“Great customer service solutions underpin great customer relationships,” claims Forrester at the beginning of its report.
Yet, the opposite is also true. Poor customer service tarnishes customer relationships, and – unfortunately – studies suggest service experiences are getting worse.
There are several possible reasons for this. Staff shortages, the explosion of new engagement channels, and rising expectations are just a few of the examples businesses often cite.
Thankfully, the technology to help service teams combat such issues is better than ever before.
Indeed, Forrester notes that tech vendors have recently expanded their capabilities to support customers via self-service and digital channels.
That principally involves aiding customer-facing employees as they assist customers.
Take a contact center agent. A customer service solutions provider will support them by spotlighting live performance insights, surfacing relevant knowledge articles in real-time, and automating tasks for them.
Meanwhile, supervisors may access new tech to oversee remote agent performance, identify training opportunities, and manage customer feedback.
However, Forrester’s summarization of “customer service solutions” goes beyond assistance alone.
How Forrester Defines "Customer Service Solutions"
A customer service solutions suite “enables organizations to serve and retain customers, reduce tech sprawl to manage cost, and modernize core applications,” according to Forrester.
The research firm then suggests customer service solution buyers should consider providers that:
- Provide a complete suite of customer service applications
- Assist agents in meeting SLA and quality targets
- Deliver better customer experiences with AI and automation
- Preserve business agility and resilience
- Leverage an extended ecosystem for customer service success
Each of the 12 vendors in the report meets these five critical requirements, and Forrester has split them into four categories: leaders, strong performers, contenders, and challengers.
To do so, the firm has evaluated each vendor across 39 criteria, split across three central themes: current offering, strategy, and market presence.
How Did the Vendors Perform?
Across the three evaluation themes, here are Forrester’s top five performing providers of customer service solutions.
Current Offering
- Pegasystems (4.35/5)
- Salesforce (4.21/5)
- Microsoft (3.87/5)
- ServiceNow (3.76/5)
- Oracle (3.45/5)
Strategy
- Salesforce (4.30/5)
- Microsoft (4.30/5)
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- ServiceNow (4.10/5)
- Pegasystems (4.00/5)
- Oracle (3.30/5)
- 5. Zendesk (3.30/5)
Market Presence
- Salesforce (5.00/5)
- Zendesk (5.00/5)
- Microsoft (5.00/5)
- ServiceNow (4.00/5)
- SAP (3.00/5)
- Oracle (3.00/5)
- Pegasystems (3.00/5)
Alongside these scores, Forrester offers an overview of the 12 vendor’s portfolios and services. Below is a brief summary of each.
Salesforce – Salesforce Service Cloud (Leader)
Service Cloud is now Salesforce’s largest revenue-generating cloud. Much of its success comes from the depth of its native capabilities, "which support every type of service". Yet, it also benefits from the broader Salesforce ecosystem – centralizing customer and behavior data, pairing it with AI, and augmenting the agent experience. Forrester recognizes this while isolating its new pricing strategy, extensive partner ecosystem, and roadmap as strengths. That roadmap fixates on enhancing self-service options and providing agents with deeper insights for better service.
Pegasystems – Pega Customer Service (Leader)
Pega Customer Service aims to automate and guide every contact center experience. The provider’s roadmap for doing so includes building out its composable architecture and AI capabilities. Forrester acknowledges this while highlighting the offering’s workflow automation and real-time decisioning as positives – alongside its "robust" case management and "versatile" agent desktop. Pega also puts forward flexible licensing options and a unique go-to-market that pulls service into its "autonomous enterprise" mantra. These aspects of its portfolio often attract large enterprise customers.
Microsoft – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service (Leader)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service pulls in business, collaboration, and productivity applications from the expansive Dynamics platform for continuous innovation and optimization. As such, it often appeals to enterprises that leverage the broader Microsoft business application suite. Its strategy also supports a roadmap that focuses on AI for customer self-service, agent-assist, and operational efficiency – alongside omnichannel routing and workforce management. Finally, Forrester commends Microsoft's GenAI innovation, vast partner network, and "comprehensive" channel support.