The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2024

Customer Service Solutions Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

Key features and pros and cons of top Customer Service Solutions products:

Microsoft - Leaders

Pros:

Doubles down on AI-driven insights and platform uniformity with vision grounded in personalized AI engagement, collaborative service, and outcome-driven improvements
Offers comprehensive channel support including native voice, with genAI Copilot available on all channels to assist agents
Strong partner ecosystem and technical support programs like FastTrack with 40% year-over-year growth
Part of unified suite of business, collaboration, and productivity applications on same platform sharing same data
Microsoft Teams embedded in Dynamics enables swarming and supervisory collaboration

Cons:

Reference customers complained about UX and licensing complexity

Pegasystems - Leaders

Pros:

Excels at automating and guiding service journeys with outstanding vision to guide and automate every customer service journey
Outstanding case management is the backbone that orchestrates work, providing robust SLA management and automations
Combines workflow automation, real-time decisioning, and low-code platform geared to large enterprises with complex processes
Offers flexible licensing based on deployed capabilities with both user-based and consumption-based pricing
Agent desktop can be embedded in other applications and provides full view of customer, services, orders regardless of where data is stored
Uses real-time customer context, history, and journey data to anticipate needs and proactively engage

Cons:

Reference customers highlighted that it was difficult to find skilled resources

Salesforce - Leaders

Pros:

Differentiates with an exhaustive offering that supports every type of service including high-velocity engagement and complex service processes
Supported by partner network exceeding 200,000 credentialed individuals plus exhaustive developer network, app ecosystem, and learning platform with over 100,000 customers
Outstanding service operations capabilities including real-time SLA management and inquiry trend analytics with contact drivers identified
Complete capabilities with self-service portals extended via Experience Cloud, automation-first digital channel management, and very robust case management
Offers complete suite with consistent UX allowing organizations to minimize tech sprawl and speed up time to proficiency

Cons:

Reference customers complained that products are complex with long time to competency

ServiceNow - Leaders

Pros:

Uniquely focuses on resolution-centric customer service with vision to orchestrate customer workflows not solely contained in front office
Excellent case management with agents guided through case lifecycle including case progress, summaries, timeline, and SLAs
AI models predict estimated resolution times to prevent SLA breaches and track costs
Workflows created using low-code tooling leveraging reusable components with out-of-the-box workflows for common service processes
Over 4,000 large customers primarily in process- and asset-centric industries

Cons:

Reference customers complained about access to technical resources

Creatio - Strong Performers

Pros:

Offers fully composable solution with no-code platform that perfectly matches vision of composable service to accelerate digital transformation
Comprehensive set of AI/ML models to derive customer intent, classify cases, and route, prioritize, and summarize work
Robust process management engine enables citizen developers to model, deploy, and optimize workflows
Library of UI design elements to create unique experiences with full-journey customer 360
Reference customers praised solution's pricing and customer-centric culture

Cons:

Lacks mindshare in customer service market
Chatbots, communities, and workforce engagement provided via partners and marketplace
Reference customers highlighted operational issues such as with customer service

Oracle - Strong Performers

Pros:

Excels at supporting asset-based service where AI leverages customer intent and history coupled with asset data to create service plans
Offers distinct experiences for handling high-velocity and longer-running interactions
Notable strength in Fusion's knowledge management with advanced search and optimization capabilities
Robust self-service journeys that can be composed to drive containment through guided resolutions
GenAI creates draft content and service replies

Cons:

New product with few customers
Reference customers complained that reporting was cumbersome

Zendesk - Strong Performers

Pros:

Engagement capabilities shine with broad channel support including voice, messaging, chatbots, and portals with pervasive automation
AI-powered bots predict answers, generate replies, and integrate with external systems to perform actions
Good visual dashboards help managers understand real-time trends in inquiries
Workforce engagement provided via Tymeshift acquisition now integrated with product
Healthy upmarket growth with over 50% revenue from companies outside US and over 100,000 customers

Cons:

Offers broad but not necessarily deep customer service application
Improvement areas include more robust process management
Reference customers said communications around ownership have been challenging

Freshworks - Contenders

Pros:

Digital service capabilities above average supporting multilingual bots and modern messaging channels including OTT
Agents guided via bot that suggests best resolutions based on case history and helps generate service replies
Conversational intelligence extracts sentiment and recommends next best actions in real time
Post-resolution quality coach scores interactions and identifies training opportunities
Straightforward reporting and dashboarding with AI-driven insights

Cons:

Delivers end-to-end engagement but some parts must mature
Vision doesn't deliver beyond common promise of autonomous service
Reference customers would like more mature partner and support organization for larger customers
Basic agent scheduling and forecasting extended via third parties

SAP - Contenders

Pros:

Strength is support of complex B2B service processes that extend into field service
Natively integrates with SAP ERP and SAP S/4 HANA allowing easy access to back-office operational data
Agent desktop includes guided workflows, core case automations, proactive knowledge, and customer 360
Bidirectional integration with Microsoft Teams for swarming
Real-time analytics to identify service trends and patterns and adjust operations

Cons:

Pursues industry-first service which lacks visibility outside SAP ecosystem
Digital engagement capabilities cover only the basics
GenAI scenarios limited to automated case and email summaries
Does not have breadth of packaged predictive AI models that Leaders do
SAP declined to participate in full Forrester Wave evaluation process

Verint - Contenders

Pros:

Boasts complete product suite for customer service built on singular platform
IVA delivers consistent experiences across voice, chat, and messaging
Notable single-purpose bots like interaction wrap-up bot, knowledge suggestion bot, and agent transfer bot embedded in workflows
Comprehensive dashboards that surface call drivers to manage service operations
Robust workforce scheduling, forecasting, and quality management via well integrated products
Strong omnichannel routing and reporting with robust knowledge management

Cons:

Lacks market share for agent desktop operations
Case management, agent guidance, and next best actions primarily rules-driven
Lacks native voice capabilities
Reference customers expressed difficulties with heavy reliance on vendor professional service resources

Zoho - Contenders

Pros:

AI-assist tools identify key terms in tickets and sentiment to suggest knowledge base content
AI analyzes ticket types and spikes in volume allowing managers to adjust staffing
Reference customers praised ease of deployment and use, low cost, and configurability
Unique regional focus on growing local sales and product operations globally
Freemium editions coupled with traditional sales resulted in over 100,000 paid and unpaid customers

Cons:

Provides straightforward solution but is primarily rules-driven
Channel support is fair but lacks breadth of native digital support found in Leaders
Does not support quality management, forecasting, or agent staffing
Core reporting is weak
Reference customers complained about feature depth and lack of best practice guidance

SugarCRM - Challengers

Pros:

Strong process automation supported with no-code tooling
Built-in collaboration tools enable swarming
Regional sales and service partner network spans the globe
Covers all the basics with digital channels native and rules-driven case management

Cons:

Delivers relationship-oriented service but features lack depth
Simpler customer service solution lacks feature depth and broad automations compared to Leaders
Common genAI capabilities for service replies and case/customer history summarization still in beta
Reference customers complained about speed of innovation and small marketplace
Routing and escalation management are rules-driven

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

A: Microsoft, Pegasystems, Salesforce, ServiceNow

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave are vendors that have the strongest current offering and strategy in the market. They demonstrate excellence across evaluation criteria and are best positioned to meet customer needs both now and in the future.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Customer Service Solutions in 2024

Customer Service Solutions Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

Reference