The Top 9 Customer Engagement Tools to Elevate Your Strategy

Customer engagement tools help Customer Success teams centralize communication, analyze customer behavior, automate outreach, and proactively improve retention. 

For many Customer Success teams, engagement has become reactive rather than strategic. Customer signals are often buried across tools and CRM systems, making it difficult to see the full picture. As a result, CSMs spend more time piecing together data than acting on it. 

The right customer engagement tool can overhaul this dynamic for the better. In this guide, we’ll explore the top customer engagement tools available today, what makes each one effective, how they differ, and how to choose the right platform to support a scalable, high-impact Customer Success strategy.

Key Takeaways

• Velaris is best for teams ready to move toward predictive, AI-driven engagement with unified customer signals and automated next-best actions.
  
  
• Intercom and Zendesk excel at conversational and support-led engagement, making them strong choices for teams prioritizing real-time communication.
  
  
• Pendo and Appcues help drive adoption through in-app guidance, onboarding flows, and product-led engagement strategies.
  
  
• Mixpanel provides deep behavioral analytics that inform smarter engagement decisions, even though it does not execute outreach directly.
  
  
• HubSpot Service Hub is ideal for organizations already operating within the HubSpot ecosystem and wanting CRM-connected engagement.
  
  
• HelpScout and Typeform offer lightweight but effective engagement through collaborative messaging and interactive feedback collection, especially for growing teams.

1. Velaris 

What it is

Velaris, a highly rated software on G2, is an AI-first Customer Success platform designed to unify customer signals and convert them into prioritized actions and automated workflows. By bringing together behavioral data, communication insights, and lifecycle context, the platform helps teams move from reactive engagement to a more predictive, intelligence-driven approach.

Why it stands out

While many platforms present dashboards that require manual interpretation, Velaris focuses on understanding customer behavior for you. 

Its AI continuously analyzes interactions, usage patterns, and sentiment to surface risks, highlight opportunities, and recommend the next best step. This allows CSMs to spend less time investigating accounts and more time acting on meaningful insights.

Key engagement capabilities

• Behavior + sentiment analysis: Combines product usage signals with emotional context from customer communications to provide a more accurate view of engagement health.
  
  
• AI Copilot for next-best actions: Recommends outreach strategies, follow-ups, and interventions based on real-time customer signals.
  
  
• CallSense for conversation intelligence: Extracts themes, risks, and sentiment from calls to help teams understand how customers truly feel.
  
  
• Automated playbooks tied to risk and behavior: Triggers workflows automatically when engagement drops, milestones are hit, or expansion signals appear.
  
  
• Unified customer workspace: Consolidates data from sales, support, and product teams into a single view, enabling faster and more informed decisions.

Considerations

Velaris is designed for teams looking to operate proactively rather than reactively. Organizations heavily reliant on manual processes may need to evolve their workflows to fully benefit from its AI-driven capabilities.

Best for

Mid-market to enterprise Customer Success teams focused on predictive engagement, early risk detection, and scaling personalized interactions without increasing operational complexity.

2. Intercom 

What it is

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built to help businesses communicate with customers in real time through live chat, chatbots, and automated conversational workflows. Widely used by product, support, and growth teams, it enables companies to engage users directly inside their applications or websites.

Why it stands out

Intercom excels at making customer engagement feel immediate and contextual. 

Its combination of live chat, automation, and behavioral triggers allows teams to reach customers at the exact moment support or guidance is needed. This creates more natural, conversation-driven experiences rather than delayed follow-ups.

Key engagement capabilities

• Live chat + chatbot automation: Provides instant support while automating responses to common questions, reducing resolution times.
  
  
• Customer data and event tracking: Captures user activity and attributes to inform conversations with relevant context.
  
  
• Workflow triggers based on behavior: Enables targeted messages when users complete actions, stall in workflows, or revisit key features.

Considerations

Intercom requires thoughtful configuration and governance. Without clear messaging rules, teams risk overwhelming customers with too many automated prompts or notifications.

Best for

Teams prioritizing chat-based engagement, in-app communication, and real-time support experiences that guide customers while they are actively using the product.

3. Zendesk 

What it is

Zendesk is a customer service platform designed to help businesses manage support interactions across multiple channels while maintaining consistent, high-quality engagement. Known for its powerful ticketing system, it enables teams to organize, prioritize, and resolve customer inquiries efficiently.

Why it stands out

Zendesk stands out for its depth and flexibility in support operations. Its ability to customize workflows, automate routing, and provide self-service resources allows organizations to scale customer engagement without sacrificing responsiveness.

Key engagement capabilities

• Multi-channel support (email, chat, social): Centralizes conversations from various channels into a single workspace, ensuring customers receive timely responses wherever they reach out.
  
  
• Knowledge base + self-service widgets: Empowers customers to find answers independently, reducing support volume while improving satisfaction.
  
  
• Custom workflow automation: Automates ticket routing, escalations, and follow-ups to keep engagement structured and efficient.

Considerations

Zendesk can feel complex for teams without dedicated administrative support. Proper setup and ongoing management are often required to fully leverage its customization capabilities.

Best for

Customer support teams seeking scalable engagement infrastructure with strong service workflows, particularly organizations managing high ticket volumes across multiple channels.

4. Pendo 

What it is

Pendo is a product experience platform that helps teams drive engagement directly within their application. By combining behavioral analytics with in-app messaging, it enables organizations to guide users toward key features and accelerate time-to-value.

Why it stands out

Pendo bridges the gap between understanding user behavior and acting on it. Teams can see how customers interact with the product and immediately deploy walkthroughs, guides, or announcements to encourage adoption without relying heavily on external communication.

Key engagement capabilities

• In-app guidance and tooltips: Deliver contextual walkthroughs, feature announcements, and prompts exactly when users need them, reducing friction during onboarding and feature discovery.
  
  
• Product analytics: Tracks feature usage, engagement patterns, and user flows so teams can identify drop-offs and optimize the product experience.
  
  
• Feedback collection (NPS): Captures customer sentiment directly inside the product, helping teams connect behavioral data with user perception.

Considerations

Pendo is primarily optimized for in-product engagement. Teams looking for robust outbound communication, lifecycle automation, or cross-channel engagement may need complementary tools.

Best for

Product-led organizations focused on improving onboarding, feature adoption, and in-app engagement through behavioral insights.

5. Appcues 

What it is

Appcues is a no-code platform designed to help teams create in-app onboarding and engagement experiences without relying on engineering resources. It enables faster deployment of user flows that guide customers toward meaningful product interactions.

Why it stands out

Appcues lowers the barrier to improving adoption. Teams can quickly design and launch onboarding experiences, announcements, and feature tours, making it easier to influence user behavior without waiting on development cycles.

Key engagement capabilities

• Onboarding and feature discovery flows: Build interactive tours, checklists, and modals that help users reach value faster and understand key features.
  
  
• Segmented experiences triggered by user behavior: Target specific user groups based on attributes or actions to deliver more relevant in-app messaging.
  
  
• Visual flow builder: Design and iterate engagement flows through an intuitive interface, allowing teams to test and optimize experiences continuously.

Considerations

Appcues focuses heavily on in-product engagement. Organizations seeking deeper analytics, cross-channel communication, or lifecycle automation may need to integrate additional tools.

Best for

Product and Customer Success teams that want to accelerate onboarding and feature adoption without depending on developer support.

6. Mixpanel 

What it is

Mixpanel is a product analytics platform built to help teams understand how users interact with their product. By tracking behavioral data at a granular level, it enables organizations to identify patterns, optimize journeys, and make data-backed engagement decisions.

Why it stands out

Mixpanel excels at turning raw usage data into actionable insight. Rather than guessing why customers disengage or drop off, teams can pinpoint exactly where friction occurs and refine their engagement strategies accordingly.

Key engagement capabilities

• Funnel analysis: Visualize conversion paths to identify where users abandon workflows and where engagement can be improved.
  
  
• Retention tracking: Measure how frequently users return and which behaviors correlate with long-term product usage.
  
  
• Cohort segmentation: Group users by shared behaviors or attributes to uncover trends and inform targeted engagement strategies.

Considerations

Mixpanel is designed primarily for analytics, not execution. Teams will typically need complementary tools for messaging, automation, or lifecycle orchestration.

Best for

Data-driven Product and Customer Success teams that want to shape engagement strategies based on real behavioral insight rather than assumptions.

7. HubSpot Service Hub 

What it is

HubSpot Service Hub is a customer service and engagement platform built within the broader HubSpot ecosystem. It helps teams manage support interactions, gather feedback, and strengthen customer relationships while keeping data tightly connected to CRM and marketing workflows.

Why it stands out

Service Hub bridges the gap between customer support and revenue teams by centralizing communication, feedback, and automation in one system. Because it is native to HubSpot, teams gain a unified view of the customer without needing heavy integrations.

Key engagement capabilities

• Shared inbox: Centralizes customer conversations so teams can collaborate efficiently and respond faster.
  
  
• Surveys (NPS, CSAT): Collect structured feedback to understand satisfaction trends and identify at-risk customers.
  
  
• Workflow automation: Automate follow-ups, ticket routing, and customer communications to maintain consistent engagement.
  
  

Considerations

Many of the platform’s more advanced automation and reporting features are only available in higher-tier plans, which can increase costs as teams scale.

Best for

Organizations already operating within the HubSpot ecosystem that want integrated engagement across CRM, marketing, and support without introducing additional platforms.

8. Help Scout 

What it is

Help Scout is a customer communication platform built around collaborative inboxes, enabling teams to manage customer conversations in an organized, human-centered way. It focuses on email-based support and proactive messaging without overwhelming teams with complex configurations.

Why it stands out

Help Scout is known for its simplicity and usability. It delivers essential engagement capabilities without the operational overhead of larger enterprise systems. Teams can collaborate in a shared inbox while maintaining a consistent, personalized customer experience.

Key engagement capabilities

• Shared inbox for cross-team collaboration
  
  
• Proactive messaging to engage customers before they reach out
  
  
• Knowledge base system for scalable self-service
  
  
• Integrations with CRMs, analytics tools, and productivity platforms
  
  

Considerations

While ideal for simplicity, Help Scout offers limited advanced automation, predictive insights, or deep behavioral analytics compared to more comprehensive engagement platforms. Larger organizations may outgrow its capabilities.

Best for

Small to mid-sized Customer Success or support teams that want lightweight, easy-to-adopt engagement tools without enterprise complexity.

9. Typeform 

What it is

Typeform is a survey and form platform designed to create highly engaging feedback experiences. Its conversational interface encourages higher response rates, helping teams gather deeper customer insights without making surveys feel tedious.

Why it stands out

Typeform transforms feedback into an interactive experience rather than a transactional one. Its design-first approach improves completion rates and helps teams capture more thoughtful responses from customers.

Key engagement capabilities

• Custom surveys aligned to your brand
  
  
• Logic jumps that personalize question paths based on responses
  
  
• Real-time response tracking for faster insight generation

Considerations

Typeform specializes in feedback collection and does not provide broader engagement capabilities such as lifecycle automation, messaging workflows, or behavioral triggers. Most teams will need to pair it with other platforms.

Best for

Customer Success, product, and experience teams looking to gather richer customer insights through engaging, high-completion surveys.

Conclusion

Customer engagement is no longer just about responding quickly. It is about anticipating needs, recognizing risk early, and delivering the right interaction at the right moment. As Customer Success evolves, engagement is becoming predictive rather than reactive.

While many tools help teams communicate or analyze behavior, future-ready platforms go a step further by turning customer signals into action. Velaris, a highly rated platform on G2, combines behavioral data, sentiment analysis, and AI-driven recommendations. 

Through this, Velaris enables Customer Success teams to move from scattered outreach to intelligence-driven engagement that scales with the business.

Book a demo to see how Velaris helps Customer Success teams deliver proactive, data-driven engagement at scale.