Zendesk vs Intercom: Which One Is Right for You?

You can set office hours, live chat with logged-in users via their user profiles, and set up a chatbot. Customization is more nuanced than Zendesk’s, but it’s still really straightforward to implement. You can opt for code via JavaScript or Rails or even integrate directly with the likes of Google Tag Manager, WordPress, or Shopify.

• Pricing for both services varies based on the specific needs and scale of your business.
• 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.
• Combine that with their prowess in automation and sales solutions, and you’ve got a really strong product that can handle myriad customer relationship needs.
• Zendesk is quite famous for designing its platform to be intuitive and its tools to be quite simple to learn.
• With this kind of organization, you will not only find your favorite apps but also discover new ones to meet your needs.

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. Now that we’ve covered a bit of background on both Zendesk and Intercom, let’s dive into the features each platform offers. Christiana Jolaoso-Oloyede creates compelling content for B2B tech companies.

What is Zendesk?

Here’s what you need to know about Zendesk vs. Intercom as customer support and relationship management tools. Zendesk and HubSpot have pros and cons, so either can be better for you, depending on your business needs. For example, while HubSpot boasts comprehensive customer relationship management features, Zendesk is famous for its customer service efficiency.

Provide self-service alternatives so customers can resolve their own issues. This serves the dual benefit of adding convenience to the customer experience and lightening agents’ workloads. You can even improve efficiency and transparency by setting up task sequences, defining sales triggers, and strategizing with advanced forecasting and reporting tools.

HubSpot

They’ve been rated as one of the easy live chat solutions with more integrated options. When you see pricing plans starting for $79/month, you should get a clear understanding of how expensive other plans can become for your business. What’s worse, Intercom doesn’t offer a free trial to its prospect to help them test the product before onboarding with their services.

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. Both Zendesk and Intercom have knowledge bases to help customers get the most out of their platforms. Intercom users often mention how impressed they are with its ease of use and their ability to quickly create useful tasks and set up automations. Even reviewers who hadn’t used the platform highlight how beautifully designed it is and how simple it is to interact with for both users and clients alike.

Whether you’ve just started searching for a customer support tool or have been using one for a while, chances are you know about Zendesk and Intercom. The former is one of the oldest and most reliable solutions on the market, while the latter sets the bar high in terms of innovative and out-of-the-box intercom vs. zendesk features. Advanced workflows are useful to customer service teams because they automate processes that make it easier for agents to provide great customer service. Zendesk is billed more as a customer support and ticketing solution, while Intercom includes more native CRM functionality.

Zendesk provides a range of customer support options, including email, phone, and live chat support. They also offer a comprehensive knowledge base that includes articles, videos, and tutorials to help users get the most out of the platform. It’s known for its unified agent workspace which combines different communication methods like email, social media messaging, live chat, and SMS, all in one place. This makes it easier for support teams to handle customer interactions without switching between different systems. Plus, Zendesk’s integration with various channels ensures customers can always find a convenient way to reach out.

What is Intercom?

In short, Zendesk is perfect for large companies looking to streamline their customer support process; Intercom is great for smaller companies looking for advanced customer service features. However, you’ll likely end up paying more for Zendesk, and in-app messenger and other advanced customer communication tools will not be included. Zendesk chat allows you to talk with your visitors in real time through a small chat bar at the bottom of your site.

Use ticketing systems to manage the influx and provide your customers with timely responses. When it comes to advanced workflows and ticketing systems, Zendesk boasts a more full-featured solution. Due to our intelligent routing capabilities and numerous automated workflows, our users can free up hours to focus on other tasks.

Users with light access–such as knowledgeable agents and supervisors–can be added to tickets for browsing and feedback. 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. In an omnichannel contact center, agents can manage customer interactions across channels, no matter which channel a customer uses to contact the company. The two essential things that Zendesk lacks in comparison to Intercom are in-app messages and email marketing tools. On the other hand, Intercom lacks many ticketing functionality that can be essential for big companies with a huge client support load. Intercom live chat is modern, smooth, and has many advanced features that other chat tools don’t.

Instead, they offer a product demo when prospects reach out to learn more about their pricing structure. This live chat software provider also enables your business to send proactive chat messages to customers and engage effectively in real-time. This is one of the best ways to qualify high-quality leads for your business and improve your chances of closing a sale faster. After this live chat software comparison, you’ll get a better picture of what’s better for your business.

Intercom VS. Zendesk: Feature Analysis

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 is renowned for its comprehensive toolset that aids in automating customer service workflows and fine-tuning chatbot interactions. Its strengths are prominently seen in multi-channel support, with effective email, social media, and live chat integrations, coupled with a robust internal knowledge base for agent support.

• Zendesk wins the omnichannel capabilities category because it offers voice as a service, which we think is absolutely critical.
• In short, Zendesk is perfect for large companies looking to streamline their customer support process; Intercom is great for smaller companies looking for advanced customer service features.
• Still, for either of these platforms to have some email marketing or other email functionality is common sense.
• 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.
• They’ve been rated as one of the easy live chat solutions with more integrated options.
• 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.