Intercom vs Zendesk: Which One is Right for Your Business?

Furthermore, with Groove, users can create support widgets that are displayed on their websites. Installing such widgets allows the company to streamline the process of initially engaging with the knowledge base. Yet, widgets can also be used to allow customers to create support tickets. Though most customers consider both Zendesk and Freshdesk to be easy to use, both platforms have some specific features that aid the job of customer service teams. Intercom and Help Scout include customer data like contact details and links to previous support contacts in the conversation window so that service reps don’t need to ask the customer to repeat themselves.

Webinar hosting and screen sharing capabilities are severely limited on the platform, which can lead to a fair amount of frustration on the part of users. Track optimal times to reach clients, busy periods, average response time, call duration, and more. During the phone call, agents can instantly find the client’s history of interactions, orders, chats, or notes in one place.

Zendesk vs Intercom for ease of use

By considering the factors mentioned above, you can narrow down your choices and select the ideal Zendesk competitor that aligns with your business requirements and goals. With the Fullview integration, you could take your Intercom from good to great with cobrowsing, session replays and console logs for 360-degree support. While we hope this post was helpful, we still believe that the best way to decide between different tools is to use them.

The Intercom versus Zendesk conundrum is probably the greatest problem in the world of customer support tools. They both offer some state-of-the-art core functionality and numerous unusual features. Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch? It combines live chat, chatbot, knowledge base, in-app messenger, and auto message functionality with help desk features like shared inbox, customer profiles, tags, etc.

Freshdesk Reviews

Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry. Understanding these fundamental differences should go a long way in helping you pick between the two, but does that mean you can’t use one platform to do what the other does better?

According to one Capterra review from earlier this year, “Zendesk seems to have done all of its innovation years ago as the product has achieved a plateau of functionality of features.” Let’s look one more time at the main features Intercom and Zendesk offer, so we can leave you with the product that ultimately fits your business’ needs the best. The customer messaging platform places focus on enabling companies to build genuine relationships with clients through each stage of the sales funnel. Zoho Desk has a wide array of other integrations designed to connect with the rest of your tech stack. The tool is great for both small and large teams because it is customizable to fit the needs of most businesses. Both Freshdesk and Zendesk offer hundreds of integrations to add the flexibility and convenience businesses need to succeed.

Heavily chat focused

They’ve been criticized for overwhelming design, complicated pricing, and bad customer support. Check out our overview of Zendesk’s features for more details about the platform’s pros and cons. Intercom, on the other hand, has a robust self-service support layer. Not only can you share relevant answers and help center articles as customers are typing but you can also use bots designed to reduce repetitive questions.

Plus, its intuitive user interface and comprehensive analytics help you track customer interactions and gain valuable insights into their behavior. With Gist, you can provide the kind of exceptional customer service that will keep them coming back for more. If you’re looking for an automated help desk solution that’s easy to use and affordable, look no further than Jitbit.

Zendesk or Intercom: Team communication

It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assist customers through self-help options or access to the relevant articles before connecting them to your team. And this, undoubtedly, leaves your customer support agents free to solve urgent matters. Apart from a live chat, it has a feature called ‘Business Messenger’ that comes with its own AI chatbot. Moreover, Intercom bots can converse naturally with customers by using conversation starters, respond with self-help, and knowledge base articles. However, if you compare Zendesk vs Intercom chat in ease of use, the letter wins. Create a chatbot with minimal coding and customize it to your heart’s content.

• The only hiccup someone unfamiliar with Intercom might encounter is that the installation code is a bit hidden.
• Zendesk also offers tons of APIs to customize the software to the users’ needs.
• It should be noted that Intercom can integrate with Zendesk, so if there are Zendesk products that you like, aside from the chat feature, you can still use those.
• The more expensive Intercom plans offer AI-powered content cues, triage, and conversation insights.
• Add-on features include customizable chatbots, extensive customer satisfaction surveys, and product tours for the chat software.
• Plus, its intuitive design makes it easy to set up and use right away.

Intercom is usually matched against ZenDesk, a ground-breaking powerhouse among helpdesk platforms. In fact, Intercom’s marketing strategy is based on how it’s different from ZenDesk, which started out as a ticket system for incoming customer queries. LiveChat includes 3 main components, including a web-based chat window, a web-based control panel, and an operator application. However, you don’t have to spend much time learning the software because it’s easy to use for everyone. LiveChat is a basically a live chat software, allowing you to instantly connect with customers through an online chatbox. What separates LiveChat from other tools in this list is it goes all-in on the live chat feature.

Final Verdict: Which Live Chat is Compatible for Your Business?

Your support agents can also train Zia to perform specific actions. But, if things don’t go as expected… you’ll be here looking for a new customer support platform that will aid you throughout the customer service operations instead of Zendesk. Their pricing model is based on the number of billable tickets per month rather than agents, which means any number of agents can work on these tickets. Their Basic Plan at $60 per month allows for 300 billable tickets per month with an additional charge of $25 for every 100 tickets. Zendesk, on the other hand, gets more expensive as your business grows.

Each of such packages contains a set of tools from basic to advanced features. One study found that 67% of customers prefer calling an agent to help solve their query. Some help desk software provides call center tools as one of customer communication channels. The bot feeds customers and employees the relevant articles upon making a query. 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.

Who Is the Winner in This Zendesk vs Intercom Showdown?

Learn more about the differences between leading chat support solutions Intercom and Zendesk so that you can choose the right tool for your needs. Monese is another fintech company that provides a banking app, account, and debit card to make settling in a new country easier. By providing banking without boundaries, the company aims to provide users with quick access to their finances, wherever they happen to be. In 2023, conversational messaging will play an essential role in customer service. Customers increasingly expect to receive fast, convenient, and personalized support.

• Formerly known as Insights, Zendesk now uses Explore to provide analytics to help businesses tailor their services to increase customer satisfaction.
• You can use Intercom to deliver conversational customer experiences through chat, bots, and personalized messaging.
• Zoho Desk is an intuitive customer service platform designed to help streamline the way you interact with your customers.
• If you’ve read some of our other posts on selecting customer support tools, you’ll know that we’re not here for the hard sell.
• You may want to check out a complete breakdown of all Gorgias pricing plans to help you choose the best one.
• It offers features such as automated ticketing, knowledge base management, and self-service portals which make it easy to respond quickly to customer inquiries.

Intercom uses integrations to boost their chat functionality with even more features. Help Scout also offers weekly live classes where folks can ask the team questions in real time. For those who prefer self-service, Help Scout has an extensive Docs site and a blog full of helpful tips and posts to help get you started. While Intercom boasts a larger number of integrations, both solutions can connect with major CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot as well as with ecommerce sites like Shopify.

User interface and basic functionality

Zendesk’s chatbot, Answer Bot, automatically answers customer questions asynchronously in up to 40 languages–via any text-based channel. 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. Intercom’s help center allows you to draft and organize collections of articles, accessible to customers via a search bar in the Messenger widget. Zendesk wins the omnichannel capabilities category because it offers voice as a service, which we think is absolutely critical. Design and send out mobile push messages–phone pop-ups containing text and images that prompt customers to take action and redirect to a specific app page when clicked.

• You can also use the FAQ tool to provide self-service to your customers to help customers resolve their issues with minimal assistance.
• By integrating multiple touchpoints and communication channels, Intercom ensures that your customers receive personalized and timely support throughout their entire experience with your brand.
• Installing such widgets allows the company to streamline the process of initially engaging with the knowledge base.
• To provide the right level of customer support, you need the right software, and there are plenty of features to consider.
• Thus, the inbox is used to refer tickets to other agents who can solve them.
• Welcome to another blog post that helps you gauge which live chat solution is compatible with your customer support needs.

It’s an all-in-one solution that combines help desk, CRM, and team collaboration tools. The provider is therefore a great platform for boosting efficiency and staying organized. If you are looking for a way to provide your customers with the best possible customer service experience, you need help desk software for that.

When new users onboard, Intercom drops them into an inbox tutorial that focuses on teaching the ins and outs of keyboard shortcuts. Teams using Help Scout are set up in minutes, twice as productive, and save up to 80% in annual support costs. Intercom is better suited to enterprise companies; Help Scout is the best choice for growing businesses. If the answer is “yes”, then that’s where I can vouch for Front, but again, you’re accepting support fragmentation, and good luck roping that back in in the future. Again, if you’re a small team, you should probably have a primary and centralized support channel, usually “” – that way you can better control routing and tracking feedback.

You don’t even need to get a separate email marketing tool because Intercom can notify your customers about feature updates, promotions, etc via in-app notification and email. You can live chat with your web visitors and send welcome messages, just like Zendesk. It provides you with metadialog.com all of the tools you need to develop a trusting relationship with your customers and resolve their issues with personalized support. It’s modern, it’s smooth, it looks great and it has so many advanced features. I’m pretty sure it’s a benchmark for other chat widgets out there.