The 16 Best Customer Service Software Platforms for 2024

Through these seminars, we try to reinforce that we’re all in this together—through good times and bad. Showing appreciation and acknowledging accomplishments can lead to motivated, upbeat customer service representatives. CSM enables the support team to do their best work—whether by onboarding new customers or championing customer success for existing ones. The Suite is built on generative AI technology, using Freshworks Freddy AI. Freddy unlocks self-service for customers, and empowers reps to solve problems swiftly, and gives leaders the insights they need to maximize business growth. Check out our extensive knowledge base, take a live class, or even get a one-on-one demo with one of our customer champions to learn how your team can get the most out of Help Scout.

Zendesk offers award-winning customer service software that empowers businesses to deliver fast and personalized customer support at scale. Follow our guide for the basics of customer support software and details about the top customer service tools so you can find the right solution. For many support managers, ticketing software is the single source of truth for customer communication. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Just imagine having a single dashboard where all customer requests are lined up and detailed with an appropriate status and priority. Your team can work with confidence, and your customers can receive timely responses.

Best customer service software in 2024

The goal is to build rapport with consumers, boost retention, foster brand loyalty, and drive sales. For instance, Freshworks Customer Service Suite’s intuitive UI and onboarding make it easy for businesses to go live in no time. However, other solutions might have a steep learning curve and require some hand-holding with the implementation. With a powerful customer service tool, customer management and interaction management can be automated based on time-based triggers or event-based triggers. You can create automated workflows to route incoming customer questions and calls intelligently to the right team or the most appropriate agent for a more efficient and faster response.

What sets LiveAgent apart from all the other tools we’ve mentioned is its gamification approach to customer support. Teams can earn points and rewards for completing tasks, making customer support fun for your team. As with Zendesk’s lower-cost plans, it only covers email, Twitter, and Facebook messages, so if you’re looking for other channels, you’d need to look at https://chat.openai.com/ the omnichannel support tiers. Finding the right software can help you guarantee your customers consistently have pleasant experiences with your company. Service Hub offers a free version that has some of the key functionality of the premium iteration. When you’re ready to opt into a more robust platform, you can simply upgrade to a premium version of Service Hub.

Instead of buying all its tools in a combined package, SysAid users can purchase features as needed. For example, it has tools that can analyze phone conversations between customers and service agents. Agents can see how much they speak versus listen and can look at sentiment analysis reports that assess how well a conversation is going.

Tile began using the Zendesk Agent Workspace to gain some much-needed efficiency. Thanks in part to the tools and unified channels, Tile cut its ticket handling time by 40 percent. Look at website heat maps, which can pinpoint areas that hold your customer’s attention and help you optimize layouts for improved results. Your customer data is another treasure trove of knowledge that can customer service system be leveraged to create a full picture of the customer journey and present ways to level up your performance. Here are some of the features you should consider when looking for a customer service platform. Backed by Freddy AI—our native AI platform—Freshworks Customer Service Suite provides an intuitive interface that enables you to interact with the software using natural language.

These resources should be ideal for problem-solving in that particular situation. For example, a help desk would not be a good fit when a customer wants to first learn about the product. Here the right resource would be a sales and marketing team, which builds a deep interaction with the customer and informs them about everything they would like to know. This picture of the customer experience process can be instrumental in helping employees understand the importance of what they do.

A customer service software will ensure you always respond to your customers on time and in a personalized manner. When comparing value for money, LiveAgent is the best support service software– it offers more features for less. It provides the most robust ticketing system, live chat, and call center software. Similarly, eCommerce businesses experience an influx of customer support tickets during certain times of the year when sales campaigns like Black Friday are live. Therefore, it’s crucial to have flexible customer support software that enables you to add on and remove support agents as needed. Most customers want to resolve their issues independently without contacting customer support.

While it’s primarily used for social media marketing, it can also be employed to manage support-related social media communications. In their own words, Intercom is an engagement OS that helps businesses strengthen customer relationships with proactive live chat and messaging. Using Intercom, you can also manage customer conversations across email, WhatsApp, and your mobile app, making it a good option to consider if you offer chat-first support.

Will HubSpot help me and my team get started with the software?

A good B2B customer service software will provide the insights you need to improve your team’s performance. You can also find out if your teams’ responses are fast and accurate enough and measure how satisfied your customers are with your service. ClickUp is a versatile project and task management platform with customization options. While not specifically a customer service software, it can be adapted to manage support workflows and collaboration, offering flexibility for various business needs. Salesforce is a legacy customer service platform that is preferred by enterprise businesses due to its customizability.

Sprout Social can help your team be fast and efficient with features like delegation, personalization, and seamless in-app collaboration. The AI-Powered Freshworks Customer Service Suite combines the power of self-service bots, conversational messaging, and ticketing into a single solution. HubSpot offers services in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional). For more features and information, you can visit the ActiveCampaign and Freshdesk integration page. This ultimately leads to a quicker response and resolution time, enhancing the customer’s overall experience.

There’s a long list of incredible scheduling software solutions to choose from, each with its own unique set of features… Are you trying to improve your customer relationship management process and don’t know where to start? Help Scout is slightly more limited in languages, as it only directly supports English.

We will note, however, that the AI functionality is only available on the higher-cost omnichannel support plans. If your team needs to communicate with customers in real time, live chat is a great option. It provides the immediacy of phone support but at a lower cost, making it ideal for small businesses.

HubSpot, a leader in the field of inbound marketing, has also significantly impacted customer service with their Service Hub. It offers tools for managing customer communications, ticketing, feedback, and knowledge base creation, all aimed at improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. The platform is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their needs and aesthetic preferences. Freshdesk’s offers are its multi-channel support allows businesses to manage customer interactions across email, chat, phone, and social media. This feature and the platform’s AI-powered automation capabilities enable companies to provide responsive and consistent customer service. The platform also provides powerful analytics tools that help businesses identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.

This integration allows you to synchronize your customer data between both platforms, enhancing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and customer support. Intercom offers a variety of packages to cater to businesses of different sizes and with varying needs. Intercom’s basic Starter Package starts at $74 (USD) per month, which includes Intercom Messenger, shared inbox, conversation routing, saved replies, and behavioral analytics.

By integrating Salesforce with ActiveCampaign, you can automatically update contact information in ActiveCampaign based on changes in Salesforce, ensuring your customer data is always current. This can also enable you to segment your audience and send targeted marketing messages based on interactions with your sales and customer service teams. This integration allows for seamless data transfer between the two platforms, enabling businesses to track customer interactions and automate workflows more effectively. For example, many teams use a ticketing system to manage bugs reported by customers. So even though your customer service team isn’t managing conversations directly in the tool, it’s very common for them to have some interaction with it. LiveAgent combines communication from email, calls, and social media into a unified dashboard.

• The platform empowers your reps with the tools to manage, assign, and annotate these conversations efficiently.
• The good news is that there is customer service software to fit any budget.
• The system can also accommodate rules that identify VIP customers to prioritize their requests.

It might be the case that the perfect all in one solution might be out of your reach financially. Once you’ve jotted down your expectations for the software and set a budget, you can start exploring your options. Messaging apps like Messenger, Viber, WhatsApp, LINE, and Signal are gaining popularity in customer service because they offer an easy way to communicate with businesses. In addition, customers are familiar with these apps as they use them to communicate with friends and family, so contacting companies is super convenient.

Operations Hub

These restaurants have had to pivot to create and sustain impeccable sanitation procedures while creating processes for customers to easily order, pay, and pick up food. Those businesses that can continue to provide services have learned that the bar has been raised. However, plan pricing is dependent on the number of contacts you have (the more contacts, the higher the pricing). In addition, businesses have the option to choose from four paid subscription options.

With it, businesses can track key performance indicators, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. Migrating data from a shared inbox or one customer service platform to another can seem daunting. But with the right support from your customer service solution provider, it can be an effortless process. For instance, Freshworks Customer Service Suite’s team helps you identify technical requirements and existing workflows and develop custom integrations to ensure your data stays intact. Its powerful analytics and reporting tools provide invaluable insights that empower companies to continuously refine and improve their customer service strategies.

Businesses can also automate workflows to help agents with repetitive tasks. Users can design processes to identify, log, resolve, and close incidents to avoid retyping information. Teams can also create cross-enterprise workflows that provide end-to-end views. They can define the work hours of their team and configure schedules to support service level agreements.

It offers features like automated ticket creation and routing, team collaboration tools, and prewritten responses. Customer support software can come in many forms, but the best solutions enable businesses to provide support across numerous channels and tools within a single workspace. Here are some primary resources businesses use to connect with and assist customers.

The software offers simple setup, integration with the rest of their platform, and tools to help team productivity. Their customer service offering, Service Hub, has the usual benefits of a shared inbox, team email, live chat, email templates, canned snippets, and reporting dashboards. Buffer’s free plan is great for those just getting started with social media — it only offers one user seat but allows for the management of three social channels. For teams further along in their social media strategies, Buffer offers paid plans that charge by channel, with higher-tiered plans offering unlimited user seats. Kustomer uses a timeline feature to display your customers’ data in one easy-to-understand report. Your agents can access your customers’ purchase history and previous interactions to provide truly personalized service.

Additionally, predictive analysis tools can anticipate potential issues based on ticket volume and customer behavior, helping you proactively address problems to prevent customer churn. A fully customizable platform allows businesses to tailor their software to meet their organizational needs, now and in the future. Open and flexible software enables teams to unlock a plethora of customization options with apps and integrations, both code and no code. For example, businesses without developer budgets can utilize no-code integrations to quickly and easily extend the capabilities of their software. But companies wanting to create more complex use cases should consider an open platform like Zendesk Sunshine, which lets developers customize the code to their heart’s content. HubSpot Service Hub offers a shared inbox that provides agents with customer history, ticket information, and queue details.

The ChallengeSanta Cruz Bicycles is known for putting the customer first, but accelerated growth challenged the company’s customer focus. For more detailed information on product packaging and the limits that apply, please see our pricing page. Start with free tools and pay as you grow, or hit the ground running with one of our premium editions. Send agents to external conferences or certification courses to further develop their hard skills. You can fill in the gaps in your training program while improving your talent pool’s potential for upward mobility.

Templates to communicate apologies, thanks, and notifications to your customers.

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Service Hub, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub are each part of HubSpot’s customer platform to help you grow better. With automation and contextual guidance built right in, you can get started with Service Hub without involving developers. And if you’re looking for more customization and expertise, our solutions partners offer a wide range of specialized support to help you get the most out of your HubSpot implementation. Use these 17 omni-purpose examples of customer service canned responses and see how much time you’ll save yourself.

Instead of paying a premium price for a mainstream brand or simply deciding that a customer service software is simply too expensive, why not consider alternative solutions? There are many free help desk software alternatives that offer even more features than their more popular competitors. Ensure that the channels you want to connect with your customer support software are supported.

• Among features are reporting capabilities, collision detection to streamline workflows, and an advanced routing system for optimal task distribution.
• The ChallengeAs Stella expanded, its founders realized they had outgrown their software setup.
• Consider the initial cost and any hidden fees, add-ons, or potential future expenses.
• It provides the most robust ticketing system, live chat, and call center software.
• Along with its chat tool, its help desk has built-in call center software with inbound and outbound capabilities, a ticketing system, a knowledge base, and reporting and analytics tools.
• It needs to be best friends with your CRM, project management tool, and any other business applications.

Moreover, you can use a self-service bot, enhancing the overall experience by enabling users to find solutions independently. This feature-rich platform is particularly well-suited for Salesforce CRM users, offering a seamless integration. The basic package with live chat and AI assistant costs $9 per agent per month. Next, a much more feature-rich subscription plan with phone support will cost you $29/mo per agent. Many users prefer chatting with businesses via familiar social platforms like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or Twitter. This allows them to resolve issues without interrupting their daily routine instead of being stuck on your website for hours.

The cost of a monthly subscription starts at $25 per agent per month user for the basic package. Customers who spend money on your product also expect a pleasant experience during and after. They want instant responses, around-the-clock availability, or solutions as personalized as their favorite coffee order. Tile is an electronics company that helps people locate important belongings.

So, the type of tools can also vary based on the channels or modes of support you use. Sprout Social is a social media management platform that can also be used to monitor customer service on social media. This is perfect for businesses running on social media and only wanting to deliver customer service across the same social channels. Groove is a shared inbox alternative for small businesses offering multi-channel support.

Knowledge base administrators can control user permissions to designate who can create, edit, and publish content. The help center also integrates with the live chat system so customers can toggle between self-service and customer support. Chat PG Intercom’s AI tool, Fin, offers conversational support by answering frequently asked questions or surfacing help center articles. Additionally, Fin can summarize conversations in the inbox and automatically populate ticket information.

The feature can also account for non-working hours when calculating time-based conditions. Do you want to boost response times and keep your customers happy with speedy support? Next, collaboratively analyze customer feedback to make general improvements. You can do this fully asynchronously using tools like Miro, Microsoft Whiteboard, or Conceptboard. Proactively draw conclusions within customer cases, regardless of your work location.

If consumers don’t like the experience they receive, it’s easier than ever for them to choose a different business. Communication is easier, and answers are personalized when you have more context. You can always access past interactions with any customer on any channel from a single, unified customer database. Your current systems can be easily integrated with the Customer Service Suite, which offers a user-friendly interface for your agents. In addition, the suite can seamlessly expand to accommodate your business’s growth.

Each customer interaction gets logged, allowing agents who touch the account to access customer history for future customer support. Front includes built-in collaboration features so teams can communicate on tickets. It also features unified reporting for analytics on team performance and customer satisfaction. Intercom’s customer support solution uses automation and messaging to help internal customer service teams.