If you’ve ever had to justify a software investment to a leadership team, you know how much it helps when someone outside the vendor’s marketing department says it’s a good platform. That’s exactly what Forrester Research does. They evaluate software vendors independently, score them against consistent criteria, and publish their findings. No sponsored rankings. No vendor spin.
So when Forrester keeps putting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service at the top of their evaluations, that’s worth paying attention to.
What Is the Forrester Wave™?
Think of the Forrester Wave™ as a report card for software vendors. Forrester looks at each vendor across three areas: what the product does today, where the company is taking it, and how much of a footprint they have in the market. The result is an independent, side-by-side comparison that buyers can actually use when making decisions.
Why Dynamics 365 Customer Service Leads the Forrester Wave
Microsoft has landed in the Leader category across multiple back-to-back evaluations:
- Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2026 — Leader
- Forrester Wave™: Customer Relationship Management, Q1 2025 — Leader
- Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2024 — Leader, with top scores in business intelligence, process management, and collaboration
That kind of consistency tells you that the platform is being built with a clear and sustained direction.
AI and Automation in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
In the latest evaluation, Forrester called out Microsoft’s work in agentic AI and how it’s being adopted at scale. Dynamics 365 Customer Service now includes AI agents that can handle customer interactions on their own, across both voice and digital channels, and do so within proper compliance guardrails.
Two worth knowing about: the Customer Intent Agent learns from ongoing conversations to keep self-service options current without manual updates, and the Case Management Agent handles repetitive case tasks while surfacing recommendations to agents during live interactions via Copilot.
Alongside the Wave evaluations, Forrester Consulting published a Total Economic Impact study in March 2024. They interviewed five companies that were actively using Dynamics 365 Customer Service, then combined those findings into a single composite picture of a $1 billion company with 500 support agents.
Forrester ROI Findings For Dynamics 365 Customer Service
Here’s what came out of it:
- 315% ROI over three years
- $14.70 million in total benefits over three years
- $3.54 million total investment over three years
- Payback period under six months
These numbers reflect measurable improvements in efficiency, cost reduction, and revenue contribution from customer service operations.
The gains came from four main areas: agents handling calls faster, fewer calls being misrouted, more sales pipeline being generated from service interactions, and money saved from getting off older systems.
It’s one thing for Microsoft to say their platform delivers results. It’s another when Forrester says it, backed by data from real companies. If you’re evaluating customer service software or questioning whether your current setup is working as hard as it should, this kind of third-party research is a solid place to start.
Source: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog; Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ Study (commissioned by Microsoft, March 2024)
