Can’t decide on the best customer service software? That’s because you haven’t read our article yet. We’ve carried out a detailed analysis to review Zendesk and compare it with alternative solutions: Freshdesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Intercom. They’re all true giants in the sphere of customer service software, but what makes them different? Let’s compare.
Plans and Prices
Zendesk offers a wide range of plans. You can buy separate products, starting at $5 per agent per month for Zendesk Support, or get the best value for your money with Support Suite (from $89 per month per agent) or Sales Suite (from $79).
Lower prices are provided only by Freshdesk, but its features in advanced plans don’t match those offered by Zendesk.
Intercom delivers basic live chat and outbound messaging included in its Start plan at the rate of $39 per month per agent.
Salesforce Service Cloud is more expensive. Although the price for its basic plan (with limitations) begins at $25 per month per agent, the cost goes up significantly when you consider more advanced features, implementation, and management.
Helpdesk: Agent Experience
Zendesk distinguishes itself with an intuitive and smart interface for agents that appreciate efficiency and productivity. For instance, it’s as easy as pie to navigate the platform or get some information. It requires just several clicks!
Zendesk. Customize your support environment based on use case or channel. No code required.
Though Freshdesk reminds you of Zendesk at first glance and serves as its alternative, some agents find its interface static and a bit messed up. Thus, agents face problems with information search as this process becomes more time-consuming.
Salesforce Service Cloud renders a 360-degree view of customers’ inquiries and automates many processes. For this reason, agents are provided with access to sales and support in one place. Still, some clients that tested both Salesforce and Zendesk say that the latter is simpler to configure.
Intercom tries to be unique and one-of-a-kind in its wish to offer conversational support and improve agent experience, but it lacks many functions. For instance, the omnichannel experience is not as good as it should be today.
Integrations
While your business grows, tools should do the same to comply with your needs. Therefore, Zendesk and Salesforce create an impression of technologically developed and connected platforms with lots of valuable options. Their integrations surpass Freshdesk’s options in quality and quantity. Whereas Zendesk gives access to 1,000+ native integrations and Salesforce to thousands, with Freshdesk, you can only count on 300+. As for Intercom, it integrates with 60% of the most popular apps (that’s about 300).
Zendesk apps
Support
Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Freshdesk care for their clients by providing a high level of customer support: live chat, knowledge base, phone, and video tutorials. Intercom yields to them because it doesn’t offer assistance by phone.
Self-Service Solutions
Zendesk renders a smart self-service knowledge base known as Zendesk Guide that can be easily customized according to your needs. In fact, you can do basic branding in its editor without coding skills and further customization with HTML and CSS. If you are web-savvy, you can do everything on your own. Alternatively, you can turn to Lotus Themes, a Zendesk partner for Guide customization, and get everything done professionally and quickly.
Though Freshdesk offers to create, manage, and promote your content with its knowledge base easily (as their website says), many people find it challenging to set up and use. Besides, it’s deprived of content management capabilities. As for branding and customization, it’s possible only via coding, and it isn’t always fast and easy to make changes.
Help Center by Salesforce is powerful and achieves its primary goal of providing great self-service. Still, you need a lot of time to set it up and configure it according to your needs.
Intercom Help Center also delivers an integrated knowledge base, but it lacks many features that Zendesk Guide has.
To Sum It All Up
Zendesk offers a lot of effective options and even surpasses some of their competitors. Still, each software system is unique and one-of-a-kind. Zendesk is rich in functions and easy to implement, Intercom is powerful for its customer messaging, Freshdesk can be cheaper but only if you don’t need more advanced features, and Salesforce Service Cloud provides a 360-degree view of every customer but can be pricey and hard to implement.
So, each of these solutions has pros and cons, and you should choose the one that fits your needs and budget best. We decided to get Zendesk for our company, and we are happy with it. Check out our help center based on this customer service software.
