User engagement is critical to product growth, so it’s no surprise that there are so many great user engagement tools available on the market. But with so many options, how do you choose the right SaaS tools for your company?

But wait, why should I invest in customer engagement?

We know customer engagement tools are useful because they allow you to take something important – generating engagement – and do it better. But why would you want to increase engagement in the first place?

It turns out there are quite a few reasons. Customer engagement helps you:

• Boost revenue. Highly engaged customers buy 90 percent more often and pay 60 percent more per transaction.
  • Shorten the sales cycle. Customer engagement includes providing information proactively and helping your potential customers determine if your product or service is the right fit for them more quickly.
• Increase customer loyalty. Engaging customers in emotional relationships, which go above and beyond mere transactional purchases, helps forge stronger ties between them and your company. That’s why engaged customers are 5X more likely to stick to the same brand in the future.
• Create brand ambassadors. When customers feel engaged with your brand, they want to tell others about it, too, promoting and discussing their experience with other potential customers.
• Foster a relationship beyond the interpersonal. If your business relies on the relationship between a client and an employee, this creates a risk when that employee leaves. Fully engaged customers are tied in at a deeper level to the company as a whole.
• Establish brand identity. Customer engagement helps you create a brand personality that customers can identify with. Think about Apple, for example, that has carved out a unique image, one of easy sophistication. This resonates with and attracts like-minded people to the brand.

Now, let's talk about some of the tools and why they are the best?

1. Appcues:

   If you need something a bit more robust to guide your users through your site or SaaS, consider AppCues. Similar to Tutorialize in that you can put sticky tooltips on your site, AppCues goes a bit farther in terms of customization. You can also include a full-screen “Welcome” page, a slide-out or an in-app alert.

   AppCues also offers the ability to segment users, so only certain groups see the announcement or tooltip, so you can track how well your new demo walkthrough is performing in terms of converting customers. AppCues starts at $45/month for up to 250 active users. The number of users goes up significantly with higher pricing tiers.

2. Intercom:

   Intercom is a multi-pronged support platform that lets you observe what’s happening on your site, as it’s happening. Where it truly shines, however, is in its email and in-app-based engagement system. For example, if you just released a new version of your software program, and wanted to update users who downloaded the previous version just a day ago, you can simply create a filter through the Intercom dashboard, and those users will be immediately visible. Then, just type in your announcement, and they’ll see it the next time they log in. This process works via email as well as in the app itself.

   A simple slider-based pricing system lets you customize how much you pay for Intercom based on the number of users you have, and the end goal you want to achieve. For example, observing customers costs you nothing, while engagement, the package in the above video, has both a basic and pro plan with various integrations and features depending on your needs.

3. Chaemeleon:

   Chameleon offers in-app messages with custom styling, analytics, WYSIWYG editing, integrations, and more. Onboarding is one of its main use cases, but it can also be used for feature adoption, upsells, gathering feedback, and more.

4. User Pilot:

   Another code-free installation tool, Userpilot help teams increase user adoption by allowing them to trigger the right in-app experience to the right persona at the right stage of their user journey.

   The best part of Userpilot is its highly customized product experiences that will blend seamlessly with your product UI. Every user approaches your website in a different way and Userpilot does a great job in customizing the in-app messages according to the segment, buyer’s journey, or even mouse clicks made by the visitor.