Best Customer Retention Management Software: Top 10 Tools & Platforms

Business is not only about selling. It is about forging long-lasting relationships with customers. To do this, you’ll need to get your hands on some of the best customer retention software.

Customer retention management is not only about keeping customers happy. It is also cutting down on the number of customers who churn or leave their shopping carts by the wayside or cease being paying customers.

So, let’s dig into the best client retention apps based on price, features, and pros and cons.

Customer retention management software comparison chart (top 10 highest rated customer retention tools)

This table presents a quick summary of our leading ten customer retention applications. There is also a quick link to their sales pages.

What is the best customer retention software? Here’s our top 10 list:

Now it’s time to get cozy with the ten greatest customer satisfaction management tools. We are nearly 100 percent certain this list will have something that piques your interest. Ready to find the best way to keep your clients satisfied and prevent them from doing a churn? Let’s go.

1. Zendesk (Best customer retention software 2024)

Our very first customer relationship management software that helps retention rates and improves overall customer loyalty is none other than Zendesk.

Zendesk tracks customer data to perform things like flagging customers who may be at risk of churn and then help respond to these issues to retain those customers. Zendesk also offers a loyalty and rewards program as a retention strategy for offering a better customer experience. 

Another way that Zendesk can help prevent customer churn is by providing users with excellent communication tools. This way, you can keep up with every step of the customer journey to ensure that users stick around until the end.

Pros:

• Ticketing system: Zendesk's ticketing system for customer support is a solid way to reduce customer churn by being proactive in offering a great help desk tool

• CSAT surveys: With Zendesk, you get customer satisfaction survey features that help you reduce churn and boost the number of satisfied customers  

• Workflows: Using automation and workflows from Zendesk speeds up the work process, meaning your reps can focus on customer engagement and solving more complex customer issues

Cons:

• Pricing packages: Even though Zendesk is a platform designed to help customer acquisition, the many pricing tiers make it difficult to choose the right one that has the best tools to help you achieve your goals for the right price

Pricing:

• Zendesk Suite Team plan is $55 per user per month billed annually 

• Zendesk Suite Growth plan is $89 per user per month billed annually 

• Zendesk Suite Professional plan is $115 per user per month billed annually 

• Zendesk Suite Enterprise plan is bespoke based on your needs

Zendesk review

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2. Hubspot (Best free customer retention software)

The next name on our list of apps that let you use customer retention software is none other than the inbound marketing brand Hubspot.

Hubspot provides a long list of tools and features for the purpose of analyzing customer behavior, getting better customer reviews, and making it simple to invest in customer retention. Offering multi-channel communication across email and live chat is very effective, as is Hubspot's automated ticket management module for better customer service. 

In order to help reduce churn, this customer experience management software has advanced support tools like canned responses for speedy customer service.   

Pros:

• Conversation routing: Let users get instant access to the best-suited rep at the helpdesk with conversation workflow routing

• Reporting and analytics: Hubspot has top-tier real-time analytics that uses a variety of metrics to help increase retention rates and build shareable retention reports

• Chatbots and canned replies: Customer retention rates are known to drop when you use automated conversational bots to speed up issue triage

• Free plan: Hubspot has a free version of its program software, and it’s one of the best of all the CRMs

Cons:

• Feature overload: Hubspot has tons of great tools that help you improve customer loyalty, but some users find that there are too many and, therefore, get overwhelmed at first

Pricing:

• HubSpot offers a free version of their CRM Suite

• Starter plan starts at $20 per user per month billed annually for two users

• Professional plan starts at $1,600 per month for five users

Hubspot CRM review

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3. Mixpanel (Top customer retention analytics software)

Coming in at number three on this list of the best types of customer retention software is Mixpanel. This is a leading name in using data analytics to improve customer lifetime value.

Mixpanel really focuses on using data analysis of your marketing and sales performance in order to offer ways to cut back on churn and grow your customer base with deeper and more loyal relationships. 

The dashboard is nicely designed and offers viewing options like insights, funnels, flows, and retention rates. 

Pros:

• Cost: Mixpanel's pricing options are very competitive, meaning this great software helps you get higher customer retention and acquire new ones without breaking the bank

• Analytics: Core reports, advanced analysis, group analytics, and the ability to monitor and receive alerts makes Mixpanel a top analytical customer retention SaaS

Cons:

• Learning curve: In order to get the most out of Mixpanel's customer and product analytics, be prepared to put in some time learning the ins and outs of the tools

Pricing:

• Mixpanel has a free plan

• Growth plan costs $20 per month for 100M monthly events

• Enterprise plan costs $833 per month for 1T monthly events

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4. Freshworks (Great customer retention management software for omnichannel communication)

Freshworks is a brand name for a number of apps, including Freshdesk and Freshservice. Here, we will be talking about the Freshworks customer service suite.

Overall, you can use Freshworks to allow your customers and users to reach out to sales or support over many different channels. This is always crucial for maintaining high levels of customer success. If you need software to help you create a congenial way for users to get help, you can bet those current customers will be likely to come back for more. 

Freshworks is also a great product or service because of its interoperability with other SaaS under the same umbrella.  

Pros:

• Communication channels: Use web widgets, email, and social media channels like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger for providing more options

• Build your own: With Freshworks premium plans, you can build your own channel or build your own telephone app

• Self-service: Freshworks has some good tools for self-service and a knowledge base that you can personalize to give your customers more freedom

Cons:

• Add-ons: Freshworks has many add-ons which sadly are not free, and if you opt for a lot of these, it can really push the price tag upwards

Pricing:

• Starter plan is free

• Growth plan is $49 per user per month billed annually

• Pro plan is $95 per user per month billed annually

• Enterprise plan is $119 per user per month billed annually

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5. Qualtrics (Good customer retention platform for surveys)

The number 5 customer retention software on this list today is a lesser-known name, Qualtrics. This one is among the best retention management platforms for customer surveys.

Qualtrics's many tools help you deliver a better experience for the customer across many of the touch points that exist in the customer journey. This goes from first contact to sale to long-term customer loyalty. It also offers tools to help sales teams and support teams work better together within one software system to make it easy for everyone to be on the same page. 

You also get product design strategy tips. Finally, Qualtrics is known for surveys and good tools to analyze the results. 

Pros:

• Survey software: If you need the right tools to build and analyze customer satisfaction surveys, Qualtrics is a super choice for a customer retention management platform

• Market research: Qualtrics is one platform that helps with marketing research, especially if you're customers' expectations for new products are important to you

• HR: Human resource departments can get a lot of useful management tools to assist in the work of customer retention

Cons:

• Look and feel: The basic aesthetics of Qualtrics are far from perfect; however, you can tailor some of the design to your preferences

Pricing:

• Contact Qualtrics directly for pricing information

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6. ClickUp (Great customer retention system for support templates)

The next name on our list of the best customer retention software tools is ClickUp. 

Among many of its great features is the template library, which can help cut back on churn when used properly. ClickUp is useful for many purposes, from task and project management to a document manager and a chat tool. 

As for helping improve retention among customers, you can take advantage of ClickUp's templates for customer service. These will streamline the process of providing support, as well as make work lighter on your agents, who can then put their efforts into helping users.

Pros:

• Templates: Some great options include bug tracking, client success, assumption grids, customer journey maps, customer needs analysis, and customer satisfaction survey templates

• Growth: ClickUp is goods software with many premium options, so even as you scale your operations, this app can scale right alongside with your needs

Cons:

• Lack of focus: Since this is a project management software, first and foremost, it is not dedicated to customer satisfaction per se

Pricing:

• ClickUp has a free forever plan

• Unlimited plan is $7 per user per month billed annually 

• Business plan is $12 per user per month billed annually 

• For Enterprise plan pricing, contact ClickUp

ClickUp review

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7. Zoho (Best client retention software for loyalty programs)

Zoho is the next software on our list. This brand has many products to help make sure your customers are more likely to be satisfied, loyal customers in the long run.

Currently, there is a product called Zoho Thrive which is in beta form. This is dedicated to all things related to customer satisfaction and loyalty. There are tools to increase engagement with your brands, as well as features for recognizing and rewarding good customer loyalty. 

Pair this product with many other Zoho offerings like CRM, sales, and customer support, and you got a full package to keep your network coming back for more.

Pros:

• Loyalty programs: Zoho Thrive is one hundred percent dedicated to helping you grow your network and keep your customers very happy and wanting more

• Modularity: With Zoho's many products, customers get a modular buffet of tools and features to pick and choose from tailored to their needs

• Simplicity: Zoho has always been famous for its ease of use

Cons:

• Pricing: It can get a bit confusing navigating all of Zoho's products and pricing options

• Support: Getting customer service from Zoho could be improved

Pricing:

• Zoho Thrive is in beta mode and can be tried for free

• Zoho CRM Plus starts at $57 per user per month billed annually

Zoho CRM review 

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8. Salesforce (Top customer retention automation software)

Salesforce is one famous software for your business if you want to leverage AI, automation, and workflows to provide better customer service and improve customer retention. 

For the best experience, Salesforce has tools to host a self-service platform. Here, users can easily help themselves. There are also a slew of digital engagement features to ensure high levels of satisfaction. The customer service AI tools, using the Salesforce technology known as Einstein, can really streamline your operations, making for happier support agents and clients. 

Like customer service apps that compete with many of the names on this list, Salesforce is a force to be reckoned with. 

Pros:

• Automation: Automated customer retention software helps generate steady income flows, and Salesforce is top among them

• NPS:  Salesforce has tools to calculate the NPS, or net promoter score, to keep the pulse on customer satisfaction

Cons:

• Complexity: Salesforce does not have the reputation of being the easiest software solution to learn, but it's not that difficult either

Pricing:

• Service Cloud Starter plan is $25 per user per month billed annually

• Service Cloud Professional plan is $80 per user per month billed annually

• Service Cloud Enterprise plan is $165 per user per month billed annually

• Service Cloud Unlimited plan is $330 per user per month billed annually

• Service Cloud Unlimited Plus plan is $500 per user per month billed annually

Salesforce review

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9. Qualaroo (Good feedback tool for customer retention) 

It's no wonder that Qualaroo makes it onto this list of the leading best customer retention platforms in 2024. This is one perfect app for getting customer feedback.

In order to help prevent churn and deepen customer loyalty, Qualaroo offers what they call contextual customer insights. Knowing more about your customers and how they feel is integral to the strategy of retaining happy clients. With Qualaroo, you get real-time customer feedback, and you can create surveys that target specific users with spot-on questioning. 

There is even a good deal of AI-powered feedback analysis for more in-depth insights.   

Pros:

• Audience targeting: Use Qualaroo to find out who your customers are, when they visit your site, how often, and collect data based on certain customer behavior

• Custom questionnaire: It's effortless to build your own custom feedback questionnaire with other options to personalize them by color and branding, and you even get an open design API to work with

Cons:

• Price tag: This is not one of the most affordable customer retention tools out there

• Mobile app: Contrary to many other apps that help retain customers, the Qualaroo mobile app is not included in the basic plan

Pricing:

• Contextual and email surveys essential plan costs $79 per month billed annually 

• Contextual and email surveys premium plan costs $169 per month billed annually

• Contextual and email surveys business plan costs $299 per month billed annually

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10. Hotjar (Great customer retention platform for website design)

The number ten customer retention brand is Hotjar, which is very effective at building websites to please your contact base.

If you need to create personalized websites with your customers' satisfaction in mind, then Hotjar is just the app for you. It can automatically capture data on your website visitors so you can plan changes, improvements, upgrades, and new features better. Such tools include heat maps and other recordings. 

There are also good survey and feedback tools, customer engagement features, and custom-built integrations.

Pros:

• Data capture: Heatmaps and other data can be automatically tracked and captured on a month-to-month basis

• Sentiment: Hotjar lets you spot and analyze customer frustration and confusion signals when people visit your site

Cons:

• Module confusion: There are many packages and several pricing options for each package, making it hard to choose what you need

Pricing:

• Hotjar Observe Basic is free

• Hotjar Observe Plus is $32 per month

• Hotjar Observe Business is $80 per month

• Hotjar Observe Scale is $171 per month

• Hotjar Ask Basic is free

• Hotjar Ask Plus is $48 per month

• Hotjar Ask Business is $64 per month

• Hotjar Ask Scale is $128 per month

• Hotjar Engage Basic is free

• Hotjar Engage Plus is $280 per month

• Hotjar Engage Business is $440 per month

• Hotjar Ask Scale is bespoke pricing

Hotjar review

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Which customer retention management system is best for me? Our conclusion

Here are some key takeaways regarding the best customer retention software.

Zendesk takes the top spot, with other familiar names like Hubspot, Zoho, and Salesforce making it onto the list too. Some newer names might include Hotjar, Mixpanel, and Qualtrics.

Ultimately, it’s up to you how you aim to improve your customer relationships using software solutions. We hope this article has pointed you in the right direction.