The Customer Success Tools & Software You Need to Boost Customer Engagement

Customer success (CS) is vital to ensure customers get the most value out of your product or service. And customer success is more essential than ever to retain customers and prevent churn. 

CS departments typically manage anywhere from 75 to 90 percent of a company’s revenue. So if you want your business to succeed, you must focus on helping customers succeed. 

The question is, what are the best customer success tools for getting the job done? 

What are customer success tools?

Before we jump into customer success tools, let’s quickly review what customer success involves and why it matters for your business.

While traditional customer support is focused on troubleshooting errors and resolving issues—in other words, reacting to problems—customer success is a proactive strategy focused on ensuring customers receive the training, education, and ongoing support they need to use your products effectively. 

This strategy ensures customers get the best results and satisfaction from your product, which increases customer retention, creates opportunities for upsells, and leads to positive buzz as happy customers share their stories.  

Customer success tools are digital tools, such as apps, digital platforms, or cloud-based software, that provide insights into your customer’s needs—and enable your organization to fulfill them.

CS tools give your team a kaleidoscopic, 360-degree view of the customer journey, from initially adopting your product to becoming a loyal brand advocate. CS tools also show your team where pain points and friction could occur along that journey, enabling you to take proactive measures to maintain customer satisfaction and prevent churn. 

So, how are these tools actually used?

From collecting and analyzing customer feedback to upselling and increasing product adoption, there are numerous tasks that customer success tools can help your team perform. Here are a few examples of how CS tools can be leveraged to enhance customer success and grow your business. 

• Automating various tasks related to customer success and support 
• Collecting detailed feedback from your customers 
• Educating your customers about how to use your product effectively, such as providing them with walkthroughs, video tutorials, and how-to guides 
• Identifying opportunities for upselling products or services to existing customers 
• Identifying which customers are at risk of leaving so that your team can take appropriate action 
• Keeping your customers engaged at all stages of the life-cycle 
• Monitoring customers’ progress (and satisfaction levels) throughout the onboarding process 
• Monitoring the ways that customers are using your product or service 
• Tracking customer health scores and overall customer satisfaction 

Why customer success tools are so important

Both Forbes and OnlyCFO have described 2023 as the year of customer success, with no signs of that trend slowing down. As one Forbes article predicts, “SaaS and subscription businesses… have activated the transformative power of customer success, and the compounding effect of net revenue retention (NRR), could now be the best placed to weather 2023’s downturn and emerge stronger on the other side.”

Meanwhile, LinkedIn Learning features a virtual Customer Success Center; the Harvard Business Review writes about customer success as an engine for growth; and research by McKinsey shows that “SaaS vendors with top-quartile revenues… invest[ed] more in customer-success initiatives” than those with lower revenues. 

In short, CS is crucial for business success. 

With its emphasis on achieving outcomes like lower customer churn, better customer retention, greater customer satisfaction, and higher revenues, it’s easy to understand why customer success is such a hot topic in business right now—especially once you look at the data. 

Here are a few statistics that showcase the value of customer service and success, highlighting why a robust CS program is such a smart investment.

• 80% of customers say the experiences provided by a company are as important to them as its products and services
• 50% of marketers now create content not only to generate leads but also to strengthen bonds with clients and boost retention
• There is a 60 to 70% likelihood of being able to sell to an existing customer, compared to a 5 to 20% likelihood of making the same sale to a new customer
• Nearly 9 out of 10 loyal customers (86 percent) will recommend the brand to their friends and family

One of the best ways to achieve these outcomes and reap these benefits is by leveraging customer success technology, like WorkRamp’s Customer Learning Cloud. Designed for small and large teams, the Learning Cloud empowers your organization to build stronger customer relationships thanks to features like detailed analytics, customer certification paths, and the option to choose self-serve or guided training. 

Common customer success tool features

There are numerous types of customer success tools, but before you compare different platforms or software options, it’s essential to be aware of some core, fundamental features that you should always be on the lookout for. 

So, what are these features? No matter what tool or system you choose to manage your customer success programs, here are five essential features to ensure maximum ease of use for your customers and your CS team. 

1. Limited (or zero) need for coding 
2. An uncluttered, engaging interface 
3. Comprehensive data, analytics, and insights 
4. Integrations that work seamlessly with your tech stack 
5. Powerful built-in security features

Let’s take a closer look at why each of these features is important and the benefits they provide. 

No-code or low-code design

Your team shouldn’t need to be expert coders to use your software. Any solution you adopt should be low-code—or ideally, no-code—to maximize efficiency and accessibility. 

This will remove friction and make it easier for your customer success manager to get your CS program running smoothly.

By eliminating the need for your CSM to write code or develop software, you’ll free up bandwidth to tackle other priorities, like onboarding new customers or creating joint success plans. 

Simple (but engaging) user interface

CS tools aren’t helpful unless they’re easy to use and implement. After all, one of your goals is to streamline your customer onboarding process—not complicate it. 

While a simple interface is a good start, it’s not enough for customer success software just to be easy to navigate. In addition, the content—and how it’s presented—must be highly engaging. When choosing a customer success platform, look for an option that pairs a clean, intuitive user interface with an engaging design and content.

Insights and analytics

Look for a customer success platform that offers extensive data analytics and will provide the metrics you need to measure—and improve—your CS program outcomes. 

For instance, you’ll want a tool that can provide your team with insights into customer usage, customer satisfaction, product adoption, customer retention, and customer engagement rates. 

Read more: 7 Customer Education Metrics to Measure the Success of Your Program 

Integrations with your tech stack

Integrations enable you to pull data from tools your team already uses and automate tasks that would otherwise be time-consuming. Therefore, choosing a platform that’s easy to integrate into your current tech stack is essential. 

The Learning Cloud integrates seamlessly with the most commonly used tools and apps, empowering your CS team to build a complete, all-inclusive learning experience—without the need to complete tasks manually or duplicate your efforts. 

WorkRamp integrations include BambooHR, Box, Google Analytics, LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack, Workday, Zendesk, Zoom, and more. 

Robust security features

If your systems are breached and information is leaked, it will inflict a severe blow to your customers’ confidence in your product. 

To minimize the risk of a security breach, your organization needs to take steps to protect its data and that of its customers. For example, you should only use CS tools with robust security features, such as two-factor authentication, strict user privacy controls, 256-bit AES, or other data encryption methods. 

Top customer success tool types

CS tools are all broadly aimed at the goal of facilitating customer success. Nonetheless, customer success platforms can vary widely in terms of their functionality, capabilities, and limitations—not to mention their pricing and performance. For example, learning management systems (LMSs) serve a different purpose than product tour software.

The best software or platform for your organization will depend on what you need to achieve. Here are a few of your options—and some reasons you might want to use them. 

Learning management systems

What it is: A learning management system (LMS) is a multi-purpose platform that facilitates all aspects of customer education and training, enabling you to create, launch, track, and update all types of customized eLearning content.

Read more: What is an LMS?

How it works: Learning management systems can be used for various training and education purposes, making them ideal for teaching customers about your product. 

You can use an LMS like WorkRamp to onboard new customers, train customers on your platform’s features, and enable your sales teams to meet your customers’ needs. 

Why it’s important for customer success: Learning management systems make it easy for your team to create and deliver customized educational content and track customers’ progress. 

Learn more about the benefits of using an online learning system to manage your customer education content. 

Product tour software

What it is: Product tour software facilitates customer onboarding with fun, informative walkthroughs of your app or platform. Product tours often have interactive elements and generally take the form of in-app tutorials or videos. 

How it works: Product tour software allows customers to take self-guided tours of your product, delivering a better user experience and boosting conversion rates. By showcasing your product’s features in context, in-app tutorials educate new customers, increase their proficiency with your product, and make onboarding easier. 

Why it’s important for customer success: Whether you’re in the SaaS space or another industry, your organization’s product or platform likely comes with numerous features and capabilities—not all of which will immediately be obvious to new or prospective customers. 

The more tasks your product can perform, the more your customers will benefit from product tour software that takes them through its various features and use cases. 

Want to see an example of what a product tour can accomplish? Check out the video tour of WorkRamp’s customer success platform. 

Chatbots and customer self-service portals

What it is: Self-service broadly refers to any help or support resource that the customer can navigate independently without needing live assistance. For example, a customer might be able to access a searchable knowledge base or FAQ hub that answers their question and provides a solution. 

Chatbots are another way customers can serve themselves, though offering live support is crucial to help customers deal with more complex issues. 

How it works: Self-serve support can take various forms, from how-to videos and product walkthroughs to FAQ lists and help articles. A self-service portal allows customers to access knowledge and information and build a community through comment forums and message boards. 

Why it’s important for customer success: For simple issues or questions, self-service can be faster and more efficient than speaking to live support. By offering both options—live agents and self-serve resources—you can ensure that your customers get the solutions they need, when they need them. 

Tools for collecting and analyzing customer feedback

What it is: Some platforms enable you to collect in-depth user feedback, which can then be analyzed to gain insights into how your CS team can deliver a better experience tailored to your customers’ needs. 

How it works: There are many methods of gauging customer satisfaction, such as conducting Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys. Other metrics or tools for measuring customer satisfaction include Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT) and Customer Effort Scores (CES). 

Check whether these features are included when evaluating different CS tools.  

Why it’s important for customer success: Continuously gathering customer feedback will provide you with actionable insights at every stage of the customer journey—not just during onboarding or when an issue arises. 

The feedback you collect will enable you to improve and fine-tune your offerings, leading to better customer engagement and stronger business relationships. 

Customer upselling and growth tools

What it is: When you offer a subscription-based service, customer renewals and upselling are key.

Customer upselling tools help your team automate and track renewals, alert customers about new products or features, and identify opportunities to upsell or cross-sell. 

How it works: Upselling tools come with various features that facilitate the upselling process, such as automatic alerts that notify you when customers are approaching the end of a trial period. 

Why it’s important for customer success: In today’s competitive economy, acquiring new customers isn’t enough: if you want to grow your business in the long term, you need to be focused on upselling to your existing customer base. Upselling is vital because it boosts revenue by increasing customer lifetime value (CLV).

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools 

What it is: CRM stands for “customer relationship management”—an integral part of customer success. CRM software enables you to collect and compile data from your sales, marketing, customer service, and other teams to comprehensively understand your customers’ behavior and needs.

With a CRM platform, you can quickly analyze, manage, and optimize every aspect of your customer relationships. 

How it works: A CRM provides a centralized hub for managing and maintaining all data pertaining to your customers, such as their contact information, social media accounts, purchase history, and more. A CRM enables you to nurture more profitable customer relationships and track communications and interactions. 

Why it’s important for customer success: Customer relationship management software provides a wide range of benefits for your business, from increasing customer satisfaction (and retention) to improving your efficiency by automating tasks, such as segmenting your client list automatically or automating sales reports.

Choose the best customer success tool

Maybe you’re a growing business ready to build your first customer success program. Maybe you’re looking for ways to improve your existing CS initiatives. Or, maybe you’re focused on scaling your CS as you grow.

No matter your goals, the Customer Learning Cloud from WorkRamp can help your organization reach them faster and more efficiently.

Provide your customers with training they’ll love—and create brand-loyal superfans. The Learning Cloud empowers your team to monitor and meet your customer’s needs at every touchpoint.

Ready to transform into a more customer-centric brand? Contact us to schedule a free, personalized demo.