Zendesk vs Intercom: In-Depth Features & Price Comparison

You can contact the sales team if you’re just looking around, but you will not receive decent customer support unless you buy their service. Here is a Zendesk vs. Intercom based on the customer support offered by these brands. We do our best to extensively test each software, as a result we not only test it ourselves, but we also match our findings with views of other users from the SaaS community.

• If money is limited for your business, a help desk that can be a Zendesk alternative or an Intercom alternative is ThriveDesk.
• Besides, the prices differ depending on the company’s size and specific needs.
• Community boards make the support ecosystem even better by creating a place where people can work together and share their experiences, tips, and ask for help from their peers.

Here is a short overview of how these tools started, where they stand today, and what they can bring to your business. It can team up with tools like Salesforce and Slack, so everything runs smoothly. As a freelancer, I don’t need all the integrations and support that Intercom provides. It allows you to chat with visitors on your website and convert them into customers.

Reactive ticketing

This means the company is still working out some kinks and operating with limited capabilities. Track customer service metrics to gain valuable insights and improve customer service processes and agent performance. Sales teams can also view outbound communications, and any support agent can access resources from the Intercom workspace. Prioritize the agent experience to maximize productivity and customer satisfaction while reducing employee turnover. To sum up this Intercom vs Zendesk battle, the latter is a great support-oriented tool that will be a good choice for big teams with various departments. Intercom feels more wholesome and is more client-success-oriented, but it can be too costly for smaller companies.

• Intercom is a customer messaging platform that enables businesses to engage with customers through personalized and real-time communication.
• Zendesk is a customer service software offering a comprehensive solution for managing customer interactions.
• Zendesk for Service, a customer service solution, provides unified customer-facing communication channels, self-service, collaboration, customer routing, and analytics–all organized in one dashboard.
• With over 100,000 customers across all industries and regions, Zendesk knows what it takes to interact with customers while retaining and growing relationships.

By providing banking without boundaries, the company aims to provide users with quick access to their finances, wherever they happen to be. Test any of HelpCrunch pricing plans for free for 14 days and see our tools in action right away. If you thought Zendesk prices were confusing, let me introduce you to the Intercom charges.

But I like that Zendesk just feels slightly cleaner, has easy online/away toggling, more visual customer journey notes, and a handy widget for exploring the knowledge base on the fly. Intercom enables customers to self-serve through its messaging platform. Agents can easily find resources for customers from their agent workspace. But keep in mind that Zendesk is viewed more as a support and ticketing solution, while Intercom is CRM functionality-oriented. Which means it’s rather a customer relationship management platform than anything else.

Zendesk vs Intercom

While both Zendesk and Intercom are great and robust platforms, none of them are able to provide you with the same value Messagely gives you at such an  affordable price. Messagely also provides you with a shared inbox so anyone from your team can follow up with your users, regardless of who the user was in contact with first. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. And while many other chatbots take forever to set up, you can set up your first chatbot in under five minutes. You can also follow up with customers after they have left the chat and qualify them based on your answers. Chat agents also get a comprehensive look at their entire customer’s journey, so they will have a better idea of what your customers need, without needing to ask many questions. Since Intercom doesn’t offer a CRM, its pricing is divided into basic messaging and messaging with automations.

Very rarely do they understand the issue (mostly with Explore) that I am trying to communicate to them. Intercom, on the other hand, is ideal for those focusing on CRM capabilities and personalized customer interactions. While Zendesk features are plenty, someone using it for the first time can find it overwhelming. Intercom Live Chat is a software platform you can use to track and engage your visitors, and convert them into your customers.

While light agents cannot interact with the customer on the ticket, they can make notes and interact privately with other team members and agents involved with the ticket. The ticket display’s Side Conversations tab allows agents to initiate internal conversations via email, Slack, or ticketing system notes–without leaving the ticket. Agents can choose if the message is private or public, upon which a group thread is initiated in the ticket’s sidebar, where participants can chat and add files. Collaboration tools enable agents to work together in resolving customer tickets and making sales. Automatic assignment rules establish criteria that automatically route tickets to the right agent or team, based on message or user data.

We hope this list has provided you with a better grasp of each platform and its features. Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and the optimal platform for you will be determined by your individual demands. Many users complain that Intercom’s help is unavailable the majority of the time, forcing them to repeatedly ask the same question to a bot.

That not only saves them the headache of having to constantly switch between dashboards while streamlining resolution processes—it also leads to better customer and agent experience overall. To begin, both platforms have large knowledge bases that cover a lot of different topics and commonly asked questions. These tools are like self-help books; they let people solve common problems on their own.

No matter what Zendesk Suite plan you are on, you get workflow triggers, which are simple business rules-based actions to streamline many tasks. You get call recording, muting and holding, conference calling, and call blocking. Zendesk also offers callback requests, call monitoring and call quality notifications, among other telephone tools.

They have a dedicated help section that provides instructions on how to set up and effectively use Intercom. To select the ideal fit for your business, it is crucial to compare these industry giants and assess which aligns best with your specific requirements. While administrators can automatically assign tickets to certain agents or teams, they can also manually assign tickets to members of sales or customer service teams. Team inboxes aggregate tickets applicable to the whole team–or a specific department–that any agent can address.

Community forums enable customers to assist each other by asking questions and sharing tips, experiences, and best practices–creating a unique, user-based, searchable information hub. Zendesk’s chatbot, Answer Bot, automatically answers customer questions asynchronously in up to 40 languages–via any text-based channel. In fact, agents can even add customers to private messaging chats when necessary, and the customer will receive the whole conversation history by email to ensure they’re up to date. Intercom wins the automation and AI category because its chatbots have some impressive capabilities, like lead qualification and advanced routing. An inbound customer message through any of these channels becomes a ticket for your support agents, whose reply reaches the customer through the same channel they originally used.

Intercom User Assistance and Support

When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, various factors come into play, each focusing on different aspects, strengths, and weaknesses of these customer support platforms. Overall, Zendesk empowers businesses to deliver exceptional customer support experiences across channels, making it a popular choice for enhancing support operations. However, you’ll likely end up paying more for Zendesk, and in-app messenger and other advanced customer communication tools will not be included. Intercom isn’t as great with sales, but it allows for better communication. With Intercom, you can keep track of your customers and what they do on your website in real time.

So you see, it’s okay to feel dizzy when comparing Zendesk vs Intercom platforms. Yes, both Intercom and Zendesk let you try out some of their tools for free before you decide to pay for the full version. Community boards make the support ecosystem even better by creating a place where people can work together and share their experiences, tips, and ask for help from their peers. These forums are helpful for fixing problems and learning from other people’s mistakes. Zendesk offers Chat as an add-on if purchasing support only, but they also come included in the Zendesk Suite. There is also an opinion that Zendesk’s interface and design are slightly less convenient in comparison to Intercom’s, which provides a more streamlined user interface.

They charge for agent seats and connections, don’t disclose their prices, and package add-ons at a premium. Although the Intercom chat window claims that their team responds within a few hours, user reviews have stated that they had to wait for a few days. Intercom is the clear victor in terms of user experience, leaving all of its competitors in the dust.

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Intercom has more customization features for features like bots, themes, triggers, and funnels. For standard reporting like response times, leads generated by source, bot performance, messages sent, and email deliverability, you’ll easily find all the metrics you need. Beyond that, you can create custom reports that combine all of the stats listed above (and many more) and present them as counts, columns, lines, or tables.

Intercom works with any website or web-based product and aims to be your one-way stop for all of your customer communication needs. In this article, we’ll compare Zendesk vs Intercom to find out which is the right customer support tool for you. Zendesk for Sales offers three plans, ranging from $19 to $99 monthly per user, with free trials available for each plan. Zendesk for Service and Zendesk for Sales are sold as two separate solutions, each with three pricing plans, or tiers.

In summary, choosing Zendesk and Intercom hinges on your business’s unique requirements and priorities. If you seek a comprehensive customer support solution with a strong emphasis on traditional ticketing, Zendesk is a solid choice, particularly for smaller to mid-sized businesses. Experience the comprehensive power of Intercom for effective customer communication, automation, support tools, integrations, and analytics. Streamline support processes with Intercom’s ticketing system and knowledge base.

Having more connectors accessible gives organizations the flexibility to select software that meets their specific needs. The platform is evolving from a platform for engaging with consumers to a tool that assists you in automating every element of your daily routine. It’s clear that both of these tools are designed for different use cases. Intercom is geared toward sales, whereas Zendesk includes everything a customer service rep desires. Zendesk is a customer service platform that allows you to communicate with customers via any channel. Both platforms have their unique strengths in multichannel support, with Zendesk offering a more comprehensive range of integrated channels and Intercom focusing on a dynamic, chat-centric experience.

With AI-powered reports, you can track key customer service metrics and improve your ticket response time. Chatbots help you assist customers with their basic queries and generate more leads. Moreover, with collaboration features such as internal notes, parent-child ticketing, and canned responses, your team can delight customers together. In addition to Intercom vs Zendesk, alternative helpdesk solutions are available in the market.

You get multiple support channels at no extra cost with over 1000 APIs and integrations. They also offer several other features such as pre-defined responses, custom rules, and customizable online forms. Hivers offers round-the-clock proactive support across all its plans, ensuring that no matter the time or issue, expert assistance is always available.

HubSpot and Salesforce are also available when support needs to work with marketing and sales teams. Zendesk has many amazing team collaboration and communication features, like whisper mode, which lets multiple agents chime in to help each other without the customer knowing. There is also something called warm transfers, which let one rep add contextual notes to a ticket before transferring it to another rep. You also get a side conversation tool. A customer service department is only as good as its support team members, and these highly-prized employees need to rely on one another.

Zendesk also makes it easy to customize your help center, with out-of-the-box tools to design color, theme, and layout–both on mobile and desktop. When a customer asks a question in the Messenger widget, the Operator automatically suggests a handful of relevant articles based on keywords to help customers resolve their own issues. Self-service tools let customers resolve their own issues quickly and 24/7, improving satisfaction and reducing excessive agent workload.

Intercom vs. Zendesk: Self-Service Tools

One of these steps is putting in place two-factor authentication (2FA). With this extra layer of security, users must show two forms of ID before they can access their accounts. This makes it even harder for people who aren’t supposed to be there to get in. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is used by Intercom, a zendesk chat vs intercom customer communication tool, to keep data sent between users and the platform safe. SSL encryption is a standard form of security that creates a safe and encrypted connection between a user’s computer and the Intercom servers. This keeps any data sent private and stops people from getting to it without permission.

While there is an abundance of help desk tools available out there, only a few get the fervour when it comes to value for money. With ThriveDesk, you can supercharge your website’s growth and streamline customer interactions like never before. Rated 5 stars out of 5 on G2, ThriveDesk is highly regarded by users.

Zendesk supports teams that can then field these issues from a nice unified dashboard. Zendesk has great intelligent routing and escalation protocols as well. While in Intercom, advanced chatbots, a modern and well-developed chat widget, email marketing services, product demonstrations, and in-app messaging all contribute to a better customer experience. Intercom’s UI excels in modern design and intuitive functionality, particularly noted for its real-time messaging and advanced features. It is tailored for automation and quick access to insights, offering a user-friendly experience. Nevertheless, the platform’s support consistency can be a concern, and the unpredictable pricing structure might lead to increased costs for larger organizations.

Businesses of all sizes can rely on the Zendesk customer service platform and benefit from workflow management, powerful AI tools, robust insights, and more. If that sounds good to you, sign up for a free demo to see our software in action and get started. Advanced workflows are useful to customer service teams because they automate processes that make it easier for agents to provide great customer service. The cheapest plan for small businesses – Starter – costs $89 monthly, including 2 seats and 1,000 people reached/mo.

The extensive automation and robust ticketing operations that Zendesk offers are among the numerous capabilities that the company possesses. Intercom’s pricing can be divided into basic messaging and messaging with automation. For businesses looking for basic chat and messaging features, Intercom charges a flat fee of $59 per month for its Start plan with one user and $119 per month for its Grow plan with up to 5 users.

Instead, using it and setting it up is very easy, and very advanced chatbots and predictive tools are included to boost your customer service. Zendesk is a customer service software company that provides businesses with a suite of tools to manage customer interactions. The company was founded in 2007 and today serves over 170,000 customers worldwide.

When selecting the right Customer Support Software for your business it is recommended that you compare the functions, costs, along with other important information concerning the product and vendor. Before you make your choice, check out Messagely’s features and compare them to discover which platform is best for you. However, if you’re looking for a streamlined, all-in-one messaging platform, there is no better option than Messagely. Zendesk, on the other hand, has revamped its security since its security breach in 2016. With Zendesk, you can anticipate customer questions, allowing for shorter reply periods. With its CRM, you have the ability to place your clients in your sales funnels and follow through with them until conversion.