Intercom vs Zendesk: Which customer help desk is better?

For small companies and startups, Intercom offers a Starter plan — with a balanced suite of features from each of the solutions below — at $74 per month per user, billed annually. You can create an omnichannel CRM suite with a mix of productivity, collaboration, eCommerce, CRM, analytics, email marketing, social media, and other tools. Both app stores include many popular integrations, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Because Intercom started as a live chat service, its messenger functionality is very robust. It feels very modern, and Intercom offers some advanced messenger features that Zendesk does not.

As the name suggests, it’s a more sales-oriented solution with robust contact and deal management tools as well. However, after patting yourself on the back, you now realize you’re faced with the daunting task of choosing between the two. With so many features to consider, not to mention pricing, user experience, and scalability, we don’t blame you if you feel your head spinning. For small companies and startups, Zendesk offers a six-month free trial of up to 50 agents redeemable for any combination of Zendesk Support and Sell products.

Pricing starts at $39 and varies based on the number of records you want to migrate. Our team is experienced in consolidating Zendesk instances and merging instances of other help desk and service desk systems. Zendesk chat vs Intercom offers similar chat features but still has a couple of differences. In any case, whether you choose Zendesk or Intercom, you have wide chatting possibilities. But if you’re not familiar with them, think of the software as online human resource departments. Jessica Pereira helps SaaS and digital marketing brands build long-lasting customer relationships with meaningful content.

However, you won’t miss out on any of the essentials when it comes to live chat. Automated triggers, saved responses, and live chat analytics are all baked in. The only other downside https://chat.openai.com/ is that the chat widget can feel a bit static and outdated. When comparing chatbots, it’s important to consider their level of intelligence, “trainability,” and customization.

The free Intercom Platform lets you see who your customers are and what they do in your workspace. If I had to describe Intercom’s help desk, I would say it’s rather a complementary tool to their chat tools. It’s great, it’s convenient, it’s not nearly as advanced as the one by Zendesk.

What is Zendesk best used for?

There are pre-built workflows to help with things like ticket sharing, as well as conversation routing based on metrics like agent skill set or availability. There are even automations to help with things like SLAs, or service level agreements, to do things like send out notifications when headlights are due. Zendesk also offers callback requests, call monitoring and call quality notifications, among other telephone tools.

Zendesk chat provides a personal connection with customers who need support. Zendesk’s user face is quite intuitive and easy to use, allowing customers to quickly find what they are looking for. Additionally, the platform allows users to customize their experience by setting up automation workflows, creating ticket rules, and utilizing analytics.

ticketing system tips for outstanding customer service

But I don’t want to sell their chat tool short as it still has most of necessary features like shortcuts (saved responses), automated triggers and live chat analytics. Intercom, while differing from Zendesk, offers specialized features aimed at enhancing customer relationships. Founded as a business messenger, it now extends to enabling support, engagement, and conversion. You can set business rules, SLA, and ticket routing based on the agent’s skills, language, and expertise.

Intercom focuses on providing personalized customer messaging and support at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Its conversational support approach, powerful automation capabilities, and in-depth analytics empower businesses to deliver tailored and effective customer experiences. If you’d want to test Zendesk and Intercom before deciding on a tool for good, they both provide free trials. Intercom has a standard trial period for a SaaS product which is 14 days, while Zendesk offers a 30-day trial. As we delve into the features of Zendesk, we can identify the following weaknesses regarding user experience.

Similarly, if you require Fin AI Agent – to resolve customer queries without human intervention, you’ll need to pay an additional $0.99 per resolution. While Fin AI Copilot – is included in all paid Intercom plans, you only get to use it for only ten conversations per agent each month. If your team needs Fin to help with more than that, you’ll need to pay an extra $35 per agent per month for unlimited use. Essentially, Fin AI Copilot acts as a personal assistant for every support staff, helping them resolve customer issues faster and more efficiently. Whereas, Fin AI Agent is an actual chatbot that responds on its own to customers’ questions. Intercom, on the other hand, focuses on automating tasks that help improve customer engagement.

This is especially helpful for smaller businesses that may not need a lot of features. Intercom is a customer relationship management (CRM) software company that provides a suite of tools for managing customer interactions. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Intercom’s products are used by over 25,000 customers, from small tech startups to large enterprises. Intercom bills itself first and foremost as a platform to make the business of customer service more personalized, among other things.

Integrating AI in the help center helps agents find answers to customer inquiries, providing a seamless customer experience. In addition to all these features, Suite Growth Plan offers light agents, multilingual support, multiple ticket forms, and a self-service customer portal. If you’re still on the fence about which platform to choose, consider exploring Tidio as a strong alternative. Tidio stands out with its advanced AI-powered chatbots and seamless automated workflows, making customer interactions efficient and personalized. It also features an AI-driven ticketing system, an omnichannel dashboard to manage all customer communications in one place, and customizable chat widgets to enhance user engagement. Intercom is better designed for smaller companies and teams, while Zendesk is suitable for large companies to skyrocket customer support.

Its intuitive messenger can help your business boost engagement and improve sales and marketing efforts. Both Zendesk Messaging and Intercom Messenger offer live chat features and AI-enabled chatbots for 24/7 support to customers. Additionally, you can trigger incoming messages to automatically assign an agent and create dashboards to monitor the team’s performance on live chat. Zendesk takes the slight lead here because it offers some advanced help desk features, which Intercom does not. One stand out automation feature is its co-pilot, also known as Fin AI Copilot.

During the full-scale russian invasion, we continue developing high-quality innovative technological products while volunteering and donating funds. It enables you to get quality product feedback from the right customers at the right time through the app or by email. The chat enables you to send targeted, behavior based Zendesk messages to customers.

But Intercom’s friendliness for growing companies is something you can’t afford to ignore. Intercom is a complete customer communication platform for small businesses. Still, considering that such companies do Chat GPT not have a large budget for investing in CRM software, they should carefully consider all plans. Intercom also charges additional charges for specific features, such as charging $0.99 for every resolution.

Intercom also generates user profiles based on data from responses, browsing habits, and general interactions. However, adjusting the size and position of the chat window has limitations. For example, agents can send offline messages, automated greetings, and create simple pre-chat forms. Zendesk’s pricing model is simple, where service teams can pick from 4 plans. The platform aims to ensure customer inquiries get resolved without the need for human agents.

The feedback and recommendations from existing users serve as valuable guidance for businesses considering either platform. Real-world case studies illustrate how businesses leverage Zendesk and Intercom to enhance their customer support operations and drive business growth. Analyzing these case studies provides practical insights into the tangible benefits and outcomes achieved by implementing either platform. If delivering an outstanding customer experience and employee experience is your top priority, Zendesk should be your top pick over Intercom. Zendesk has the CX expertise to help businesses of all sizes scale their service experience without compromise.

Intercom isn’t quite as strong as Zendesk in comparison to some of Zendesk’s customer support strengths, but it has more features for sales and lead nurturing. Broken down into custom, resolution, and task bots, these can go a long way in taking repetitive tasks off agents’ plates. Zendesk also packs some pretty potent tools into their platform, so you can empower your agents to do what they do with less repetition. While the company is smaller than Zendesk, Intercom has earned a reputation for building high-quality customer service software. The company’s products include a messaging platform, knowledge base tools, and an analytics dashboard.

Zendesk Pricing Structure

It also provides detailed reports on how each self-help article performs in your knowledge base and helps you identify how each piece can be improved further. Using the existing knowledge base functionality, they can display self-help articles in the chat window before the customer approaches your team for support. While there can be add-ons, such as premium customer support, you can generally anticipate what you’ll be paying for your Zendesk subscription. It calculates the cost of its Pro and Premium plans based on the number of AI resolutions, people reached, and seats (or users).

You get to engage with them further and get to know more about their expectations. This becomes the perfect opportunity to personalize the experience, offer assistance to prospects as per their needs, and convert them into customers. This live chat software provider also enables your business to send proactive chat messages to customers and engage effectively in real-time.

From startups and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to large enterprises, we have tons of customer-proof points to prove it. Zendesk is easy to set up and use, so you can start using it from day one. It’s also highly customizable, with integrations that extend capability beyond CX, scaling with businesses of any size. As you dive deeper into the world of customer support and engagement, you’ll discover that Zendesk and Intercom offer some distinctive features that set them apart. Let’s explore these unique offerings and see how they can benefit your business. Experience the comprehensive power of Intercom for effective customer communication, automation, support tools, integrations, and analytics.

Zendesk may be unable to give the agents more advanced features or customization options for chatbots. However, it’s essential to recognize that Zendesk has its own array of strengths, particularly in its comprehensive and versatile customer support platform. Intercom’s pricing structure offers different plans to cater to various customer support and engagement zendesk chat vs intercom needs, accommodating users with different budgets. Zendesk is more robust in terms of its ticket management capabilities, it offers more customization options and advanced features like a virtual call center app. On the other hand, Intercom is more focused on conversational customer support, and has more help desk features suited for live chat and messaging.

Zendesk also offers digital support during business hours, and their website has a chatbot. Premiere Zendesk plans have 24/7 proactive support with faster response times. Other customer service add-ons with Zendesk include custom training and professional services. Crisp also has CRM software that helps agents manage and store customer data in one place. Additionally, the company offers a knowledge base for customer self-service.

• The app includes features like automated messages and conversation routing — so businesses can manage customer conversations more efficiently.
• Founded in 2007, Zendesk started as a ticketing tool for customer success teams.
• But don’t just take our word for it—listen to what customers say about why they picked Zendesk.
• If your business values a feature-rich and customizable solution for customer interactions, Zendesk may be the better choice.

Just like Intercom, Zendesk can also integrate with multiple messaging platforms and ensure that your business never misses out on a support opportunity. On the other hand, Intercom, starting at a lower price point, could be more attractive for very small teams or individual users. However, additional costs for advanced features can quickly increase the total expense. Intercom is the go-to solution for businesses seeking to elevate customer support and sales processes. With its user-friendly interface and advanced functionalities, Intercom offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to effectively communicate and engage with customers. Zendesk is a customer service software offering a comprehensive solution for managing customer interactions.

Intercom or Zendesk: Integrations and add-ons

Intercom has your back if you’re looking to supercharge your sales efforts. It’s like having a toolkit for lead generation, customer segmentation, and crafting highly personalized messages. Agents can quickly grasp the context of customer interaction through these support tickets and sentiment analysis that AI facilitates.

• While Fin AI Copilot – is included in all paid Intercom plans, you only get to use it for only ten conversations per agent each month.
• Intercom is great, but is quite expensive for what you get, and it’s super live chat focused.
• Agents can manage requests from channels like email, live chat, messaging, X (formerly known as Twitter), and text.
• When you combine the help desk with Intercom Messenger, you get added channels for customer engagement.

Intercom recently ramped up its features to include helpdesk and ticketing functionality. Zendesk, on the other hand, started as a ticketing tool, and therefore has one of the market’s best help desk and ticket management features. However, for businesses seeking a more cost-effective and user-friendly solution, Hiver presents a compelling alternative. It works on top of your inbox and offers essential helpdesk functionalities. So, the actual pricing of Intercom would depend on whether or not you’re going to need their AI features – the AI Copilot and AI Agent.

Zendesk excels with its AI-enhanced user experience and robust omnichannel support, making it ideal for businesses focused on customer service. On the other hand, Intercom shines with its advanced AI-driven automation and insightful analytics, perfect for those who value seamless communication and in-app messaging. Consider which features align best with your business needs to make the right choice. You can also use Intercom as a customer service platform, but given its broad focus, you may not get the same level of specialized expertise. Intercom offers an integrated knowledge base functionality to its user base. Using the existing knowledge base functionality, they can display self-help articles in the chat window zendesk chat vs intercom before the customer approaches your team for support.

It’s virtually impossible to predict what you’re going to pay for Intercom at end of the day. To sum things up, one can get really confused trying to make sense of Zendesk’s pricing, let alone to calculate costs. You’d probably want to know how much it costs to get Zendesk or Intercom for your business, so let’s talk money now. It’s highly customizable, so you can adjust it according to your website or product’s style. Sure, you can have a front desk—but you don’t necessarily have to plunk down the cost it would take to buy that desk, train an employee, and add them to your payroll. Easily track your service team’s performance and unlock coaching opportunities with AI-powered insights.

For instance, when you need to access specific features or information, Zendesk’s organized interface ensures that everything is easily locatable, reducing search time and user frustration. Determining whether Intercom can effectively replace Zendesk depends on your specific customer support and engagement requirements. Whether Zendesk can fully replace Intercom depends on your specific customer support and engagement requirements. Zendesk has strong positive reviews especially since the software has mobile apps for access. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Though some complained that it’s not easy to check the tickets using the apps. Therefore, to gauge if your chosen help desk is effective or not, you use analytics.

Overall, Intercom is a better option if personalized and robust chatbots are something you are looking for when managing customer support strategy. On the other hand, Intercom’s chatbots have more advanced features but do not sacrifice simplicity and ease of use. It helps businesses create highly personalized chatbots for interactive customer communication.