Customer Experience 
| What Is Customer Experience (CX) Software? CX software is a suite of tools designed to manage, analyze, and improve all aspects of a customer’s interaction with a company. It includes tools for tracking, overseeing, and organizing every customer touchpoint from start to finish. |
Whether people decide to buy with you or invest elsewhere largely depends on their experience with your company. A positive customer experience (CX) can keep them from choosing your competitor over you.
The right customer experience software can help alleviate your staff’s pain points, lighten their workload, and automate routine tasks. The CX software you choose should also align with security compliance best practices, decrease your total cost of ownership, and provide AI features to automate workflows.
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Here, we’ll cover the basics of CX software, its benefits, and its top features. We’ve also prepared a list of the top seven CX tools on the market.
Let’s get started.
| CX Software | Best For | Features | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nextiva | Most businesses | Omnichannel support, detailed reports, third-party integrations | $30 per user per month, billed annually |
| Podium | Chat-focused businesses | Centralized inbox, AI-written prompts, high-volume messaging | $399 per month |
| Zendesk | Integration-reliant businesses | Messaging, AI and automation, help center | $19 per agent per month, billed annually |
| Qualtrics XM | Survey and feedback management | Predictive AI, third-party integrations, omnichannel support | Price unavailable |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Managing support tickets | Customer portal for all interactions at-a-glance | $90 per month per seat, billed annually |
| Birdeye | Managing customer reviews | Real-time feedback responses, centralized inbox | Price unavailable |
| Freshdesk | Automated customer support | Knowledgebases, third-party integrations | $0 per month for 10 agents |
1. Nextiva
Best overall CX software
Nextiva is an AI-driven platform that helps elevate customer interactions across every channel at once. Its full suite of business communication tools includes everything from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service to full CRM integration.
Data analysis helps you gain invaluable insights into your customer interactions, enabling you to:
- Identify low customer engagement triggers.
- Track customer buying behavior.
- Anticipate customer needs and responses.
- Measure employee team impact against CX goals.
Nurturing engagement and cultivating relationships help you survive, no matter the size of your business. With customer engagement insights, you can pinpoint weak spots to improve and strategize to turn them into customer service strengths.
Features
Nextiva has first-class features to help you level up customer engagement, which include:
- Unified communications to streamline communications across multiple channels into one convenient dashboard
- Advanced customer analytics that provide details about team performance and specifics on customer interactions
- Built-in video conferencing for seamless cross-team collaboration and file-sharing, ensuring everyone has the information they need
Plus, with Nextiva, you have the peace of mind that 24/7 customer support and data encryption can offer, so you can get help when you need it and know your information is protected.
Pricing
Nextiva offers a wide range of pricing options depending on your desired features and your preferred payment terms. Nextiva can also scale with your business as you grow.
- Core: $30 per user per month, billed annually
- Engage: $40 per user per month, billed annually
- Power Suite: $60 per user per month, billed annually
The Professional and Enterprise plans also feature mobile SMS and MMS messaging, plus unlimited conference calls.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Detailed customer insights Third-party integrations Comprehensive CX dashboards for reporting Unlimited voice and video calls and faxes | Live support limitations Not suitable for companies outside of the U.S. |
2. Podium
Best for chat-focused businesses
Podium is a lead conversion tool specializing in customer interactions through text messaging and feedback tools. It mainly serves the home services, automotive, and retail industries.
It also offers payment options so your staff can collect payment more easily through text-to-pay and e-card readers.
Features
Podium has many features to boost customer experience:
- Automated feedback requests for better, more comprehensive customer insights
- Centralized conversations in one inbox for a complete customer view
- Conversational sales AI to keep leads engaged and respond instantly to requests
It’s a great solution for large enterprises looking to engage customers on preferred platforms and gather instant insights.
Pricing
Podium offers three pricing tiers for its software:
- Core: $399 per month
- Pro: $599 per month
- Signature: Custom pricing plans
Each tier offers unlimited users, while higher tiers include more monthly bulk messages and phone numbers per account.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Web chat personalization Real-time responses Centralized inbox | Poor mobile compatibility Costly messaging plans |
3. Zendesk
Best for integration-reliant businesses
Zendesk is a CX management platform and sales CRM known for customer service and support solutions, including ticketing and live chat.
Zendesk for Service helps your CS teams personalize messages across channels, address issues faster through AI, and track and organize tickets.
Features
Zendesk offers several CX benefits for adopters:
- Open API to join Zendesk with your existing tools or build a custom solution with the app framework
- Integrations with around 2,000 other apps and partners for more capabilities
- AI analytics to develop personalized customer experiences for higher retention
It helps enterprises aim for exceptional customer support and service efficiency with an intuitive interface and scalable solutions.
Pricing
Zendesk has multiple pricing tiers for its customer service platform:
- Suite Team: $55 per agent per month, billed annually
- Suite Growth: $89 per agent per month, billed annually
- Suite Professional: $115 per agent per month, billed annually
The enterprise pricing for Zendesk isn’t publicly available.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Omnichannel compatibility Detailed customer insights Third-party integrations Multilingual customer support | More expensive than some competitors Limited e-commerce integrations |
4. Qualtrics XM
Best for survey and feedback management
Qualtrics XM is an experience management (XM) software that helps businesses grow with robust survey and feedback tools. More specifically, it offers XM solutions to create a unified customer experience, build personalized learning, and gather qualitative and quantitative insights.
Qualtrics XM can help you conduct user experience (UX) research and track your brand performance so you can quickly respond to opportunities in your market.
Features
Qualtrics XM offers comprehensive customer experience features for companies interested in more hands-on XM:
- Third-party integrations with over 27 channels and 128 data sources into one to gather customer feedback more effectively
- Predictive AI to help identify trends and patterns and create actionable takeaways
- Employee engagement pulse to help manage the employee experience (EX) instead of just CX
Keeping a close eye on EX can help you discover how engaged your employees are and whether they have buy-in to the CX solutions you wish to implement.
Pricing
Qualtrics XM pricing options aren’t readily available, but you can request a quote on their site.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Real-time data analytics Extensive template collection Predictive AI | Fewer pre-built integrations than competitors Not as useful for data gathering |
5. HubSpot Service Hub
Best for managing customer support tickets
HubSpot Service Hub is a customer success management tool that can help you manage customer inquiries, tickets, and feedback.
It organizes customer interactions and automates support to improve communication; it can also help measure CX via metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT). The company has evolved from an inbound marketing solution to a full-featured CRM and customer management solution.
Features
Service Hub has several features to foster better customer engagement, like:
- A customer portal for tracking all customer interactions, including inbound calls and ticket conversations
- A knowledge base self-service help desk so customers can tackle low-level inquiries on their own
- Live chat to route customers to the right destination automatically
It also integrates with HubSpot’s CRM platform, allowing you to manage customer relationships across sales, marketing, and support teams.
Pricing
You can choose from three Service Hub pricing tiers for your business:
- Starter: $15 per month per seat, billed annually
- Professional: $90 per month per seat, billed annually
- Enterprise: $130 per month per seat, billed annually
HubSpot Service Hub also offers a free plan that includes limited features to give the product a test run or individual plans if you’re a solopreneur or a very small business.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fully-integrated CRM software Detailed customer insights Service-level agreements for transparency | Limited automations Costly onboarding fee |
6. Birdeye
Best for monitoring and managing customer reviews
Birdeye is a review and reputation management software that analyzes online reviews to spot opportunities for improvement.
It can also automate review responses to create quick feedback loops that show customers you’re on top of it — whatever “it” happens to be in their case.
Features
Birdeye creates a holistic view of the omnichannel customer experience with several features:
- A unified platform to centralize the customer journey in one place
- AI analytics to develop personalized customer experiences for higher retention
- Integrated functionality for reputation management across multiple touchpoints
Customers report better visibility on social media, including Google, Facebook, and Instagram, but they also note that the price sometimes outweighs the benefits.
Pricing
Birdeye pricing options aren’t readily available, but you can request a quote on their site.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Real-time responses User-friendly platform interface Centralized inbox | More expensive than some competitors Limited multilingual support options |
7. Freshdesk
Best for startups
Freshdesk is an AI-powered customer experience management platform. It focuses on customer service, IT service, and sales and CRM.
Enterprise accounts can take advantage of intelligent virtual agents (chatbots) to scale their CX operations, analyzing interactions at nearly every customer touch point.
Features
Freshdesk has several cloud-based communication features to implement a CX strategy:
- Service-level agreement (SLA) management to set clear expectations
- Customer journey mapping for detailed, data-driven analytics
- Centralized dashboard to promote agent collaboration and avoid repetition
Freshdesk also offers several reporting tools to arrange and present takeaways from data analysis in a digestible format. This helps team collaboration by promoting information flow between departments and lowering the standards for understanding those key takeaways.
Pricing
Freshdesk has a free tier for 10 or fewer agents, plus three paid tiers:
- Growth: $15 per agent per month, billed annually
- Pro: $49 per agent per month, billed annually
- Enterprise: $79 per agent per month, billed annually
Each tier offers a 21-day free trial of its premium features before buying. You can also grow your agent availability without upgrading your subscription with an a la carte day pass.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free tier and free trial of premium features Flexible a la carte options Third-party integrations | Dashboard isn’t user-friendly to some Limited platform customizations for agent views |
Related: 10 Best Customer Communication Management Software
Why Good Customer Experience Software Is Important
CX software improves customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention by delivering personalized experiences.
It also lets you easily gather comprehensive customer data and analytics to make your operations more efficient and reduce costs.
Let’s examine how CX tools can benefit your organization in more detail.
Related: Best Support Desk Software for Managing Service Requests
Increase customer loyalty
CX platforms let you monitor and analyze customer interactions in real time. This way, you can proactively manage customer feedback, inquiries, and complaints before they escalate.
| Example: Let’s say you’re flying to an important business meeting, but your flight gets unexpectedly delayed. After analyzing your flight details and the impact of the delay, the software prompts the airline to proactively reach out to you to find a solution. This could be rebooking you on the next flight free of charge or providing access to its lounge while you wait. |
CX tools help you immediately address customer problems and leave a lasting impression of your commitment to customer care. These tools provide support at scale, too — in the example above, everyone on the flight receives support simultaneously.
Related: 7 Features Customer Service Software Support Teams Need
Improve customer retention
With CX tools, you can better understand customer expectations, allowing you to effectively meet and even exceed them. This boosts retention rates and customer lifetime value — the total profit expected from a customer over time — because happy customers are likely to stick around.
| Example: A client who’s happy with your cloud storage services may be more receptive to purchasing a collaborative workspace add-on, expanding their suite of tools. |
With more upsell and cross-sell opportunities for your customer success and sales teams, you can maintain a steady customer base and boost your long-term revenue.
Create better feedback loops
Traditional ways of collecting customer feedback, such as in-person interviews and in-depth surveys, take too much time and effort. The best CX platforms automate and streamline this process so that you can collect feedback from more people and get better results faster.
One way they do this is through user-friendly feedback widgets on websites and apps.
| Example: If you find out that your customers think your new feature is hard to use, you can provide detailed walk-throughs to guide them and simplify the interface for easier navigation. |
This information lets you consistently improve your products, services, marketing assets, sales battle cards, and overall customer experience.
Help your team work smarter
By automating routine customer service tasks, CX platforms reduce operating costs and free up staff to concentrate on more strategic, impactful work.
CX automations also turn customer data into clear insights. They help your business identify trends, understand customer issues, and improve processes wherever possible.
| Example: A telecommunications company notices a rise in customer complaints about service quality. Using CX software, it can find out where these issues are most prevalent. With this insight, the company upgrades its network in those areas and trains its customer service teams to handle those specific issues more effectively. |
With intelligent CX tools, you can also automate responses to customer inquiries, allowing your team members to focus on resolving more complex issues. The results? Happier customers and fewer complaints across the board.
Look for These Features When Choosing CX Software
Now that you know how customer experience management software benefits teams across your organization, let’s look at the 10 features great CX management software should have — and how these features help you.
| CX Software Feature | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Customer data management | See a 360-degree view of users: Collect, store, and manage customer information from various sources, including contact details, interaction history, purchase records, preferences, and customer feedback. |
| Customer journey mapping | Understand UX: Develop a visual representation of customers’ steps when interacting with your company — from when they first learn about your brand to post-purchase follow-ups. |
| Omnichannel support | Create a cohesive, seamless experience: No matter where a customer chooses to interact, they receive the same level of service. Plus, by engaging customers on their preferred channels, you can tap into new market segments and opportunities for sales. |
| Feedback management | Add more customer-centric offerings: Gather critical insights about customer likes and dislikes and deliver tailored solutions that address specific issues. |
| Analytics and report dashboards | Make data-driven decisions: Gather data from different stages of the customer lifecycle to help you understand your users better and align your operations to meet their needs. |
| Segmentation and targeting | Increase service efficiency: Group customers based on various criteria, such as their buying behaviors, preferences, or demographics, to better understand their wants and needs. |
| Automated workflows | Ensure service consistency: Handle routine tasks automatically with contextual responses and artificial intelligence to free your employees to focus on more complex, value-added tasks. |
| Customer service tools | Optimize issue resolution: Make it faster and more manageable to connect with customers with knowledgebases, self-service portals, and integrated ticketing systems. |
| Integrations | Expand your productivity: Compound new tools with your CX software, like CRM or enterprise planning sales tools. |
| Privacy and security | Keep data safe: More than a legal requirement, privacy and security build trust and maintain the integrity of customer relationships. |
Increase Your Customer Retention with CX Software
Even with standout product features, you need more to offer that entices customers to stick around. Customer experience software can help your customers and prospects feel valued when interacting with your brand.
People make buying decisions based on the experience you provide during every step of the customer journey. CX software helps spot areas that need improvement to keep a consistently high-quality experience for every user.
For organizations that need a unified, holistic customer experience tool, Nextiva stands out with its cloud communication tools, customer-centric features, and scalable and affordable pricing.
Related: Customer Engagement Tools: 9 Solutions for Higher Retention
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Customer Experience Software FAQs
For more on CX software, look at these frequently asked questions.
CX software differs from traditional types of CRM in its broader focus on managing the entire customer journey rather than just customer data. CRM aims to manage customer relationships to drive sales, while CX software focuses on understanding and improving the overall customer experience.
Businesses can measure ROI of CX software implementation by tracking key customer service metrics like retention rates, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and customer lifetime value (CLV). These metrics can help quantify the impact of CX software on customer loyalty and long-term revenue.
Most industries can benefit significantly from CX software solutions, especially ones with a strong focus on customer interactions and loyalty. The retail, hospitality, and e-commerce industries benefit from digital CX strategies like CX software.
