Customer support software program is the inspiration of a profitable buyer expertise within the period of digital transformation as 85% of US customers suggest a enterprise with wonderful service to others.1Zoho Desk is among the most generally used customer support platforms, nevertheless, there may be different customer support software program choices in the marketplace which can be extra appropriate in your firm’s explicit necessities and distinctive use instances.
On this article, we discover high Zoho Desk alternate options that ship distinctive customer support and description the doable downsides of the product based mostly on its critiques, scores, pricing plans, and options.
Comparability of Zoho Desk and high 4 alternate options
VendorsTotal critiques*Common score
Salesforce Service Cloud4,5934.4/5
Zendesk Help Suite10,3484.2/5
Zoho Desk7,1824.4/5
Freshdesk6,5974.4/5
Intercom4,3554.5/5
VendorsLow-code no-code developmentSelf-service optionsCustomer suggestions and survey toolsReal-time monitoringVisual distant assistanceService cloud voiceSocial media integrationsSoftware & app integrationsSupported languages
Salesforce Service CloudLow codeAdd-onIn premium plansAdd-on✅✅TwitterFacebook & InstagramYouTube2500+35+
Zendesk Help Suite✅✅In premium plansIn enterprise plan✖✅TwitterFacebook & Instagram1200+30+
Zoho Desk✅✅✅Add-on✅✅Fb & InstagramTumblr5000+40+
Freshdesk✅✅✅✅✖✖TwitterFacebook & InstagramRedditLinkedin650+30+
IntercomNo code✅Add-onIn premium plans✖✖ViberTwitterFacebook & InstagramTelegram350+44+
*Evaluate counts are based mostly on complete variety of critiques on peer evaluate websites together with G2, Capterra and TrustRadius as of 10/02/2023.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a cloud-based and contextual AI-equipped assist desk platform that serves 50,000+ companies worldwide. The platform provides key assist desk companies, together with buyer ticket administration and get in touch with administration by means of a number of channels (cellphone, chat, e mail, social media, and self-service portal) in a unified workspace.
Pricing (per seat/month)
Specific: $7.002
Commonplace: $14.003
Skilled: $23.004
Enterprise: $40.005
A 15-day free trial is out there for as much as 3 seats.
Consumer Rankings
G2: 4.4/5
Capterra: 4.5/5
Trustradius: 8.9/10
Cons
Complicated UI and ticketing system: Some customers argue Zoho Desk’s consumer interface is just not user-friendly and lacks sensible design which makes it inconvenient to make the most of the ticketing system and monitor the standing of inquiries.6
Hanging UI: Zoho Desk’s interface freezes at instances, and its course of or system ceases to answer inputs rapidly, which lowers its effectivity.7
A steep studying curve: Some customers have expressed concern about Zoho Desk’s steep studying curve.8
Low customization choices: When customers are deploying the chat widget on their assist heart, they discover that it lacks customization capabilities.9
Inadequate software program/app integrations: Zoho Desk’s third-party integrations are criticized for missing some premium market apps, customers want to have SAP integration to attach their operation and monitoring capabilities.10
Inefficient workflow: Customers assume that the information migration course of could be improved since there isn’t a straight migration path for a enterprise that’s switching from emails to a devoted ticketing system.11
No desktop utility: Zoho Desk doesn’t supply a desktop utility.12
What to search for whereas selecting Zoho Desk alternate options?
Whereas looking for probably the most acceptable various in your group, it’s crucial to know which options can meet the downsides of Zoho Desk. In regards to the given cons of Zoho Desk, here’s a compiled listing of options that it’s best to take note of whereas on the lookout for Zoho Desk alternate options.
Easy and quick UI
Strong ticketing system
Straightforward-to-learn
Customizable options
Highly effective software program and app integrations
Lengthy free trial interval
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is an all-in-one fully customizable buyer help and assist desk platform that seamlessly integrates 2,500+ software program or purposes. Salesforce, based in 1999, has round 70,000+ workers and 150,000 product customers worldwide, aiding small, medium, and enterprise companies throughout their digital transformation in buyer relationship administration by means of leveraging real-time analytics, automated workflows, and synthetic intelligence (AI).13
Pricing (per seat/month)
Starter: $2514
Skilled: $8015
Enterprise: $16516
Limitless: $33017
A 30-day free trial is out there.
Consumer Rankings
G2: 4.3/5
Capterra: 4.4/5
Trustradius: 8.9/10
Execs
Service Cloud is intuitive and customizable, and it integrates seamlessly with different Salesforce merchandise.18
It’s easy to deploy and use. Customers respect Service Cloud’s intuitive, user-friendly, well-organized, and fast interface, serving to them to trace the standing of their inquiries.19
Salesforce Service Cloud has a strong ticketing system with intensive dashboards, and time administration capabilities, permitting customers to watch the time spent on every buyer to effectively allocate sources and precisely bill prospects.20
Customers emphasised Service Cloud’s highly effective integration capabilities, akin to checking SLAs, establishing Escalation guidelines, or viewing real-time information, enabling them to optimize their workflow.21
It has an extended (30 days) free trial interval than different merchandise.
Cons
Customers who moved to Service Cloud remarked on the excessive implementation, deployment, and licensing prices.22
The e-mail performance options could be enhanced, customers would love Gmail account integration capabilities to merge duplicate emails.23
Customers level out that customization could be extra handy with a service workbench.24
Zendesk Help Suite
Zendesk help suite is an AI/ML-powered software-as-a-service product from Zendesk, Inc., permitting companies to offer personalized consumer help throughout a number of channels, together with emails, voice, messaging, and social media.
Consumer Rankings
G2: 4.3/5
Capterra: 4.4/5
Trustradius: 7.9/10
Pricing (per seat/month, billed yearly)
Suite workforce: $5525
Suite progress: $8926
Suite skilled: $11527
Suite enterprise: Contact with the seller
Execs
Zendesk Help Suite integrates seamlessly with a variety of widespread order administration platforms, web sites, and logistics companies, aiding customers in managing complicated operations.28
The platform’s highly effective and environment friendly capabilities for offering complete data-driven experiences and insights allow organizations to watch key customer support metrics.29
The API and app constructions are fairly helpful whereas creating personalized companies for automation and integrating with third events.30
Cons
Some customers have confronted lagged social media integrations (on Twitter or Meta), leading to duplicate communications from totally different platforms.31
Some customers point out that there are unprofessional workers within the buyer help workforce.32
Zendesk Help Suite could be costly for limited-budget or smaller-sized companies.33
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is cloud-based assist desk software program from Freshworks which provides simplified customer support procedures to effectively oversee your shoppers. Freshdesk can observe and deal with incoming tickets from varied channels in a single place, automate repetitive processes akin to agent allocation based mostly on workload, and use analytics to gather insights on buyer expertise.
Pricing (per seat/month)
Development: $15.0034
Omni-channel progress: $29.0035
Professional: $48.9936
Omni-channel professional: $59.0037
Enterprise: $69.0038
Omni-channel enterprise: $99.0039
Consumer Rankings
G2: 4.4/5
Capterra: 4.5/5
Trustradius: 8.6/10
Execs
Customers respect the truth that Freshdesk provides a variety of fundamental communication companies, on a cloud-based and simple-to-use platform, resulting in a streamlined buyer expertise for them.40
The reporting and analytics capabilities are mentioned to be intensive by the customers, letting them always observe customer support tendencies.41
Freshdesk is a sturdy ticket administration system that’s properly appreciated by customers, serving to them to automate on a regular basis duties, and prioritize help requests.42
Customers discover it fairly useful to automate routine duties like ticket routing, canned responses, and follow-up messages, saving time for help brokers.43
Cons
Freshdesk’s platform is taken into account complicated by some early adopters.44
The platform is often sluggish.45
Some Freshdesk options are much less configurable to tailor to particular enterprise wants.46
Intercom
Intercom is a software program that mixes an AI chatbot, assist desk, and proactive help that focuses on end-to-end enterprise messaging for companies to completely work together with their prospects by means of a number of communication channels.
Pricing (per seat/month, billed yearly)
Starter: $7447
Professional: $15348
Premium: Customized pricing based mostly on the variety of customers, folks reached, and determination.
A 14-day free trial is out there, then prices you $0.99 per decision.49
Consumer Rankings
G2: 4.5/5
Capterra: 4.5/5
Trustradius: 8.8/10
Execs
Customers assume that the interface is simple, seamless, and honest.50
Customers said that they facilitated high-quality communication throughout a number of groups with excessive visibility, collaboration, and navigation.51
Customers consider add-on instruments and capabilities, akin to WhatsApp integration, have been helpful in permitting them to customise the platform in keeping with their enterprise wants.52
Cons
Intercom could be troublesome to adapt, and the educational curve could be steep for some customers.53
Intercom’s worth plan is complicated and could be costly for small companies.54
Customers who had a excessive quantity of conversations said that that they had lagging points with the UI.55
Prime 8 assist desk software program vendor comparability standards
1- Lowe code – no code growth
Low-code can lower utility growth time by as much as 60%.56Model-driven format, visible programming, and automatic code technology are the foundations of low-code growth platforms (LCDPs) and no-code growth platforms (NCDPs). This doesn’t demand the employment of extremely educated code-writing professionals and continuously consists of ready in a protracted line on the IT division. No matter coding background, these options are intentionally constructed to focus on workers who’re conversant in their enterprise workflows.
Low-code: Low-code is a approach of creating easy visible interfaces and embedded performance to eradicate a few of the want for conventional writing and coding.
No-code: No-code is the same approach that gives low-code options, enabling non-technical folks to construct purposes with out writing a single line of code.
2- Self-service choices
Self-service was favored by 67% of customers over coping with a help workforce consultant57Self-service choices enable prospects to do actions or duties on their very own quite than contacting an agent.
Data base
Group boards
Chatbots
FAQs, assist portals
Tips, tutorials
3- Buyer suggestions and survey instruments
Buyer suggestions and survey instruments help organizations of their buyer success journey by accumulating and analyzing survey suggestions information to offer customer-centric insights.
Buyer suggestions and survey instruments may also help organizations to:
Enhance your services and products
Determine and goal their viewers
Improve the shopper expertise
Reduce churn and enhance retention
Improve the variety of leads generated
Analyze the bottlenecks within the buyer journey
4- Actual-time monitoring
Actual-time monitoring is the provision of continually up to date information with near-zero latency, leading to minimal delay between the information gathering and processing. It permits for the fast identification of deviations, and efficiency issues within the enterprise workflow. Assist desk brokers can use real-time monitoring to deal with points actively, eliminating issues earlier than folks even discover them.
Organizations that leverage real-time monitoring can obtain:
Actual-time suggestions
Boosted productiveness
Improved forensic evaluation
Automated notifications and alerts
Actual-Time efficiency monitoring
5-Visible distant help
Visible distant help helps distant salespeople, contact heart workers, or area personnel to visually repair a problem for a consumer whereas main them by means of your entire course of and addressing a profitable treatment on-screen. It improves service by permitting contact service, area technicians, or cloud specialists
Customers can use visible distant help with real-time video from digital sources akin to:
Video stream
Desktop sharing
Auto recording
Augmented actuality
Visible flows
6- Service cloud voice
Service cloud voice helps brokers to answer consumer questions and make calls, in addition to tackle consumer issues, straight from the service portal.
The next are a few of the key benefits of Service Cloud Voice:
Corporations could present their shoppers with extra proactive and tailor-made service.
Service workers can course of calls extra successfully, decreasing common dealing with time and optimizing for demand surges.
Managers could study all of their service workers’ inbound and outbound calls and on-line data in real-time
7- Social media integrations
Social media in customer support is important since it’s an ‘all the time on’ medium the place organizations handle buyer communication by means of varied platforms akin to Fb, Instagram, and Twitter.
Organizations that use social media integration of their assist desk software program can:
Attain a broader viewers
Faucet into new markets
Present well timed responses in customer support
Construct comfort and accessibility of resolving buyer queries in real-time
Enhance buyer satisfaction and loyalty
Accumulate buyer information to look at the hidden patterns and achieve market information insights
Scale back name volumes and related prices
8- Supported languages
Multilingual assist desk software program with extending language protection can probably improve the accessibility of data for a wider vary of individuals which can result in extra favorable encounters between service groups and prospects.
Assist desk software program with multilingual options can help companies with:
Rising constructive suggestions
Rising buyer loyalty and retention
Facilitating prospects communication
For extra on customer support software program
Take a look at our different articles on buyer relationship administration and assist desk software program to find out about different standard choices like Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom.
Right here is the whole data-driven software program listing of our CRM distributors.
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Exterior hyperlinks
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