Best Customer Success Software
Customer success software is used by businesses to ensure that customers achieve the outcome that enterprises anticipate them to reach through interactions with the company as they use the product. Using this platform to track customer behavior, preferences, and usage patterns, agents can coordinate their success planning with greater accuracy and prevent the likelihood of churn. This software uses detailed analysis of past behavior to create a "health score" to predict a customer's future satisfaction. This allows companies to systematically grow an established customer base, identify any red flags, and increase customer retention rates.
These products are used by customer success and sales teams as off-the-shelf solutions to optimize customer relationships. Customer success initiatives are vital to preserving and expanding revenue, boosting customer advocacy, and sustaining corporate profitability and growth. Customer success software often integrates with CRM software, help desk software, and social media management software.
To qualify for inclusion in the Customer Success category, a product must:
Best Customer Success Software At A Glance
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- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Salesforce Service Cloud is the world's #1 AI CRM for service, where humans with AI agents drive customer success together. Service Cloud enables seamless collaboration between AI agents and humans, f
- Salesforce Administrator
- Salesforce Developer
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer Software
- 42% Mid-Market
- 39% Enterprise
584,078 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Gainsight’s innovative customer success technology is driving the future of growth. With Gainsight CS it’s never been easier to scale efficiently, create alignment, and have a holistic view of their c
- Customer Success Manager
- Senior Customer Success Manager
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 58% Mid-Market
- 33% Enterprise
13,400 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
ChurnZero is the platform and partner for customer growth. ChurnZero’s dynamic health and relationship scores, forecasting, reporting, trend tracking, and proprietary Customer Success AI™ tell you
- Customer Success Manager
- Director of Customer Success
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 63% Mid-Market
- 29% Small-Business
1,818 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Vitally is a Customer Success Platform that helps teams of every size deliver world-class customer experiences, meet unexpected challenges, operate more efficiently, and grow their business's bottom l
- Customer Success Manager
- CSM
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 54% Mid-Market
- 43% Small-Business
471 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Planhat is a customer platform that provides software and services to help organizations grow lifelong customers. Our platform powers sales, service and customer success products that scale with our c
- Customer Success Manager
- Head of Customer Success
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 60% Mid-Market
- 33% Small-Business
1,036 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Totango is the trusted Customer Success Platform for enterprises looking to drive growth and deliver exceptional customer value. Consisting of the Totango Customer Success, Unison Customer Intelligenc
- Customer Success Manager
- CSM
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 58% Mid-Market
- 23% Small-Business
7,521 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Catalyst, now part of Totango, empowers teams to identify and capitalize on expansion and upsell opportunities, driving recurring revenue growth. Built to simplify complex strategies, it helps busines
- Customer Success Manager
- Account Manager
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 76% Mid-Market
- 14% Small-Business
7,521 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Staircase AI by Gainsight is pioneering Customer Relationship Intelligence. Our platform leverages AI to analyze millions of customer interactions and turn them into actionable human insights that are
- Computer Software
- Marketing and Advertising
- 65% Mid-Market
- 27% Small-Business
13,400 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
ZapScale is an AI-powered customer success platform for B2B SaaS companies, designed for CS organizations to help them foster stronger customer relationships. Designed to reduce customer churn, improv
- Customer Success Manager
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer Software
- 53% Small-Business
- 46% Mid-Market
34 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Freshdesk Customer Success is a Customer Success Management platform that helps B2B companies maximize customer value.
- Information Technology and Services
- 44% Mid-Market
- 39% Small-Business
18,854 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
One platform, limitless Success. Take a proactive approach to Customer Success with Velaris, the complete Customer Success Platform that guides teams on where to spend their time, as well as arming th
- Customer Success Manager
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 53% Mid-Market
- 44% Small-Business
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Custify is the customer success platform designed to help SaaS businesses reduce churn, boost customer lifetime value, and deliver world-class customer experiences. With an intuitive interface and pow
- Customer Success Manager
- Product Manager
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 66% Small-Business
- 29% Mid-Market
640 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Verint® Voice of the Customer™ (formerly known as Experience Management™) empowers CX Leaders to optimize customer experiences in real-time. With Verint Voice of the Customer, companies can listen eve
- Retail
- 53% Enterprise
- 35% Mid-Market
7,796 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Churn360 is a data-driven AI customer success platform that helps SaaS businesses reduce churn and increase the lifetime value of Customers. It empowers businesses to access and analyze customer data,
- Computer Software
- 48% Mid-Market
- 33% Small-Business
1,984 Twitter followers
- Overview
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Account Management Software Reimagined Prioritize customer retention. Accelerate revenue growth. Transform client relationships. Scale your team with ease. Kapta's software allows Account Management
- Information Technology and Services
- 56% Mid-Market
- 39% Small-Business
1,561 Twitter followers
Learn More About Customer Success Software
What is Customer Success Software?
Customer success software is a solution that provides a unified view of customer relationships with a business throughout the entire customer journey. Customer success teams are dedicated to helping customers achieve their goals with the product or service a company provides. Customer success software supports this practice by fostering and monitoring relationships, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), and alerting customer success associates to potential issues and opportunities. Customer success departments are also known as professional services, fulfillment, or account management.
What are the Common Features of Customer Success Software?
Account management: The account management feature is similar to the features found in account-based marketing software and many other sales tools. It includes history, feedback, and engagement tools.
Success metrics tracking: This software tracks specific customer KPIs and the likelihood of churn in addition to general indicators such as net promoter score (NPS), customer satisfaction (CSAT), and customer effort score (CES).
Opportunity management: Part of customer success teams’ responsibilities is identifying appropriate upselling opportunities. Customer success software highlights areas of the customer’s business that might benefit from additional products or consulting.
Service management: The software includes service management features to help create cases and work orders to address any problems the customer may encounter.
Other features of customer success software: Custom Triggers, Playbooks, and Surveys.
What are the Benefits of Customer Success Software?
Buying a product or service is the first step in a customer’s journey to achieving a positive return on investment (ROI). Implementation, customization, and training are some of the other obstacles they face. A vendor that doesn’t offer customer support post sale risks their future revenue from renewals. Customer success software provides an avenue for vendors and customers to work together in a productive way, ensuring success at all stages of the purchasing process. A business without a system in place can troubleshoot problems as they occur. However, customer success software goes a step further and provides an efficient channel that is dedicated to addressing consumer issues while allowing businesses to establish a customized methodology for supporting customers.
Visibility: Customer success software keeps important issues from getting lost in a sea of emails, phone calls, and other contact methods.
Focus: Having a team dedicated to helping customers get the most from their investment requires a different mindset than a help desk, which is intended for solving immediate and discrete problems.
Data gathering: A customer success program will see a broad number of use cases amongst customers. Over time, experience will reveal weaknesses in the product and the sales methodology, as well as suggest new areas for development.
Testimonials: Case studies and testimonials help sell products, and the customer success system has records of results, as well as the people involved.
Who Uses Customer Success Software?
Customer success manager (CSM): Many businesses that sell complex products and services include a customer success organization. It is distinct from customer service, and is staffed by CSMs. These individuals are the main point of contact between the company and its customers, and each typically has several specific customers as their responsibility. The CSM gets involved at the end of the sales process, taking over responsibility from the sales representative. Large customers in particular may have two or more CSMs operating as a team.
CSMs learn their client’s goals and difficulties almost as well as one of their executives, and act as their advocate to the vendor. The CSM role requires some authority over many functional areas of the vendor’s business, and customer success software serves as the interface for this network of relationships.
Software Related to Customer Success Software
CRM software: Before dedicated customer success software, businesses used to use CRM software since there are several overlapping functions between the two types of software and a similar focus on customer relationships.
Help desk software: Another technology that predates customer success software, the help desk was often where the company first heard of larger success issues among customers.
Enterprise feedback management (EFM) software: EFM software gathers data from customers regarding NPS, CSAT, and other customer success metrics, as well as more generalized feedback on satisfaction, functionality, and product direction. EFM software is a broad net, while a customer success solution is more tightly focused.
Challenges with Customer Success Software
Overlap: Customer success software might be seen as superfluous in a company that already has good CRM and help desk applications. This argument has more validity for smaller companies with fewer customers or less complex product offerings, and less for larger enterprises. A specialized tool will always outperform a general one, and it is important that these systems be integrated well enough so no information silos are formed.
Software is the start: Customer success software only provides a means of communication, measurement, and recordkeeping; it is up to the CSMs to operate with sound practices and drive actual success.
How to Buy Customer Success Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Customer Success Software
A good requirements list should include all the functionality needed by the buyer to manage facilities efficiently. Requirements need to be detailed enough to cover the specific needs of the buyers and not too generic. For instance, maintenance cost tracking is too vague and should clarify which types of costs the buyer needs to track and how.
Whether a company is purchasing customer success software for the first time or looking to replace their current system, G2.com can assist them with the selection process. Answering the following questions can help buyers evaluate the need for customer success software and determine what functionality will be most useful for the business:
- What are their business’ goals with purchasing customer success?
- Does the product need to integrate with any other software?
- What is the budget?
Compare Customer Success Software Products
Create a long list
Based on the list of requirements, buyers should create a long list of no more than 10 products that appear to meet the business needs. Consulting online review sites is a great way to start the long list. On G2, buyers can find the highest rated or most popular products based on reviews from verified customers.
Create a short list
A short list can be created by eliminating products from the long list using high-level criteria such as the delivery model. Buyers who only want a cloud solution should exclude products that need to be hosted on premises. Industry-specific functionality can also be used to eliminate products. For instance, a retailer should consider only products that provide features for their industry and exclude solutions that include generic functionality.
Conduct demos
Demos should follow a predefined script that simulates the maintenance processes of the buyer. To ensure that the demo results can be compared objectively, buyers should use the same script for all vendors shortlisted. Also, the selection team members attending the demos should rate each criteria using a consistent system.
Finally, the critical functionality should have higher importance than generic requirements. For instance, space planning is essential for retailers, while integration with accounting is not mandatory. It is also essential to evaluate how intuitive the software is, which KPIs and analytics it provides, and how it can be used on mobile devices.
Selection of Customer Success Software
Choose a selection team
The selection team includes at least one executive, such as the chief operations officer, who is usually the project's main sponsor. This means that they are in charge of defining the scope of the selection project, obtaining and managing the budget required for the acquisition, and monitoring the progress of all selection stages.
Negotiation
Negotiating with vendors can be difficult, especially when they provide similar software. In this case, the main differentiators between vendors are the price of the software and their ability to support the buyers during and after the implementation. When choosing between solutions with similar functionality and pricing, factors like customer support can be the deciding factor.
Final decision
The final decision should consider all the factors mentioned above but give a higher priority to the requirements that matter most for the buyer.
Customer Success Software Trends
Customer advocacy: It is becoming more common for CSMs to serve as more than a manager or go-between, and actively promote their customer’s interests within the vendor company. This can include anything from feature recommendations to renewal discounts.
Metrics: CSMs want visibility into customer KPIs, both to monitor customer health and to demonstrate ROI; customer success software will provide more of this in the future, both natively and through integrations.
Education: Customer success has been around long enough to have established best practices. Formal training in customer success methodology is becoming more and more common.
Lifecycle and revenue growth: Many customer success organizations are starting to deemphasize churn reduction, focusing on expanding the relationship and extending the customer lifecycle.
