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Written by Enshored Team on March 8th
If you have a business with a certain number of employees and customers, having something that can gather all of those things in one place where you can easily access them is fundamental for the workflow of your company, as well as the satisfaction between your customers and your employees.
There are many options out there when it comes to customer service software, and every platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on the size, type, and industry your company is in, certain software might be more helpful than others.
In this article, we will go through the top customer service software in the market and compare them, so you can make knowledgeable decisions about what software your company should acquire and which will be the perfect fit. We will compare the level of customization each software has, their plan pricing, their integrations with apps and other third-party software, and the top features that make these customer service software stand out.
Zendesk was launched back in 2007, making it one of the oldest customer service management software in the market, and acquiring quite a customer base over the years. If your company bases its communications through a phone line, Zendesk might be a great choice. On top of that, they have many other functionalities that might be useful to you and your company such as ticketing automation, or self-service solutions.
Freshdesk was launched in 2010, as a counter software to fight the rising prices of Zendesk. Freshdesk is a more affordable, and easier to scale software than its main competitor, and it has many other features to make them relevant besides the cheaper price.
Kustomer is a highly sophisticated customer service software created to support high volumes of correspondence and to optimize experiences in the customer service area. It automates around 40% of all interactions through self-service making the experience between customers and employees smooth and effortless.
This software offers great customization so you can change it according to your business. Through Zendesk Explore, the application provides omnichannel access to analytics and the ability to measure customer engagement.
Their dashboard is nicely designed to allow quick understanding and smooth use. You can analyze, view, and optimize your team and your tasks and check on the individual performance of your employees.
You can use their add-on Collaboration that allows linked functionalities between team members and between different departments.
It’s significantly easier to use than most customer service apps out there and is extremely intuitive. Although their customization is not at the same level as other applications, it is still very customizable and you would be able to fit it according to your business.
This is a highly customizable piece of software, and it fits any of your business needs. With their own chat widget, you have the ability to add your own content across many platforms.
Depending on the pricing tier, you would have more or less customization, but even the basic tier can be highly customizable.
Zendesk offers four different base prices, each with more or fewer functionalities. Their Essential, Team, Professional, and Enterprise plans will certainly serve your business depending on the option you choose.
Unlike other applications of the same type, with Zendesk, you will have to pay for every single user, whatever their tier plan. On the other hand, there are no add-ons except for the Zendesk Collaboration. This is a paid subscription and allows access to this feature.
Freshdesk is the cheapest of all the customer service applications reviewed in this article, but don’t let that fool you, it can be just as powerful as any of the other software. You have four main different plans: Blossom, Garden, Estate, and Forest, but if you think those are not enough, Freshdesk has some other plans for larger enterprises.
Even though it might be harder to optimize for scale, Freshdesk still offers a great deal of scalability that suits almost every business. However, the product works better in small to midsize companies.
Kustomer software has two different pricing plans; Enterprise and Ultimate. It’s important to note that this customer service software is built to serve larger companies and their pricing might be a little high for smaller companies. From $89 a month – the price for Enterprise – you get many features such as unlimited omnichannel, customizable objects, workflow templates, custom saved responses, personal workspace settings, omnichannel conversations, and advanced reports are just some of the most important tools.
If you choose the most expensive plan, for $139, you would get all the features that come with the Enterprise plan, plus live agent auditing, real-time dashboards, 2-hour service level objective, and more.
The Help Desk is probably the most significant feature of Zendesk. It works as a central hub where everything is connected and facilitates customer experience and support. It has help desk automation so easy and common tasks can be quickly done and free up time from employees, real-time updates allow your team to see real-time data and act accordingly. The customizable view is also a great feature in the Help Desk section of Zendesk, your employees can personalize their ticket status and other features.
Agent collaboration, mobile versatility, SLA management, and macros are also things that should be considered and that might help your company to organize customers’ requests easier.
Price and customization are the top features in Freshdesk. With multi-channel helpdesk and great tools for customizing every aspect of the software. It also has advanced automation and integrated community platforms that allow ease of use.
Besides that, it also has great live chat and phone support and works with many other popular apps on Google apps and SlideShare so integration between platforms becomes smooth.
Kustomer IQ is without a doubt the best feature in an already feature-packed customer service platform. This is an AI that allows automation of many repetitive tasks, as well as sending auto-responses to customers. If you want to use the Kustomer IQ, you need to add another plan to your subscription, but if you have a large company, this feature can save you a lot of time. The three plans are Lite, Standard, and Plus.
If you have any of the packages; Enterprise or Ultimate, you can use Lite Kustomer IQ, however, it only comes with 50 deflections across all the chats, emails, and forms. You can upgrade your plan, so you have access to more advanced features.
Zendesk is compatible with more than 1000 integrations in more than 15 different categories. You can go to the Zendesk marketplace and filter apps through the search engine, as well as a list of the top integrations on Zendesk.
The marketplace of Freshdesk is very similar to Zendesk. Although somehow with fewer integrations, Freshdesk still allows more than 500 apps in more than 15 categories. The search engine can also be filtered to find the best results.
Kustomer is one of the software that offers the most third-party apps and integrations. These integrations are listed in 6 different categories:
However, Kustomer charges for some of these features such as custom configuration, third-party apps and integrations, proprietary integrations, and voice integration.
Zendesk self-service tools are one of the most important features Zendesk offers. It provides users with Guide Lite. This is an add-on that allows customization of services, permissions, and easy access to the management of teams. It also allows reports of analysis, customer portal setup, and content in various languages.
Freshdesk has an easy-to-use customer experience, and unlike Zendesk it already comes integrated with the software instead of an add-on. Through Knowledge Base and Forums, Freshdesk allows self-service to be efficient and easy for customers.
The self-service part of Kustomer is also one of their great features. Besides having unmatched customization, you can also give it a unique visual that can make it extremely easy for customers to work with it.
With this software, you can also manage many brands at the same time and many help articles for the customers to scroll through.
Zendesk ranks first in many customer support lists, making it one of the best customer service software in terms of customer service support. Their main features include help centers and community forums that allow customers to search for help themselves before contacting a team member, and with the AI-powered bots, the customer can have a unique experience when searching for help.
The omnichannel support is by far the best customer support this software has. It allows fast delivery of customer service across many mediums, plus you can see all your different channels through one simple dashboard.
Kustomer has many features that allow the best and smoothest customer service. With automated messages such as initial greetings, temporary company updates, and trigger responses based on information from the customer, the ability to close conversations that are inactive, and the addition of tags so you can easily manage conversations between different customers, makes Kustomer one of the best software when it comes to customer service.
| Zendesk | Freshdesk | Kustomer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $5 Essential $19 Support Team $49 Suit Team $79 Suite Growth $99 Suite Professional $150 Suite Enterprise | $0 Sprout $35 Garden $49 Estate $79 Estate Omnichannel $99 Forest $139 Forest Omnichannel | $89 Enterprise $139 Ultimate |
| Mobile Application | No | Apple iOS Android | No |
| Supported Countries | 160+ | 40+ | 40+ |
| Supported Languages | 60+ | 40+ | 40+ |
| Integrations | 1000+ | 500+ | 500+ |
There are many customer service software in the market nowadays, and choosing the best for your company might be a hard task. However, it doesn’t have to be. The software that we have analyzed here is within the top in their respective fields and depending on the type, size, and industry your company is in, you can choose the one that fits better on your way of working.
Remember, however, that this software is here to make your life easier at a reasonable price. Don’t go purchase the most expensive software in the market if you are not going to use most of its features.
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