Best customer success software

An outstanding customer experience (CX) is non-negotiable for successful businesses, but knowing how to deliver it can be tricky. That’s why businesses are turning to modern tools for help. These tools offer valuable insights and make things easier for customers so they’re less likely to churn. In fact, 70 percent of organizations are investing in resources that automatically collect and analyze intent signals so they can better serve their customers, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2024.

Customer success software, sometimes called customer success management (CSM) software, provides many resources—like AI and automation—that help businesses increase revenue, hit long-term goals, and deliver an outstanding CX. In this article, we detail 10 CSM options on the market to help you find the right solution for your business.

More in this guide:

• What is customer success software?
• Features of CSM software
• Benefits of customer success software
• The 10 best customer success software
• How to choose the right customer success tools
• Frequently asked questions
• Try CSM software for free

Customer success software, or customer success management software (CSM), is a tool that businesses use to deliver fast and personalized support to their customers in an effort to increase retention and improve the overall CX.

Customer success tools help teams be proactive by providing data and insights to get ahead of issues. With features like workflow automation, custom dashboards, self-service options, and more, businesses can use CSM tools to decrease the touchpoints that lead to customer churn and increase the interactions that foster long-term loyalty.

No matter which CSM software you choose, you need to ensure it has a few key features.

Reporting and data management

CSM software can deliver valuable insights into your consumers' health and behavior, so make sure you can find that information easily. Reporting dashboards can provide a real-time view of essential metrics like ticket times and customer satisfaction so you can make the most effective data-driven decisions. For example, healthcare supplier Medline Industries, L.P. uses Zendesk to create custom dashboards to give their support agents better visibility and increased productivity.

Modern CSM software should also provide a unified hub where businesses can gather, organize, and access consumer information from various touchpoints. This gives support teams and operations managers a roadmap to deliver personalized and relevant consumer interactions. Make sure your chosen software has the relevant safety certifications, like the compliance certifications and memberships at Zendesk, that show it’s qualified to keep your data safe.

Workflow automation

Workflow automation makes customer support more streamlined for businesses and consumers. They simplify support teams’ list of duties, offering assistance for simple tasks so they can focus on more complex issues. For example, Liberty London, a UK-based premium department store and retailer, uses workflow automation to automatically classify and route incoming customer support tickets to the right agent, helping decrease ticket resolution time by 11 percent.

Customer segmentation

With customer success tools, businesses can segment customers based on demographics, behavior, trends, and other factors. With this information, management can use customer success playbooks to target a specific customer segment—like consumers at high risk of churning—and deliver tailored solutions to meet their needs.

AI-powered self-service

Empowering consumers to find solutions to issues or queries is crucial to boosting customer satisfaction while easing the workload of a support team. Articles, guides, FAQ pages, and other knowledge base solutions can result in faster resolutions and a positive customer experience. The addition of AI enhances the overall capabilities and effectiveness of self-service resources.

AI agents can understand and respond to natural language queries, quickly guiding users to relevant resources and autonomously resolving requests. Content cue tools can analyze support requests and recommend trending topics or FAQs that you can turn into articles. Generative AI can create or update knowledge base content so human agents can focus on higher-value tasks.

AI-powered agent tools

AI can also assist agents while they’re in the middle of a customer service interaction. AI copilots provide real-time assistance and insights by analyzing customer conversations, identifying key points, and suggesting relevant responses to agents. AI copilots can also access vast amounts of data, including previous interactions and product knowledge, to provide accurate and informative answers.

AI-powered QA

AI-powered QA tools can proactively address customer churn by automating the review of customer interactions, scoring them based on pre-defined criteria, and providing actionable coaching tips. These tools look for indicators of dissatisfaction, such as negative sentiment or unresolved issues.

By identifying potential areas of concern, businesses can proactively intervene and address customer needs before they escalate. Additionally, these tools offer valuable insights into agent performance, allowing for targeted coaching and development to improve overall customer satisfaction.

Customer success software integrates with CRM tools to create a unified view of the customer. Using their combined powers, you can use your CSM software to achieve the following benefits.

Delivers visibility into customer interactions

CSM software allows you to understand your customers—specifically, the channels they spend their time on and how they behave. This information lets businesses comprehensively view customer patterns, preferences, and needs. This increased visibility equips support teams with the information to personalize and tailor experiences to best suit their customers’ needs.

Provides omnichannel support

Customers interact with businesses across several channels, such as email, social media, and live chat. With so many communication platforms, consistency is important. With omnichannel routing, CSM software like Zendesk can transfer customers to the most capable agent. From there, the agent can quickly get up to speed with the customer’s situation, resulting in a seamless and convenient support experience.

For instance, Wavy, a salon management software company, uses the omnichannel capabilities in Zendesk to structure their customer support better, resulting in a 400 percent increase in first reply time and a 90 percent one-touch resolution rate.

Identifies and prevents customer churn

Losing customers is one of the most significant impacts on businesses. CSM software can analyze data, like customer engagement and behavior, to identify potential churn risks before they happen.

This predictive analysis helps customer success managers and their teams identify and reach out to high-risk customers to learn about issues and a lack of engagement before the problem escalates. This proactive approach can increase the likelihood of customer retention, as well as aid customer-first initiatives.

Improves customer onboarding

When you acquire new customers, they must receive comprehensive customer onboarding and support to help them understand your product. CSM software can streamline this process. With CSM, you can easily send relevant onboarding resources, automate tasks, and track progress. This can reduce the time it takes for new customers to realize the value of your offering, leading to higher retention and loyalty.

For instance, Tucows, an internet services and telecommunications company, uses Zendesk to streamline its onboarding process, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in onboarding time—even with a drastic increase in customer appointments.

Increases agent productivity

With CSM software, businesses can support their agents with dashboards, task automation, ticket management systems, and easier access to internal knowledge bases. These features build on customer service training, allowing agents to focus on the level and quality of their customer support rather than mundane tasks.

We offer features like the Zendesk Agent Workspace, allowing agents to deliver seamless support without switching between dashboards or having customers repeat information. This unifies channels and allows support teams to perform to the best of their abilities.

Below are 10 customer success software options on the market. Our overview breaks down each tool and its pricing so you can make the best choice for your operations.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk is a leading customer success software that empowers businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences across all channels. Organizations can use it to streamline their support operations, enhance agent productivity, and improve overall customer satisfaction. Our intuitive interface and robust features suit businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprise-level corporations.

For businesses looking to gain deeper insights into their customer support performance, Zendesk offers advanced analytics and QA software. These features provide real-time reports on key metrics, agent performance, and customer satisfaction trends so you can make data-driven decisions to continually improve your success strategies. QA tools score interactions, noting if the customer had a positive or negative sentiment, giving your team the opportunity to enact churn prevention strategies.

Unlike the general-purpose AI that other software employs, Zendesk AI is purpose-built for CX and trained on over 18 billion customer service interactions. It makes it easier to serve customers and improve their experiences. Zendesk AI agents provide immediate answers to customers and perform complex tasks, so fewer requests get pushed to your agents.

Our customer success solution also features AI-powered self-service options, enabling customers to find answers to their questions quickly and easily. This includes intelligent knowledge management tools and community forums that use machine learning to improve search results and suggest relevant content. Knowledge management tools will also identify content gaps so your team can create new articles that address more customer inquiries.

While AI has plenty of ways to assist the customer directly, it can also make your human agents more effective. The Agent Copilot feature leverages AI to suggest relevant responses, articles, and solutions during conversations, significantly reducing resolution times and increasing personalization. Additionally, Zendesk workflow automation capabilities allow businesses to create custom rules and triggers, automating repetitive tasks and ensuring consistent service delivery across all customer touchpoints.

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. Gainsight

Gainsight provides a customer success platform that allows businesses to build and maintain customer relationships. Using information like survey responses, integrated data, and customer health scoring (CHS)—a set of customer data that determines their engagement and satisfaction with a business—Gainsight pairs your customer tickets to provide a view of the customer.

The CHS system lets businesses track and analyze various customer satisfaction, engagement, and risk metrics. Additionally, Gainsight offers features such as customer journey mapping, customer segmentation, and automated workflows to manage the customer experience.

Pricing: Contact Gainsight for pricing.

Recommended reading: Learn how Gainsight integrates with Zendesk.

3. ChurnZero

ChurnZero is a CSM software designed for subscription businesses. By integrating with a business’ CRM, ChurnZero helps evaluate how customers use products, how likely they are to renew, and how personalized and appreciated their experience is.

The platform uses an algorithm to collect and analyze customer participation data and generate reports within the software and across a business’s tech stack. For instance, the system can alert you in real time when customers make changes to their accounts so agents can take the appropriate actions.

Pricing: Contact ChurnZero for pricing.

Recommended reading: Learn how ChurnZero integrates with Zendesk.

4. Planhat

Planhat is a CSM built to manage business workflows while providing customer insights and real-time churn warnings. The customer health dashboard visually represents customer metrics, allowing businesses to identify at-risk customers and take proactive steps to address their needs.

Businesses can use the software to monitor customer health and allow teams to set realistic goals and outcomes. Features like customer success playbooks—action items that businesses can use to move customers throughout their lifecycle—and automation let organizations monitor customers and address issues as they arise.

Pricing: Contact Planhat for pricing.

Recommended reading: Learn how Planhat integrates with Zendesk.

5. UserGuiding

UserGuiding is a specialized customer success software focused on guiding customers through onboarding and product walkthroughs. The platform includes features like onboarding checklists, resource centers, guided product tours, and analytics tracking so businesses can monitor their processes' effectiveness.

Additionally, UserGuiding lets businesses promote new or underutilized product features in their walkthroughs. These can take the form of tooltips or pop-ups so that customers receive guidance at each step. Businesses can also host a knowledge base and track engagement metrics like page views, keyword details, and reactions.

Pricing: Plans start at $89 per month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

6. Custify

Custify is a CSM platform designed for software as a service (SaaS) businesses. With these companies in mind, Custify helps organizations understand customer health and use that data to create action plans and business strategies. Its Customer 360 feature gives a central dashboard of customer health, which determines what actions they are taking and how long they are using your product.

Its automation capabilities can help companies send welcome emails, assign accounts to team members, and automatically notify companies of customer behaviors. Additionally, the customer portal provides a dedicated place to share information. Businesses can even set the portal to individual success strategies, like low- or high-touch support.

Pricing: Contact Custify for pricing.

7. Totango

Totango recently merged with related software provider Catalyst to provide customer success and churn prevention tools to businesses. This CSM provides real-time health reports, risk alerts, and specified engagement opportunities to help businesses monitor the status of their customers. It also provides pre-built success program templates so businesses can onboard, upsell, and monitor customer engagement.

The customer health scorecard visually represents customer engagement and satisfaction so businesses can identify at-risk customers. Teams can also use Jasper.AI to generate emails within the platform. Furthermore, Totango has customizable workflows and key performance indicators (KPIs) to assist customer success teams.

Pricing: Contact Totango for pricing.

Recommended reading: Learn how Totango integrates with Zendesk.

8. ClientSuccess

ClientSuccess aims to help organizations build a customer journey through four areas of focus: onboarding, adoption, expansion, and renewal. Features like Pulse™ provide real-time customer updates so businesses can identify churn risks and upsell opportunities, while its SuccessCycle and customer feedback capabilities can aid customer retention and growth initiatives.

Teams can set and track organizational goals, including metrics like progress percentage, current stage, and target objective. ClientSuccess also allows businesses to automate communication by defining triggers that will send emails, surveys, or team member assignments. Additionally, it includes a task management tool where teams can communicate in real time and provide project updates.

Pricing: Contact ClientSuccess for pricing.

9. Vitally

Vitally offers three plans to accommodate different customer success approaches. The first, Tech-touch, appeals to low-touch initiatives, allowing small teams to automate communication and actions with customers. The second plan, High-touch, is for teams that prefer one-to-one customer success management. The final plan offers hybrid tools for teams that prefer a more balanced approach.

The platform offers customer hubs, full-scale integration, and omnichannel communication options. Businesses can establish hubs for teams and individuals so everyone has a dedicated workspace to manage customer data, documents, and projects. Users can also create visual workflows that include playbook automation and lifecycle tracking.

Pricing: Contact Vitally for pricing.

10. ZapScale

ZapScale is a customer success platform that seeks to bring visibility to customer relationships so businesses can address churn rates and product adoption. Its predictive analytics analyze customer behavior and provide insights into potential upsell opportunities and overall engagement. Additionally, ZapScale offers customizable workflows and automation tools so teams can manage tasks, monitor account health, and maintain consistent communication with clients.

The software’s reporting and dashboard functionality lets users access key metrics and performance data, enabling them to track the effectiveness of their customer success strategies in real time. The software also integrates with various CRM and communication platforms to share information across different departments.

Pricing: Plans start at $500 per month for up to 100 customers, billed annually. A 30-day free trial is available.

With so many options available, choosing the right CSM tool for your business can be tough. You should first get input from your team and know your current weaknesses. That will provide a baseline for selection. Beyond that, here are a few of the top factors to consider.

Make sure it integrates with existing programs

If your CSM tool cannot integrate with your existing software—especially your CRM and customer service management tools—then it’s not for you.

Without an open and flexible CSM software that integrates with your other tools and systems, agents will be forced to toggle between different interfaces to get key customer information, which decreases efficiency, negatively impacts collaboration between departments, and leads to data silos. Make sure integration is seamless and all relevant personnel have complete access.

Prioritize an AI-powered solution

By leveraging AI, you can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, automate workflows and complex tasks, and deliver personalized support. AI agents, copilots, and QA tools enable proactive issue resolution, improve customer satisfaction, and drive long-term loyalty. Investing in such a solution enhances customer experiences, streamlines operations, boosts agent efficiency, and contributes to business growth and success.

Consider the total cost of ownership

While the initial price of the software may be a significant factor, it’s crucial to also consider the total cost of ownership (TCO). TCO includes all direct and indirect costs of ownership, such as maintenance, training, customization, full-scale adoption, and other factors a business may accrue while owning the product. At Zendesk, for example, we are a top vendor for total ROI and low TCO.

Evaluate the level of security provided

CSM software is all about data—and it’s important to consider how your business and consumer data will be protected and stored. When evaluating software options, pay attention to the vendor’s security measures. Look for features such as data encryption and compliance with industry standards to ensure you select a product that protects your business's and your clientele's data.

Assess ease of use and scalability

If CSM software is challenging to operate, you won’t have much success with implementation and facilitating wide-scale adoption in your organization. Consider how responsive the vendor is and if the software offers user-friendly navigation and an easy-to-use interface. Also, ensure you can easily find answers to your problems via an internal help center or forum—like what we established in the Zendesk community.