Best Customer Advocacy Software Shortlist
- Influitive AdvocateHub - Best for gamification
- Yotpo - Best for ecommerce
- GetAmbassador - Best for growing teams
- Kangaroo - Best cost-effective option
- SproutSocial - Best for managing social media ambassadors
- CustomerGauge - Best for B2B
- InMoment - Best for large enterprises
- Khoros - Best one-stop-shop
- Medallia - Best for AI analytics
- RO Innovation - Best for large, distributed teams
- NICE Satmetrix - Best for VoC
- TechValidate - Best for data analytics
Remember the days when customer advocacy was just a fancy buzzword, and companies were satisfied with simply meeting their customers' basic needs? Well it’s 2023 now, and more than ever, businesses are embracing the concept of customer advocacy.
What is customer advocacy software?
Customer advocacy software is designed to help businesses build stronger relationships with their customers by leveraging the power of customer feedback and advocacy.
Customer advocacy software typically comes with powerful data collection tools like surveys, feedback forms, customer engagement tools, referral programs, and social media integrations.
Overview of the 12 Best Customer Advocacy Software for 2023
Use this list to help you research and compare price points, integration options, user experiences, analytics tools, and other features for different customer advocacy software.
1. Influitive AdvocateHub - Best for gamification
Why I picked Influitive AdvocateHub
I picked Influitive because it makes customer advocacy software fun while also engaging and empowering customers to promote your business. Influitive's features and integrations can help you build strong relationships with your advocates and grow through word-of-mouth marketing.
Influitive AdvocateHub Standout Features and Integrations
Features include Influitive's flagship product, AdvocateHub, that offers an array of gamification tools. With AdvocateHub, you can set up a rewards system and create advocacy campaigns and challenges for your customers. The Influitive mobile app lets customers participate in challenges, access resources, and earn rewards on-the-go, ensuring they stay engaged and motivated.
Apart from gamification, AdvocateHub also lets you easily collect, manage, and showcase user-generated content (UGC) like reviews, testimonials, and social media posts. Once you have this information, you can analyze it to measure the success of your advocacy program, identify areas for improvement, and track ROI.
Integrations include Marketo, Salesforce, HubSpot, Eloqua, Pardot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Slack, Gainsight, Adobe Experience Manager, Zoom, accessible with a paid Zapier account. Influitive also offers a Representational State Transfer (REST) API.
Price
From $1,999/month
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Advanced analytics
- Mobile app
- Gamification and rewards features
Cons
- Limited social media integration
- Limited customer service options
2. Yotpo - Best for e-commerce
Why I picked Yotpo:
I selected Yotpo because it is particularly well-suited for e-commerce businesses. You can collect product reviews and ratings from customers and display them on your product pages, which can help increase conversion rates and reduce shopping cart abandonment. Yotpo also offers a suite of marketing tools, including email campaigns, social media integrations, and referral programs, that can help e-commerce businesses reach new customers and grow their sales.
Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include tools for showcasing and managing SEO-optimized UGC from customers, customizable loyalty and rewards programs, and review and rating generation that help build social proof and credibility for your brand.
Yotpo is very useful for ecommerce businesses who want to use email campaigns, social media, and referral programs for marketing to their audience.
Integrations that are pre-built include Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Other third-party connectors are accessible with a paid Zapier account. Yotpo also offers a REST API.
Price
From $19/month/user
Free Trial
Free basic plan available
Pros:
- Powerful analytics and reporting capabilities
- Customizable design
- User-friendly interface and easy to set up
- Mobile app
- Free trial with basic plan
Cons:
- Limited customer service options
- Limited pre-built integrations
3. GetAmbassador - Best for growing teams
Why I picked GetAmbassador:
I chose GetAmbassador because it is a highly-rated referral marketing platform that is the best choice for B2B companies that are looking to scale their marketing reach with word-of-mouth marketing and referrals, as well as those that have complex sales cycles or long customer lifecycles.
Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include customizable rewards and referral programs, referral-tracking across multiple communications channels, fraud detection measures, advocacy campaigns and games, a mobile app, and UGC management. These features help you scale your business with automated, gamified, and secure customer advocacy tools.
Integrations include pre-built marketing automation and CRM platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WooCommerce, Zapier, Marketo and more. Native integrations include Influitive AdvocateHub, Yotpo, Oktopost, Gainsight, Outreach, and more. You can add more connectors with a paid Zapier account. GetAmbassador also offers a REST API.
Price
From $1,000/month
Free trial
Free demo available
Pros:
- User-friendly interface and easy to set up
- Powerful analytics capabilities
- Mobile app
- Integration with major CRM systems
- Customizable rewards and incentives
Cons:
- Limited social media integrations
- Limited customer service options
- Limited training and support resources
4. Kangaroo Rewards - Best cost-effective customer advocacy software
Why I picked Kangaroo Rewards
I decided to include Kangaroo Rewards because it provides key customer advocacy features at an affordable price so that you can get more for your money. While some customers have called it cumbersome and containing a good amount of bugs, Kangaroo Rewards is known for its reliable customer support.
Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include customizable point-based, tier-based, or punch-card-based rewards programs, omnichannel engagement tools, automated and targeted marketing tools, real-time data analytics, referral tracking and a user-friendly mobile app.
Integrations that are pre-built include Square, Lightspeed, Clover, Vend, Stripe, and more. Native integrations include Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and other popular ecommerce platforms. You can always add more connectors with a paid Zapier account. GetAmbassador also offers a RESTful API.
Price
From $59/month
Free Trial
30-day free trial
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Multi-channel engagement
- Mobile app
- Flexible redemption options
- Reliable customer support
Cons
- Limited integrations
- No UGC management
5. Sprout Social - Best for managing social media ambassadors
Why I picked Sprout Social
I picked this platform because of its focus on employee advocacy, user-friendly interface, and robust set of features. It’s one of the top-rated tools for encouraging social media and employee advocacy by helping you get employees to share company content on social media.
SproutSocial Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include content curation, social listening tools, content planning and publishing, as well as advanced analytics and reporting that make it ideal for brands with lots of social media ambassadors. These features let you tap into social media data so that you can better tailor your advocacy campaigns to your ambassadors.
Integrates with popular social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and popular content management systems like WordPress
- Targeted communications
- Reporting and analytics overview
- Curated content library
- Personalized content
Integrations that are pre-built include Facebook, Instatgram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Native integrations include HubSpot, Salesforce, GoogleAnalytics, and others. You can always add more connectors with a paid Zapier account. Sprout Social also offers a REST API.
Price:
From $249/month
Free Trial
30-day free trial and personalized demo available
Pros:
- User-friendly interface and easy to use
- Content curation features
- Customizable branding options
- Detailed reporting and analytics
Cons:
- No mobile app
- Limited training and support resources
6. CustomerGauge - Best for B2B
Why I picked CustomerGauge
I selected CustomerGauge for its reputation as a customer advocacy software that is ideal for B2B companies that want to measure and improve the customer experience. With a strong emphasis on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system, CustomerGauge is a popular choice for those that want to prioritize customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Standout features and integrations:
Features include powerful analytics tools, a real-time reporting dashboard, multi-channel feedback collection, and customer journey mapping that can help you to identify trends and patterns in customer feedback. B2B companies benefit greatly from CustomerGauge’s closed-loop feedback that aids with tracking and managing issues from start to finish.
Integrations both native and pre-built include HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zendesk, MailChimp, GoogleAnalytics, and more. You can add more connectors to a paid Zapier account. CustomerGuage also offers a REST API.
Price
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros:
- Powerful analytics capabilities
- Real-time reporting dashboard
- Mobile app
- Custom branding options
Cons
- Limited automation features
- Lack of training and support resources
7. InMoment - Best for large enterprises
Why I picked InMoment:
I chose InMoment because it is the best customer advocacy tool suited for enterprise-level businesses in various industries, including retail, healthcare, hospitality, and financial services. The platform is designed to handle large volumes of customer feedback and support complex reporting and analysis, making it ideal for businesses with a significant customer base and diverse feedback channels.
Standout features and integrations:
Features include InMoment’s Voice of the Customer (VoC) program, social media monitoring, advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, and customer journey mapping that allows you to capture and analyze customer feedback at every touchpoint. InMoment also offers custom branding features, survey templates helping you standardize your brand voice.
Integrations that are pre-built include Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Qualtrics, Tableau, Medallia, Oracle Cloud, Adobe Analytics, Clarabridge, Zendesk, and more. CustomerGuage also offers a REST API.
Price
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros
- Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities
- Comprehensive feedback collection
- Mobile app
- Real-time insights
Cons
- Complexity of features may require additional training and support
- Reliance on external data sources
8. Khoros - Best one-stop-shop digital customer advocacy software
Why I picked Khoros:
I chose Khoros because it's a one-stop-shop for community management, social media monitoring, and customer engagement. With Khoros, your business can improve its online presence and customer interactions, gain insights into its customers, and engage with customers with a user-interface that’s easy-to-use.
Standout features and integrations:
Features include easy-to-use community management platform, customer insights, sentiment analysis, social media monitoring that help businesses easily track customer sentiment in-real time. Khoros also provides you with content creation tools and AI automation to better scale your customer advocacy efforts.
Integrations both native and pre-built include Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zendesk, MailChimp, GoogleAnalytics, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. You can add more connectors to a paid Zapier account. Khoros also offers a RESTful API.
Price:
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros:
- Easy community management
- Mobile app
- Lots of integration options
- Real-time tracking and response to customer feedback
- Customizable content creation tools
Cons:
- Difficult with data migration or integrating software with existing systems
- Reliance on external data sources
9. Medallia - Best for AI analytics
Why I picked Medallia:
If you’re looking for customer advocacy software that has AI-powered analytics, look no further than Medallia. Medallia uses machine learning algorithms to analyze customer feedback and identify patterns and trends that can help businesses predict customer behavior and anticipate their needs.
Standout features and integrations:
Features include real-time feedback collection, text analytics, customer journey mapping, predictive analytics that are all enabled by AI and automatable. You can also create customizable surveys and feedback forms using data insights to better suit them to your customer-base.
Integrations both native and pre-built include Salesforce, Adobe Analytics, Power BI, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle, Tableau, SAP, Twitter, Facebook, WeChat, LinkedIn, and more. Medallia also offers a REST API and SDKs.
Price
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros
- AI-driven actionable insights and predictive analytics
- Continuous improvement and updates
- Mobile app
- Customizable dashboards and feedback forms
Cons
- Limited pricing information
- No free trial
10. RO Innovation - Best for large, distributed teams
Why I picked RO Innovation
RO Innovation caught my eye because it’s a great choice for organizations that need a way to quickly access and share customer references and case studies. This is mainly due to the wide range of automation, personalization, and reporting features that RO Innovation offers.
Standout features and integrations
Features include requesting, tracking, and reporting customer references and referrals, automated customer reference and referral requests, personalized content for sales representatives, ROI reporting for customer advocacy programs, and more. RO Innovation also has multi-language support, making it well-suited for multinational organizations.
Integrations both native and pre-built include Salesforce, Eloqua, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, HubSpot, SAP, ZoomInfo, and more. You can add more connectors to a paid Zapier account. RO innovation also offers a RESTful API.
Price
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros:
- User-friendly interface and easy-to-use
- High-quality reference management
- Mobile app
- Personalized content for sales representatives
- Multi-language support
Cons:
- Compatibility issues with older browsers or OS
- Pricing isn’t publicly available
- No free trial of the software itself
I’ve included two bonus software, as well:
11. NICE Satmetrix - Best for VoC
Why I picked NICE Satmetrix:
NICE Satmetrix has lots of features and integrations that can help you measure and manage customer satisfaction and loyalty, like the VoC, text analytics, and social media monitoring. They also integrate with popular CRM and customer feedback tools, making it easy to get started with the platform.
Standout features and integrations:
Features include NPS surveys and analytics, comprehensive VoC programs, customer journey mapping, social media monitoring, and text analytics that help you amplify the voice of the customer and understand what your customers want.
Integrations both native and pre-built include Salesforce, Zendesk, SurveyMonkey, Tableau, Power BI, Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo and more. You can add more connectors to a paid Zapier account. NICE Satmetrix also offers a RESTful API.
Price
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros:
- Actionable customer insights
- NPS methodology is widely recognized as a measure of customer loyalty
- Integrations with popular CRM and customer feedback tools
Cons:
- Lack of transparency around pricing on the website
- Limited information about their support offerings
12. TechValidate - Best for data analytics
Why I picked TechValidate
I chose TechValidate because of its unique ability to create statistically significant data sets from customer feedback. TechValidate uses a rigorous methodology to collect and analyze customer feedback, ensuring that the data is statistically representative and accurate. This is achieved through a combination of automated data collection and verification processes, as well as human review and analysis.
Standout features and integrations
Features include customizable surveys, data validation, automated content generation, and detailed analysis and reporting that help you get more accurate insights into customer sentiment, and create targeted content.
Integrations both native and pre-built include Salesforce, Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo and more. You can add more connectors to a paid Zapier account. TechValidate also offers a REST API.
Price
Pricing upon request
Free Trial
Free demo available
Pros:
- Provides third-party validation and verification of customer data
- Offers a range of survey templates and customization options
- Can generate visually appealing content from survey data, such as infographics and case studies
Cons:
- Requires significant resources to conduct surveys and analyze data
- May not be as effective for businesses with a small customer base
- Integration and onboarding can be time-consuming
Other Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best customer advocacy software list:
- Bazaarvoice- Best for syndicating content
- Annex Cloud- Best for loyalty solutions
- VocalReferences- Best for audio/video testimonials
- Extole- Best for integrations
- Zuberance- Best for custom content
- TapMango- Best for small to mid-sized businesses
Selection Criteria for the Best Customer Advocacy Software
After analyzing dozens of customer advocacy software platforms, along with reading feedback from users and experts in the industry, I was able to put together this list of the top customer advocacy software solutions. I was really looking for customer advocacy software with the best data analytics/management, usability, and automation features, which I’ll go into more detail about below.
Core Functionality:
The core functionality of customer advocacy software is to identify, engage, and leverage satisfied customers who are willing to promote and recommend your brand, products or services to their network. This type of software typically includes features such as customer reference management, referral marketing, social media monitoring, customer feedback and review management, and loyalty program management.
Key Features:
The key features of a good customer advocacy software include:
- Customer Reference Management: This feature allows businesses to manage their customer reference program and track customer testimonials, case studies, and other marketing assets.
- Referral Marketing: This feature enables businesses to incentivize and reward customers for referring new business to the company.
- Voice of Customer (VoC) Programs: This feature enables businesses to collect and analyze customer feedback through surveys, reviews, and other feedback mechanisms, helping to identify areas for improvement and drive customer loyalty.
- Social Media Monitoring: This feature enables businesses to monitor and analyze social media channels to better understand customer sentiment and identify trends.
- Integration with CRM and Marketing Tools: Integration with popular CRM and marketing tools such as Salesforce, Marketo, and Hubspot enables businesses to streamline their advocacy programs and leverage existing customer data.
- Automated Content Creation: This feature enables businesses to quickly and easily create content based on customer data, such as case studies, white papers, and testimonials.
- Analytics and Reporting: This feature provides detailed analytics and reporting on customer data, including charts, graphs, and heat maps, helping businesses to track the success of their advocacy programs and make data-driven decisions.
Usability:
When selecting customer advocacy software, I prioritized tools that offer a user-friendly experience and are easy to implement and use.
Your team shouldn't have to spend significant time learning how to use complex features, especially when it might make interacting with customers cumbersome or difficult. Look for solutions that have clean and straightforward interfaces, organized menus, and easy-to-use functionalities. Your team should be able to navigate the software with ease and access analyses and data reports without any difficulty.
Value for Money:
I factored in the software's cost, its ROI, and its free trial options to ensure you're getting the most bang for your buck.
Lower-end customer advocacy software can cost around $50 per month, while more high-end software could run up to $2000 per month. I expected cheaper software to still have basic necessary features, and more expensive software to really have some extra bells and whistles to make the price tag worth it.
Integrations:
I considered the software's integration options with popular CRM, ecommerce, POS, analytics, social media, and marketing tools.
People Also Ask
Here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about what customer advocacy is, its benefits, and why it’s so important.
How can customer advocacy software benefit your business?
Why is customer advocacy important?
Summary
If you want to keep your customers coming back for more, finding the right customer advocacy tool for your organization is a great place to start.
Whether you need a platform for managing customer feedback, setting up an automated customer referral program, or creating some killer content, consider digging deeper into some of the tools on this list. By centering on the voice of the customer (VoC) in your organization, you can become an advocate for your customers in order to learn how to best support them.
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