Haven’t you heard? UX is out, and CX is in.

Okay, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic. In all realness, CX is more like the evolution of UX.

Are you scratching your head over these terms I’m so loosely throwing around? CX is “customer experience,” and UX is “user experience.” In general, user experience tends to focus on how a customer interacts with your actual website or app. Customer experience, on the other hand, is their whole experience with your company. So, user experience is part of customer experience, but so is your customer service staff, sales staff, marketing outreach, and everything in between.

The concept of UX has been a hot topic for quite some time. So much so that there is a plethora of software to manage it. Customer experience, since it has so many channels of involvement, has been slow to catch up, especially in the small business price point.

So, let’s improve your customer experience—and user experience—with some excellent CX software for your small business.

Four Customer Experience Softwares to Check Out

HotJar

HotJar is billed as analytics software, and on the surface level, sure, that’s what they do. However, Hotjar allows you to understand your web users in ways you’ve never dreamed of. They feature analytics visualization favorites like heatmaps, conversion funnels, and form analysis—but that’s not what makes them perfect for managing customer experience.

HotJar’s shining features are their easy to deploy feedback polls, instant visual feedback from your users about aspects of your website, Best of all, you can record user actions and watch them interact with your site directly.

On the downside, HotJar isn’t entirely customer-centric. It gives all the information to the company, but only has a few features that allow feedback from the customer. It also doesn’t allow for instant feedback on website trouble spots or give options to manage customer service.

HotJar shines as a tool to improve your customer experience. To do so, you must wade through a lot of setup and spend quite a chunk of time analyzing the results to figure out what needs improvement. The tools for actual improvement are not built into the software; it just gives you the information to determine your next steps.

HotJar has personal, business, and agency packages, starting at free and scales up, beginning at $29 per month to collect up to 10,000 page views per day.

ZenDesk

ZenDesk is used by more than 145,000 companies around the world. In general, it helps companies manage their customer service needs through help ticket services, customer chats, and call center software.

Through ZenDesk Explore, ZenDesk has created a customer analytics software that helps you understand the full scope of your customer experience. This includes interactions through email, phone, webchat, and social media.

To use ZenDesk Explore, you must already be a ZenDesk Support Professional or above subscriber. ZenDesk Explore Professional is only $9 per agent, per month, but ZenDesk Support Professional comes in at $49 per month, per agent.

ZenDesk is a trusted name in customer service and customer experience. As an industry leader, you can use their software, knowing that they’ll be at the forefront of any analytic or experience trends.

Glassix

Glassix completely revolutionizes the customer support and CX space with its AI-driven platform, merging conversational AI and GPT-4 for an unmatched experience. It offers an AI-driven unified inbox, integrating all communication channels, like WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business, Messenger, social media, SMS, and more for streamlined conversations.

The platform stands out features are no-code drag-and-drop chatbot builders, one-click deployments of chatbots scripts to multiple channels, and comprehensive AI functionalities, including auto-suggested replies and conversation summaries, set it apart.

Glassix also ensures seamless omnichannel interactions, with a focus on efficiency and customer satisfaction. Pricing starts at only $49 per user per month, with scalable options for growth, emphasizing a commitment to not penalizing expansion in terms of messaging
volumes. Glassix stands out for its blend of advanced technology, user-friendly design, and flexible pricing, making it a top choice for small businesses and startups looking to enhance customer engagement.

Usabilla

Usabilla is trusted by brands, large and small, to help customers have the best experiences on the web. Their claim to fame is a simple feedback button that is placed on your site. This button allows users to instantly give feedback about anything they love or don’t love in just a couple of clicks.

On the backend, their robust dashboard allows you to analyze customer feedback, filter your results, and export it to other tools for more in-depth analysis.

Usabilla’s strength is its simplicity. The button they place on your website encourages customer interaction that can net feedback you may not usually get. It encourages customers to tell you exactly how they feel about products or features, and that information is extremely valuable when managing your customer experience efforts.

On the downside, Usabilla is not transparent about pricing. They say that their pricing scales based on business needs, so it cannot be quoted online. However, they do market themselves to small businesses, so that they may have an affordable option.

BenchmarkONE

Obviously, we have to toot our own horn here, as we love our software. BenchmarkONE is a customer-forward CRM that allows your marketing and marketing teams to work together on creating the best experience possible for your customers. Our platform is a fully integrated solution that provides simple reporting, customer relationship management, email outreach, and marketing automation in a single solution.

With all your outreach rolled into one service, BenchmarkONE lets you see the customer experience holistically. A large part of customer experience is brand and outreach consistency, which is easier to achieve when each department is directly collaborating with another.

It’s hard to gauge customer satisfaction with your brand online. We often have a lot of data, but without the human element, sometimes, you just can’t cut through the noise. Customer experience software helps you do just that and bring excellent brand interactions to your clients both online and off.

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by Benchmark Team