping you respond to customers quickly and improve retention rates. The live chat tool allows you to capture the attention of website visitors and convert them into loyal customers. You can also use the tool to set up chatbots that help your business stay connected with customers 24/7.
Key features:
- Use intelligent chat routing to ensure that your customers receive appropriate help
- Set up canned responses to answer customer queries promptly
- View all customer details and ongoing tickets in one place
- Get alerts for incoming chat requests to engage with customers at the right time
- Deliver targeted messages to visitors by tracking their online behavior
Pros:
- Set up automated greetings to welcome visitors to your website or app
- Measure your engagement performance using advanced reporting & analytics
Cons:
- Lacks advanced routing options
- Chatbot offers limited functionality in terms of conversational flows
Pricing:
Starts from $20/month
3. Dialpad
Dialpad is a centralized workspace that brings all your internal and external communications to one place, making them easier to manage and optimize. It also offers real-time speech analysis, helping your operators engage with clients more effectively. The tool offers intelligent routing and performance tracking, so you can assign customers to suitable agents.
Key features:
- Unify your business communications to engage with clients effortlessly
- Use sentiment analysis and real-time transcription to improve customer engagement
- Get AI-powered feedback for your customer interactions instantly
- Access supervisor dashboards to track CSAT scores, agent performance, etc.
- Offer real-time coaching to your customer representatives
Pros:
- Integrate the tool with multiple business applications, including HubSpot, Intercom, Salesforce, Slack, etc.
- Create interactive voice responses for your customers
Cons:
- Duplicate contact records frequently occur
- Adequate training resources are not available
Pricing:
Starts from $15/user/month
4. Salesforce CRM
Salesforce is a premier CRM solution that lets you optimize every interaction with customers, so you can foster long-term relationships. This customizable application can be adapted according to your organization’s workflow. The tool connects your sales, marketing, support, and operations teams, allowing you to create more consistent and reliable customer engagement experiences.
Key features:
- Get a 360° view of contacts and track previous interactions with them effortlessly
- Automate time-consuming tasks to free up more time for engaging with customers
- Obtain insights into business performance with custom reports and dashboards
- Deliver targeted emails with dynamic content to drive better engagement
- Use the mobile app to log data and engage with customers remotely
Pros:
- Drive multichannel engagement, including email, social media, and chat
- Connect the CRM software with applications, such as Tableau, DocuSign, Mailchimp, Asana, etc.
Cons:
- The interface can be clunky and difficult to navigate
- Customer support is slow to respond at times
Pricing:
Starts from $25/user/month
5. Zendesk
Zendesk lets you create seamless sales and support experiences for customers. The platform unifies business data and provides representatives with all the context required to drive highly personalized engagement. With enhanced visibility into customer information and powerful pipeline management functionality, Zendesk helps you engage with the right people at the right time.
Key features:
- Engage with customers on multiple channels, including live chat, email, and social media
- Gather actionable insights into customer needs with reporting and analytics
- Set up AI-powered bots to be available to customers 24/7
- Utilize built-in routing intelligence to guide customers
- Define triggers and automated tasks to improve business productivity
Pros:
- Create help centers and community forums for customers
- Zendesk offers a suite of integration options, including Trello, Kaizo, SurveyMonkey, QuickBooks, etc.
Cons:
- Customer support is not up to scratch
- It offers limited tagging and filtering options
Pricing:
Starts from $49/user/month
6. Agile CRM
Agile CRM is a comprehensive CRM solution that can be leveraged to enhance customer experiences. The tool offers single-page contact management, helping you personalize every interaction with your customers. It can be utilized by sales, marketing, and support teams to engage with prospects and customers more effectively. Moreover, the mobile app enables you to drive more consistent customer engagement.
Key features:
- Craft multichannel engagement campaigns and manage them from a single platform
- Get a 360° view of your contacts and utilize this data for personalizing engagement
- Create targeted email campaigns and track their effectiveness with powerful analytics
- Enable customers to schedule appointments by sharing your calendar with them
- Keep track of your upcoming interactions with customers and set up reminders
Pros:
- Reduce website abandonment with exit intent popups
- Manage customer support tickets and set up canned responses to provide prompt solutions to common questions
Cons:
- The email template builder does not offer enough flexibility
- Customer support is ineffective
Pricing:
Free plan available
Paid plans start from $8.99/user/month
7. Insightly
Insightly enables customer engagement and relationship management. It helps drive highly personalized interactions, allowing you to build long-term connections with customers. The tool offers intelligent routing and workflow automation, enabling you to engage with customers more effectively. It also provides robust reporting capabilities to make more informed business decisions.
Key features:
- Use relationship linking maps to understand customer’s organization structure
- Get insights into business performance with custom reporting dashboards
- Create custom workflows with automated tasks and validation rules
- Send out bulk emails to connect with multiple contacts instantly
- Engage with customers from anywhere using the mobile application
Pros:
- Monitor email opens and clicks in real-time
- Set up user roles and data access permissions for your team members
Cons:
- The search function is not up to the mark
- It lacks the ability to create advanced custom workflows
Pricing:
Free plan available
Paid plans start from $29/user/month
8. HubSpot Meetings
HubSpot CRM is a reliable solution for businesses to drive better engagement by keeping contact data well-organized and updated. The engagement software lets your sales and support team connect with customers at the most appropriate time with relevant solutions. It also offers built-in reporting to enable you to gain better insights into engagement performance.
Key features:
-
- Automate contact records enrichment to drive more personalized customer engagement
- Get access to a universal inbox where your team members can access and reply to conversations across channels
- Create bots to qualify prospects, book meetings, and answer customer questions
- Access a library or pre-built email templates, or use the template builder to set up your own
- Receive instant alerts for prospect activity such as website visits or email opens
Pros:
- View customer data from anywhere using the mobile CRM application
- Enable customers to schedule meetings with your team members at their convenience
Cons:
- The tool lacks advanced reporting capabilities
- Technical support is not up to standard
Pricing:
Free plan available
Paid plans start from $45/month
9. Front
Front lets you optimize every customer interaction, so you can maximize your chances of satisfying and retaining them. The tool aids internal collaboration and keeps your entire team on the same page, helping eliminate all discrepancies from customer engagement. It also offers insights into the effectiveness of your engagement efforts, allowing you to optimize future outreach.
Key features:
- Find all customer data and interactions in one place
- Deliver messages on customers’ preferred channels, including email, social media, and SMS
- Track your customer satisfaction and business performance metrics
- Create automated workflows to free up more time for customer engagement
- Tag, route, and escalate customer messages efficiently
Pros:
- Collaborate with team members on customer emails using shared drafts
- The system automatically tags incoming messages
Cons:
- Search functionality is limited
- Reports can be hard to customize and inconclusive
Pricing:
Starts from $19/user/month
10. Outreach
Outreach is a powerful prospecting and customer engagement management software that lets you streamline workflows to drive positive sales outcomes. You can use the tool to deliver personalized solutions throughout the customer journey. Outreach automates data synchronization across multiple platforms so that you can eliminate all inconsistencies from your customer engagement efforts.
Key features:
- Improve forecasting accuracy with buyer engagement signals and real-time analytics
- Use A/B testing and sentiment analysis to optimize your engagement efforts
- Gather valuable insights from your engagement data using artificial intelligence
- Automate engagement flows to engage with customers at the right time
- Book meetings with clients using a single click meeting-scheduler
Pros:
- Automatically synchronize data with your CRM to reduce manual efforts
- Create playbooks to empower your team members to engage better
Cons:
- It lacks advanced customization options for sequences
- Customer support is subpar
Pricing:
Available on request
12. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM lets you create personalized journeys for customers, ensuring that they stay with your business for a long time. The application offers powerful automation capabilities, allowing your team to work more efficiently. You can drive highly meaningful and targeted interactions with your customers using the data stored in this CRM tool. Zoho also lets you track engagement levels using in-depth analytics.
Key features:
- Orchestrate personalized and omnichannel customer journey
- Focus on the right accounts with deal predictions
- Segment your customer base to drive more targeted interactions
- Enable your team to communicate more effectively using notes, tags, groups, etc.
- Set up real-time notifications and alerts to engage with customers at the most appropriate time
Pros:
- Access data and engage with customers from anywhere using the mobile application
- Define scoring, escalation, and validation rules
Cons:
- Customer support does not meet expectations
- The interface is clunky
Pricing:
Free plan available
Paid plans start from $14/user/month
12. Mixmax
Mixmax lets you drive client engagement from within your Gmail account. The platform enables you to set up email sequences and track their effectiveness. It also allows you to create automated workflows to engage with customers without unnecessary delays. It also displays CRM and social information within Gmail for better personalization.
Key features:
- Get personal insights for clients within Gmail with Mixmax sidebar
- Embed meeting invitations, polls, and surveys in your emails
- Create email templates and share them with your team
- Measure the performance of emails to identify winning engagement campaigns
- Make calls directly from your inbox and log them into your CRM system automatically
Pros:
- Create automated rules to deliver the most effective engagement campaigns
- Integrate the engagement platform with Stripe, Zoom, DocuSign, and several other business applications.
Cons:
- The interface can be hard to navigate
- The reminder & alert functionality is substandard
Pricing:
Free plan available
Paid plans start from $9/user/month
13. Intercom
Intercom is a dedicated client engagement platform that lets you onboard new customers and delight existing ones. The tool can be used to create fully-featured engagement campaigns that improve customer satisfaction and retention levels. Intercom lets you drive proactive customer engagement and enhance support experiences. It brings all customer data together, helping you personalize your outreach efforts.
Key features:
- Set up automated email sequences to enhance customer engagement
- Use advanced targeting options to engage more effectively
- Craft multichannel engagement campaigns using a visual builder
- Track and manage all customer interactions from the same platform
- Offer automated greetings to your website visitors and convert them into customers using personalized solutions
Pros:
- Split test campaigns to identify what works well with customers
- Use email surveys to collect customer information for profile enrichment
Cons:
- Support response times are high
- It hinders the website loading speed
Pricing:
Starts from $74/month
14. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM solution designed for sales teams to engage with leads and nurture them into clients. The platform offers a comprehensive pipeline view that makes it easy to track opportunities throughout the sales cycle. You can also use Pipedrive to automate email follow-ups, ensuring you reach the right people at the right time.
Key features:
- Deliver automated emails based on custom triggers
- Track engagement levels using reports & dashboards
- Manage tasks seamlessly & streamline internal communication
- Deploy chatbots to engage with your website visitors
- Use dedicated lead qualification features to focus on the right accounts
Pros:
- Use a detailed pipeline with a drag and drop interface to keep track of your clients
- Access customer data on the go using a mobile application
Cons:
- Speed lags occur, which hamper the tool’s performance
- Customization options are limited
Pricing:
Starts from $9.90/user/month
Keep Customers Delighted With the Best Engagement Software
“Happy customers are your biggest advocates and can become your most successful sales team.”- Lisa Masiello.
Customer engagement is a critical business endeavor that affects your long-term success.
In order to drive stronger connections with your customers and gain their trust, you must have a powerful engagement strategy in place. An important step in this is finding and deploying the most appropriate customer engagement software.
You can choose one or more tools from the list mentioned above based on your business needs. For instance, if you need a centralized workplace for your team that lets you track customer interactions, you can choose a tool such as Dialpad. On the other hand, if you need to improve engagement by enhancing customer support experiences, you should consider a tool such as ProProfs Chat.
Alternatively, you can choose a comprehensive CRM solution such as BIGContacts that lets you accomplish all of this from a single platform. The tool can empower you to utilize contact data efficiently, helping you make the most out of every interaction.
