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What Exactly Is UX Testing?
Customer experience (CX) is a term coined by marketing experts to describe the latest paradigm in customer-focused commerce. CX is the combined result of all the interactions between a brand and a given customer over a given time period.
Thinking in terms of CX involves looking at the lifecycle of a customer, mapping their every interaction with your brand, sorting this data according to various criteria, and finally deriving actionable insights from it in order to create better experiences.
CX is about figuring out what the customer wants, needs, and expect from your brand as a whole, and then delivering that kind of experience with consistency. It is about ensuring that every brand-customer interaction is meaningful and memorable.
As with any comprehensive marketing approach, there is some complexity involved in implementing CX. There is a lot to keep track off in a CX-based campaign, so brands have to rely on a variety of software tools to keep everything running smoothly.
If you are planning on trying out CX yourself, check out our list of top 6 CX tools to use in 2019.
Amplitude
Amplitude is a web analytics solution for customer journey analytics, customer behavior analysis and customer segmentation. It allows you to obtain a complete picture of your customers’ online behavior.
You can see every path your customers take on a unified dashboard and zoom in to find out more about the intent and context behind their actions. This will allow you to answer growth-related questions such as what actions tend to make customers come back.
The tool also enables you to automatically identify customers with upselling and cross-selling potential, as well as those that are likely to become brand advocates in the future.
Amplitude offers a free version, and it can be used from the browser, as a cloud application, or as a SaaS application. The developers also offer training documentation, webinars, and online support.
GoSquared
GoSquared is a platform for web traffic analysis and conversion optimization. It enables you to view real-time customer analytics, capture leads through live chat, and divide your customers into segments.
You will gain access to key website metrics at the touch of a button through a dashboard instead of going through the hassle of working with Google Analytics. Once you identify your customers, you can use the live chat feature to capture leads, and develop your relationship with existing customers.
Finally, the customer segmentation feature will allow you to create customer groups based on their activity, contact information, and behavioral intent.
The starting price for GoSquared is $29 per month, and there is a free trial available if you wish to test it out first. The platform runs as a native app, or as a SaaS app. Full online support is available during business hours.
Natero
Natero is a customer success platform for maximizing customer lifetime value. It combines customer intelligence, predictive analytics, and workflow management to help you reduce churn, increase account value, and deliver a quality CX.
Natero provides you with customer intelligence that goes beyond vanity metrics – you can see all customer interactions in one place, allowing you to identify customers that are likely to churn, prepare for upcoming product and service renewals, and discover potential brand advocates and power users.
The platform also helps you organize your customer journey in detail through automatic triggers and segmented customer lists.
In order to receive a price quote for Natero, you have to schedule a demonstration first. The platform comes in the form of a standalone app, a SaaS app, and a browser app.
Appcues
Appcues is a comprehensive enterprise solution for product-based CX. It gives companies the ability to generate personalized product experiences, analyze CX impact on business results, and provide suggestions on how to interact with customers for every applicable touchpoint.
Appcues was designed to help you create positive CXs through your products alone. From product-based onboarding, to gathering CX product data, to delivering targeted product-based campaigns, Appcues lets your products take the center stage. The tool has been designed with user-friendliness in mind, allowing you to create optimized workflows at the touch of a button.
Appcues starts off at $249 for the basic version, and the price scales based on your monthly active users. You can also request a free demo. Appcues comes with extensive online support, including on-demand contextual support, guidance, and information.
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is the industry standard in email marketing automation. It gives companies the ability to optimize their email CX by creating customized, mobile-optimized email campaigns.
Campaign Monitor comes with a WYSIWYG email editor, so you can easily create responsive email designs. You can then use its email drip feature to send out emails according to segmented lists.
Campaign Monitor also allows you to run unlimited spam filter and firewall tests, to whether your emails are hitting their mark. A clear, clutter-free interface completes the package, allowing you to focus on creating the best possible email CX for your customers.
The Basic version of Campaign Monitor starts off at $9 per month, the Unlimited version at $29, and the feature-packed Premier version will cost you $149 per month. Online support is available 24/7, and you can access educational webinars with a subscription.
Help Scout
Help Scout is a help desk solution designed with CX in mind. It features an email-based customer support tool, a knowledge-base tool called Docs, and a search/contact widget called Beacon.
The initial setup for the platform is straightforward and intuitive, making it easy to pick up for beginner customer service reps. The interface is clean and responsive, so you can work without distractions.
Help Scout comes with all the essential customer support features, including internal notes, tagging, and replying to customers. The search function is well optimized, so you can easily find old support tickets.
Help Scout offers a free trial with full features, and the standard solution package costs $20. Help Scout can be integrated with tools such as Slack, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, and others.
Closing Remarks
Customer experience takes a lot of effort to get right, which is why companies are increasingly looking for tools to help them with the task, such as the ones from our list. However, taking this approach has its downsides as well, and chief among them is tool bloat.
Using multiple CX tools at the same time can introduce additional hurdles into your CX workflow. For this reason, some companies are opting to eschew existing tools in favor of hiring developers to create one from scratch. Custom-built CX tools are more versatile than their commercial counterparts, and they can be tailored to fit your specific business needs.
