Welcome to our ranking of the best customer insight tools for small businesses, enterprises, institutions, and UX teams.
We talk with customers every day who ask the same questions:
- “What’s the best customer insight software?”
- “There are so many tools out there. What’s the difference between them all?”
- “Which tools should we use for market research? Is Google Analytics enough?”
The truth is, there is no one single best tool. They all have different use cases for different types of business, and they all have strengths and weaknesses.
TL;DR – 7 Best Customer Insight Software
We’ve selected our top tools and ordered them according to specific needs.
The top customer insight tools available today are:
- Marvin – the best overall (surprise!)
- Google Analytics – the best for learning web traffic behaviors
- HotJar – the best user behavior tool for web pages
- Medallia – the best enterprise customer experience tool for large businesses and chains
- Google Trends – the best free software for SEO and marketing
- Qualtrics – our top tool for customer and employee satisfaction surveys
- Gong – the best insights software for sales teams
Before we get into the action, we just want you to know Marvin is easy to get started.
Our platform puts all of your research into one place. Then, it turns it into a searchable, shareable database with AI-driven insights for improving your business based on customer behaviors.
If you want to learn even more, you can schedule a demo today.
What Are Customer Insights Tools?
Imagine knowing exactly how your customers feel about you.
What would you do with all of that insight?
You could improve customer support, create new features or products, optimize your loyalty program, create more targeted content, and even fine-tune your brand messaging.
That’s the power of customer insight tools.
These tools are software that help businesses study massive amounts of data about their customers’ needs, opinions, and behaviors.
Typical consumer insight sources include:
- Survey answers
- Customer support interactions
- General online review sentiment
- Sales and conversion data
- Behaviors like browsing habits or interactions with your company’s website
You can then take these insights and make data-driven decisions that actually improve your customer experience rather than just playing “pin the tail on the major website change that takes 6 months longer than expected and still doesn’t work.”
A Customer Insights Example: How Netflix Uses Insights to Produce Successful “Original” Content
Netflix uses customer insights to create content based on what customers want, not what company executives think will succeed.
Their “original TV shows” are based on how binge-watchers like us interact with the platform.
Guess what? It works. According to Forbes, Netflix Originals have an 80% success rate compared to the 30-40% of traditional series.
They do this by “watching us” (how ironic) and learning which actors/actresses we like, the plots that keep us involved, and how much of a show we watch before closing the laptop.
With this data, they’re able to perfectly engineer TV shows that become phenomena. Not hits, phenomena.
All because of customer research.
Benefits of Using a Customer Insight Platform
The benefits all come down to one thing: learning more about your customers so you can make better decisions.
User insights software (like Marvin) lets you understand 3 key things:
- What your prospective buyers think about your brand
- What they want from you in the future
- How they feel while using your product or service
The benefits of using customer insight management tools include the following…
Fast and Accurate Data Gathering
Insight tools gather data quickly and conveniently through collecting survey results, emails, interview transcripts, and real-world client interactions.
Normally, you’d have to do all of this “manually” and store the customer data in a dozen different locations, then do a Frankenstein-like patchwork job to stitch all the data together.
With advanced software like Marvin, you meet the customer where they are across every touchpoint, and it automatically collects the data for you, so you can focus more on what matters: making business decisions.
Speaking of that…
Better Decision-Making
Customer experience tools give you the data, insight, and time and brain space to make better decisions.
They take millions of data points, collect them automatically, and translate them into actionable insights that you can implement into your business for improved efficiency and profitability.
Instead of just guessing what needs to be done, tools like Marvin tell you exactly what your customers want, what you should do next, and what’s most likely to work in the future.
This insight lets you spot trends, launch tailored marketing campaigns, create new products your audience wants, and optimize sales pipelines.
We dove into even more detail about using AI to make better decisions in our guide to AI qualitative data analysis.
Optimized Customer Experience
Optimizing the customer’s experience with your product requires knowing how they actually feel about you, as well as how the customer interacts with your business.
This isn’t possible without AI-driven tools to do the grunt work for you.
With insight tools, you get granular data about how people behave on your web pages and in interactions with your company. For example, if they stay on certain pages longer than others or if they’re satisfied after a customer support interaction.
Then, you can take this data to make improvements that are more likely to produce positive results.
Greater Employee Retention
Most research tools offer features that help you understand how your employees feel, improve employee training, and build a more positive culture.
For example, running employee surveys and analyzing the overall sentiment of your team members lets you uncover issues like dissatisfaction, problems with training, burnout, or lack of career development opportunities.
Next-level tools provide actionable insights for improving employee performance and morale based on their performance in team and customer interactions. You can then take this data and improve your internal processes to reduce churn and improve work culture.
Improved Customer Engagement and Loyalty
The more data you have on customers, the better experiences you can offer them. Once you understand their desires, pain points, and experiences with your company, you can improve what matters most and boost customer lifetime value, engagement, and loyalty.
A great example is Starbucks, a beloved brand that brings customer obsession to life. Have you ever noticed how they take your name at the counter and somehow know to send you a coupon in your email for the exact drink you’re craving as soon as you wake up?
That’s customer data used the right way.
Starbucks collects inhuman amounts of data about its customers. They know exactly what you like to drink, where you buy it from, and what time you buy it. They probably know your dog’s name too.
They use this data to send you coupons, staff locations with more baristas at peak times, introduce new programs like pre-ordering and introduce reward points gimmicks to the right people.
The result? They own the coffee world.
Top 7 Customer Insight Tools
Now, it’s time to dive into the most powerful customer insight tools on the market.
1. Marvin
Marvin (that’s us!) is a customer insights management tool for startups, busy UX teams, and consultants that lets you build an AI-powered central repository of all your user experience data.
Then, you can use AI to search and analyze it, so you can learn the “how and why” behind your customer’s behavior quickly in one central location.
This automates all of the tedious parts of qualitative research and helps you connect the dots so you can make more user-centric decisions.
You can store all your notes, interview transcripts, survey analysis, company reports, and random documents, then automatically tag and organize them into one searchable and shareable database.
Find out more about how Marvin acts as your AI research assistant.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is a user data platform that tracks and displays how users interact with your website across all platforms and devices.
GA shows you all of this in one simple location:
- How long visitors stay on your website
- How often they achieve a goal (long stay, clicks, inquiries, etc.)
- Does a user visit your site and leave quickly (“bounce rate”)
- How many pages they visit each session
- How often they return
- Where they’re coming from, and which devices they’re using
Once you know the who, what, when, where, why, and how of visitor behavior, you can begin to experiment with optimizing different aspects of your customer experience.
The only downside to GA is that it doesn’t do much sentiment analysis or store or analyze the data for you (at least not much). It’s mostly just for visualizing user behavior data.
3. HotJar
HotJar is a product experience insights tool that shows you how visitors interact with your web pages at a micro level.
In plain English, HotJar puts you in your users’ shoes so you can see exactly what they’re thinking when they’re on your page.
With this data, you’ll know what drives a customer to convert, what they ignore, or what’s getting in the way. This type of knowledge empowers you to make data-driven changes to improve conversions and optimize your customer experience on all of your pages and each step within your sales funnel.
4. Medallia
Medallia is an enterprise customer experience feedback tool used by large businesses, higher learning institutions, and Fortune 500 companies. It lets you optimize the entire customer journey using behavioral analysis, feedback, data analysis, and AI-driven insights.
If you’re looking to understand how your customers interact with your business, how they feel about each touchpoint in the process, and what you need to do to optimize everything, Medallia is the platform for you.
Medallia excels in the following areas: customer feedback, actionable insights, and long-term business optimization.
5. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free consumer data analysis tool that shows you search trends, emerging patterns, and new content ideas, so you can tailor your marketing towards what’s trending in different areas.
It’s the best way to spot the “next big thing” in your industry and get a head start on competitors.
Think about it this way…
Say you’re a SaaS company looking to create new content or ads. All you’d have to do is look for your topic in Google Trends, and you’d see a ton of valuable data to help tailor your campaigns to precisely what your audience is searching for right now.
6. Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a customer and employee experience management tool for optimizing your business by asking the right questions, listening to feedback, and taking action based on AI-driven insights.
One of their biggest selling points is that they have services tailored to certain industries like education, finance, and healthcare. By the way, in those industries, delivering better experiences is probably the #1 competitive advantage. The happier a customer or employee is, the healthier your business is. Period.
If we had to sum it up, Qualtrics helps you:
- Deliver better customer experiences
- Retain employees by actually listening to their gripes and fixing key issues
- Make smarter business decisions (like designing better products) through feedback collection and predictive analysis
7. Gong
Gong is a customer insights platform that stores, summarizes, and analyzes customer and employee interactions, then uses AI to provide actionable insights for sales, marketing, and human resources.
The cool thing about Gong is it connects directly to your CRM and automatically updates and syncs with sales/team data for even more insight and actionability.
This makes it easier to track progress, set and achieve goals, improve products and processes, and make informed decisions.
Gong is best for:
- Sales teams
- Market research
- Employee performance
And a fun fact! Gong is one of the many product integrations Marvin offers to our customers.
Key Features to Look for in Customer Insight Solutions
Let’s take a look at some of the key features you should evaluate before signing up for a customer insight solution.
Relevance
First off, look for a customer insight solution that fits into your business and helps you achieve your goals.
What’s most important to you?
Improving customer retention? Optimizing sales? Enhancing internal performance and retention?
You want the tool to feel like it was built just for you. That way, you’re not just swimming in data — you’re getting clear, actionable insights that produce tangible results for your specific business needs.
Scalability
Your customer insights tool should be able to grow with you without any hassles.
What if your traffic doubles? Will the platform be able to keep up?
Cloud-based systems are designed to handle increased data volume effortlessly with features like flexible data storage and advanced analytics that perform well under pressure.
Here are a few of our favorite scalable features:
- Seamless integration with your company’s tech stack
- AI-driven insights
- User role management
- A customizable dashboard
- Flexible or customized pricing
Security
The best customer insight tools take data privacy and security very seriously.
Look for a customer insight tool with encryption, two-factor authentication, user permissions, and GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC2 compliance.
Select a tool that has a good mix of security and privacy features and conducts comprehensive audits to ensure your data is always protected.
User-friendliness
User-friendly consumer research tools are rare, so make sure you schedule a demo with the tool and look for the following features:
- Drag-and-drop dashboards
- Simple data visualizations
- Easy access to metrics that matter most
- In-depth tutorials
- Guided setup
- Fast performance
- Great customer service (more on this later)
The truth is that most customer insight management platforms have a steep learning curve.
The easier the tool is to learn and use, the happier you’re going to be.
Customer Support
Customer support is going to make or break your experience with the insights platform you choose.
And you’re going to hit hurdles once in a while — that’s life.
You want a team of knowledgeable, REAL people to help you set things up, customize the software to your business’s needs, and solve issues as soon as they arise.
You also want a tool that guides you on adding new features and walks you through how to interpret advanced data.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using a Customer Insight Tool
Here are some of the most common mistakes we see people make with customer insight tools:
Acting without Defining Purpose
Before you start collecting customer data, decide the purpose behind collecting the data.
Don’t just start asking customers to choose a sad face or a happy face when they leave your site. Instead, define what you’re trying to do.
For example, are you trying to reduce churn? Are you curious about what your customers think about your brand? Are you trying to optimize your sales funnels?
Once you define your goal, you can then set criteria for collecting and evaluating the data.
You can still use smiley face surveys — just make sure you know why you’re doing it!
Not Validating User Data
Customers will often say one thing and do another, so you need to make sure that the survey results match what’s happening in the real world.
You know how when the waitress comes to your table and asks you how your food is, you always say “It’s amazing” even if it’s bad? Customers will do the same.
So, don’t just take survey results at face value.
Use other data like onsite behavior, purchasing history, support experiences, and interviews to make sure it reflects reality.
Ignoring Social Data
Social data is sometimes a better indicator of what people think of you than any other source of data.
Yet, we see countless clients focusing too narrowly on just 1-2 data sources and ignoring all other platforms.
You need to take a holistic approach and include all social platforms, blogs, and forums at your disposal. This includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, news sites, and general blogs. Gather as much data as you can!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Check out the answers to the most common questions about customer insights tools.
How Do Customer Insight Tools Differ from Market Research Tools?
Customer insight tools focus on understanding your existing customers’ behaviors, preferences, and experiences by analyzing data you already have, like purchase history or feedback.
Market research tools, on the other hand, are more about gathering information on the broader market, including potential customers, competitors, and industry trends.
What Are the Costs Associated with Implementing Customer Insight Tools?
The costs of implementing customer insight tools can vary depending on the tool and the features you need. Some tools charge a monthly subscription fee, which can range from affordable plans for small businesses to more expensive options for larger companies. There might also be costs for setup, training your team, and integrating the tool with your existing systems.
In general, the costs can be anywhere from $0 – $5,000 per month, depending on which features you need and how much data you collect.
Can Small Businesses Benefit from Customer Insight Tools?
Small businesses can benefit just as much, if not more, from customer insight tools than large businesses. These tools help you really get to know your customers — what they like, what they need, and how they behave. With this understanding, you can adjust your products, services, and marketing to better meet their needs, which can lead to more sales and loyal customers.
Even if you don’t have a huge customer base, knowing these details gives you an advantage over competitors. You can make better decisions based on real data instead of guessing.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything there is to know about customer insight tools, it’s time to take action.
Here’s what to do…
Start by thinking about your goals for conducting consumer research. Is it to improve your SEO and marketing? Then, you probably just need Google Analytics and Google Trends.
If you’re looking to improve customer experiences and internal research processes, then Marvin could be the perfect fit.
Marvin does everything in one place. It’s simple and easy to learn (and scalable!).You don’t have to take our word for it. Schedule your free demo now, and we’ll give you a tour.
