For customer support and CX leaders, evaluating a new customer service platform can feel like a project in itself - one that threatens to eat up your entire quarter. With evolving customer expectations, rising demands for omnichannel support, and emerging AI capabilities, making the right decision has never been more complex - or more important.
Thankfully, vendor evaluations don’t have to hijack your calendar or overwhelm your team. The Freshworks Buyer’s Guide 2026 provides CX leaders with the clarity, structure, and strategic insight needed to cut through the noise and select a solution aligned with their business objectives and future needs.
In this post, we’ll walk through key takeaways from the guide - along with data points, evaluation frameworks, and practical advice to simplify your decision-making process.
The expectations of modern customers have dramatically evolved. They demand:
Behind the scenes, support teams must scale operations, maximise agent productivity, and integrate seamlessly with other systems - from CRMs to automation tools.
In this environment, your choice of customer service software isn’t just an IT decision - it’s a strategic investment in customer experience, loyalty, and business growth.
Selecting the wrong platform can result in:
The Freshworks Buyer’s Guide helps you navigate these risks with a structured, data-driven approach to platform selection.
The 2026 Buyer’s Guide breaks down the selection process into three actionable stages:
1. Audit Your Current Setup
Before evaluating new solutions, it's essential to understand your current platform’s capabilities, limitations, and impact on business outcomes. Key areas to assess:
2. Define Business Outcomes
Avoid getting distracted by flashy features. Instead, anchor your evaluation in the outcomes that matter most to your organisation. These might include:
3. Map Platform Capabilities to Outcomes
Once your goals are clear, the next step is to map vendor capabilities to those outcomes. This helps cut through the clutter and evaluate each option based on business relevance - not just technical specifications.
The guide includes a powerful Vendor Comparison Checklist covering nine critical evaluation criteria. These are designed to help CX leaders compare solutions on what really matters - not just marketing claims.
|
Evaluation Dimension |
What It Assesses |
|
Omnichannel Support |
Unified service across email, chat, phone, social |
|
Agent Productivity Tools |
Intuitive UI, automation, collaboration features |
|
AI Readiness |
Native AI tools for chatbots, agent assist, analytics |
|
Reporting & Analytics |
Real-time, customisable, actionable insights |
|
Ease of Implementation |
Time to value, onboarding experience |
|
Total Cost of Ownership |
Pricing model, hidden costs, ROI |
|
Integration Ecosystem |
CRM, ERP, and third-party app connectivity |
|
Scalability & Flexibility |
How the platform handles growth and change |
|
Customer Success & Support |
Quality of vendor onboarding and ongoing support |
Use this scorecard to objectively assess each vendor - and ensure your decision reflects the needs of both your customers and internal teams.
To help visualise current trends and priorities in the customer service space, here are some standout statistics drawn from market research and vendor data that informed the Buyer’s Guide:
📊 2026 CX Trends Snapshot
Use these figures to benchmark your organisation - and guide internal discussions with stakeholders.
🚩 When reviewing demos or trials, pay close attention to:
A platform that fails in these areas may cost more long-term, regardless of its base price.
Customer expectations and technologies will continue to evolve. The best customer service platforms should help you adapt with:
A “future-ready” platform isn’t about predicting trends - it’s about having the agility and tools to adapt to them.
The Freshworks Buyer’s Guide isn’t just theory - it includes real-world insights from CX leaders, along with practical exercises such as:
These tools simplify the complex and give you a repeatable framework for future evaluations.
Choosing a customer service platform doesn’t have to be overwhelming - or slow. With the right framework and tools, you can:
If anything in this post resonates - if you're tired of juggling tools, managing manual processes, or struggling with poor visibility - let's talk. BDQ helps organisations assess, implement, and scale customer service platforms like Freshworks, Jira Service Management, and others to match your unique goals.
🚀 Contact us today to start your journey toward streamlined, effective customer service.