Having the best support in event management is a big deal. No matter how dependable your event management software is, somewhere along the line, something will happen. An unexpected glitch, a complex registration situation you don’t know how to handle, a power outage, a crucial integration failure.
Or maybe it’s not the software. Maybe you’re uncertain you’re doing something the most efficient way, or you totally forgot that fringe case you learned about back during onboarding.
When that happens, does your platform have a support team that really has your back? Not just a team that can fix your current problem, but one that goes the extra mile, has platform expertise, gets back to you in a timely manner, AND has helpful suggestions to improve.
Think that’s too much to ask? Let’s go to our list and find out.
#1 Swoogo 9.9
Hey! That’s cheating! Nope. We don’t have anything to do with this ranking. In fact, you can read all about it here, at G2, where the entire tech industry goes to find trusted, unpaid, unbiased reviews from real customers. And what do they say? Well … that Swoogo has the very best support in event management software. It’s just a fact.
Swoogo scores WAY above the industry average of 9.1 for customer support, and easily wins the crown for best support in event management software. Why? Reviewers mention that Swoogo support is 100% in-house, doesn’t cost extra, responsive, helpful, and top-notch. One user says they are “out-of-this-world fast!”
What does Swoogo say? First off, you’ll see customer support mentioned on multiple pages, including their homepage, AND there’s a dedicated page just for support. Every customer has unlimited access to their in-house team, with specialized support for Enterprise companies that have more complex needs. They also feature a 15-minute initial response during business hours. Not too shabby!
#2 Whova 9.3
Okay, okay. Not the very best support, but above average! We’ll give credit where credit is due! We think that the very least you should expect from the support team for an event management platform is better than average, and Whova’s got that covered.
What do customers say? Both speedy and quite good. The only real concern we had was just that it isn’t mentioned much at all. So, not stand-out enough that every customer mentions it in their review, but not lacking enough that … every customer mentions it in their review. 😉 We give it an acceptable grade!
What does Whova say? Well, first off they’re one of the only companies on our list that highlighted it on their homepage. Go Whova! Their site says they have a 30-minute response time, which puts them very solidly in second place, weekends and holidays, and a dedicated team. However, the pricing page is only a form to request pricing for their event management software, so we don’t know if everyone gets that support, or if it varies by customer package.
#3 Bizzabo 9.0
Oof! You might be looking at that and thinking, but 90% is an A! But it’s below industry average, and when you’re looking at investing in event management software, you need your support to be as exceptional as possible.
What are customers saying? Nothing special, longer response times, and needed frequently. They do have some compliments! Other customers find the support is quick, and works well. Okay. It’s not all bad. But is it really the best support? Maybe not.
What does Bizzabo say about their own support? All customers have access to support 24/7, and you can pay extra for support like day-of and on-site. What we couldn’t tell from their website is how much of that support is in-house versus outsourced. If you’re demo-ing with them for event management software, make sure to ask.
#4 Cvent 8.7
I admit, I expected better. This is a fair bit below average. If you’re even reading this list, you certainly know who Cvent is—it’s the biggest event management platform in the industry. And well … even though I didn’t expect them to have the best support, I kind of thought they’d have better customer service. And it looks like I’m not alone.
What do customers say? Not much. It just doesn’t get mentioned a lot. The difficulty of working with an outsourced support team was a concern for one user, and several reviewers commented that the software makes simple things complicated … which we think should be the other way around. But the overwhelming sense we get from the reviews is that Cvent customer support is … okay. Right in the middle, just like it is on this list.
What does Cvent say? We’ll give them credit for mentioning support right on their homepage and having an entire section in the nav menu for it. But … once we tried to explore all of the parts of the Support section … it wasn’t really about support. It was about the Cvent community and how Cvent “supports” different types of events. Hmmm. So all we actually learned was that there is 24/7 support.
#5 Stova 8.6
Right in the middle! If you’re not familiar with the name Stova, you might recognize Aventri, which is what Stova used to be called. They rebranded in 2022 after combining Aventri and Meetingplay. That makes reviewing it hard because they combined all the Aventri and Meetingplay reviews, PLUS the new Stova ones. But we did our best!
What are customers saying? The biggest complaint we saw was simply that customers had to spend a LOT of time with support because it was really hard to learn the platform! Some users found it to be excellent, but most of the really good comments were from pre-2022 and were about Meetingplay. As a new event management platform did they keep Aventri’s customer support when they merged, are Meetingplay’s? I’m afraid there’s no way to know.
What does Stova say? Well … we had trouble finding it. The word support doesn’t even show up on their homepage. We did finally find a reference to 24/7 support. So … it exists, that’s all we could tell for sure about this newly-rebranded event management software.
#6 Rainfocus 8.1
We worry when scores get this low. You all know that event planner is consistently ranked one of the most stressful jobs around, and that’s because anything can happen at any time! So you really, really need an event management platform that has you back in terms of support. Maybe you don’t think you need the absolutely best support … but well below average seems very risky. So we really can’t recommend Rainfocus in this area.
What are customers saying? Could be improved, grueling tutorials instead of a real person, and one user said it used to be better, but has become less useful as the event management company has grown. Which, admittedly, can be tough! Some find them quick, responsive, and knowledgeable. We’re just not certain you want to roll the dice that way when it comes to support for your events.
What does Rainfocus say about their support? We looked all over their website and couldn’t find anything about support beyond the fact that it exists. Because they don’t have a pricing page, we also couldn’t tell if support access is included at all levels. We tried. Rainfocus might be an attractive event management platform … but they really aren’t showing their best face in terms of support.
Stuff Happens
That’s really the takeaway here. It doesn’t matter how well you know your event management platform, how experienced you are as an event prof, how magical and super-human you feel sometimes (ah, yes, we love that feeling!), the fact is, stuff happens.
Literally, during a live webinar a tree fell on our VP of Marketing’s electric lines in the middle of her presentation! Let’s see you plan for that!
Wanting the very best support team for your event management platform isn’t about a lack of confidence in yourself or in your software. It’s about knowing that this is real life, and ridiculous stuff gets thrown our way sometimes.
Plus, don’t you want a support team that will totally answer silly little questions, tell you again how to set up a multi-track reg form, and make a suggestion to shorten your registration with some well-placed conditional logic?
Support doesn’t have to just be for emergencies. If they’re really committed to you and a part of your team, they’re just there to be helpful.
At least they are if they’re the best. Which … I think we can all agree that 9.9 is. *wink*