Zendesk vs Intercom: Which is better?

The main difference is its connectivity with the Intercom Team Inbox. This makes things faster for support teams to access information without bothering other users. Also, a customer experience form can be found at the end of each article. The intercom vs. zendesk answers are analyzed to help streamline the AI and can also be collated into a report for your perusal. For smaller teams that have to handle multiple tasks, do not forget to check JustReply.ai, which is a user-friendly customer support tool.

Zendesk has an app available for both Android and iOS, which makes it easy to stay connected with customers while on the go. The app includes features like push notifications and real-time customer engagement — so businesses can respond quickly to customer inquiries. Zendesk outshines Intercom for customer support workflows with its core feature, the ticketing system. Zendesk’s ticketing system is renowned for its highly organized approach, which empowers businesses to manage customer support requests with unparalleled efficiency.

Why ProProfs Chat is the Better Alternative to Zendesk & Intercom

When choosing between Zendesk and Intercom for your customer support needs, it’s essential to consider various factors that align with your business goals, operational requirements, and budget. Both platforms offer distinct strengths, catering to customer support and engagement aspects. Zendesk receives positive feedback for its intuitive interface, wide range of integrations, and robust reporting tools.

The best way, however, to maximize their potential is through Intercom Zendesk integrations on Appy Pie Connect. While Intercom offers a user-friendly interface and solid chat features, it may lack the comprehensive, modular capabilities provided by Zendesk. Intercom’s tools are packaged together, limiting customization and potentially leading to higher costs if you need only specific features. Additionally, Intercom’s call center and advanced analytics rely on third-party integrations, whereas Zendesk offers solutions like Zendesk Sell, Talk and Explore.

It is a totally cloud-based service; you can operate this VOIP technology by sitting in any corner of the world. You will be able to find the most common chatting system with a single communication channel. So, communicating with customers on different communication channels would be difficult on Intercom. Both the platforms have the knowledge base feature, and in my opinion, both of them are becoming winners. It will help you understand your customer’s issue and solve it instantly.

Zendesk vs Intercom for customer support

Some of the links that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation. The main idea here is to rid the average support agent of a slew of mundane and repetitive tasks, giving them more time and mental energy to help customers with tougher issues. Help desk SaaS is how you manage general customer communication and for handling customer questions.

ThriveDesk is a help desk software tailor-made for businesses seeking extensive features and a powerful yet simple live chat assistant. Even better, it’s the most cost-effective, lightweight, and speedy live chat solution available for Shopify business owners. Experience the comprehensive power of Intercom for effective customer communication, automation, support tools, integrations, and analytics. Intercom’s messaging system enables real-time interactions through various channels, including chat, email, and in-app messages. Connect with customers wherever they are for timely assistance and personalized experiences. So, get ready for an insightful journey through the landscapes of Zendesk and Intercom, where support excellence converges with AI innovation.

Resolutions in minutes—not months

While they like the ease of use this product offers its users, they’ve indeed rated them low in terms of services. Zendesk also offers a straightforward interface to operators that helps them identify the entire interaction pathway with the customers. Compared to being detailed, Zendesk gives a tough competition to Intercom.

Intecom’s pricing strategies are not as transparent as Zendesk’s pricing. So, whether you’re a startup or a global giant, Zendesk’s got your back for top-notch customer support. Zendesk lets you chat with customers through email, chat, social media, or phone.

Its conversational support approach, powerful automation capabilities, and in-depth analytics empower businesses to deliver tailored and effective customer experiences. In the digital age, customer support platforms have become the cornerstone of ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. Businesses across various industries rely on these platforms to manage and streamline customer interactions, enhance communication, and provide timely assistance. Intercom’s user interface is also quite straightforward and easy to understand; it includes a range of features such as live chat, messaging campaigns, and automation workflows. Additionally, the platform allows for customizations such as customized user flows and onboarding experiences.

In addition to these features, Intercom offers messaging automation and real-time visitor insights. 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. Research by Zoho reports that customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help companies triple lead conversion rates. Those same tools also increase customer retention by 27% while saving 23% on sales and marketing costs.

It guarantees continuous omnichannel support that meets customer expectations. What’s really nice about this is that even within a ticket, you can switch between communication modes without changing views. So if an agent needs to switch from chat to phone to email (or vice versa) with a customer, it’s all on the same ticketing page. There’s even on-the-spot translation built right in, which is extremely helpful. And you would be surprised to know that the Intercom does not have a VOIP call service.

Zendesk also packs some pretty potent tools into their platform, so you can empower your agents to do what they do with less repetition. Agents can use basic automation (like auto-closing tickets or setting auto-responses), apply list organization Chat GPT to stay on top of their tasks, or set up triggers to keep tickets moving automatically. I tested both options (using Zendesk’s Suite Professional trial and Intercom’s Support trial) and found clearly defined differences between the two.

• Zendesk offers fast time to value, especially at the enterprise level.
• So, by holding Desku’s hand, you can open doors for a long list of happy and fully satisfied customers.
• 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.
• Intercom is a customer support messenger, bot, and live chat service provider that empowers its clients to provide instant support in real-time.

When it comes to customer communication, Intercom has a perfect layout and customer information storage system. Based on such information, you can easily communicate with your customers and resolve their queries instantly. Its easy navigability allows you to switch between different sections smoothly. But, you would not be able to experience such a good in-app messaging service on Zendesk. Automating onboarding messages, product guides, newsletters, and the list goes on.

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. Intercom also offers a few features that are unique to its platform – one of these being the ability to segment users based on their behavior. This means that you can send targeted messages to different groups of users based on how they interact with your product. Intercom also offers a suite of tools for customer support, including a knowledge base, a help center, and a community forum.

The strength of Zendesk’s UI lies in its structured and comprehensive environment, adept at managing numerous customer interactions and integrating various channels seamlessly. However, compared to the more contemporary designs like Intercom’s, Zendesk’s UI may appear outdated, particularly in aspects such as chat widget and customization options. This could impact user experience and efficiency for new users grappling with its complexity​​​​​​. Founded in 2007, Zendesk started as a ticketing tool for customer success teams.

Intercom’s large series of bots obviously run on automations as well. As mentioned before, the bot builder is a visual drag-and-drop system that requires no coding knowledge; this is also how other basic workflows are designed. The more expensive Intercom plans offer AI-powered content cues, triage, and conversation insights. 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 is not far behind Intercom when it comes to email features.

Intercom does not offer a native call center tool, so it cannot handle calls through a cloud-based phone system or calling app on its own. However, you can connect Intercom with over 40 compatible phone and video integrations. As businesses expand and evolve, the scalability and flexibility of their customer support platform becomes important.

But it’s also a given that many people will approach their reviews to Zendesk and Intercom with some specific missions in mind, and that’s bound to change how they feel about the platforms. Help desk software creates a sort of “virtual front desk” for your business. That means automating customer service and sales processes so the people visiting your website don’t actually have to interact with anyone before they take action. Intercom allows visitors to search for and view articles from the messenger widget. Customers won’t need to leave your app or website to find the help they need.Zendesk, on the other hand, will redirect the customer to a new web page. You can also add apps to your Intercom Messenger home to help users and visitors get what they need, without having to start a conversation.

However, we will say that Intercom just edges past Zendesk when it comes to self-service resources. Let’s compare Zendesk vs. Intercom using the help desk features they have. In this case, we’ll see what their similarities and differences are. It also offers a Proactive Support Plus as an Add-on with push notifications, a series campaign builder, news items, and more.

Intercom understands very well that email marketing is no more than a magic wand for building strong customer relations. Amid tight budgeting times, Desku proves to be the buddy for excellent worth and without any costly expenditure. However, the approach is far much wider than merely focusing on what would be more cost-effective but instead exploring ways through which a solution that would suit you best could be realized.

The three tiers—Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional—also give you more options outside of Intercom’s static structure. Suite Team is more affordable than Intercom’s $79/month tier; Suite Professional is more expensive. Overall, Zendesk wins out on plan flexibility, especially given that it has a lower price plan for dipping your toes in the water. We give the edge to Zendesk here, as it’s typically aimed for more complex environments. It’s also more exclusively focused on providing help support, whereas Intercom sometimes moonlights as being part-time sales.

Gone are the days when your team had to manually sift through a pile of customer inquiries. Avoid cherry-picking and shared inboxes by using Dixa’s Conversation Offers and Intelligent Routing. Your team can provide excellent customer support across multiple channels by receiving the right conversation at the right time. With the base plan, you get some sweet facilities like a ticketing system, data analytics, customer chat history, and more. In comparison to that, you enjoy customized agent roles, sandbox, and skills-based routing, besides offering basic functionalities with the expensive enterprise plan.

While Intercom also provides a user-friendly interface, some users may find it a tad overwhelming, especially when juggling multiple support requests. Zendesk’s simplicity, combined with its robust functionality, significantly reduces the margin for errors and confusion. In the realm of user-friendliness, Zendesk clearly emerges as the superior choice. 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. It’s much easier if you decide to go with the Zendesk Suite, which includes Support, Chat, Talk, and Guide tools.

It will seamlessly integrate with Slack and offers everything you need for your favorite communication platform. Intercom’s AI has the transformative power to enhance customer service by offering multilingual support and contextual responses. AI-driven chatbot Fin is designed to automate consumer interactions.

It also enables agents to perform customized workflow management, assign tickets to the right agent for request handling, and track the ticket’s progress. 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. Intercom is praised as an affordable option with high customization capabilities, allowing businesses to create a personalized support experience.

We will discuss these differentiating factors to help you make the right choice for your business and help it excel in offering extraordinary customer service. The ProProfs Live Chat Editorial Team is a passionate group of customer service experts dedicated to empowering your live chat experiences with top-notch content. We stay ahead of the curve on trends, tackle technical hurdles, and provide practical tips to boost your business. With our commitment to quality and integrity, you can be confident you’re getting the most reliable resources to enhance your customer support initiatives.

To guide your decision-making, we explain the key features and qualities of each, and the role that a omnichannel conversational AI platform (Netomi!) can play, for the ultimate CX strategy. The primary function of Intercom’s mobile app is the business messenger suite, including personalized messaging, real-time support tools, push notifications, in-app messaging and emailing. Intercom also does mobile carousels to help please the eye with fresh designs.

Both Zendesk and Intercom offer robust solutions, but the choice ultimately depends on specific business needs. While both platforms have a significant presence in the industry, they cater to varying business requirements. Zendesk, with its extensive toolkit, is often preferred by businesses seeking https://chat.openai.com/ an all-encompassing customer support solution. Choosing the right customer service platform is pivotal for enhancing business-client interactions. In this context, Zendesk and Intercom emerge as key contenders, each offering distinct features tailored to dynamic customer service environments.

Using this, agents can chat across teams within a ticket via email, Slack, or Zendesk’s ticketing system. This packs all resolution information into a single ticket, so there’s no extra searching or backtracking needed to bring a ticket through to resolution, even if it involves multiple agents. Compare Intercom and Zendesk Chat based on their key features and functions to find the right one for your business. Although Zendesk does not have an in-app messaging service, it does have one unique feature, and that is its built-in virtual call assistant, Zendesk Talk.

But with perks like more advanced chatbots, automation, and lead management capabilities, Intercom could have an edge for many users. But they also add features like automatic meeting booking (in the Convert package), and their custom inbox rules and workflows just feel a little more, well, custom. I’ll dive into their chatbots more later, but their bot automation features are also stronger. We are delighted to offer a platform exclusively designed for customer service teams.

Rated 5 stars out of 5 on G2, ThriveDesk is highly regarded by users. Rest assured, ThriveDesk’s lightweight design and speed won’t impact the performance of your Wix-powered eCommerce website. The optimized agent interface ensures rapid responses for maximum efficiency, all while keeping your website running smoothly.

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. Zendesk’s mission is to build software designed to improve customer relationships. Its chat-based approach, automation capabilities, and chatbots are ideal for handling routine inquiries efficiently.

Here’s what you need to know about Zendesk vs. Intercom as customer support and relationship management tools. Get a unified view of all customer touchpoints and manage technology solutions from a single dashboard, empowering agents and admins to provide exceptional customer service. When it comes to real-time analytics, Zendesk is winning our hearts. With its live analytics feature on the dashboard, it makes it easy for you to make instant decisions in no time.

It delivers a multi-channel support system with customer service automation. You can set business rules, SLA, and ticket routing based on the agent’s skills, language, and expertise. Each message will have identifiers so that they will be easy to recognize at a glance. As a result, you’ll be able to see the sender, anyone who replied, and the dates of their interaction.

When it comes to integrations, Zendesk and Intercom both offer diverse possibilities, but here, Zendesk takes the lead. Zendesk boasts an extensive array of integration options, with over 1,500 apps in its ecosystem. While Zendesk incorporates live chat and messaging functionalities to facilitate proactive customer engagement, it falls short of matching Intercom’s level of personalization.

Helplama positions itself as a cloud-based helpdesk solution that helps brands turn customer service into a marketing pipeline. It offers automated agent training, automated orders and returns centre, agents marketplace, UGC collection, review identification, and other helpdesk functionalities. The Zendesk chat tool has the most necessary features like shortcuts to saved responses, chatbots, and live chat analytics. In navigating this conundrum, several digital tools can come in handy, and two of the most popular options are Intercom and Zendesk. As both platforms have their pros and cons, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for your business.

ROI comes down to getting the most out of the features available, so payment structures that are scaleable and flexible are a must. Its tight focus on customer support keeps things simple, especially when people are learning the software. Intercom’s helpdesk is more of a complementary tool to their chat tools. Intercom is more communication-oriented, whereas Zendesk has everything a customer support representative wants. It brings all your customer interactions to a single dashboard so that you can track all your support requests, answer questions quickly, and monitor performance from one place.

Therefore, a helpdesk with a good inbox can make your team efficient in solving problems. It also provides mid-sized businesses with comprehensive customer relationship management software, as they require more advanced features to handle customer support. Similarly, the ability of Zendesk to scale also makes it the best fit for enterprise-level organizations. Intercom is also a customer service software that integrates entirely with third-party vendors, especially those offering messaging services. Using any plan, this integration is available to all customers, making the customer support experience and onboarding smooth. Zendesk allows businesses to group their resources in the help center, providing customers with self-service personalized support.

In the dynamic landscape of customer support platforms, choosing between Zendesk and Intercom depends on various factors such as budget, specific business requirements, and long-term goals. Businesses should carefully evaluate their needs and consider scalability, user-friendliness, and integration capabilities before deciding on the platform that best suits their requirements. Zendesk is a leading customer service software that offers a comprehensive suite of tools for businesses to manage customer support, engagement, and relationships. Its user-friendly interface, robust ticketing system, and extensive integration options make it popular for businesses seeking efficient customer service solutions. With its robust ticketing system, versatile automation capabilities, and extensive reporting tools, Zendesk empowers businesses to handle customer inquiries effectively and improve support efficiency. It’s best used when you need a centralized platform to manage customer support operations, whether through email, chat, social media, or phone.

The only relief is that they do reach out to customers, but it gets too late. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. In terms of customer service, Zendesk fails to deliver an exceptional experience. This can be a bummer for many as they can always stumble upon an issue.