17 Min
Customer engagement platforms are becoming increasingly popular in today’s digital marketplace. These platforms aim to foster customer loyalty and trust by providing personalized experiences that go beyond traditional marketing tactics.
Think of a local store owner who remembers his customers by name and their favorite products. This personal touch fosters loyalty and trust. Now imagine a large online brand replicating that experience through a CEP, creating a human connection despite scale.
In this way, CEPs help e-commerce businesses connect with their customers on a deeper level, resulting in increased engagement, better customer service, and, ultimately, higher sales conversion rates.
In this blog, we’ll examine seven of the most excellent customer engagement platforms accessible in 2024.
Table of Contents
What are the Customer Engagement Platforms?
A customer engagement platform is designed to help businesses engage with customers across multiple channels like social media, email, and chat.
These platforms offer companies a way to deliver personalized experiences and create meaningful customer relationships.
This allows companies flexibility and the ability to respond to changing customer needs and wants and helps build long-term customer relationships.
Customer engagement platforms help in engaging with customers throughout their journey with a brand.
Why Your Business Needs a Customer Engagement Platform?
Here are the top reasons why investing in a customer engagement platform is essential to your business success:
1. Improves Customer Experience
A customer service platform allows you to create a personalized customer experience. By understanding your customers’ preferences and behaviors, you can tailor your interactions to their needs and improve their overall experience.
2. Increases Customer Retention
Communicating with customers throughout their journey builds loyalty and trust. A customer engagement platform can help you maintain strong relationships, reduce churn, and increase customer retention. Satisfied and loyal customers are likely to do more business with your company.
3. Ensures Effective Communication Between Channels
In today’s multi-channel world, consumers expect businesses to be present and responsive across multiple platforms. Customer engagement platforms provide tools to communicate regularly and effectively through email, social media, live chat, and more.
4. Provides Customer Feedback and Improvements
Customer service platforms often include features to collect and analyze customer feedback. This direct feedback from our customers helps us understand their satisfaction levels, identify areas for improvement, and make changes to meet their expectations.
5. Creates a Customer-Centric Culture
Investing in a customer service platform signals to your team and customers that customer satisfaction is a priority. This will help create a customer-centric culture in your organization and promote a mindset that puts customers at the center of decisions and strategies.
What’s the Difference Between a CRM and a Customer Engagement Platform?
Customer relationship management (CRM) and customer engagement platforms are commonly used in customer service operations, but the two have significant differences.
A CRM serves as a database, while a customer engagement platform focuses on communication and relationship management across multiple channels.
CRM primarily focuses on managing interactions with customers and centralizing customer data for sales, marketing and customer support efforts.
It is mainly used for sales and marketing automation, lead and opportunity management, sales forecasting, reporting, and analysis of customer data.
In contrast, customer engagement platforms help businesses communicate with customers through multiple channels, including email, social media, and chat.
It aims to improve customer interactions, strengthen brand loyalty, and create meaningful customer relationships. It is an external tool that focuses on communication with customers.
| Features | CRM | Customer Engagement Platforms |
| Primary function | Sales and marketing management | Customer communication and engagement |
| User focus | Internal | External |
| Channels | Limited to email and phone | Multiple channels available (email, chat, social media, etc.) |
| Emphasis | Data management | Engagement and customer interaction |
| Goal | Assist with the tracking of sales and customer behavior | Create positive customer experiences and build relationships |
| Key features | Sales tracking, lead and follow-up management, analytics | Multi-channel communication, automation, personalization |
| Data captured | Demographic and sales data | Behavioral data, interaction history, feedback |
7 Best Customer Engagement Platforms in 2024
- Knowmax
- Zendesk
- Intercom
- Hubspot
- Freshdesk
- Twilio
- Tidio
1. Knowmax
Knowmax is an AI-powered knowledge management system designed by CX experts to improve both customer and agent experiences.
It helps businesses streamline their customer support and improve the overall customer experience by providing easy access to the right information.
With Knowmax, there are no more information silos. The agents get a centralized knowledge hub and guided workflows to resolve customer issues efficiently.
Knowmax integrates with multiple channels, such as websites, mobile apps, chatbots, and customer support centers, ensuring a consistent and seamless experience for customers across all touchpoints.
Knowmax’s features include:
- Ticket management
- Knowledge base content management
- Omnichannel support
- Automation
- Self-service portal
- Multilingual support
- Reporting and analytics
- Integration capabilities
- SLA management
- Collaboration tools
Knowmax provides the foundation for building strong customer engagement by ensuring relevant and accessible knowledge is readily available.
For pricing contact sales@knowmax.ai
2. Zendesk
Zendesk is a comprehensive customer benefit and engagement platform that goes beyond conventional customer support.
Zendesk empowers businesses to manage and track support tickets, engage in real-time chat with customers, and maintain an extensive information base with a suite of customer interaction and support tools.
With a focus on analytics and integration, Zendesk is a flexible and versatile solution to increase customer interaction and overall experience over different touchpoints.
Features:
- Ticketing system: Manage and track customer support tickets.
- Live Chat: Real-time communication with website visitors.
- Knowledge Base: Create and maintain a centralized information repository.
- Analytics: Track performance and customer satisfaction.
- Integrations: Integrate with third-party applications for expanded functionality.
Pricing: Starts at $19 per month
3. Intercom
Intercom redefines customer communication with its innovative messaging platform.
Designed to encourage personalized interactions, Intercom permits businesses to engage customers in real time through live chat, automated workflows, and targeted messaging.
Intercom enables organizations to construct significant connections and provide extraordinary customer experiences by offering features such as customer segmentation and consistent integration.
Features:
- Real-Time messaging: Engage with customers through live chat.
- Customer segmentation: Target specific customer groups with customized messages.
- Automated Workflows: Streamline communication processes.
- Integrations: Integrate and connect with other tools and platforms.
Pricing: Starts at $39 per month
4. Hubspot
HubSpot is an inbound marketing, sales, and customer service platform that provides a holistic approach to customer engagement.
With tools for marketing automation, CRM, customer support ticketing, analytics, and content management, HubSpot empowers businesses to attract and engage customers throughout their journey.
From lead generation to customer maintenance, HubSpot offers a unified solution for companies of all sizes.
Features:
- Marketing automation: automated marketing schemes campaigns.
- CRM: manage and maintain customer relationships and engagement.
- Customer Ticketing: Organize and resolve customer issues efficiently.
- Analytics: monitoring performance and marketing ROI.
- Content management: create, curate, and manage customer data.
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $45 per month.
5. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is an excellent customer support and engagement platform, offering solutions to streamline customer interaction and support workflows.
With features like multi-channel support, automated workflows, and a centralized information base, Freshdesk prepares businesses to handle customer requests and improve overall support team performance proficiently.
With versatile plans, Freshdesk caters to the assorted needs of companies.
Features:
- Multi-Channel Support: Handle customer requests from different channels.
- Automation: Streamline support processes with automated workflows.
- Knowledge Base: Create and maintain a centralized repository of information and data.
- Performance Analytics: Track support team performance.
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $19 per month
6. Twilio
Twilio is a cloud communications platform that revolutionizes how businesses embed messaging, voice, and video capabilities into applications.
With a focus on developer-friendly APIs, Twilio consistently engages organizations to customize and coordinate communication highlights.
From SMS and voice communication to programmable chat and video capabilities, Twilio is the go-to solution for businesses looking to upgrade their applications with flexible communication channels.
Features:
- SMS and Voice Communication: Enables text and voice communication in applications.
- Programmable chat: integrate customizable chat functionalities.
- Video Capabilities: Insert video communication into applications.
- Developer-Friendly APIs: Effortlessly coordinated communication highlights into custom applications.
Pricing: Pricing is based on usage
7. Tidio
Tidio is a customer engagement platform that helps businesses connect with their website visitors, increase customer satisfaction, and boost conversions.
It offers a suite of messaging tools that allow businesses to communicate with their customers through live chat, email, and Messenger bot.
With real-time chat, AI chatbots, email promoting devices, and integration with prevalent e-commerce platforms, Tidio caters to businesses aiming to form interactive and personalized customer interactions.
With different plans, including accessible versions, Tidio adjusts to the diverse needs of companies looking to improve customer engagement.
Features:
- Live Chat: Real-time communication with site visitors.
- Chatbots: automated bots for dealing with everyday queries.
- Email Promoting: tools for email marketing and lead generation.
- Integrations: Interface with prevalent e-commerce platforms.
Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $19 per month
Wrapping it up
In the rapidly evolving world, businesses realize the critical role of powerful platforms in cultivating meaningful relationships with their audiences.
Looking ahead to 2024, it’s clear that achieving better consumer access isn’t just a trend; it’s a strategic goal. The variety of options available might be overwhelming, so choosing the right platform for your business requires an informed approach.
As businesses continue interacting with customers, the need for a loyal customer engagement base will increase.
Whether you’re looking for a CRM-centric solution or a more comprehensive platform that includes Chatbots, messengers, email marketing features, and more, the seven platforms highlighted in this blog are great solutions to consider in 2024.
