Top Customer Engagement Platforms: Features, Pricing

Customer engagement, especially omnichannel engagement, helps you personalize the customer experience, which is of utmost importance to your customers. 

As McKinsey's report notes, 71% of customers expect personalization, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t find it. 

Still, only 11% of organizations have a sophisticated omnichannel implementation of personalization, suggesting that a significant majority may still face difficulties in this area. Additionally, 63% of marketers consider data-driven personalization the most challenging digital strategy to execute.

Solution? Choosing the right customer engagement platforms. 

Customer engagement tools help you engage with your customers across multiple channels. We’ve compiled the top engagement software currently available to make your search easy. 

What is Customer Engagement Software?

Customer engagement software is a platform that tracks, manages, and enables interactions with customers and prospects via various channels, such as email, SMS, and WhatsApp. 

Basically, it acts as a single source of truth about your business's perception of your customers and prospects.

What's the Difference Between a CRM and a Customer Engagement Platform?

The key difference is that customer engagement platforms focus on creating real-time interactions and unified experiences for your customers, while CRMs record customer data to help sales and customer service teams manage their processes and pipelines.

Here's a table highlighting the key differences between a customer engagement platform and a customer relationship management (CRM) platform:

How Does a Customer Engagement Platform Work?

A customer engagement platform unifies customer interactions across multiple channels into one centralized hub. It helps you provide an omnichannel experience to your customers. 

Here's a quick breakdown of how it works:

1. A customer signs up on your website. 
2. The customer engagement platform captures this and automatically triggers actions like a welcome email sequence. 
3. If your customer does not engage, it can prompt a follow-up SMS nudge based on user behavior insights that say mobile users are more active.
4. It also tracks user activities in your storefront or website, such as purchases, feedback, etc. 
5. If your customers leave negative feedback, it can initiate an automated response flow like this:

• Apologetic message
• A discount to compensate
• Flag for personalized outreach from support

The true power of a customer engagement platform lies in interconnecting data from the web, mobile, email, SMS, support systems, and more. With this data, you can optimize engagement by:

• Adapting messaging and content
• Adjusting channel and cadence
• Tailoring outreach using customer segmentation

Therefore, it acts as a command center where you build omnichannel campaigns to deliver hyper-relevant messages at every touchpoint.

Best customer engagement software solutions

1. Plivo CX 

Plivo CX (Engage module) is one of the top-rated customer engagement platforms that combines marketing with customer service to drive maximum engagement from your present and prospective customers. It offers the perfect tool stack to personalize your customer engagement and resolve their problems instantly. 

Plivo CX Features

• Create customer segments with as many rules as you like. Then, capture actions and events in the storefront and use them as triggers for ‘journeys.’ This helps you send the right message to the right customer at the right time. (link) (link)

• Tired of repetitive tasks? AI assistants in Plivo CX let you automate content creation and management. So, you reduce personnel costs and save hours of manually writing hyper-personalized messages based on your objective. (link) 

• The SMS channel in Plivo CX offers low prices as it works directly with carriers. You can also incorporate emojis and media in your SMS to capture your customers’ attention. (link) (link)

• Enjoy omnichannel customer engagement as Plivo CX offers communication through SMS, MMS, email, and Whatsapp. (link)

• Manage all engagement campaigns from one place. No matter what channel you prefer, select an audience, choose a channel, and schedule your message. For maximum customization, use AI assistance and ready-to-use templates. (link) (link)

• Embed chat in your app or use AI-powered chatbots to answer common customer questions automatically. You can send and receive images and documents through live chat to resolve a customer query faster. (link)

• Keep interacting with possible buyers with cart abandonment automation, back-in-stock alerts, and flash sales messages. (link)

• Track your campaign performance with live dashboards and historical reports that share insights into average wait time, average handle time, average abandonment rate, active agents, and much more. (link)

Plivo CX Pros

• Omnichannel campaign management from one platform (link)
• AI assistance to automate content creation (link)
• Low prices for SMS delivery (link)
• Triggers to send personalized messages (link)
• No-code chatbot to solve customer queries (link)

Plivo CX Cons 

• The engagement capability currently works only for Shopify ecommerce stores.
• Plivo CX Engage comes with advanced features and a small learning curve. But after that, it’s smooth sailing ahead. 

Plivo CX Pricing

• Free: for up to 1,000 contacts and 3,000 engagement credits
• Starter: $19 for up to 5,000 contacts and 15,000 engagement credits
• Growth: $75 for up to 25,000 contacts and 90,000 engagement credits
• Pro: $199 for unlimited contacts and 270,000 engagement credits
• Enterprise: Contact sales for customized pricing.

Plivo CX Rating and Reviews 

• G2: 4.5/5 (700+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3/5 (80+ reviews) 

2. Sendlane

Sendlane is also an omnichannel customer engagement platform that lets you interact with your customers via SMS, email, reviews, and forms. 

Features

• Create automatic email and SMS funnels that run themselves. Sendlane lets you combine SMS with email marketing so you can engage with customers where they’re most active. (link)

• Blend a mix of various customer behaviors and data to build perfect customer segments. With Sendlane, you get access to 100+ data points like interests, buying behavior, browsing activity, etc. (link)

• A/B test your messaging, fonts, and colors to find winning options. Sendlane automatically tracks variables in your messages and sends the best-performing one to your audience. (link)

• Send messages based on triggers from your website. Sendlane Beacon collects data to send abandoned carts, page views, and orders placed to send automated messages. (link)

Pros

• Automatic A/B testing 
• Top-notch customer service (link)
• Easy user interface (link)

Cons

• Lack of integrations (link)
• Recent price updates can be expensive for small businesses (link)

Pricing

• Sendlane has customizable pricing based on several emails and SMS. 

‍

Review

• G2 reviews: 4.7/5 (65 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3 / 5 (34 reviews)

3. Omnisend

Omnisend is a customer engagement platform for ecommerce brands that lets you interact with your customers through integrated emails and SMS campaigns. 

Features (link)

• Whip up eye-catching emails with your branding, product images, and customized discount codes in just minutes.

• The drag-and-drop email builder is a real timesaver. Just pull in pre-made content blocks designed specifically for eCommerce, and your campaigns practically build themselves.

• Get up close and personal with your customer data and shopping histories. Segment them any way you want - by average spend, how recently they bought, and more.

• Ominsend's sales dashboards give you the full scoop on your campaigns' performance and total revenue, which email designs are working based on click data, and more. 

• Ominsend provides omnichannel engagement. You can also run SMS, web notifications, Facebook ads, MMS, and Google ad campaigns—everything in one slick package.

Pros

• Excellent customer service (link)
• Clearly defined analytics (link)
• Easy user interface (link)

Cons

• Limited design templates for emails (link)
• Email preview can be different from the actual email (link)
• The tool becomes costly once you upgrade from the base price (link)

Pricing

• Basic plan: Free
• Standard: $16
• Pro: $59

Review

• G2 review: 4.6/5 (879 reviews)
• Capterra review: 4.7/5 (714 reviews)

4. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a popular customer engagement tool famous for its email marketing capabilities. 

Features

• With Klaviyo, you capture customer data from various sources (websites, POS systems, etc.) and build detailed customer profiles. (link)

• Klaviyo uses machine learning to help segment your audiences based on ​​specific purchases, discount code usage, and predicted customer lifetime value. You can sync your email list segments with Facebook and Instagram to create laser-focused ad campaigns. (link)

• Build email flows with a drag-and-drop flow builder based on various triggers such as checkout, price drop, SMS signup, and more. Use flow templates for abandoned carts, post-purchase follow-ups, and price drop reminders to kickstart a flow without much effort. (link)

• Use forms to gather more information about your website visitors without disturbing their experience. Add pop-ups, fly-outs, or teaser forms to any page or section of your website. Also, you can A/B test colors and fonts and copy them on the form to find the best options. (link)

• Like Plivo CX Engage and Omnisend, Klaviyo offers omnichannel engagement through SMS, email, and push notifications. (link)

Pros

• Omnichannel engagement 
• Vast customer segmentation options (link)
• Detailed analytics dashboard (link)

Cons

• Subpar customer service (link)
• Plans can be expensive with some unnecessary features (link)
• Steep learning curve (link)

Pricing

• Starter: Free
• Email: $45/month
• Email and SMS: $60/month

Review

• G2 review: 4.6/5 (1028 reviews)
• Capterra review: 4.7/5 (416 reviews)

5. Postscript 

Postscript allows you to engage with your customers through SMS. Although it caters to SMS marketing only, it comes with several features to nail it for your business. 

Features (link)

• Postscript has pop-ups to grab new phone numbers and emails. These pop-ups match your brand's look and give people incentives to sign up.
• You can make unlimited "text-to-join" keywords with Postscript and share them anywhere to track where opt-ins come from.
• Bridge online and in-person with unique QR codes from Postscript. Put them on product packaging, signs, or anywhere physical to easily turn in-person interactions into new SMS subscribers.
• With tons of trigger events and filters, Postscript's intuitive Flow Builder lets you build automated SMS campaigns that react to customer behaviors.
• Postscript opt-in forms collect SMS signups right on checkout pages for platforms like Shopify, Recharge, and Carthook - catching subscribers at the perfect moment.

Pros

• Offline lead generation with QR codes 
• Text-to-join keywords 
• Easy user interface

Cons

• SMS is the only channel available
• Only integrates with Shopify

Pricing

• Starter: Free ($0.015/SMS, $0.045/MMS + Carrier fees)
• Growth: $100/month ($0.01/SMS, $0.03/MMS + Carrier fees)
• Professional: $500/month ($0.007/SMS, $0.024/MMS + Carrier fees)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing 

Review

• G2 review: 4.9/5 (159 reviews)
• Capterra review: No reviews 

What to Look for in a Customer Engagement Platform?

1. Omnichannel experience

Omnichannel engagement can increase store visits by 80%. That’s why your business needs a tool to help it engage with customers across multiple channels and send the right message at the right time. 

2. Integrations with existing software

The best customer engagement platforms integrate with your current systems, such as CRM and e-commerce platforms.

For example, by integrating your customer engagement tool with Shopify, you provide access to order history and interactions to personalize your engagement campaigns.

3. Easy set up

Look for customer engagement platforms with user-friendly setup flows and configurations so you can kickstart your engagement ASAP.

4. Advanced analytics

Sophisticated analytics reveal your most valuable audience segments. That’s why you need a tool with an advanced analytics dashboard to optimize your campaigns. Look for customer journey analytics, website page views, click-through rates, add-to-cart rates, etc. 

4. Personalized experience

77% of customers say they’re frustrated when they see a push notification they’re not interested in. That’s why you need a customer engagement tool that lets you segment users and customize their messages to provide a personalized experience.

5. AI functionality

AI assistance drives smarter engagement strategies, such as copywriting, customizations, and predictive segmentation. It saves you hours of manual labor so you can focus on growing your customer base. 

Pick the Best Customer Engagement Platform 

With the information in this guide, you can choose the best customer engagement platform for your business. But if you want to start using a customer engagement tool immediately, try Plivo CX.

Plivo CX boasts of an intuitive UI, AI-assisted customizations, in-app customer service, and fully customizable IVR with personalized automation. You can engage customers through multiple channels, such as live chat, voice chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and email. 

Plivo CX helps you reach the right customers at the perfect moment with targeted segmentation. Be the top choice when they're ready to buy.

Sign up to Plivo CX today and start engaging with your customers.