As businesses adjust to the post-pandemic world, user engagement software has become vital for achieving core business objectives like customer loyalty, brand advocacy, and profits. With so many options available, which are the best customer engagement tools?
Don’t worry. By the end of this blog, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to choose the perfect customer engagement tools and techniques for your business and build a truly customer-centric brand.
So, let’s get started!
What Exactly Does “User Engagement” Mean?
User engagement is a way of assessing how much users enjoy and find value in a product or service. It is a critical aspect of customer experience that involves facilitating interactions with your SaaS users to improve their overall experience.
User engagement measures how much users value a product, based on their interactions, such as downloads, clicks, and shares. Highly engaged users are more profitable if they lead to meaningful outcomes such as purchases and signups.
What Is User Engagement Software?
User engagement software is a tool that improves the customer relationship with a business through personalized, contextual, and relevant engagement. It enhances the customer experience through various forms of interaction, such as onboarding, support, and self-service.
User engagement tools help businesses engage, acquire, support, and retain customers by providing solutions such as CRM, customer support, feedback applications, marketing automation, live chat, and loyalty programs. These tools reduce the sales cycle, improve resolution time, and increase customer loyalty by forging emotional relationships.
How to Select the Right User Engagement Software?
Choosing the right user engagement software is crucial for businesses as it can impact customer satisfaction, retention, and ultimately, revenue. Here are our top 5 picks of User engagement software:
Supports Three Major Aspects of CRM
Make sure the software addresses the three main elements of customer relationship management (CRM): analyzing customer behavior (quantitative analytics), collecting qualitative feedback, and communicating with your users.
Ticketing Feature
Check if the platform includes a ticketing feature to document customer issues and track them through to resolution.
Segmentation
Look for software that can segment your user database, as well as have native communication features, issue tracking, feedback tools, and automation capabilities.
Communication Features
Ensure that the platform includes all the features to engage with your customers across various channels, including email, live chat, social media, phone, knowledge bases, and AI tools like chatbots.
Outreach Tools
Look for software that enables proactive outreach, such as email campaign tools and in-app messaging services.
Reporting
Consider software that can automatically offer robust reporting, and analytics tools and send out reports to stakeholders on demand or at a pre-determined schedule.
Integration
Seek a platform that makes it simple to integrate with other programs so you can supervise every step of the customer journey natively.
Pricing
Consider the pricing and features of the customer engagement platform to see if they match your specific needs.
Tailored Messaging Feature
Make sure the software comes with personalized communications with customers to increase engagement.
5 User Engagement Software to Improve Your Customer Experience
| User Engagement Softwares | Key Feature | Pricing |
| Statwide | Cohort Analysis | Free trial available |
| HubSpot | Powerful Free CRM | Free Plan available. |
| Zendesk | Omnichannel communications platform | Free Plan available. |
| Hotjar | Heatmap and screen recording tracker | Freemium |
| Optimizely | Powerful Stats Engine | Pricing is available on request. |
Statwide
I know it might sound biased to put our software here, but I think the features of Statwide deserve a mention. Statwide is a user engagement software that provides tools for understanding feature adoption and increasing revenue retention.
Statwide also allows tracking the customer journey, creating customer personas, and monitoring account activation and cancellation to reduce churn and identify upsell opportunities.
Key Features
- Cohort Analysis
- Heatmap
- Path Analysis
- User segmentation
- Dropout rates measurement
Pros
- Extensive segmentation
- Real-time insights
- User-friendly interface
Cons
- Integration can be improved.
Price
Free trial available.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a versatile customer engagement platform. With dedicated tools for marketing, sales, service, content management, and operations, it allows you to gather all your customer data in one place. Also, it offers features like email marketing, a landing page builder, ad-tracking live chat, and lead management.
Key Features:
- Website activity tracking
- Automated sales emails
- Marketing analytics dashboard
- Landing page optimization
- Meeting scheduling
Pros
- One of the best free CRM services in the market.
- Provides an extensive knowledge base through HubSpot Academy.
- Reports are downloadable.
- Allows for personalized email sequences to improve customer engagement.
- Offers a huge library of apps for seamless integration.
Cons
- Steep learning curve for beginners
- Limited options for templates and workflows
- Limited survey functionality compared to other platforms
- Allows only one email per contact.
- Automation capabilities can be improved compared to competitors.
Price
Basic plan is free
Zendesk
Zendesk is an omnichannel communications platform that offers customer support tools and sales plans with reporting dashboards and integrations. Although it’s challenging to set up, it is suitable for enterprise companies. It supports remote work and has dial-pad integration for phone calls.
Key Features
- Real-time update
- Agent collaboration via private comments
- Help desk automation to free up agent time
- Macros for quick response
- SLA Management
Pros
- Noteworthy query management.
- Comprehensive customer service capabilities.
- Robust automation features.
- Customizable ticketing system
Cons
- Customer support is not helpful.
- Limited analytics capabilities.
- Steep learning curve.
Price
A free trial is available.
Hotjar
Hotjar goes beyond surveys to provide valuable insights into customer behavior by monitoring and recording their interactions with your product. It comes with view heatmaps and session recording features to identify areas that need improvement and optimize the user experience.
Hotjar also supports instant feedback collection through a feedback portal, making it a top customer engagement software and survey tool.
Key Features
- Heatmaps to analyze user behavior and engagement
- Screen recording
- Customizable Surveys
- Real-time feedback
- Data protection
Pros
Great for conducting quantitative surveys
Responsive support team
Helps to understand user sentiment
Cons
- Navigation can be tweaked
- Heatmap accuracy rate can be improved
- Might take glitchy screenshots sometimes.
Price
Freemium (Free + Premium Features)
Optimizely
Optimizely is the best customer engagement software for A/B testing. Its Experiment product allows for multiple versions of customer touchpoints, with segmentation tools and valuable reports. It supports low/no code experimentation and offers a complete A/B testing platform for large businesses.
Key Features:
- A/B and multivariate testing
- Comprehensive CMS and marketing planning tools
- Robust visual editor for conducting tests
- Optimize touchpoints through visitor segmentation based on factors such as browser, geography, and device.
- Access to real-time data for informed decision-making
Pros
- Straightforward user interface.
- Responsive Customer support.
- Offers detailed reporting.
Cons
- Setting custom metrics can be complicated.
- Costs more than its competitors.
- Launching a full-stack component might be challenging.
Price
Optimizely offers pricing on request.
Conclusion
As we wrap up our discussion on user engagement software, it’s essential to acknowledge that User engagement software is more than just a buzzword. It’s about building meaningful relationships with your customers, understanding their needs, and delivering an experience that exceeds their expectations.
So, whether you’re just starting or looking to enhance your existing user engagement strategies, remember to choose the right tools that suit your business needs and budget.
With a well-designed user engagement model and tech stack, you can create exceptional customer experiences, reduce churn rates, and build a loyal customer base. Good luck!