10 Best Customer Engagement Software Solutions for 2024

Imagine navigating the bustling streets of a digital marketplace, where every interaction and every click could be the difference between gaining a loyal customer or losing them to a competitor. Keeping customers engaged and satisfied in that environment is your secret to thriving.

Customer engagement software personalizes interactions, builds lasting relationships, and ensures your business survives and flourishes in the digital age. With this powerful tool, you transform casual visitors into devoted patrons. It’s like having a friendly barista who remembers every regular’s favorite order or a concierge who anticipates guests’ needs before they even ask.

What is customer engagement?

Customer engagement refers to customers’ emotional connection and relationship with a company. It’s centered on continuous and comprehensive customer relationship management, resulting in positive business outcomes, including enhanced customer loyalty and retention.

Engaging customers provides companies with value through personalized experiences and interactions. When you successfully engage your customers, you can see increased satisfaction, which fosters stronger customer relationships.

Benefits of customer engagement

Successfully connecting with customers is vital for your success.

Here are some of the benefits of engaging with customers:

• Increased customer loyalty and retention: Engaged customers are more likely to return and stay loyal to a brand, driving repeat business.

• Personalized experiences: Engagement allows you to tailor their interactions and offerings to meet customer needs, enhancing satisfaction.

• Reduced churn: By keeping customers engaged, you can reduce the likelihood of customers switching to competitors.

• Stronger relationships: Ongoing customer engagement helps build and maintain robust and meaningful customer relationships, which are crucial for long-term success.

Understanding customer engagement platforms

Customer engagement platforms are software solutions tailor-made to assist your business in nurturing meaningful customer relationships across multiple channels. With their advanced features, they seamlessly enhance the customer experience by providing thoughtful, personalized recommendations and swift issue resolutions.

Key features of a customer engagement platform

The right tools can create personalized experiences, build strong relationships, and ensure customer satisfaction.

• Segmentation: The ability to segment your user database by customer demographics, behaviors, or stages in the customer journey allows for more targeted and effective engagement strategies.

• Communication tools: Native tools for communicating with customers across all relevant channels ensure consistent and cohesive interactions, enhancing the customer experience.

• Issue tracking: Efficiently tracking and resolving customer issues improves customer experience, fostering loyalty and trust.

• Feedback: The ability to solicit, collect, analyze, and respond to customer feedback helps businesses better understand and meet customer needs, driving continuous improvement.

Ten best customer engagement software in 2024

As we progress through 2024, it is essential to stay ahead of the curve with tools that meet and exceed your customer engagement needs. Let’s take an in-depth look at the ten best customer engagement tools and software solutions, complete with detailed features, pricing, benefits, pros, and cons.

HelpDesk

 Why we love it: HelpDesk is the best ticketing and issue resolution tool.

 Key features

• Centralized communication: This feature helps manage all customer interactions from a single platform, avoiding the hassle of switching between different communication tools. It also integrates email, social media, and live chat to accommodate customer query methods.

• Automation: Includes AI-based tools to automate repetitive tasks like ticket routing and response templates, freeing time for customer support teams to focus on more complex issues. Each customer inquiry is logged and tracked with a unique ticket number to make it easier to manage and resolve.

• Customizable templates: You can create and tailor the responses and workflows to fit your brand, increasing consistency and efficiency. AI-driven suggestions and automated responses improve response time, increasing customer satisfaction.

• Customer feedback and proactive outreach: Comprehensive analytics and reporting features allow you to track key performance metrics, such as response time and customer satisfaction.

Pricing

• Team Plan: $29/agent/month (billed annually)

• Business Plan: $50/agent/month (billed annually)

• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing based on your business needs

Intercom

Why we love it: Intercom is great customer engagement software for in-app messaging. 

Key features

• Conversational support: Intercom allows you to engage with customers via live chat. This conversational approach feels more natural to customers.

• Bots and automation: Bots are used to handle routine inquiries and automate repetitive tasks to free up human agents so they can tackle other complex issues.

• In-app messaging: Intercom’s in-app messaging feature allows you to communicate with customers directly within their apps, providing support exactly where needed.

• Customer data and insights: Customer data is collected and analyzed to provide insights into behavior and preferences. This data helps to personalize interactions and improve customer satisfaction.

Pricing

• Starter Plan: $39/agent/month

• Essential Plan: $99/agent/month

• Pro Plan: $199/agent/month

• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing based on your business needs.

Zendesk

Why we love it: Zendesk is good customer engagement software with team development resources.  

Key features

• Omnichannel support: While businesses exploring Zendesk alternative solutions seek the perfect fit for their needs, Zendesk offers comprehensive omnichannel support that integrates seamlessly with over 1,500 apps, including email, social media, phone, and live chat, ensuring a comprehensive customer service experience regardless of the channel used.

• AI-powered automation: Utilize the power of AI and machine learning to automate routine tasks and enhance productivity. AI provides insightful data analytics to help you understand customer behavior and improve service strategies.

• Customizable workflows: The workflows are highly customizable, and the automation rules may be tailored to unique needs to align with your business processes.

• Advanced reporting and analytics: Gain deep insights into customer interactions and agent performance.

Pricing

• Support Team Plan: $19/agent/month

• Support Professional Plan: $55/agent/month

• Support Enterprise Plan: $115/agent/month

Drift

Why we love it: Drift is great customer engagement software used by sales and marketing teams. 

Key features

• Conversational marketing: The platform is designed to engage customers through real-time conversations, helping companies capture more leads that drive more sales.

• Live chats and bots: Drift includes live chat and AI-powered bots that handle routine inquiries, qualify leads, and book meetings to ensure customers receive timely responses.

• Playbooks: Customizable playbooks that guide interactions based on customer behavior and preferences are available, enhancing the effectiveness of a business’s engagement efforts.

• Analytics and reporting: Detailed analytics and insights into customer interactions are provided to help understand their audience and optimize engagement strategies. 

Pricing

• Standard Plan: $50/month

• Pro Plan: $500/month

• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing based on business needs

Pendo 

Why we love it: Pendo is excellent customer engagement software for sales and marketing teams. 

Key features

• Product analytics: Pendo offers detailed analytics on user behavior and product usage to help customers understand how they interact with their software.

• In-app guidance: The platform allows targeted in-app messages and surveys to collect user feedback and ensure you can capture real-time insights.

• Guides and tutorials: Tools to create in-app guides and tutorials are available to help onboard new users and educate existing users about new features.

• Customer feedback: Pendo integrates customer feedback into the product development process to ensure that user insights directly impact product decisions. 

Pricing

• All price points are based on business needs.

Mixpanel

Why we love it: Mixpanel is the best customer engagement social media management software for reporting and analytics.

Key features

• Behavioral analytics: Mixpanel tracks user behavior and provides detailed analytics on how users interact with your product, helping you understand what drives engagement and retention.

• Funnels and retention: The platform allows you to create funnels and analyze user retention, providing insights into where users drop off and how to improve conversion rates.

• A/B testing: Mixpanel offers A/B testing capabilities, enabling you to test different product versions and measure their impact on user behavior.

• Segmentation: The platform allows you to segment users based on various criteria, helping you tailor your product and marketing efforts to different user groups.

Pricing

• Free Plan: Limited features

• Growth Plan: Starting at $25/month

• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing based on business needs

Help Scout

Why we love it: Help Scout is a reliable customer engagement software, particularly well-suited for small and mid-sized businesses.

Key features

• Shared inbox: Help Scout’s shared inbox feature allows support teams to manage customer emails collaboratively, ensuring timely responses and no missed inquiries.

• Knowledge base: The platform includes a knowledge base that helps customers find answers to common questions independently, reducing the volume of support tickets.

• Customer profiles: Help Scout provides detailed customer profiles that offer insights into customer history and interactions, enabling personalized support.

• Reporting and analytics: The platform’s reporting and analytics features provide insights into support team performance and customer satisfaction, helping identify areas for improvement.

Pricing

• Standard Plan: $25/agent/month

• Plus Plan: $40/agent/month

• Company Plan: Custom pricing based on business needs

ConvertKit

Why we love it: ConvertKit is great customer engagement software for email campaigns.

Key features

• Email automation: ConvertKit’s automation features allow you to create personalized email sequences that nurture leads and build relationships with subscribers. The platform’s visual automation builder makes it easy to design workflows.

• Subscriber management: The platform provides tools for managing and segmenting subscribers, helping you tailor your email campaigns to different audience segments.

• Landing pages and forms: ConvertKit includes customizable landing pages and forms that help capture leads and grow your email list.

• Analytics and reporting: The platform offers detailed analytics and reporting features that provide insights into email campaign performance, helping you optimize your strategies.

Pricing

• Free Plan: Limited features for up to 1,000 subscribers

• Creator Plan: Starting at $29/month

• Creator Pro Plan: Starting at $59/month

Typeform 

Why we love it: Typeform is excellent customer engagement software for creating surveys and quizzes.

Key features

• Interactive forms and surveys: Typeform allows you to create interactive and conversational forms and surveys that engage respondents and encourage participation.

• Customizable templates: Typeform offers various templates to help you create forms and surveys quickly and easily. These templates can be tailored to fit your brand and specific needs, ensuring a consistent and professional appearance.

• Conditional logic: The platform supports conditional logic, allowing you to personalize the form or survey experience based on respondents’ answers. This feature helps in creating more relevant and engaging interactions.

• Integrations: Typeform integrates with various tools and platforms such as Google Sheets, Slack, and Mailchimp, enhancing functionality and ensuring seamless data flow across your systems.

• Analytics and reporting: The platform provides detailed analytics and reporting features that give insights into form and survey performance, helping you understand respondent behavior and optimize your data collection strategies. 

Pricing

• Basic Plan: $25/month

• Plus Plan: $50/month

• Business Plan: $83/month

• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing based on business needs

Forumbee 

Why we love it: Forumbee is good customer engagement software for self-service.  

Key features

• Discussion forums: Forumbee provides tools for creating and managing discussion forums, allowing community members to engage in meaningful conversations and share knowledge.

• Customizable design: The platform offers customizable design options that help you create a community space that reflects your brand and meets your specific needs.

• Moderation tools: Forumbee includes moderation tools that help ensure a positive and productive community environment by allowing moderators to manage discussions and enforce community guidelines.

• Member profiles and badges: The platform supports member profiles and badges, encouraging participation, recognizing contributions, and fostering community and engagement.

• Analytics and reporting: Forumbee provides analytics and reporting features that give insights into community activity and member engagement, helping you understand and optimize your community strategy.

Pricing

• Standard Plan: $49/month

• Pro Plan: $99/month

• Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing based on business needs

Summary

Selecting the right customer engagement software is crucial for nurturing meaningful customer relationships and significantly boosting business performance. Each customer engagement platform I reviewed offers diverse features and strengths tailored to various business needs and budgets, ensuring a perfect fit for every organization.

Thoroughly evaluating your business requirements is essential. Begin by identifying your primary objectives and the specific challenges you face in customer engagement. Consider the unique features each customer engagement platform makes and offers, such as advanced segmentation capabilities, comprehensive communication tools, issue tracking, and robust feedback mechanisms. Additionally, pay close attention to pricing structures to ensure the chosen solution aligns with your budget.

Investing in the right customer engagement software is more than a strategic choice—it’s a commitment to excellence and a proactive step toward achieving your business goals.