Picture this: A customer tries to reach out through text, expecting a swift and helpful response, only to be met with silence or, worse, redirected to a completely different platform. This scenario is far from uncommon.
Customers don't just want responses; they crave consistency. A seamless experience, whether they're tweeting, calling, or walking into a store, is not just appreciated—it's expected. 

A whopping 50% of customers are unlikely to spend money with a business that takes longer to respond than expected. Customers desire this consistency across all engagement channels, expecting the comfort of knowing that no matter how they reach out, the quality and tone of service will remain unchanged.

This is where omnichannel customer support software comes into play. It improves the efficiency of your customer support team by enabling seamless communication across multiple platforms and ensuring consistent and efficient customer interactions, regardless of the chosen medium.

Businesses embracing omnichannel customer engagement achieve excellent results. They help retain a staggering 89% of customers. 

In this article, we'll discuss the top omnichannel customer support platforms, their key features, and limitations and help you decide which is best for your business needs.

What are Omnichannel Support Platforms?

Omnichannel support platforms are systems or software solutions that enable businesses to provide seamless customer support across multiple channels. These channels can include traditional ones, such as phone, email, and live chat, as well as more contemporary ones, such as social media, messaging apps, and self-service portals.

• According to statistics, omnichannel approaches driven by support platforms can enhance efficiency and a 9.5% annual revenue increase. 
• Omnichannel strategies also create happier customers. They provide a seamless, consistent experience across various platforms, meeting customer expectations for effortless interactions. 76% of customers want this consistency, and 73% expect companies to understand them without having to explain themselves repeatedly.

Omnichannel support platforms include features such as: 

• Ticketing systems: Streamline customer inquiries and support requests.
• Knowledge bases: Provide customers with easy access to self-service information.
• Customer relationship management (CRM) integration: Offers a centralized view of customer data and interactions.
• Analytics tools: Enable tracking and analysis of customer interactions across various channels.

They are essential for modern businesses looking to provide a unified and personalized customer support experience across various touchpoints.

5 Top Omnichannel Customer Service Platform

Here are five best omnichannel customer service platforms you must know about in 2024:

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1. Plivo CX Service

‍Plivo CX Service is your ultimate solution for omnichannel customer support. It provides a seamless, integrated platform that simplifies, modernizes, and helps your business grow. Built on Plivo's reliable premium carrier network, CX Service delivers seamless calling and messaging to customers across 190 countries worldwide.

This platform is designed with simplicity in mind. Its drag-and-drop customer journey builder helps you visually map customer interactions and processes, allowing easy integration into your existing systems. 

The tool’s user-friendly interface ensures that your team can start delivering exceptional customer support with minimal training.

With Plivo CX Service, you can manage voice, SMS, WhatsApp, in-app, and webchat communications from a single window. This omnichannel approach ensures customers can reach you on their preferred platform without hassle.

The live metrics and historical reporting feature optimize team performance, while personalized automation and an integrated knowledge base empower your agents and customers.

Plivo CX Service key features

• Switch between your favorite communication methods: voice, chat, text/SMS, and WhatsApp. You can even use multiple channels simultaneously to suit your needs
• Plivo CX Service's Workflow builder empowers you to design highly customized user journeys, adapting seamlessly to your business's unique communication channels.
• Use call recordings for coaching and compliance, ensuring every interaction is up to the mark. With complete customer context, you can make the most out of each coaching opportunity
• Train Plivo CX Service's AI using content you select, ensuring accuracy and relevance. This way, you have control over the AI's learning material, making it as efficient and relevant to your needs as possible
• Integrate with home-grown or any API-based systems. Some top integrations include Salesforce, Zoho, HubSpot, Service Cloud, Zendesk, and Shopify
• Enable callers to self-select options for quicker routing. This not only reduces wait times but also leads to faster issue resolution, improving overall customer satisfaction
• Make your automation feel more personal by incorporating customer data into greetings and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) voice prompts
• Optimize performance using Live Metrics & Historical Reporting. These tools help you track and improve your service consistently 
• Use the queue, operations, and agent dashboards to optimize your customer service team. These dashboards provide critical insights to help you manage your team's performance and improve customer service

Plivo CX Service limitations

• Lacks features specifically designed for quality assurance and workforce management
• Does not have a dedicated mobile app for support agents
• May not be ideal for primarily transactional ticket-based support

Plivo CX Service pricing

• ​​Chat Only: Starts from $19
• Growth: $29/user/month. For growing teams getting started with omnichannel customer service.
• Business: $69/user/month. For more established teams looking to boost agent productivity
• Enterprise: Custom pricing with advanced insights into customer behavior and growth opportunities

Plivo CX Service rating and reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (724 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3/5 (83 reviews)  

2. Zendesk 

Zendesk is a dynamic, omnichannel customer service platform designed to streamline your support operations and improve customer experience. It integrates into your business, offering a unified workspace for agents and supporting multiple communication channels. With Zendesk, you ensure every customer interaction is informed, efficient, and personalized to their needs.

Zendesk key features

• Unify voice, email, SMS, live chat, social media, and more for seamless customer interactions
• Use intuitive analytics and reporting tools for actionable customer service insights
• Deploy intelligent automation and AI for instant, 24/7 customer responses

Zendesk limitations

• Does not have live monitoring and coaching capabilities
• Some Users have reported occasional issues with uploading and exporting data on Zendesk (Capterra)
• Zendesk's base functionality might not meet the needs of businesses looking to highly customize their customer service tools, pushing them towards third-party apps or more expensive plans (G2)

Zendesk pricing

• Foundational support starts at $19 per month
• Suite Team: $55 per user per month
• Suite Growth: $89 per user per month
• Suite Professional: $115 per user per month
• Suite Enterprise: Customized pricing as per your business requirements

Zendesk rating and reviews

• G2: 4.3/5 (5821 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (3859 reviews)

3. Gladly

Gladly prioritizes a customer-centric approach, allowing you to build stronger brand loyalty through efficient and personalized interactions across various channels, including messaging, chat, voice, SMS, email, and self-service tools. You can significantly improve the personalization and efficiency of customer conversations.

Gladly key features

• Offers a single, consolidated dashboard presenting all customer interactions across various channels, providing agents with a complete history of each customer's communication
• Includes automated workflows that intelligently route customer inquiries to the most suitable agent based on their needs and preferences
• Provides advanced reporting and analytics tools to measure the performance of your customer service operations, identify trends, and pinpoint areas for improvement

Gladly limitations

• Some users have reported experiencing glitches within the system that can impact its reliability (G2)
• Reporting is not intuitive, and it is time-consuming to pull and review basic stats (G2)

Gladly pricing

• Hero Package: $180.00 for 1 Support Hero Per Month
• Superhero Package: $210.00 for 1 Support Hero Per Month

Gladly ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (895 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.8/5 (123 reviews)

4. Kustomer 

Kustomer offers you the power to transform customer service into an omnichannel experience. With Kustomer, you can craft AI Chatbots to engage with your customers without coding, seamlessly unify your customer support operations and automation, and assist your customers more swiftly.

 By integrating self-service options, AI productivity tools, and a robust CRM system, Kustomer is designed to elevate customer satisfaction to new heights.

Kustomer key features

• Offers unified customer interaction channels across multiple platforms
• Advanced AI capabilities are included for automating customer support and workflows
• AI chatbots can be created without any coding knowledge
• Self-service options are provided to allow customers to find solutions independently

Kustomer limitations

• Some users have reported constraints in the platform's data export capabilities. Specifically, the reports are limited in how they can incorporate multiple dimensions, making it challenging to generate detailed reports with nuanced data (G2)
• Kustomer's pricing structure requires a minimum purchase of 8 seats, making it less accessible for smaller businesses or startups with limited budgets (Capterra)

Kustomer pricing

• Enterprise: Starting at $89.00 for 1 User Per Month
• Ultimate: Starting at $139.00 for 1 User Per Month

Kustomer ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.4/5 (411 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (56 reviews)

5. Freshdesk (H3)

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Freshdesk is a cloud-based omnichannel customer service software designed to improve your customer support efforts by managing inquiries across various channels from a single platform. It's tailored to help your team deliver personalized support and intuitive responses, ensuring every customer issue is resolved efficiently.

Freshdesk key features

• Ticketing system that automatically categorizes, prioritizes, and assigns to the right agent, ensuring faster response times and efficient resolution
• Integrates customer requests from email, voice, chat, and social media into one unified interface
• AI-powered chatbot to ensure timely acknowledgment of customer queries and an advanced thank you detector to prevent resolved tickets from reopening

Freshdesk limitations

• Some users find the absence of some basic functionalities, such as the ability to send emails to multiple recipients, save drafts, and a more efficient search function (Capterra)
• Some users find the process of attaching calls to tickets cumbersome, a complex process involving multiple dropdown menus, where selecting the wrong option initially can erase typed information (G2)

Freshdesk pricing

• Free: $0 for up to 10 agents.
• Growth: $15 per user per month (basic features)
• Pro: $49 per user per month (Growth+additional features)
• Enterprise: $69 per user per month (Pro+additional features)

Freshdesk rating and reviews

• G2: 4.4/5 (3104 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (3266 reviews)

Essential Features Of Omnichannel Support Software

Here are some essential features of omnichannel customer support software:

1. Unified dashboard

Look for a unified dashboard when choosing omnichannel support software. This dashboard acts as your customer service command center, consolidating interactions from all channels – social media, email, chat, and phone. With a unified dashboard, you'll gain a comprehensive view of customer communications, enabling you to deliver faster, personalized support and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

2. Cross-channel integration

Your customers might start a query on chat, move to email, and then finalize the conversation over the phone. Cross-channel integration ensures these interactions are seamlessly linked and accessible across all platforms, allowing continuous conversation. This feature helps maintain consistency in customer experience, no matter how or where your customer chooses to engage with you.

3. Ticketing and case management

Seek robust ticketing and case management features in your omnichannel software. These allow you to organize, prioritize, and track customer issues for efficient resolution. Customize ticket categories, assign them to specialized agents, and maintain a clear record of interactions for better analysis and overall support.

4. Real-time communication

Real-time communication is integral to omnichannel support. Look for features like live chat, instant messaging, and co-browsing to assist customers immediately. The result is reduced wait times and dramatically improved customer experiences.

5. Mobile support

Mobile support is a must-have in today's world. Your omnichannel platform should offer mobile-optimized interfaces, in-app support, and SMS capabilities. It lets customers quickly get help, regardless of their device, enhancing the overall support experience.

6. Multilingual and multiregional support

For a global audience, ensure your support software offers multilingual and multiregional capabilities. This allows customers to interact in their preferred language and receive culturally relevant support, boosting engagement and satisfaction worldwide.

7. Knowledge base and self-service

A comprehensive knowledge base with intuitive self-service options is crucial in omnichannel support. Provide FAQs, how-to guides, tutorials, and forums for customers to find answers independently. It improves customer satisfaction by offering instant solutions and reducing your support agents' workload, allowing them to focus on more complex issues.

Why is Plivo CX Service the Best Omnichannel Customer Support Platform?

Plivo CX Service is a cloud-based omnichannel contact center solution that helps small and midsize businesses deliver a superior customer experience by providing a unified view of all customer interactions across multiple channels. 

This cloud-based solution integrates AI-powered live chat, voice, SMS, email, and WhatsApp, ensuring a seamless experience across all channels. The platform boosts agent productivity with real-time coaching and a drag-and-drop customer journey builder, accommodating custom workflows. 

Plivo CX Service is tailored for businesses aiming for fast innovation and superior customer engagement.

Embrace Plivo CX Service to modernize your contact center and foster lasting customer relationships. 

Want to know more? Book a demo today.