20 Best CX Platforms For Improved Customer Experience In 2026
10 Best CX Platforms Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
With so many different CX management solutions available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to improve your customer experience and manage it more efficiently, but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different CX tools with large teams and projects, with my picks of the best CX platforms.
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The Best CX Platforms: Pricing Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top CX platform selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the right CX platform for your budget and business needs.
| Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Best AI-driven customer insights | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
| 2 | Best for shared inbox collaboration | Free trial available | From $25/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
| 3 | Best for contextual AI chatbot support | 7-day free trial + free plan available | From $25/user/month | Website | |
| 4 | Best for multi-channel feedback collection | Free trial available | From $19/month | Website | |
| 5 | Best for simplified user surveys | 10-day free trial available | From $55.99/month | Website | |
| 6 | Best for advanced survey analytics | 10-day free trial + free plan available | From $25/month (billed annually) | Website | |
| 7 | Best for end-to-end customer experiences | Free plan available | From $25/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
| 8 | Best for personalized AI customer support | 14-day free trial | From $19/user/month | Website | |
| 9 | Best for automated customer campaigns | Free demo available | From $118/month | Website | |
| 10 | Best for AI-powered video guides | Free 7-day trial + free plan + free demo available | From $18/creator/month (billed annually) | Website |
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Freshdesk
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.4 -
Hiver
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6 -
Creatio CRM
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.7
Best CX Platform Reviews
Unwrap brings everything you hear from your customers—support tickets, reviews, surveys, social posts, and more—into one place and uses AI to turn all that messy feedback into clear patterns and trends you and your team can act on, helping you know what really matters to your users without hours of manual work. Designed for product managers, CX teams, and anyone responsible for customer insight, it helps you prioritize issues and feature ideas based on what customers are actually saying.
Why I Picked Unwrap
I picked Unwrap because it turns large volumes of unstructured feedback into prioritized, digestible insights that your product and customer experience teams can act on without needing to comb through every comment. Its AI-powered thematic clustering and sentiment analysis automatically categorizes feedback into meaningful themes so your team sees trends instead of noise, and real-time alerts help you spot emerging issues as they develop. This focus on surfacing what’s most important from diverse feedback sources makes Unwrap especially useful for teams looking to ground their decisions in the voice of the customer.
Unwrap Key Features
In addition to its standout features, Unwrap offers several other capabilities:
- Customizable Dashboards: Allow your team to create personalized views of data for improved collaboration and decision-making.
- Natural Language Querying: Enables users to interact with data using conversational language, simplifying the analysis process.
- Alert Systems: Provide real-time notifications for emerging insights, helping your team to stay ahead of potential issues.
- Automated Feedback Analysis: Converts unstructured feedback into structured data, saving time and reducing manual effort.
Unwrap Integrations
Integrations include Salesforce, Zendesk, Intercom, Slack, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Asana, Trello, and Jira.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Automates categorization of unstructured feedback into meaningful groups with NLP.
- AI tools surface emerging trends without manually scanning large datasets.
- Sentiment analysis helps teams quantify how users feel over time.
Cons:
- Occasional gaps in native platform integrations compared to competitors.
- Feedback taxonomy setup may require extra effort to customize.
Help Scout is a customer experience platform that helps support teams manage email based interactions with a clear, collaborative workflow. Your team can handle customer questions from shared inboxes, offer self service through a knowledge base, and provide real time help through its Beacon powered chat experience.
Why I picked Help Scout:
I picked Help Scout because it keeps CX operations simple when your focus is email centric support. You can organize conversations across multiple inboxes, so you always know who is responsible for each customer message. The help center lets you publish articles that help customers resolve common issues on their own, which reduces incoming volume as your team grows. Help Scout also includes lightweight automation and AI features, so you can speed up responses without needing a complex setup.
Standout Features and Integrations
Features include shared inboxes to coordinate replies across departments, a built in knowledge base for self service, and Beacon, which combines live chat, help articles, and email into a single customer facing widget. The platform also includes AI Answers for instant replies and reporting tools to understand customer trends. Integrations include Salesforce, Zapier, Shopify, Slack, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Asana, Google Sheets, Stripe, Facebook, Trello, and WooCommerce.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Clear workflows for email management
- Helpful built in knowledge base tools
- User friendly interface for support teams
Cons:
- No native WhatsApp or voice support
- Limited advanced automation options
New Product Updates from Help Scout
Help Scout Adds Company Context to Customer Conversations
Help Scout now allows users to view organization-wide details during conversations, enhancing context on key accounts. For more information, visit Help Scout's official site.
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Tidio is an AI-powered customer service platform designed to help businesses manage customer interactions across multiple channels. It combines tools like live chat, chatbots, and a help desk into one system.
Why I chose Tidio: I like that Tidio helps improve customer experience through its AI chatbot, Lyro. Lyro uses your existing support content—such as FAQs and help articles—to answer customer questions in a human-like manner. It also understands context, asks clarifying questions, and supports multiple languages. If Lyro encounters a question it can't answer, it transfers the conversation to a human agent, preserving the context for a smooth handoff.
Tidio Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a live chat widget that offers real-time communication with website visitors. This tool allows your team to engage customers instantly, answer questions, and guide them through the purchasing process. Another feature is the ability to create canned responses, enabling agents to reply quickly to common inquiries.
Integrations include Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, WIX, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Google Analytics, Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Zendesk.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Provides insights into team performance and customer satisfaction
- Lyro AI handles a significant portion of customer inquiries
- Multichannel support, including for chats, emails, and social media
Cons:
- Limitations when integrating with certain third-party tools
- Many automation features limited to higher tier plans
SurveySparrow is an experience management platform that enables you to gather, analyze, and act on customer feedback in real time. It offers tools like Net Promoter Score (NPS), offline, chat, classic, and 360° surveys to help you enhance customer and employee experiences.
Why I chose SurveySparrow: SurveySparrow's CX platform excels in collecting feedback across multiple channels like WhatsApp, email, and social media. This flexibility ensures you're reaching your customers where they're most active, which can lead to better response rates and more detailed feedback. I especially like its conversational surveys, which transform traditional questionnaires into chat-like interactions, which can lead to higher response rates. This approach makes participants feel more engaged, encouraging them to provide valuable feedback.
SurveySparrow Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include customizable branding, which lets you tailor surveys to reflect your brand's identity, enhancing recognition and trust among respondents. The platform also offers advanced reporting with click-free dashboards and filters, enabling you to easily analyze responses and derive actionable insights.
Integrations include Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Jira Software Cloud, NetSuite, Pipedrive, QuickBooks Online, and Mailchimp.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- ffers customizable survey templates
- Good AI feedback analysis
- Supports multilingual surveys
Cons:
- Sentiment analytics features only available on higher-tier plans
- Limited configuration options on basic plans
New Product Updates from SurveySparrow
SurveySparrow's Enhancements to Survey Flows
SurveySparrow announced new updates, including enhancements in survey flows and user engagement. For more information, visit SurveySparrow's official site.
Survicate is a simple and straightforward survey platform that helps CX teams collect user insights from customers and website visitors. Your teams can gather helpful feedback from customers, product users, and prospects, providing invaluable insights into the customer journey.
Why I picked Survicate:
This tool made it onto my list because of its friendly approach to conducting large-scale user research. Surveys can be distributed via email, on your website, in-app, and through mobile. They can be customized to your branding and measure key customer satisfaction metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES).
Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a user-friendly, drag-and-drop survey builder and tons of pre-built templates to speed up the process. You can also set up advanced targeting, so surveys show up at key moments when users are most likely to respond. Integrations include ActiveCampaign, Drip, Amplitude, HubSpot, Intercom, Mailchimp, Salesforce, FullStory, Zendesk, and Microsoft Teams.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Able to capture partial responses
- Easy-to-use interface and widget design
- Customizable templates
Cons:
- Limited maximum response limit per month
- Integrations not available in freemium plan
New Product Updates from Survicate
Survicate Improves Survey Management and Installation Experience
Survicate introduces enhanced survey list management tools and updated installation tabs for web and mobile SDKs. These updates make surveys easier to organize and simplify setup and tracking workflows. For more information, visit Survicate’s official site.
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Sogolytics is an advanced online survey and experience management platform designed to help organizations gather and analyze feedback. By offering a robust set of tools for survey creation, distribution, and data analysis, Sogolytics aims to enhance customer and employee experiences.
Why I chose Sogolytics: What sets Sogolytics apart as a CX platform is its features tailored specifically for customer experience management. It includes automated reminders and personalized invitations to boost response rates, dynamic survey options to keep participants engaged, and advanced data analytics to decode feedback effectively. These features ensure that businesses can capture detailed insights into customer sentiment and behavior, helping them to refine their services and improve overall satisfaction.
Sogolytics Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include advanced branching and skip logic to make surveys more relevant to respondents. The platform also supports anonymous surveys, which can lead to more honest feedback. Other notable features include extensive survey templates and powerful reporting tools like cross-tab analysis and live reports.
Integrations include Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, Zapier, Google Analytics, and Tableau.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Strong capabilities for distributing surveys and tracking responses
- Advanced metrics and customizable KPIs
- Variety of question formats and customization options
Cons:
- Options for data visualization are limited
- Email templates provided are limited
New Product Updates from Sogolytics
Sogolytics Release Enhancements
Sogolytics has rolled out new features that improve survey flow, streamline distribution, enhance dashboards, and expand directory data management. The update also brings improvements to email/SMS handling, data exports, and customization options across dashboards and invitations. For more information, visit Sogolytics' official site.
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Hiver is a modern AI-powered customer service software designed to enhance your team's ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences. By providing an array of features tailored for managing customer inquiries and interactions, Hiver helps streamline communication and improve response times.
Why I chose Hiver: With Hiver, businesses can manage customer experience end-to-end, from the first interaction to resolution and feedback. You can manage customer queries from all channels, including email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice, SMS, and social media, all from a single, unified inbox. A built-in knowledge base lets you create and publish help articles so customers can find answers on their own. To measure how well your team is doing, Hiver also includes CSAT surveys that help you track customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
Hiver's Standout Features & Integrations:
Features include Hiver AI, which embeds AI capabilities across all touchpoints of the customer support journey. For example, AI Copilot helps agents respond to customers through contextual answers, reply drafts, and more, while AI Agents help you set up autonomous workflows to handle FAQs, follow-ups, and other actions. It also has AI Insights that use conversations to forecast issues and risks.
Integrations include Aircall, Asana, Jira, Okta, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Slack, WhatsApp, and Zapier and 100+ other platforms.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- AI features embedded at all stages of customer support journey
- Customer support from real humans available 24/7 via chat or email, across all plans (including free one)
- Strong internal collaboration features
Cons:
- Compared to some other platforms, Hiver offers fewer third party integrations
- Mobile experience isn’t as strong as the desktop one
New Product Updates from Hiver
Hiver Omni Adds Support for Custom Email Providers
Hiver Omni introduces Custom Email Providers, allowing teams to connect external email services to shared inboxes. This update helps centralize customer communication in one workspace. For more information, visit Hiver's official site.
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Zendesk is a comprehensive customer service tool that stands out for its personalized AI customer support. It offers a range of features including AI and automation, data privacy and protection, messaging and live chat, and workforce management to improve customer service processes.
Why I chose Zendesk: I included Zendesk in this list because of its Sunshine Platform which helps create positive customer experiences. This platform stands out due to its open and flexible nature, using open standards and common languages, which allows for the development of custom experiences tailored to individual customer needs. Zendesk simplifies personalization by providing a complete view of customer interactions, enabling businesses to offer more personalized support, and ensuring data security and privacy are built-in as the business scales.
Zendesk Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include AI and automation to predict customer inquiries and streamline routine tasks, and data privacy and protection tools that ensure compliance with regulations and maintain customer trust. Additionally, Zendesk offers real-time messaging and live chat, a self-service help center, a unified agent workspace, voice support, and workforce management tools to manage customer interactions across various channels effectively.
Integrations include Asana, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Jira, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Trello, Zoom, and over 1200 more options on the Zendesk Marketplace.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Offers both help desk and CRM software functionalities
- Offers multi-brand support with linked accounts
- Robust live chat feature
Cons:
- Limited mobile functionalities
- Collaboration tools could be improved
Customerscore.io provides product analytics for customer success and growth teams, with a focus on reducing churn and identifying upsell opportunities. It integrates with tools such as Stripe, HubSpot, and Salesforce, supporting businesses that want to improve customer engagement and automate interactions. The platform delivers actionable insights into customer behaviour and supports campaign automation to help teams improve retention and revenue.
Why I Picked Customerscore.io
I picked Customerscore.io for its strong focus on product analytics tailored to customer success and growth teams. Its ability to monitor customer engagement and assess churn risk stands out, providing teams with the data needed to identify upsell opportunities. The integration with tools like Stripe and HubSpot further enhances its utility, allowing for seamless data flow and automated customer campaigns. These features address the critical need for businesses to enhance customer retention and boost revenue.
Customerscore.io Key Features
In addition to its core analytics capabilities, Customerscore.io offers several features that enhance its value as a CX platform:
- Automated Customer Campaigns: The platform enables you to automate campaigns based on customer behaviour, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.
- Actionable Insights: Provides insights into customer engagement and product usage, allowing your team to make informed decisions.
- Quick Setup: The platform is designed for a fast setup, minimizing downtime and enabling your team to start leveraging its capabilities quickly.
- Comprehensive Dashboards: Provides dashboards that consolidate data from multiple integrations, offering a holistic view of your customer interactions.
Customerscore.io Integrations
Integrations include Stripe, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Smartsupp.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Strong native CRM integrations
- Actionable upsell opportunity insights
- Clear churn risk visibility
Cons:
- Learning curve for analytics
- Pricing not publicly disclosed
Guidde is an AI-powered platform that helps you create video documentation and how-to guides quickly. It automates the recording, editing, and sharing of video content, making it easier for your team to train users on your product.
Why I chose Guidde: Guidde's Magic Capture feature lets you record your workflow with a single click. As you perform tasks, Guidde automatically creates a step-by-step description and generates an AI voiceover. This means you can produce comprehensive guides without spending hours on manual documentation. It's especially useful for providing clear instructions to customers, which can lead to better customer experiences. Additionally, with over 100 voices and support for more than 40 languages, you can customize your guides to suit a diverse audience.
Guidde Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include an editing suite that allows you to enhance your guides with images, text, and other media elements, making your content more engaging. Guidde also offers smart sharing options, enabling you to distribute your guides via links or embed them within your organization's platforms.
Integrations include Salesforce, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Slack, Zoom, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Chrome, Notion, and Confluence.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Utilizes AI for automatic storyline creation
- Includes interactive elements and professional voiceovers
- Multilanguage support
Cons:
- Some users may find the editing features slightly restrictive
- Could offer more integrations
Other Noteworthy CX Platforms
Below is a list of additional CX Platform tools that I shortlisted but did not make it to the top 10. Definitely worth checking them out.
- UserGuiding
For self-serve user onboarding
- Fullstory
For real-time session replays
- Nextiva
For personalized journey orchestration
- Kustomer
For omnichannel customer support
- ServiceNow
For ITSM-oriented customer service
- ZOHO CRM Plus
For unified customer experience management
- Oracle CX Cloud
For large-scale customer data management
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
For compatibility with other Microsoft solutions
- Freshworks CRM
For making informed customer decisions
- HubSpot CRM Platform
For integrated marketing automation
Related CX Software Reviews
If you still haven't found what you're looking for here, check out these related customer experience management tools that we've tested and evaluated.
- Customer Service Software
- Help Desk Software
- Call Center Software
- Customer Messaging Platform
- Digital Experience Platform
- Sentiment Analysis Tools
Features of CX Platforms
The specific features included in each customer experience (CX) platform will depend on the type of software you choose (a standalone tool versus a module within a broader customer relationship management system or a specialized customer service system). However, these are the key features I assessed when selecting the best CX platforms for this list:
- Customer Data Platform (CDP): Centralizes customer data from multiple sources. Essential for informed and personalized customer interactions across the company's history.
- Omnichannel Support: Seamlessly integrates customer interactions across all channels. Crucial for delivering a consistent and unified customer experience.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): Enhances personalization and predictive analytics. Allows for more accurate predictions of customer needs and tailor-made interactions.
- Customer Feedback Management: Collects and analyzes customer feedback. Enables companies to gauge customer satisfaction and pinpoint improvement areas, affecting customer retention and loyalty.
- Journey Mapping Tools: Visualizes the customer's path through various touchpoints. Identifies friction points and opportunities to enhance the customer experience.
- Knowledge Base: A comprehensive database that helps customers find answers to their queries independently. Empowers customers and reduces direct support dependency.
- Analytics and Reporting: To gain insights into customer interactions, identify patterns, and drive decision-making. Indispensable for improving customer experience through data-driven insights.
- Customer Self-Service: Features that empower customers to solve their own problems, such as interactive guides or community forums. Important for immediate assistance and reducing customer support load.
- CRM Integration: Integrates with Customer Relationship Management software. Key for aligning interactions across sales, marketing, and support to create a coherent customer journey.
- Automated Customer Service: Utilizes chatbots and automated responses for common inquiries. Ensures instant responses, improving customer satisfaction and inquiry handling efficiency.
Selecting a CX platform that incorporates these features is fundamental to understanding and anticipating customer needs, personalizing interactions, and refining customer engagement strategies. This approach fosters stronger customer relationships, driving loyalty and success in the long term.
Benefits of CX Platforms
Choosing the right customer experience (CX) platform is crucial for businesses looking to elevate their customer service and streamline internal processes. These platforms offer a multitude of benefits that not only enhance the user experience but also bring significant advantages to the organization as a whole. Below are five primary benefits that CX platforms provide, serving as a guide for potential software buyers in understanding how these tools can transform their approach to customer engagement.
- Centralized Customer Data Collection: Consolidates interactions from various channels. This makes it easier for businesses to manage and track customer interactions, ensuring that every team member has access to the same information and can provide consistent, personalized service.
- Improved Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Enables faster issue resolution. By providing tools and insights to resolve customer issues more efficiently, CX platforms directly contribute to higher customer satisfaction rates, fostering loyalty and encouraging repeat business.
- Enhanced Productivity: Automates repetitive tasks. By taking over routine tasks, CX platforms free up customer service teams to focus on more complex and valuable activities, thereby increasing overall productivity and efficiency.
- Insightful Analytics: Offers detailed analytics and reporting. Access to comprehensive analytics enables businesses to understand customer behavior and needs better, guiding strategic decisions and helping to tailor services to meet customer expectations.
- Seamless Integration: Integrates with existing software tools. The ability to seamlessly integrate with other business tools ensures a smooth workflow, enhancing efficiency and minimizing the potential for errors or data silos.
For organizations aiming to improve their customer experience, investing in a CX platform brings forth the promise of not just elevated customer satisfaction but also operational efficiency and strategic insights.
CX Platform Frequently Asked Questions
How much do these customer experience platforms typically cost?
Pricing for customer experience management software platforms can vary greatly depending on the functionality, size of the business, and number of users. Some platforms may have a pricing model that starts as low as $20/user/month, while others may cost several hundred dollars per user per month. Most vendors offer tiered pricing based on the features included.
What are the typical pricing models for customer experience platforms?
Typically, customer experience platforms follow a per-user, per-month pricing model. There may also be tiered pricing levels, with each level offering additional features. Some platforms may offer annual billing that can come at a discounted rate.
Which are the cheapest and most expensive customer experience platforms?
The cost of these platforms can vary widely. For instance, Dialpad offers plans starting from $15 per user per month, while tools like Genesys Cloud might have more premium pricing. It’s essential to consider the features and functionality provided when evaluating the cost.
Are there any free customer experience platforms?
While most customer experience platforms do not offer a completely free plan, many do provide a free trial period. This trial period allows potential users to evaluate the features and usability of the platform before committing to a paid plan. It’s always a good idea to take advantage of these trials to ensure the platform fits your business needs.
How do these platforms handle multilingual customer support?
CX platforms often incorporate multilingual support to cater to a global customer base, enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement across different regions. This feature is particularly valuable for businesses aiming to deliver personalized customer experiences to a diverse audience. Platforms that offer omnichannel support, like Kustomer, enable seamless communication across various channels (social media, email, chat) in multiple languages, ensuring that the language barrier does not hinder customer interactions.
How do CX platforms ensure compliance with international regulations?
Ensuring compliance with international regulations is a complex task that involves multiple layers of data security, privacy protections, and adherence to legal standards across different regions. CX platforms like Segment stand out by offering robust data collection and management tools, including governance features that help ensure compliance. These platforms typically employ a variety of security measures, such as encryption and access controls, to protect customer data. Additionally, many offer integration with compliance management tools or provide built-in compliance frameworks that are designed to meet international standards like GDPR, SOC II, and others. It’s also common for platforms to continuously update their compliance measures in response to changing regulations.
What are the best practices for implementing and optimizing a CX platform?
When it comes to implementing and optimizing a CX platform, it’s crucial to align the tool with your organizational workflows and the specific outcomes you aim to achieve.
Start by evaluating your current processes to identify what’s working and the pain points that need addressing. This evaluation helps ensure that the platform complements your business rather than complicating existing processes. It’s also essential to define the success metrics early on. For instance, you might aim for greater visibility into performance or improved customer satisfaction scores. These objectives should guide your selection and utilization of the CX platform, ensuring that every feature you leverage contributes towards achieving your predefined goals. Remember, the best CX platform for your organization is one that fits seamlessly into your existing ecosystem, enhancing your ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences without disrupting your workflow.
Summary
In conclusion, choosing the right CX platform is vital for any organization aiming to improve its customer experience. These platforms offer varied functionalities, features, and pricing models, and determining the one that best suits your organization's needs can seem challenging. Here are the key takeaways from this guide:
- Evaluate your needs: Assess the unique needs of your business before settling on a platform. This includes understanding the size of your customer base, the channels you wish to reach them on, and the kind of engagement you aim to establish.
- Features are crucial: The right set of features can make a significant difference. Look out for capabilities like real-time analytics, multichannel support, scalability, customer engagement tools, and integration with other systems. The best CX platforms often provide customization options that align with your specific business processes.
- Pricing Matters: CX platforms come with diverse pricing structures. While some offer a simple per-user monthly pricing, others may have setup fees or base fees. Be sure to clarify all cost aspects before finalizing a platform, including any additional charges for premium features or integrations.
Remember, the best platform for your organization is the one that meets your unique personalized experience needs and fits within your budget.
What's Next?
If you're in the process of researching CX platforms, connect with a SoftwareSelect advisor for free recommendations.
You fill out a form and have a quick chat where they get into the specifics of your needs. Then you'll get a shortlist of software to review. They'll even support you through the entire buying process, including price negotiations.