Getting customers is hard, especially if you're a startup. If you've ever had that "wait people are paying for this thing we've built?!" feeling, you'll know what I mean.
But in a world where your customers can cancel whenever they want, winning customers is only one part of the puzzle. You also need to make (and keep) them happy with your product. That's what's called customer success.
In this article, we'll show you 11 great tools and strategies to help your customers achieve their goals with your product and keep them around to increase your lifetime value.
Customer success, nurturing, and ensuring cheerful customer experiences lie at the core of modern business strategies. In the dynamic landscape of customer interactions and customer experience, the need for practical tools, including customer success software, a procurement management plan, and customer success platforms, has become paramount.
These tools, including other tools that collect feedback and provide health scores, serve as invaluable allies. They aid businesses in orchestrating seamless customer journeys, mitigating challenges, and driving growth. By leveraging customer success software to collect feedback, monitor a customer health score, and manage interactions and a customer success team, organizations are able to elevate their customer experience to new heights.
As customer success continues to evolve, the integration of purposeful tools vying for the best customer success software has emerged as a defining factor for achieving sustained success. In this article, we delve into the realm of customer success tools, exploring their significance, key features, and future trends reshaping how businesses cultivate and sustain fruitful customer relationships.
Top tools for a customer success platform
Enhancing customer experiences is crucial for businesses; all-in-one customer success tools streamline this process. Here are some top tools and their unique features contributing to customer success.
Command AI
Command AI is a platform for user assistance. It's the best way to engage and serve users and let them command your product efficiently and smoothly. There are two main facets to the Command AI product.
Nudges
The most directly relevant product in the nudge suite is our HelpHub, which helps you create a single source of Truth in the bottom right hand corner where users can quickly ask questions and chat, find help articles, and use common resources. I walk you through a demo of HelpHub below:
Other nudges include things like modals, product tours, checklists, and more. These in-app messaging experiences are unobtrusive, smooth, and easy to build, meaning that your product team can move quickly and not have to rely on engineering help to ship things.
Here's an example of a product tour in Command AI.
This can be built within our dashboard quickly, and it can use smart triggers, from time on page to a specific event/click to confusion, rage, and other user behavior!
We've seen folks deploy these to improve onboarding experiences, increase engagement with surveys and feedback collection, and do so much more.
Plus they've proved powerful in driving more insight into product run.!
Copilot
The other side of the coin is our Copilot product, which is a user assistant. It sits in the bottom right of your product, and it allows users to ask questions and get quick answers. But it goes way beyond just deflecting support tickets or providing fast responses.
Not only can Copilot co-browse and launch product tours for your users when a simple text explanation isn't enough, it also allows you to gather huge amounts of user intent data.
You're able to see users' questions in their own natural language, identify dead ends where your help documentation and answers aren't sufficient and users hit a brick wall, and generally ensure that your product is operating as smoothly as possible and finding points of friction to resolve.
Altogether, with its clear functionality and our ability to serve your users in many ways, we believe that CS is done best with Command AI.
Zendesk
Zendesk stands out in the crowded space of customer success tools with its precision-engineered solutions tailored for effective customer engagement and support. Possessing a robust help desk ticketing system and boasting customizable forms, Zendesk is not just a tool—it's a game-changer. This platform not only excels in managing intricate support requests but also takes appointment scheduling to the next level by integrating seamlessly with Calendly. As businesses pivot towards more customer-centric strategies, leveraging Zendesk's features becomes paramount for success.
Key Features:
- Robust Help Desk Ticketing System: At the heart of Zendesk's prowess lies its dynamic ticketing system, built to handle support queries with utmost efficiency.
- Customizable Forms: Recognizing the diversity of business needs, Zendesk offers forms that can be tailored, ensuring they resonate with a company's specific requirements.
- Integration Capabilities: Zendesk doesn't operate in isolation. Its ability to integrate with tools like Calendly showcases its commitment to a cohesive customer support experience.
Advantages:
- Efficient Management of Support Requests: In the competitive realm of customer success tools, Zendesk shines by making the management of support requests feel effortless. Each ticket is processed with care, ensuring swift issue resolution.
- Seamless Integration with Calendly: By integrating with Calendly, Zendesk removes the friction often associated with appointment scheduling, enhancing customer satisfaction in the process.
- Scalability: From startups to global enterprises, Zendesk's adaptability ensures it's suitable for businesses of varying sizes, making it a versatile choice in the ever-evolving landscape of customer success tools.
Ideal For:
Companies, regardless of their scale, that are laser-focused on enhancing their customer support infrastructure. Zendesk is especially beneficial for those looking to integrate issue resolution with appointment-driven customer interactions seamlessly. In a digital age where customer experience can make or break a brand, Zendesk emerges as a trusted ally for businesses aiming to stay ahead in the customer success tools.
ChurnZero
In today's digital landscape, customer retention is paramount. ChurnZero, a standout in the panorama of customer success tools, provides businesses with data-driven insights, such as customer health scores and user segmentation. These insights not only facilitate a deeper understanding of the customer base but also empower businesses to reduce churn and make enlightened decisions. The cherry on top is ChurnZero's member-led community, offering collaborative knowledge-sharing and best practices.
Key Features:
- Customer Health Scores: By gauging customer satisfaction and engagement, ChurnZero helps businesses identify potential risks and address them proactively.
- User Segmentation: This feature aids in classifying users based on behavior, preferences, and more, enabling targeted outreach and strategies.
- Member-led Community: A collaborative space where businesses can share experiences, learn from peers, and continually refine their customer success strategies.
Advantages:
- Informed Decision Making: Through its insights, ChurnZero ensures businesses don't operate in the dark. Decisions are backed by data, elevating the potential for success.
- Enhanced Retention: Armed with the tools to understand customer behavior, businesses can tailor experiences to reduce churn.
- Collaborative Learning: In the realm of customer success tools, ChurnZero's community is a goldmine of shared experiences and knowledge.
Ideal For:
Companies committed to mastering customer retention and crafting unparalleled user experiences. ChurnZero is the go-to for those wanting to harness data-driven strategies in the competitive sphere of customer success tools.
Gainsight
Gainsight, a premier solution within the customer success tools ecosystem, brings forth a central dashboard that acts as a nerve center for monitoring user trends, revenue goals, and customer success plans. In doing so, Gainsight doesn't just provide metrics—it enables actionable insights that can transform customer interactions and propel team collaboration to new heights.
Key Features:
- Central Dashboard: A unified space that showcases critical metrics, enabling businesses to grasp their customer health at a glance.
- Monitoring User Trends: Understand and predict customer behavior patterns to refine engagement strategies.
- Revenue Goals Tracking: Keep an eye on financial objectives and ensure alignment with customer success strategies.
Advantages:
- Holistic View: Gainsight offers a 360-degree perspective on customers, ensuring no touchpoint is overlooked.
- Enhanced Team Collaboration: By centralizing data, Gainsight paves the way for cohesive teamwork, ensuring all departments are in sync.
- Strategic Alignment: With revenue goals in the mix, businesses can ensure their financial and customer success objectives are harmoniously aligned.
Ideal For:
Businesses that value a unified view of their customer journey. Gainsight is a beacon for those aiming to intertwine revenue objectives with stellar customer experiences in the domain of customer success tools.
HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot, a giant in the world of customer success tools, is not just a marketing maestro; its Service Hub magnificently streamlines customer service practices. With features ranging from an integrated ticketing system to feedback management, HubSpot ensures cohesive team collaboration and elevated customer satisfaction.
Key Features:
- Integrated Ticketing System: A hub to capture, manage, and resolve customer issues effectively.
- Feedback Management: Gathers insights directly from customers, ensuring their voices shape the product or service's future.
- Performance Metrics: Monitor team productivity, responsiveness, and customer satisfaction in real-time.
Advantages:
- Unified Customer Service: HubSpot centralizes multiple facets of customer interaction, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
- Data-Driven Insights: Performance metrics allow businesses to understand areas of strength and improvement.
- Seamless Collaboration: With all data under one roof, teams can work in harmony, resulting in better customer experiences.
Ideal For:
Companies desiring an all-encompassing solution for customer success. HubSpot Service Hub stands out for businesses aiming to blend marketing and customer service synergies in their customer success tools repertoire.
Help Scout
In the digital world of customer success tools, Help Scout takes an email-centric approach. This platform centralizes support requests and integrates various communication avenues like email, live chat, and phone support, ensuring no customer query gets duplicated or overlooked.
Key Features:
- Centralized Support Requests: A consolidated space to track, manage, and respond to customer inquiries.
- Multi-Channel Integration: Offers seamless connectivity across email, live chat, and phone support.
- Duplication Prevention: Ensures every customer query is unique and addressed individually.
Advantages:
- Streamlined Communication: With a focus on email, Help Scout ensures a consistent and timely response to customer needs.
- Versatile Customer Interaction: By supporting multiple communication channels, Help Scout accommodates varied customer preferences.
- Enhanced Organizational Efficiency: The platform's features ensure optimal use of resources, eliminating redundancies.
Ideal For:
Businesses that value the power of email in their customer success arsenal. Help Scout is perfect for those seeking a blend of traditional and modern communication tools to enhance customer.
HelpCrunch
As businesses navigate the vast ocean of customer success tools, HelpCrunch emerges as a beacon for holistic communication. This platform offers everything from live chat to social media integration, all complemented by a built-in virtual assistant. The cherry on top? A centralized system for customer data management.
Key Features:
- Live Chat Capabilities: Direct and instant interaction with customers for real-time support.
- Social Media Integration: Connects businesses with customers where they are most active and engaged.
- Built-in Virtual Assistant: Automated support to address frequent queries, guiding customers even outside working hours.
Advantages:
- Seamless Communication: Whether it's instant chat or social media, HelpCrunch ensures businesses are always in touch with their customers.
- Efficient Data Management: A centralized repository for customer data ensures actionable insights and personalized interactions.
- 24/7 Support: With the virtual assistant, businesses can offer round-the-clock guidance, enhancing customer satisfaction.
Ideal For:
Companies aiming to create a seamless, always-on communication channel with their customers. HelpCrunch is a jewel for those wanting a blend of human touch and automation in their suite of customer success tools.
ProProfs Chat
In the current digital world, website visitors crave instant answers and solutions. ProProfs Chat throws away the wait times of emails and phone calls, offering a real-time customer engagement solution that keeps your business connected and thriving. This user-friendly live chat software seamlessly integrates with your website, fostering meaningful conversations and building stronger customer relationships.
Key Features:
- AI Chatbot Support: Build chatbots that grow leads & sales, book appointments & automate support.
- Chatbot Templates: Craft conversations that reflect your brand voice and address your customers' needs with pre-built chatbot templates.
- Intelligent Chat Routing: Deliver the right help at the right time by automatically assigning chats to the most qualified agent.
Advantages:
- 24/7 Support Availability: Customers get help anytime, reducing wait times.
- Quick Resolution of Queries: Faster answers lead to happier and more satisfied customers.
- Detailed Reports: Gain valuable insights and feedback to improve customer experience.
Ideal For:
Businesses that want to improve customer engagement and satisfaction. Whether startups or big businesses, it offers the tools to connect with website visitors in real-time, answer their questions, resolve issues quickly, and ultimately convert them into loyal customers.
Intercom
Intercom, among the vanguards of customer success tools, is celebrated for its live chat capabilities. Beyond just chat, Intercom innovatively provides multiple avenues like chatbots, in-app banners, and more, all integrating seamlessly with popular platforms like Slack. The result? An enriched customer experience at every interaction.
Key Features:
- Live Chat Functionality: Engage with customers in real-time, offering instant solutions and building rapport.
- Dynamic Chatbots: Automated responses and guidance for common queries, ensuring continuous support.
- In-App Banners: Announce updates, offers, and important information directly within the app, keeping users informed.
Advantages:
- Instant Communication: Intercom's live chat ensures that the bridge between businesses and customers is always active.
- Integrated Experience: Seamless integration with platforms like Slack ensures team-wide awareness and collaboration.
- Proactive Engagement: With in-app banners, businesses can take a front-foot approach, updating and engaging customers proactively.
Ideal For:
Companies that prioritize real-time communication and proactive engagement in their customer success strategy. Intercom shines for businesses that seek agility and dynamism in their toolset.
Zoho Desk
In the tapestry of customer success tools, Zoho Desk elegantly stitches multi-channel chat functionalities into one cohesive fabric. It's not just about chat; with AI assistance and sentiment analysis, Zoho Desk elevates customer interactions, ensuring support is both efficient and empathetic.
Key Features:
- Multi-Channel Chat: Centralize interactions from various platforms, ensuring consistent and timely responses.
- AI Assistance: Leverage artificial intelligence for smarter responses and predictive insights.
- Sentiment Analysis: Understand the emotional tone of customer interactions, adapting responses for maximum positivity.
Advantages:
- Unified Communication Platform: With multi-channel integration, Zoho Desk ensures no customer query falls between the cracks.
- Smart Support: AI-driven assistance ensures businesses are always a step ahead in addressing customer needs.
- Emotionally Attuned: Sentiment analysis enables businesses to gauge and respond to the emotional landscape of their customers.
Ideal For:
Companies eyeing a blend of technology and empathy in their customer success endeavors. Zoho Desk is perfect for businesses that value both efficiency and emotional intelligence in their toolkit.
Aircall
Aircall stands out in the constellation of customer success tools by centralizing phone support activities. In an era where digital solutions often overshadow voice interactions, Aircall redefines the importance of telephonic communication. With insights into call volume, employee performance metrics, and seamless integration capabilities, Aircall paves the way for enhanced customer interactions, especially for remote teams.
Key Features:
- Centralized Phone Support: Manage all telephonic interactions in one unified space, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
- Performance Analytics: Track and analyze the performance of support agents, optimizing for better customer interactions.
- Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrate with a myriad of tools to enrich the support ecosystem.
Advantages:
- Voice-Centric Approach: In a digital-first age, Aircall emphasizes the undervalued power of voice interactions.
- Empowered Support Teams: With real-time analytics, support teams can continuously refine their approach for optimal customer experiences.
- Scalable for Remote Teams: Aircall's design makes it an ideal choice for businesses with dispersed teams, ensuring geographical barriers don't hinder top-notch support.
Ideal For:
Businesses that recognize the unique intimacy of voice interactions and wish to harness this in their customer success strategy. Aircall is a boon for companies with remote teams aiming for consistent telephonic support.
RingCX by RingCentral
Transform customer experiences across all touchpoints with RingCX. Being a cloud-hosted unified communications platform, RingCX empowers businesses to deliver quality interactions to foster loyalty and satisfaction with all stakeholders, staff, and customers. By unifying voice, video, messaging, contact center, and collaboration capabilities into a single, easy-to-use platform, RingCX enables organizations to better connect with customers, anytime, anywhere.
Key Features
- Rich omnichannel: Get a single overall view of all your voice and digital multi-channels, including robust reporting and analytics capability. You can converge customer interactions, allowing agents to access a complete history of each customer's journey across multiple channels.
- AI-first approach: Optimize workforce engagement before, during, and post interactions with AI-powered tools ensuring agents are equipped with the right resources and information to deliver exceptional service.
- Seamless Integrations: Choose to incorporate from over 200 business apps and leading CRMs like Salesforce and Zendesk, without disrupting your current setup and workflows.
Advantages
- Easy-to-deploy: Administer from a single interface Pre-packaged deployment options
- Global standard for security compliance: Feel confident working in a secure platform that meets and exceeds the industry standards for security and privacy
- Best Value: Enjoy unlimited minutes with the lowest total cost of ownership with flexible plans and pricing suited for your needs.
Ideal For:
All businesses, big and small, and their stakeholders, will benefit from using this customer success tool. RingCX is designed for businesses to take their customer experiences to the next level. Agents turn into super agents with a single, AI-powered interface. Supervisors harvest accurate data with AI insights and analytics. Management operates an efficient and future-proof system with a low cost of ownership.
How to select the best customer success software tool for you
Selecting the right customer success tool requires careful consideration of various factors to ensure it aligns with your business needs and addresses your challenges effectively. Here's how to navigate the process and tailor your tool selection:
- Assess business needs: Identify your specific business needs and pain points. Determine what aspects of customer success you aim to enhance: improving user engagement, analyzing customer behavior, predicting growth, or streamlining customer interactions.
- Consider industry fit: Different industries have varying requirements. For the SaaS sector, where customer acquisition and retention are crucial, opt for tools that facilitate learning from each account, coach representatives, and expedite deal closures. The device should align with your industry's sales cycle and customer engagement strategies.
- Integration capabilities: Seamless integration with your existing tech stack is vital. Evaluate whether the customer success software offers pre-built integrations with essential platforms like Google Workspace, Office 365, Zoom, and Webex. It ensures a smooth workflow and maximizes the value of your existing tools.
- Scalability: Choose a tool that grows with your company. As your business scales, your customer success strategies and requirements will evolve. The chosen instrument should accommodate these changes without disruption, supporting your expanding customer base.
- Actionable insights: Look for a tool that provides actionable insights derived from customer data. It should empower your teams to engage customers with personalized approaches based on historical interactions and behavior analysis.
- Delight and retain: Prioritize tools that enable you to deliver exceptional customer experiences, ultimately leading to customer delight and retention. The right tool should enhance user satisfaction, increasing customer lifetime value.
You can effectively improve customer engagement, predict growth, and streamline interactions by tailoring your customer success tool selection to your unique business needs and challenges. The right tool empowers your teams to create a meaningful impact on customer success, ensuring your business thrives in a competitive landscape.
MirrorFly
MirrorFly is a real-time communication solution provider that offers in-app messaging SDK and video calling API for web and mobile apps. This solution comprises over 1000+ chat, audio and video features that enables effective engagement across customer success operations. One fine example is its AI chatbot offering that takes care of the initial customer inquiries and feedback to avoid burnout waiting for a human-agent to join the call. Plus, the contact center services drive omni-channel communication between businesses and customers, allowing the latter with product/ service issues to reach out to support teams, on any preferred channel.
Key Features:
- Topic-based chat: Connects customers to specific departments based on their product/ purpose of contact.
- Chatbot: Allows AI-powered bots to address the initial user queries with automated responses, eliminating customer burnout while waiting for agent to connect, while collecting basic call information before the agent hops on to the call.
- Contact Center Services: Customers can contact agents from any of their preferred channels - chat, video call or voice call.
Advantages:
- Full customization: MirrorFly is a communication solution that can be customized without any limitations. Since there is full ownership to source code, businesses have the freedom to build their customer success platform, as per their needs.
- Omni-channel Communication: MirrorFly’s contact center services support communication beyond conventional voice calls. Which means, customers can contact businesses in multiple ways, without meeting a dead-end.
- White-label Solution: Businesses need not worry about traces of the provider’s brand elements in their customer success app. They can customize it with their own logo, colors and custom features, making it look like it's built in-house.
Ideal For:
Companies of all sizes, and industries can use MirrorFly to build their apps with modern communication features. For large-scale enterprises, the self-hosted solution is a great option with its flexibility to host the app on its own servers. Whereas, for small-mid scale businesses, the SaaS model of the solution would be compatible with its pay-as-you-go option. Overall, MirrorFly caters to all scales and vertices of businesses, with full freedom and scalability.
Integrating tools into a customer success strategy
Embedding customer success tools within your strategy can profoundly elevate your approach and yield favorable outcomes. These tools harmonize with best practices and play a pivotal role in the overall success of your customer-centric endeavors.
- Streamlined onboarding: Customer success tools seamlessly infuse the onboarding process with clarity, ensuring users grasp your product's value. It emphasizes the importance of answering queries comprehensively and laying the groundwork for mutual success.
- Continuous engagement: Beyond onboarding, customer success tools empower your customer success teams to engage with customers ongoingly. This sustained interaction uncovers individual goals, pain points, and unique needs, leading to tailored solutions.
- Personalized experiences: Tools enable personalized experiences, acknowledging the distinctness of each customer. With real-time insights, you can deliver messages and solutions that resonate, bolstering customer satisfaction.
- Education and training: Integrating customer success tools ensure consistent education and training integration. Whether introducing new features or updates, these tools facilitate timely and pertinent training sessions.
- Proactive approach: Tools facilitate an aggressive support stance in line with modern customer expectations. Swift responses, order confirmations, and regular check-ins instill confidence and showcase dedication to their triumph.
- Harnessing video: Tools magnify the significance of video in an effective customer success strategy. They empower the creation of captivating, professional videos catering to diverse customer journey stages, enhancing communication.
- Feedback loop: Tools that capture and analyze data effectively harness the true value of customer feedback. Implementing a feedback loop enables comprehension of customer sentiments, issue resolution, and data-informed enhancements.
- Managed expectations: Customer success tools contribute to setting realistic, lucid expectations from the outset. Ensuring harmony between your product's offerings and customer anticipation fosters trust and enduring contentment.
- Optimized user experience: Tools contribute to ameliorating user experiences by illuminating product usage and pinpointing areas for refinement. The blend of customer insights with product evolution results in a continually customer-oriented product.
- Human connections: Tools facilitate genuine, non-automated connections. They help enable meaningful interactions that resonate with customers, reinforcing your unwavering commitment to their prosperity.
Navigating the realm of customer success tools is essential in modern businesses. Selecting the right tools tailored to specific customer requests enhances relationships and growth. They meet unique challenges, improve customer experiences, and epitomize excellent customer service.
As customer demands evolve, embracing these tools isn't optional—it's vital for competitiveness and customer retention. In a rapidly changing business landscape, the right customer success tools unlock success, embodying efficiency and effectiveness in meeting diverse customer needs.
Future trends in customer success tools
The year 2023 is set to bring transformational shifts to Customer Success, as highlighted by industry leaders' predictions. These trends will significantly impact the role of customer success tools and their influence on business strategies:
- Digital transformation and AI integration: Digital Customer Success will gain prominence as companies seek efficiency and streamlined operations. Integrating AI-powered solutions like Customer Success AI will enable predictive insights and data-driven engagement for stronger customer relationships.
- Holistic customer intelligence: AI's ability to interpret customer interactions across various channels will unlock deeper customer intelligence. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) will extract sentiments and intentions, enhancing predictive customer health scores and proactive support.
- Operational efficiency and data democratization: Businesses will prioritize eliminating inefficiencies and data silos by democratizing customer data. Collaborative data access will facilitate cross-departmental insights to understand customer needs comprehensively.
- Customer-centric enablement: Customer Success Enablement will emerge as a core strategy, emphasizing skill development within existing teams. This approach will optimize the customer journey through AI-driven insights and predictive capabilities.
- Proactive churn prevention and risk mitigation: Customer Success teams will focus on proactive churn prevention by identifying at-risk customers through predictive analysis. Adaptive engagement strategies will navigate economic fluctuations effectively.
- Agility and adaptive strategies: The success of Customer Success teams will hinge on their skill to adapt to evolving market conditions. Quarterly adjustments and close alignment with customer needs will ensure exceptional service delivery.
- Customer-centric workforce development: Specialization and professional development within Customer Success will be critical. The rise of CS enablement managers will emphasize continuous training and digital proficiency.
- Post-sales transformation: Traditional post-sales roles will evolve into customer success roles with expanded responsibilities. Voice of Customer (VOC) initiatives and cross-departmental collaboration will elevate the customer-centric focus.
- Chief customer officer's ascension: The role will grow significantly, driving customer-centric strategies. Mastery of skills and strategic insights will solidify their presence in the C-suite.
- Revenue-centric approach: Customer Success will align with revenue growth, forging ties between CS goals and company profitability.
Incorporating these trends, the future of customer success tools promises enhanced customer intelligence, predictive capabilities, and collaborative strategies. Businesses that adapt to these shifts will position themselves for success in a dynamic and customer-focused market.
Unleashing the potential of customer success tools
In navigating the realm of customer success tools, it becomes evident that their role is pivotal in shaping the success of modern businesses, especially for enterprise companies. These tools, ranging from customer calls and customer education to detailed customer segmentation and customer communications, fortify the journey from nurturing customer relationships to propelling growth. Each tool, designed to address unique challenges, helps to enhance customer experiences, improve customer satisfaction, and increase customer retention.
Customer success management has become a focal point in the ever-changing business environment. Selecting the right customer success software is not merely an option but a necessity for staying competitive and customer-centric. By harnessing their capabilities, such as customer health scoring and customer segmentation, businesses can forge lasting connections, reduce churn, and foster collaborative growth.
Enterprise companies, in particular, must pay heed to these developments, prioritizing tools that provide insights into customer health scores and leveraging customer success management strategies to forge ahead.
Command AI is the most comprehensive platform for customer support teams looking to augment their traditional chat operations. From Copilot to HelpHub to other nudges, you're able to better serve users and meet them where they're at, all while saving time and money through ticket deflection. Plus you're able to gather so much more insight on user intent!
