What is the difference between customer service software and CRM software?

Customer service software is purpose-built to manage and resolve customer support interactions - routing contacts, powering agent desktops, enabling self-service, and tracking case resolution across channels. CRM software is broader in scope, designed primarily to manage the full customer relationship including sales pipeline, marketing engagement, and account history, with service case management often added as one module among many. Customer service software typically includes contact center-specific capabilities like ACD routing, IVR, workforce management, and quality monitoring that general CRM platforms lack natively. Many enterprises run both together, using CRM as the system of record for customer data and customer service software as the operational engine for handling live interactions. NiCE CXone is designed to integrate seamlessly with major CRM platforms rather than compete with them.