12 Best Customer Insight Tools for SaaS Companies in 2024
Want to understand what customers think and how they behave in your product? If so, you need to invest in the right customer insight tools.
These tools are perfect for providing valuable customer insights to make product improvements and optimize your customer experience.
Read on to learn more.
What is a customer insight tool?
A customer insight tool helps businesses gather, analyze, and interpret data about their customers’ behaviors, preferences, and feedback.
This enables companies to make informed decisions, tailor products, and improve customer experiences based on a deep understanding of customer needs and trends.
How do you gather customer insights?
Gathering customer insights is like putting together a puzzle – each piece gives you a little more understanding of the bigger picture. Here’s how businesses collect these crucial pieces:
- Customer data monitoring: By tracking important metrics like the drop-off rate, adoption rate, etc., and engagement levels companies can gain insights into customer behavior.
- Customer feedback surveys: These surveys help companies understand how happy people are with their products, the overall customer experience, and how easy or hard a product is to use.
- User interviews: User interviews and focus groups are not as easy to execute as surveys, but they offer detailed, qualitative feedback. This method helps businesses understand the “why” behind customer behaviors and preferences.
- Customer support interactions: Every time a customer reaches out for help or support, these interactions can highlight where customers are struggling, reveal common friction points, and even spark ideas for new features. In-app customer support makes this even easier, offering insights right where the customers are.
- Social media monitoring: By monitoring social media platforms, companies can catch mentions of their brands, whether praise or criticism. Attention to negative and positive user feedback is crucial for understanding what needs improvement.
Top features to look out for in customer insights platforms
Here are the top features of the right customer insights platform to consider:
- User surveys: This is your direct line to the customer’s thoughts and feelings. Platforms that offer user surveys allow you to ask questions directly and gather feedback efficiently. This feature is key for understanding user satisfaction and product usability from the source.
- Customer behavior analytics: To truly understand your customers, you must see what they do, not just what they say. Customer behavior analytics track user actions, giving insight into how customers interact with your product. This can help identify trends, preferences, and areas for improvement.
- Segmentation: This breaks down your customer base into groups based on their behaviors, preferences, and feedback. This allows for more targeted marketing and product development strategies.
- Data visualization: A picture is worth a thousand words, especially regarding complex data. Data visualization tools turn your customer data into easy-to-understand charts and graphs, helping you spot trends and make informed decisions quickly.
- User-friendly interface: If a tool is hard to use, it won’t be used to its full potential. Look for platforms that focus on product usability. This will make it easier for your team to adopt and use the platform effectively.
- Third-party integrations: Your customer insights platform shouldn’t be an island. Integration benefits are huge, allowing you to connect with other tools and systems you already use. This can streamline workflows and enrich your customer data.
- Scalability: As your business grows, your tools should grow with you. Platforms with scalable pricing models can adapt to your changing needs, ensuring you always have the right level of service without breaking the bank.
- Data security: Opt for platforms that take security seriously, such as those with SOC 2 Type 2 certification. This means they have proven systems to keep your data safe and secure.
12 best customer insight tools for a deeper understanding of customer behavior
In the quest to truly understand your customers, the right behavior analytics tool can be your roadmap to success. Discover the 12 best customer insight tools that offer insights into customer behavior, helping you make informed decisions and tailor your strategies effectively.
1. Userpilot
Userpilot stands out as a dynamic customer insights tool designed to enhance your understanding of user behaviors and feedback within your app.
Userpilot features
- In-app surveys: Trigger various survey types (NPS, CES, CSAT) to collect customer feedback. You can trigger these surveys to specific user segments, with localization for different audiences, and analyze the responses to gain consumer insights
Userpilot survey templates.
- Behavior monitoring: Utilize feature tags and custom events to monitor user actions, with a visual dashboard for tracking segment behavior.
- Detailed analytics: Access comprehensive reports, including funnels, path analyses, cohort retention, and trend analyses.
- Analytic dashboards: Keep important metrics at your fingertips with predesigned dashboards. You can also customize them for greater control over performance tracking.
- Tool integrations: Enhance your insights with one-way integrations (Segment, Amplitude, Heap, etc.) and two-way integrations (Salesforce and HubSpot).
Userpilot pricing
- Starter: Priced at $249/month.
- Growth: Starting at $749/month.
- Enterprise: Contact for custom pricing.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends emerges as an invaluable tool for businesses aiming to achieve product differentiation in crowded markets.
Providing insights into the latest trends, search behaviors, and interests over time in various regions enables companies to identify unique opportunities for distinguishing their products and tailoring their strategies to meet evolving consumer interests.
Google Trends features
- Trend analysis: Discover what the world is searching for by exploring the popularity of search terms over time. This can guide product differentiation strategies by highlighting emerging trends.
- Comparative data: Compare the search popularity of different terms, allowing businesses to gauge interest in specific topics or product features relative to others.
Google Trends pricing
It’s free: Google Trends is a powerful tool that is available for free.
3. Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) equips businesses with advanced tools to understand customer behavior across websites and apps.
GA4 aids in product differentiation by providing deep insights into user interactions, enabling companies to tailor their offerings and stand out in the competitive landscape.
Google Analytics 4 features
- User engagement tracking: GA4 offers detailed insights into how users interact with your website or app, as well as the paths they take on your website.
- Cross-platform analysis: Understand user behavior across devices and platforms to provide a cohesive experience, aiding product differentiation.
Google Analytics 4 pricing
- Free plan: GA4’s free plan provides robust analytics capabilities suitable for most businesses, offering insights into user behavior, engagement, and more at no cost.
- Google 360: For enterprises requiring advanced features, such as increased data limits and dedicated support, GA4 offers a premium plan, Google 360. The latter comes with custom pricing tailored to the business’s specific needs.
4. Amplitude
Amplitude stands at the forefront of behavior analytics tools, offering comprehensive solutions to understand user interactions deeply and drive product differentiation.
With its features, from foundational analytics to advanced behavior analysis, Amplitude empowers businesses to tailor their offerings and effectively engage customers.
Amplitude features
- Amplitude pathfinder: Track the various paths users take through your product that lead them to conversion
- Journey visualization: Review the steps a user takes when interacting with your product.
- Session replay: Watch how users navigate your app or website, identifying usability issues and opportunities for enhancement.
- Custom dashboards and formulas: Tailor analytics to your specific needs, focusing on the metrics that matter most to your product differentiation strategy.
Amplitude pricing
- Starter: Free.
- Plus: From $49/month.
- Growth: Custom pricing.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
5. Mixpanel
Mixpanel offers a robust analytics platform for businesses seeking to understand user behavior and refine their product-market fit. It is a consumer intelligence platform to gain insights into user journeys, helping companies drive product differentiation and foster growth through data-driven strategies.
Mixpanel features
- Reports: Enables you to gather, analyze, and visualize data through different types of analytics reports.
- Retention analytics: Provides features such as paths, user segmentation analysis, and behavioral analytics to help improve retention.
- Event tracking: Track up to 20M monthly events, capturing a wide range of user interactions to inform development and marketing strategies.
- Funnels: Create reports that show you the drop-off conversion rates throughout different funnel steps.
Mixpanel pricing
- Starter: Free, offering the essentials.
- Growth: Starts at $24/month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for comprehensive analytics needs.
6. Hotjar
Hotjar is a powerful tool for understanding how users interact with your website. It offers observation and feedback features to enhance user experience and inform product development.
From heatmaps to custom integrations, Hotjar provides the essentials for businesses looking for qualitative feedback.
Hotjar features
- Heatmap analysis: This shows you how customers are interacting with your product on a heatmap so you can improve the customer experience.
- Session recordings: Monitor how users navigate your app and where they face friction by viewing replays of their sessions.
- Surveys: Gather feedback through surveys as they interact with your product.
Hotjar pricing
- Basic: Free forever.
- Plus: $32/month.
- Business: $80/month.
- Scale: $171/month.
7. Qualtrics
Qualtrics leads as a comprehensive platform for gathering and analyzing customer, employee, product, and brand experiences.
Tailored to enterprises seeking deep insights to drive product differentiation and customer satisfaction, Qualtrics offers advanced survey capabilities and analytics to uncover actionable insights.
Qualtrics features
- Advanced survey tools: Create sophisticated surveys using various question types and logic for customer sentiment analysis.
- Predictive intelligence: Utilize AI and machine learning for predictive analytics, identifying trends and potential areas for improvement.
Qualtrics pricing
Pricing for Qualtrics is customized based on your business’s specific needs and scale. To get detailed information, you’ll need to request pricing directly.
8. Typeform
Typeform transforms how you gather data, offering interactive forms that seamlessly integrate into your workflow. Ideal for businesses seeking to enhance user engagement through beautifully designed forms, Typeform makes data collection both an art and a science.
Typeform features
- Unlimited typeforms and questions: Create as many forms as you need with endless questions to collect customer feedback.
- Advanced data analysis: The business plan offers insights into form performance, including drop-off rates and conversion tracking, to optimize data collection strategies.
Typeform pricing
- Basic: $25/month.
- Plus: $50/month.
- Business: $83/month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing is available upon contact.
9. UXCam
UXCam offers a user experience optimization platform that empowers teams to make user-focused and data-driven decisions. Designed for apps seeking to enhance user satisfaction, UXCam provides detailed analytics into user behavior, helping to refine app design and functionality.
UXCam features
- Comprehensive user analytics: Track metrics such as events, frustration signals, and session replays to understand user interactions deeply.
- Custom dashboards: Tailor analytics views with up to 7 dashboards, focusing on the metrics that matter most.
- Advanced analysis tools: Growth and Enterprise plans offer features like retention analytics, heatmaps, screen flow analysis, and advanced filtering for deep dives into user behavior.
UXCam pricing
- Free: Start with up to 3,000 monthly sessions for free.
- Growth: Tailored pricing for custom monthly session limits.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for large organizations.
10. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a user tracking tool that offers a comprehensive suite of management tools to enhance online presence, engage with audiences, and analyze social media performance.
Its scalable plans cater to businesses of all sizes and include basic social profile management as well as advanced analytics and automation.
Sprout Social features
- Review and monitoring: Keep track of reviews, engagement, profile mentions, and keywords to monitor customer perception.
- Analytics: Access detailed reporting at group, profile, and post levels, including competitive and trend analysis on higher plans.
Sprout Social pricing
- Standard: $199 per seat/month.
- Professional: $299 per seat/month.
- Advanced: $399 per seat/month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for a fully customized plan.
11. Zendesk
Zendesk provides a robust software for managing customer interactions across multiple channels, offering scalable solutions to enhance customer service. From basic support operations to advanced analytics and customization, Zendesk caters to businesses looking to streamline support and elevate customer experiences.
Zendesk features
- Comprehensive ticketing system: A unified system manages customer inquiries from email, chat, voice, and social messaging.
- Help center and standard bots: Offer self-service options and automate responses for efficiency.
- Prebuilt analytics dashboards: Create reports on support operations and user satisfaction.
- Customization: Utilize pre-defined responses, customized business rules, and integration with over 1,000 apps.
Zendesk pricing
- Suite Team: $55/month per agent.
- Suite Growth: $89/month per agent.
- Suite Professional: $115/month per agent.
- Suite Enterprise: Custom pricing.
12. Intercom
Intercom offers a versatile customer communication platform tailored to meet the needs of businesses at every stage, from startups to large enterprises. It focuses on enhancing customer support through automation, AI features, and advanced collaboration tools, ensuring a seamless experience both for teams and customers.
Intercom features
- Automation and AI: The Advanced plan introduces powerful tools to streamline support tasks and leverage AI for efficient customer experience.
- Customizable support: Tailor your customer support with various tools for varying business sizes, from individuals to large teams.
- Surveys: Use long-term and short-term surveys to gather customer feedback.
Intercom pricing
- Essential: $39 per seat/month.
- Advanced: $99 per seat/month.
- Expert: $139 per seat/month.
Conclusion
There are many customer insights tools on the market, so it can be tough to decide which is right for you. You want to choose a tool that can provide you with the features and qualitative and quantitative data you need to gain valuable insights from your customers.
Userpilot is one of the best customer insights platforms, providing methods to collect customer feedback, analyze user behavior, and leverage AI to gain customer insights. If you want to know more, book a demo now.
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