Customer engagement software

Customer engagement software helps businesses manage customer interactions through targeted communication, behavioral data, and campaign automation. It connects what customers do with the content, message, or next step they receive. For mobile businesses, this can include Stories, in-app messages, banners, in-app games, and push notifications. These capabilities may come from one platform or several connected tools, with marketing and product teams using them to support continued product use and purchasing.

Why Is Customer Engagement Software Needed?

Customer engagement software helps teams respond to communication gaps across the customer journey, such as an unexplained feature or an unused reward. Those gaps matter because customer experience influences whether people stay: PwC’s 2025 Customer Experience Survey found that 29% of surveyed US consumers had stopped using or buying from a brand because of poor customer experience. Software can help deliver guidance when customers need it, but the underlying task must also work properly.

Loyalty programs are another application. Deloitte’s analysis of its 2025 Consumer Loyalty Program Survey, published in January 2026, found that 56% of surveyed US loyalty-program members said they increased their spending because of the program. Engagement software can make those benefits easier to discover through contextual explanations and reminders, while tracking whether customers actually redeem rewards or purchase again.

What’s Included in Customer Engagement Software?

Customer Data and Segmentation

Customer data helps teams choose who should receive a message and what that message should contain. Useful inputs include purchase history, feature usage, declared preferences, and recent activity. McKinsey’s 2025 analysis of personalized marketing recommends more granular targeting around lifecycle stages, including repeat purchase and churn risk. A retail team could apply this approach by identifying previously frequent buyers whose activity has declined, then excluding customers who have already responded to the current offer.

Campaign Rules and Channel Coordination

Campaign rules determine what starts a message, who qualifies, and when communication stops. For example, a retailer could send an eligible customer a push reminder that opens their saved basket, then display a bottom sheet explaining delivery options. Once the order is completed, the reminder should stop across connected channels. This coordination supports an omnichannel customer experience, where the next interaction reflects what the customer has already done.

Customer Engagement Software in Mobile Apps

Stories

In-app Stories give teams space to explain a feature, introduce products, or show how a benefit works through connected visual slides. They can also include polls and other interactive elements that collect customer preferences. In the Leroy Merlin used in-app Stories for service explanations, inspiration, loyalty information, and promotions. The appropriate success measure depends on the job: an educational Story should be evaluated differently from a promotion intended to generate an immediate purchase.

In-App Messages

In-app messages appear during app use and can respond to a relevant action. Pop-ups present focused prompts, bottom sheets leave part of the current screen visible, and full-screen messages provide more space for an important explanation or campaign. InAppStory’s telecom app case study reported 6.47% CTR for a contextual bottom sheet versus 1.16% for a carousel Story promoting the same partner subscription bundle. Placement and timing also differed, so the figures illustrate that campaign setup rather than an expected advantage for every in-app message.

Banners

In-app banners keep an offer or update visible within an existing screen rather than covering the interface. A banner could show an available reward, introduce a seasonal campaign, or provide an entry point to a game. When the topic needs more explanation, link the banner to a relevant product page or Story instead of squeezing every detail into the placement.

In-App Games

In-app games and gamification add participation to a campaign through quizzes, challenges, or reward-based activities. A retailer might use a short game to introduce a product range, with a clearly explained reward and a direct route back to shopping. Track what happens after participation, including reward redemption and repeat purchases, rather than treating game starts as proof of higher retention.

Push Notifications

Push notifications can bring customers back when they are outside the app, while in-app content continues the conversation after they return. The distinction between push notifications and in-app messages matters when planning a journey: an inactive customer cannot see a bottom sheet until they open the app. A push about an expiring reward should therefore lead to that reward or its redemption instructions, not leave the customer searching from the home screen.

Best Practices for Choosing and Using Customer Engagement Software

1. Start with a Specific Customer Journey

Choose an initial use case, such as helping new customers complete their first order or reminding existing members about unused benefits. Define the result the pilot must demonstrate before expanding it. Include integration, content production, and ongoing operation in the cost assessment.

2. Check Data Connections and Implementation Requirements

BCG’s 2025 Personalization Index assesses customer identity matching, coordination across channels, and experimentation as parts of personalization maturity. Use those areas to guide questions about how a tool receives events and shares results with existing systems.

3. Control Frequency and Respect Customer Preferences

Set campaign priorities so the same customer does not receive several competing promotions during one session. Stop reminders after completion, provide a clear dismissal option, and avoid interrupting important tasks with unrelated offers. Use information customers reasonably expect you to act on, and explain why additional data is requested. PwC’s 2025 survey recommends personalization built around useful preferences and behaviors while giving customers transparency and control.

4. Test Additional Business Impact

For campaigns intended to change purchases or retention, use a randomized holdout group where practical. This principle can guide in-app testing by comparing eligible users assigned to receive or not receive a campaign over the same period. Assess completed actions, repeat behavior, and campaign costs before deciding whether to expand the activity.