12 Best customer engagement platform

Today’s customers are more spread out than ever before, both geographically and digitally, increasingly leveraging a wide range of different communication channels to interact with friends and businesses alike. For organizations striving to “meet customers where they are,” this typically requires them to engage across several disparate platforms; when these interactions aren’t interconnected, it can lead to inconsistencies, redundancies, and a poor overall user experience (UX).

Thus, customer engagement platforms (CEPs) or customer engagement management softwares have emerged as a powerful solution for unifying customer conversations across different touchpoints in a single, centralized platform. With all relevant information in one place, employees have straightforward access to past interactions, purchase history, demographics, and more, allowing them to personalize conversations in a meaningful and impactful way.

Today, we’ll examine what customer engagement systems are, the benefits they can provide, and the top 12 software currently available to your company.

What is a customer engagement platform (CEP)?

A CEP is a software solution that helps businesses create, manage, and improve customer engagement across the entire customer journey. These systems empower teams to reach out to customers through various communication channels, including email, chat, phone, social media, web, and mobile app. 

This ensures a seamless and versatile interaction experience that eliminates friction and allows companies to meet individuals wherever they are. It also helps teams to collect and analyze customer data, feedback, and behavior, and use it to optimize their engagement strategies and campaigns.

How does a customer engagement platform work?

A customer engagement platform works by connecting various components of your customer service ecosystem, such as:

• Customer data sources: Provide you with information about your customers, such as their profile, preferences, history, feedback, etc. 

• Customer communication channels: Enable your customer service team to interact with individuals in various ways, such as email, chat, phone, etc.

• Customer service tools: Act as tools that help provide better service to customers, such as a knowledge base system, ticketing platform, live chat software, etc.

• Customer engagement analytics: Resources that help measure and optimize your customer engagement efforts and outcomes.

By employing a CEP, organizations can consolidate all of these elements within a single, unified platform, eliminating the need for multiple solutions. This enhanced orchestration also ensures that customer data isn't compartmentalized, leading to a cohesive and streamlined experience for all individuals.

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Benefits of using a customer engagement platform

Implementing a customer engagement platform offers a wide range of benefits that can transform how businesses interact with their customers. Whether a company is looking to build stronger relationships, increase sales, or streamline operations, a CEP provides the tools needed to achieve these goals.

Let’s explore some of the key advantages to be gained through the use of these powerful solutions:

Better ROI

By centralizing multiple communication channels into one centralized platform, companies can manage customer relationships more efficiently. This reduces operational costs associated with overseeing multiple tools, improves response times, and ensures consistent messaging,

Additionally, CEPs leverage automation to optimize marketing efforts, allowing organizations to deliver targeted campaigns based on customer behavior and preferences. This level of personalization often improves conversion rates, as individuals are more likely to respond to offers that are relevant to them.

Build better relationships with customers

Having all pertinent customer information in a single, easy-to-access location also helps businesses gain deeper insights into customer interests and past interactions. This allows them to deliver tailored messaging, offers, and support that resonate with individual customers, making them feel understood and valued.

Moreover, this unification can often improve the responsiveness and efficiency of customer service teams. It assists in ensuring that individuals receive prompt and informed support regardless of the channel they use, thus reducing frustration and improving satisfaction.

Cross/up-selling opportunities

With a comprehensive view of each customer's journey, businesses can identify patterns and suggest complementary or higher-value products at the right time. The ability to automate personalized messages, such as recommending a relevant add-on after a purchase, helps verify that offers are timely and relevant, increasing the chances of conversion.

Even more, a CEP allows companies to segment their customer base and create tailored marketing campaigns aimed at different groups. This segmentation can focus on factors such as product usage, purchase frequency, or past interactions, making it easier to identify individuals who are more likely to benefit from higher-tier offerings.

Better conversion rates

Through the use of data analytics, a CEP tracks customer behavior, preferences, and past interactions, allowing businesses to create more relevant and appealing offers. When customers receive personalized recommendations or promotions based on their interests and needs, they’re more likely to engage with the brand and complete a purchase.

In addition to personalized communication, a CEP helps organizations quickly identify drop-off points or areas where individuals might need more support to proceed with an order. By addressing these pain points proactively through features like automated follow-up emails, chatbots, or retargeting ads, companies can keep potential customers engaged and move them closer to conversion.

Better efficiency/productivity

Having all customer interactions in one place empowers customer service teams to access relevant information quickly and handle queries more efficiently. This holistic view ensures faster response times, fewer errors, and more consistent communication, allowing teams to serve more customers in less time.

CEPs often include automation features that significantly enhance productivity as well. Tasks like sending follow-up emails, providing personalized recommendations, or addressing common customer inquiries can all be automated, freeing up staff to focus on more complex issues.

Scalable to business needs

As an organization evolves, customer engagement platforms can easily expand to accommodate an increasing number of customer interactions and channels. Most modern CEPs are cloud-based, allowing for seamless upgrades without the need for significant hardware or infrastructure investments. When customer bases grow and communication demands increase, businesses can easily add new features and automation processes without disrupting existing workflows. 

Furthermore, a CEP can also adjust to the specific needs of a business as it diversifies its offerings or enters new markets. For example, companies might introduce new communication channels like mobile apps, chatbots, or social platforms, and the CEP will integrate them into the current system.

CEP vs. CRM

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a SaaS software tool designed to help manage customer information in a single, centralized location. CRM platforms facilitate the storage, organization, and accessibility of customer records, including profiles, transaction history, and other pertinent details. They operate as a subset within the broader framework of customer engagement software.

A CEP, on the other hand, is more comprehensive in scope, tailored to enhance engagement throughout the entire customer lifecycle. It empowers businesses and contact centers to communicate, assist, and interact effectively with individuals across diverse communication channels.

The main difference between a CRM and a CEP lies in their primary focus. While a CRM emphasizes the storage and utilization of customer data, a CEP is more concerned with orchestrating and managing the customer experience (CX) across all available touchpoints.

Key features to look for in customer engagement platforms

Choosing the right customer engagement platform involves evaluating various features that can contribute to how well you connect with your customers. With so many platforms now saturating the market, it’s essential to know which functionalities will provide the most benefit to your organization. 

Some key features to keep an eye out for during your selection process include:

Single customer view

By consolidating all relevant information in one place, companies can gain a holistic understanding of the customer journey, allowing for more personalized interactions. Whether an individual contacts the business through email, social media, or phone, a CEP verifies that support teams always have up-to-date information at their fingertips.

This unified view not only enhances customer support, but also empowers other departments, such as marketing and sales, to create more effective strategies. With a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior, preferences, and past purchases, marketing teams can deliver targeted campaigns, while sales teams can recommend relevant products or services.

Integration capabilities

The integration capacity of customer engagement platforms enables organizations to synchronize data from CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, e-commerce solutions, social media channels, and help desk software, among others. By connecting with CRM, for example, a CEP can pull in customer data such as purchase history, demographic details, and previous interactions, providing a universal view of each individual.

Another essential integration is with analytics and reporting tools, which help businesses measure the effectiveness of their customer engagement strategies. With them, companies can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, campaign performance, and support efficiency.

Chatbot / live chat features

The chatbot functionality within a CEP should include capabilities for handling common inquiries, providing instant responses, and guiding individuals through frequently asked questions (FAQs) or processes. Advanced chatbots equipped with natural language processing (NLP) can understand and respond to customer queries with greater accuracy, offering a more efficient user experience.

The live chat features in these systems should facilitate real-time communication between customers and support agents, allowing for quick resolutions and personalized assistance. Live chat interfaces should be intuitive and easy to use, enabling representatives to manage multiple conversations simultaneously while having access to a centralized customer view.

Scalability

A capable CEP should be able to handle larger volumes of customer data without compromising performance. As an organization expands, a scalable system can support an increasing number of users, channels, and integration points without requiring significant additional investments. Here, cloud-based architectures are often employed, as they can provide the flexibility to scale resources up or down based on current requirements.

A scalable customer engagement software also usually offers modular and customizable features that can be adjusted according to a business's evolving requirements. This includes the ability to integrate with new tools, add advanced functionalities, or expand support to additional communication channels as the company diversifies.

Customizable

A highly customizable CEP typically includes the ability to tailor the user interface (UI), workflows, and communication templates to align with an organization’s operational needs. Businesses should be able to adjust the layout and design of dashboards, modify notification settings, and personalize chatbots to ensure that all customer interactions reflect their unique style and messaging.

The best customer engagement software in 2024

Here are some of the best customer engagement platforms for 2024 that you can consider for your business:

1. Freshdesk

Freshdesk's advanced ticketing, collaboration, and customization features provide an all-in-one solution for a seamless customer self-service experience. It allows businesses to manage omnichannel support efficiently, from email and chat to social media and phone inquiries.

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Key features

• Omnichannel support: Centralizes customer communications across multiple platforms.

• AI and automation: Automates ticket routing, responses, and workflows to reduce manual effort.

• Advanced ticketing: Allows for prioritization, tracking, and escalation.

• Self-service: Provides customers with a knowledge base and community forums for independent problem-solving.

• Unified agent workspace: A consolidated space for agents to handle tickets, improving productivity.

• Actionable insights and analytics: Offers real-time reporting and dashboards to optimize support operations.

• 1,000+ integrations: Seamless integration with CRM, email, and other business tools.

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Why customers rave about Freshdesk

• The intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface allows agents to manage tickets with minimal training. Even teams with limited technical resources can get started quickly for smooth onboarding.

• Scales effortlessly with growing business needs, enabling companies to add more agents, channels, or integrations as they expand.

• AI-powered automation streamlines repetitive tasks like ticket categorization and routing, reducing workload while improving response speed and accuracy.

• Consolidates support requests from email, phone, chat, and social media into a single workspace, ensuring faster responses.

• Knowledge base and self-service portals empower customers to solve issues independently, reducing ticket volume.

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2. Hubspot

HubSpot is a CRM platform that helps companies connect their marketing, sales, and customer service tools into a single database. It's made up of multiple tools and ‘hubs’ that can be used either together or separately.

Key features

• SLA management allows business leaders to oversee their support team at scale with service level agreements that enhance agent efficiency and customer transparency

• Campaign management helps teams oversee and act on campaign priorities directly within the platform

• Automation tools help qualify and nurture leads, personalize emails, and streamline cross-functional operations

Pros and cons of Hubspot

Pros

• Keep content consistent and on-brand by creating AI-generated material that tracks and uses your unique brand voice

• Generate additional content formats out of a single blog post instantly with content remix

• SEO recommendations help position your content to rank higher in search engines with actionable insights and data

Cons

• No early cancellations or refunds—if you select an annual plan for a reduced price, you’re locked in

• Pre-built templates can be hard to adjust, which may not be ideal for businesses with unique requirements

• No A/B testing included in lower-tier packages, making it difficult to experiment with different approaches

3. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based customer service help desk solution. By harnessing the power of automation, Zoho Desk aids businesses to streamline and optimize their customer service operations. This platform is engineered to simplify customer service tasks and enhance the efficiency of support agents.

Key features

Here are some key features of Zoho Desk:

• Streamlined ticket management: Handle customer support tickets from a unified dashboard. Track customer requests across various channels, departments, and more.

• Seamless Omnichannel support: Provide consistent service via email, chat, phone, social media, and web platforms.

• Analytics insights: Gather and analyze customer data, feedback, and behavior. Engagement metrics and outcomes with real-time reports.

• Self-service capabilities: Zoho Desk provides a knowledge base, community, and self-service portal.

Pros and cons of  Zoho Desk

Pros

• Efficient ticket management: A unified dashboard for managing customer support tickets for tracking requests across various channels, brands, products, and departments.

• Omnichannel support: Multiple channel support, including email, chat, phone, social media, and web.

• Workflow automation: Automate customer service workflows using rules, triggers, and workflows. Integrate with existing systems for data exchange and synchronization.

Cons

• Cost: Zoho Desk is a paid product with pricing plans based on the number of agents, features, and channels used.

• Complexity: Effectively utilizing the Zoho Desk may require technical skills and knowledge.

• Availability: Zoho Desk may not be available in all regions or languages and may have occasional bugs or issues that require attention.

4. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service software designed to assist businesses in delivering support across various channels and platforms. It handles customer support tickets, engages in meaningful communication, tailors services, automates workflow, and gathers and analyzes customer data.

Key features

Highlighted features of Zendesk include:

• Omnichannel support: Extend support through all channels. The transition between channels preserves context and information.

• Personalization: Services based on individual customer context, preferences, and behavior. Segment customers for targeted messaging and offers.

• Automation: Create workflows with rules and triggers.

• Analytics: Gather and analyze customer data, feedback, and behavior using integrated analytics. Real-time reports and dashboards.

Pros and cons of Zendesk

Pros

• Omnichannel facility: A unified platform to manage customer interactions across various channels.

• Powerful automation: Zendesk offers automation capabilities, allowing businesses to streamline workflows.

• Comprehensive analytics: The platform offers analytics tools that enable businesses to gather and analyze customer data, feedback, and behavior in real-time.

Cons

• Learning curve: Mastering Zendesk may require some technical skills and training. New users may need time to become proficient in utilizing all features effectively, which can be a challenge for less tech-savvy teams.

• Downgrading issues: Zendesk requires a 60-day notice for downgrading your subscription. This extended notice period can be a drawback for businesses looking to adjust their subscription plan quickly.

• Customer service concerns: Some users have reported challenges with Zendesk's customer service, describing it as virtually non-existent.

5. Intercom

Intercom is a customer service and engagement platform that helps organizations communicate with customers. It offers live chat, automation tools, and self-service resources, allowing individuals to find answers in their preferred method.

Key features

• Fin AI Agent leverages the most sophisticated intelligent language models to instantly resolve issues with conversational answers based solely on support content

• Back-office tickets ensure that agents have all the context they need to engage in personalized conversations and provide consistently accurate information

• Knowledge Hub acts as a central knowledge management system to optimize all content sources for AI, agents, and self-serve support

Pros and cons of Intercom

Pros

• Conversations from every channel route directly to a unified inbox for easier prioritization and resolution

• All tools and resources can be used in 45+ distinct languages, enabling organizations to engage with global and multicultural customer bases

• Chatbot can pull responses from various sources like knowledge articles, public URLs, and PDFs and send them to the right customers through content targeting

Cons

• Costly compared to similar solutions, particularly for upper-tier packages

• No unified vertical stack that handles both support and sales

How to choose the right customer engagement platform

When determining which customer engagement software best suits your specific business requirements, numerous factors warrant careful consideration. You’ll need to carefully consider your organizational objectives and challenges to identify which features are most critical to your ultimate success.

Common components considered throughout the selection process include:

1. Comprehensive Omnichannel support

An adept CEP should seamlessly integrate with various communication channels and platforms. It should also ensure uniform and uninterrupted service delivery across your entire technical infrastructure.

2. Robust personalization capabilities

Customer engagement solutions should be able to furnish tailored service to your clientele, considering their specific context, preferences, and behavioral patterns. It should facilitate customer segmentation based on varied criteria to help enhance engagement as well.

3. Streamlined automation functions

Various teams are empowered to automate and refine their operations through the astute utilization of rules, triggers, and predefined workflows when leveraging a proficient CEP.

4. Analytical capabilities

In order for your company to refine its approach over time, CEPs should be able to efficiently gather and dissect critical customer data and feedback. They also must equip you with the necessary tools to help quantify and optimize your customer engagement strategies, by offering real-time reports and intuitive dashboards.

5. Scalability and flexibility

As your organization’s needs evolve, a well-rounded CEP should demonstrate the ability to grow alongside it. This might involve offering cloud-based architecture and high integrability to help you easily adjust as your requirements change.

6. Stringent security protocols

Prioritizing the security of your customer data and sensitive information against unauthorized access or misuse should always be a central concern when evaluating potential CEPs. Secure solutions often boast features such as data encryption, access controls, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and more to ensure that all important information is sufficiently protected.

Omnichannel customer engagement platform

For those seeking a comprehensive omnichannel solution for customer engagement, Freshworks Freshdesk  is the answer. Elevate customer service across multiple channels and platforms while enhancing operational efficiency and productivity

Optimize your businesses customer engagement today with the top platform Freshworks!

When it comes to an all-in-one customer engagement solution, however you look at it, Freshdesk is simply the best available.

Looking for robust reporting and analytics as well? Freshdesk has you covered. With it, businesses can customize reports to reflect their most relevant KPIs, have them periodically delivered to designated email addresses, and display them in an easily digestible manner by using our visual dashboards. 

If there are any features your organization desires that Freshdesk  doesn’t offer, simply browse our extensive Freshworks Marketplace for access to hundreds of popular third-party apps and systems that can be easily connected to the platform!