Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2024
How does Forrester define the Customer Service Solutions market in 2024?
Great customer service solutions underpin great customer relationships by supporting customers on channels of their choice and helping agents deliver personal service in line with SLAs and service policies. Modern solutions have expanded to support self-service and asynchronous digital channels, arm agents with insights for collaboration, enable supervisors to manage service quality and gather feedback, and allow service operations to optimize processes and next best actions. The vast majority of enterprises invest in these solutions to serve and retain customers, reduce tech sprawl, manage costs, and modernize core applications.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2024 in 2024
- Publication Date: 05-Mar-2024
- Document ID: RES180530
- Summary: In our 39-criterion evaluation of customer service solutions providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps customer service solution professionals select the right one for their needs.
- Authors: Kate Leggett, Linda Ivy-Rosser, Sara Sjoblom
How did the Customer Service Solutions market evolve in 2024?
- Great customer service sets companies apart and impacts top-line revenue
- Modern solutions have expanded capabilities to support self-service and asynchronous digital channels
- Solutions enable agents to collaborate with subject-matter experts to rapidly solve cases
- Vast majority of enterprises invest in modern customer service solutions
- Solutions enable organizations to serve and retain customers, reduce tech sprawl, and modernize core applications
- Explosive growth in process automation and embedded AI technologies (conversational, predictive, and generative AI)
- Modern solutions allow organizations to manage ballooning volume of customer inquiries without adding agent headcount
- Vendors offer composable architectures, open APIs, and microservices for business agility
- 12 vendors evaluated in this Forrester Wave assessment
- Evaluation based on 39 criteria across current offering, strategy, and market presence
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Offers a multifunctional customer service application with functionality in case management, knowledge and content management, omnichannel engagement, workforce engagement, and business intelligence
- Has Forrester mindshare based on client inquiries, advisories, consulting engagements, and other interactions
- Has at least $100 million in product revenue in 2022
- Offers a solution targeted to multiple industries across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C organizations
- Supports multiple roles within customer service operations including agent, manager, and service operations manager
What are the common features of top products in the Customer Service Solutions space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Best-of-breed solutions promoted primarily for a single functional area
- Vendors without sufficient Forrester client mindshare
- Vendors with less than $100 million in customer service product revenue in 2022
- Solutions targeted to single industries only
- Solutions that do not support multiple customer service roles (agent, manager, service operations manager)
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Offers a multifunctional customer service application with functionality in case management, knowledge and content management, omnichannel engagement, workforce engagement, and business intelligence
- Has Forrester mindshare based on client inquiries, advisories, consulting engagements, and other interactions
- Has at least $100 million in product revenue in 2022
- Offers a solution targeted to multiple industries across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C organizations
- Supports multiple roles within customer service operations including agent, manager, and service operations manager
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Case management — 15%
- Agent operations — 15%
- Customer service management/operations — 10%
- Omnichannel engagement — 10%
- Explicit and implicit feedback — 5%
- Workforce engagement — 5%
- Knowledge and content — 5%
- Web/mobile customer self-service — 5%
- Collaboration — 5%
- Process management — 5%
- Business intelligence — 5%
- Certifications — 5%
- Extensibility — 5%
- Marketplace — 5%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 25%
- Innovation — 15%
- Roadmap — 15%
- Partner ecosystem — 10%
- Adoption — 15%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 10%
- Community — 10%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 12 customer service solutions providers across 39 criteria in three high-level categories: current offering (case management, agent operations, customer service management, workforce engagement), strategy (vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, pricing), and market presence (revenue and number of customers). The evaluation focuses on multifunctional customer service applications that support multiple roles and industries, with vendors having at least $100 million in product revenue.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: Customer service solution professionals should use this research to select the right provider for their needs. The report helps buyers understand how each provider measures up across key criteria and provides guidance on which vendors are best suited for different organizational requirements, such as enterprises seeking complete suites, AI-driven automation, asset-based service, or composable architectures. The downloadable Excel scorecard allows buyers to customize weightings based on their specific priorities.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors must offer multifunctional customer service applications with core capabilities across case management, knowledge and content management, omnichannel engagement, workforce engagement, and business intelligence. They must support multiple customer service roles including agents, managers, and service operations managers. Solutions must be targeted to multiple industries and business models (B2B, B2C, B2B2C) rather than single-industry focused.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Solution is promoted primarily as a best-of-breed offering for a single functional area only
- Insufficient Forrester client mindshare based on inquiries, advisories, and consulting engagements
- Less than $100 million in customer service product revenue in 2022
- Solution targets only a single industry vertical
- Does not support multiple customer service operational roles
- Lacks functionality in one or more required subdisciplines (case management, knowledge management, omnichannel engagement, workforce engagement, or business intelligence)
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Provide a complete suite of customer service applications to minimize tech sprawl, simplify agent onboarding, and speed up time to proficiency
- Assist agents in meeting SLA and quality targets through embedded UI tools, automated routing, guided processes, and workflow automations
- Deliver better customer experiences with AI and automation including conversational, predictive, and generative AI for enterprise-scale automation
- Preserve business agility and resilience through composable architectures, open APIs, microservices, and low/no-code platform services
- Leverage an extended ecosystem including curated marketplaces, training and certification programs, systems integrator partnerships, and ISV accelerators
Q: How has the Customer Service Solutions market evolved in 2024?
A:
- Explosive growth in process automation and embedded AI technologies (conversational, predictive, and generative AI) within customer service solutions
- Solutions enabling enterprise-scale automation to standardize and automate service processes, cut data entry time, capture conversations, and extract sentiment and intent
- Expansion of capabilities to support customers over self-service and asynchronous digital channels
- Evolution to arm agents with insights and enable collaboration with subject-matter experts
- Increased focus on helping supervisors manage service quality, gather customer feedback, and identify coaching opportunities
- Movement toward composable architectures, open APIs, and microservices allowing organizations to deploy only required capabilities
- Investment in curated marketplaces with ecosystem of point solutions, training programs, and developer networks
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Current Offering (50% weight) measures the strength of each vendor's existing customer service solution capabilities across 14 criteria including case management, agent operations, omnichannel engagement, workforce engagement, and technical extensibility. Strategy (50% weight) evaluates the strength of vendors' strategic vision and execution across 7 criteria including vision for the market, innovation capabilities, product roadmap, partner ecosystem strength, customer adoption rates, pricing models, and community engagement. Market Presence (represented by bubble size) reflects revenue and customer base size separately from the offering and strategy scores.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2024, 05-Mar-2024, ID RES180530
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