Customer experience management is a set of processes and associated technologies a company uses to track, oversee and organize every interaction between a customer and the organization across every touchpoint throughout the customer journey.
CXM helps a company meet customer expectations, thus increasing customer satisfaction. Typically, the CXM process involves gathering customer feedback, keeping a single repository of data on each customer and providing a personalized experience across multiple channels based on that data.
What are CXM platforms?
CXM is about listening to customers, analyzing customer sentiment and acting on the insights gleaned from that feedback. Organizations do this by extracting and analyzing data from various customer journey touchpoints and then taking action to increase sales and improve customer loyalty.
CXM platforms work to break down customer information silos and instead offer a unified set of processes and actions to help companies create and deliver omnichannel experiences and track customer interactions throughout the customer lifecycle.
Key CXM platform features to look for
Using a CXM platform, a company can enjoy sales enablement benefits, such as the following:
A customer experience management platform typically includes a tool to help an organization collect and consolidate customer feedback and a process that lets the company offer the right product or service messaging to the customer based on that feedback. A CXM platform also offers capabilities for customer management, ticket management, product inventory, customer self-service, reports and analytics, and collaboration.
A customer experience map and a customer journey map are two key factors in the operation of CXM software.
Top 10 CXM platforms
Because no two businesses have the same goals or technology infrastructure, no single CXM platform is right for everyone. Using information from the G2 software marketplace and Gartner's Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center, here are 10 of the top customer experience software platforms in 2024 listed in alphabetical order.
Adobe Analytics. Tracks website traffic and user behavior to provide insights into how customers interact with a brand.
Adobe Campaign. Manages email marketing, social media marketing and other marketing campaigns.
Adobe Target. Personalizes content and offers to individual customers in real-time.
Adobe Experience Manager. Creates and manages digital experiences, such as websites and mobile apps.
Adobe Audience Manager. Manages customer data and creates audience segments for targeting.
From here, Adobe technologies can tailor customer experiences that can garner more interest in a product or service and build long-term brand loyalty. Organizations can also use the collected data within Experience Cloud to monitor the lifecycle of customer journeys and analyze sales success or failure rates at either a micro- or macrolevel.
Adobe Experience Cloud is sold as a subscription service, and the pricing varies depending on the specific products and features needed. However, it typically starts at around $3,000 per month for a basic package.
CXM is about listening to customers, analyzing customer sentiment and acting on the insights gleaned from that feedback.
2. Birdeye
Birdeye focuses primarily on online reputation management and customer engagement with the goal of ultimately shaping a positive customer experience. Organizations can collect, respond to and analyze customer reviews from various platforms, such as Google, Yelp and Facebook. Other features include the following:
Message through texts, email, chat and social media in a unified inbox.
Survey to collect customer feedback and gain insights into their experience.
Gather actionable insights from customer feedback so improvements can be tracked over time.
Still in beta, use BirdAI -- an AI-powered feature -- to include sentiment analysis and automated responses.
Birdeye is best for businesses looking to improve their online reputation and manage customer interactions across channels. It's not as comprehensive as some CXM platforms, such as Zendesk or Salesforce. It has limited reporting and analytics capabilities compared to dedicated platforms. In addition, pricing can be expensive for enterprises, especially those with multiple locations.
Birdeye offers three main pricing plans, with additional per-location fees. Starter starts at $299 per month for one location and includes basic review and listing management. Growth starts at $399 per month for one location and adds messaging, surveys and basic analytics. Dominate involves custom pricing for enterprises and offers all features and advanced reporting.
3. HubSpot Operations Hub
HubSpot offers several digital sales, marketing and customer services tools that help businesses foster healthy relationships with their clients. The company's CXM component -- Operations Hub -- works to collect, organize and analyze customer satisfaction data; find customer journey pressure points; and identify what makes a customer loyal and willing to promote a product or service.
The tool can map customer experiences over time by helping to do the following:
Develop feedback processes and channels.
Organize collected data.
Automate data analysis.
Develop actionable items that help improve customer opinion regarding a product or service.
HubSpot Operations Hub pricing comes in four tiers, and each tier adds product features: Free; Starter, starting at $20 per month, per seat; Professional, starting at $800 per month and includes one seat; and Enterprise, starting at $2,000 per month and includes one seat.
4. Medallia
Medallia offers a cloud-based platform for customer experience with features that include data collection, benchmarking, real-time analytics and personalized reporting, customer recovery, AI, predictive analytics and data integration.
Medallia aims to offer real-time insights across the business, enabling frontline employees and the C-suite to account for the voice of the customer in daily decisions. Using Medallia, companies can engage with customers in many ways, including email surveys, mobile in-app feedback, text and messaging channels, social feedback and reviews, interactive voice response systems, call and chat transcripts, and IoT-derived touchpoints.
Companies can use Medallia to reduce customer churn and increase customer self-service resolution opportunities. Medallia also helps organizations understand why users behave in certain ways so they can make better decisions about how best to serve their customers.
Pricing for Medallia is not readily available online.
5. Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft offers several software options for managing customer experiences, each with its own strengths and pricing structure. Many Microsoft CXM offerings integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft products and third-party applications.
Dynamics 365 Customer Service is a customer service platform with a knowledge base, case management, self-service portal, omnichannel support, AI-powered insights and reporting. It's best for businesses of all sizes seeking a comprehensive customer service solution. Pricing starts at $50 per user, per month for the Professional plan with essential features. The Enterprise plan offers advanced capabilities for more complex needs, with pricing starting at $95 per user, per month based on requirements.
The Dynamics 365 Digital Messaging and Voice Add-in collects and analyzes customer feedback through surveys, polls and other channels. It's ideal for organizations looking to collect and analyze customer feedback across various touchpoints. It costs an additional $90 per user, per month and requires an Enterprise license.
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is a unified customer data platform that aggregates data from various sources and provides insights to improve customer experiences. It works well for large enterprises with complex customer data management needs. Pricing is $1,700 per tenant, per month.
6. Oracle Service
Oracle Service, part of Oracle CX, caters to organizations seeking a comprehensive platform to manage customer interactions across various touchpoints. Omnichannel support helps manage customer inquiries from email, phone, chat, social media and web self-service in one unified platform. Self-service lets customers have a knowledge base, FAQs and community forums for self-directed problem-solving.
Oracle Service also includes AI-powered automation, which offers chatbots, case routing and predictive analytics to streamline operations and personalize interactions. Reporting and analytics give insights into customer sentiment, service performance and areas for improvement.
Oracle Service integrates with other Oracle CX solutions and third-party applications. Contact the vendor for Oracle Service pricing.
7. Qualtrics XM
Qualtrics XM is a customer experience management platform that caters to organizations serious about understanding and optimizing their customer journeys. It offers comprehensive data collection with the ability to gather feedback across diverse channels, including surveys, online reviews, website intercepts, email, text and video. Other features include the following:
Analyze vast amounts of data and find actionable insights through the proprietary Qualtrics iQ AI engine.
Tailor recommendations for specific actions across different teams, enabling swift and targeted CX improvements.
Group customers based on various criteria to craft personalized experiences.
Connect with existing CRM, marketing automation and other business tools to create a unified CX ecosystem.
Qualtrics XM is ideal for businesses looking for in-depth CX analysis, those expecting high feedback volume and organizations seeking a scalable solution that adapts to their needs. It's less likely to work for companies new to CXM or with limited needs, those preferring predictable monthly costs or businesses overwhelmed by complex platforms. Other offerings include XM for Customer Frontlines, XM for People Teams and XM for Strategy & Research.
Pricing for Qualtrics XM is based on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, charging per interaction, such as survey response and video minute.
8. Salesforce CRM
Relying heavily on its enormously popular cloud-based CRM platform, Salesforce includes many features that let businesses build and foster customer relationships. Functions that enable this type of data collection include the following:
Collect feedback from demonstrating or sampling a product or service.
Gather customer reviews from websites, social media platforms and other customer touchpoints.
Track website navigation.
Follow sales representative interactions -- in person, web, IM, phone, etc.
The Salesforce platform can then analyze this information using AI and help determine outcomes that improve existing customer experience processes or initiate new experience initiatives.
Salesforce CRM has four pricing tiers: Essentials for $25 per user, per month; Professional for $75 per user, per month; Enterprise for $150 per user, per month; and Unlimited for $300 per user, per month.
9. Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is a cloud-based customer support application largely focused on improving customer relationships. It offers an on-demand help desk and a customer support portal tool. It aims to improve customer satisfaction and support customers via any channel, including text, web, mobile app, phone, email and social media.
With Zendesk, customers can manage tickets, phone calls and interactions within a single platform that tracks and monitors every customer engagement. Zendesk also offers products to assist customers along their sales journey, including help desk software, live chat and knowledge base management.
Zendesk Talk is a customer contact center tool built into its help desk software that offers benefits such as call history, automatic ticket creation and call recording so contact center agents can focus on solving customer sales problems rather than workflow.
Finally, users can integrate Zendesk Sunshine, the company's open platform for CRM. This product can design personalized customer experiences and applications that help uniquely tailor sales and marketing messaging to what the prospective customer is seeking.
Pricing for Zendesk Suite breaks down into four tiers: Suite Team for $55 per agent, per month; Suite Growth for $89 per agent, per month; Suite Professional for $115 per agent, per month; and Suite Enterprise, which requires a custom quote.
10. Zoho CRM
The Zoho CRM Plus platform offers a unified CRM and customer experience platform that monitors and manages customer engagement in real time. This tool offers a single source for all marketing, sales and customer support teams so customers can become engaged and address problems with complete cross-business visibility.
Zoho includes an AI-backed analytics engine that helps analyze customer feedback, touchpoints and interactions and can formulate action items, including determining the best methods of customer contact and predicting which sales and marketing tactics work best for each customer.
Broader analysis tools help analyze market trends and assist with formulating action items on how to get ahead of the competition when those trends become profitable.
Zoho Creator lets companies build custom applications for specific CX needs, such as customer portals, self-service workflows or data dashboards. It requires coding knowledge and might not be a fit for those looking for a plug-and-play solution. Zoho software has four pricing plans: Standard for $14 per user, per month; Professional for $23 per user, per month; Enterprise for $40 per user, per month; and Ultimate for $52 per user, per month.
Editor's note: This article was updated to improve the reader experience and reflect changes in product names and pricing.
Kaitlin Herbert is a content writer and former managing editor for the TechTarget Editorial Learning Content team. She writes definitions and features.
Andrew Froehlich is founder of InfraMomentum, an enterprise IT research and analyst firm, and president of West Gate Networks, an IT consulting company. He has been involved in enterprise IT for more than 20 years.
