Intercom vs Zendesk: Comparing features, integrations, and pricing

Compare Zendesk vs Intercom for Ecomm Businesses

intercom or zendesk

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? These are both still very versatile products, so don’t think you have to get too siloed into a single use case. Yes, Zendesk has an Intercom integration that you can find in the Zendesk Marketplace—it’s free to install. So, you can get the best of both worlds without choosing between Intercom or Zendesk. Check out our chart that compares the capabilities of Zendesk vs. Intercom. G2 ranks Intercom higher than Zendesk for ease of setup, and support quality—so you can expect a smooth transition, effortless onboarding, and continuous success.

Sure, Intercom allows you to create articles and deliver a bot that answers customer questions with specific articles and resolves issues faster. As a rule, Intercom reviews are positive as many users praise the interface, the ease of use, and the deployment of the software. However, some users remarked that a developer is needed to properly install the software or run the risks of problems in the future.

They bought out the Zopim live chat solution and integrated it with their toolset. Zendesk is among the industry’s best ticketing and customer support software, and most of its additional functionality is icing on the proverbial cake. Intercom, on the other hand, is designed to be more of a complete solution for sales, marketing, and customer relationship nurturing. You can use it for customer support, but that’s not its core strength. With industry-leading AI that infuses intelligence into every interaction, robust integrations, and exceptional data security and compliance, it’s no wonder why Zendesk is a trusted leader in CX. Intercom offers reporting and analytics tools with limited capabilities for custom reporting, user behavior metrics, and advanced visualization.

Zendesk may not offer the same level of real-time tracking capabilities. One of the pivotal aspects of any customer support platform is its ticketing system. Dominic scrutinizes how Zendesk and Intercom handle ticketing, evaluating response times, ease of use, and customization options. Viewers gain valuable insights into which platform excels in managing and resolving customer queries efficiently. Intercom is ideal for personalized messaging, while Zendesk offers robust ticket management and self-service options.

  • The main difference is its connectivity with the Intercom Team Inbox.
  • On the other hand, if you need something that is more tailored to your customer base and is less expensive, then Intercom might be a better fit.
  • It allows businesses to automate a wide range of business interactions.
  • On the other hand, Intercom lacks many ticketing functionality that can be essential for big companies with a huge client support load.
  • Both tools also allow you to connect your email account and manage it from within the application to track open and click-through rates.

Though expensive and quality are synonymous in some worlds, such a principle cannot define Desku where it stands out as one of such affordable companies. However, competitive pricing is a promise and not a compromise to make decent customer support accessible for all. That their customers are fully satisfied with their products and services, and so is the motto of our Desku chatbots. So, by holding Desku’s hand, you can Chat GPT open doors for a long list of happy and fully satisfied customers. Zendesk also includes built-in CSAT and NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys and even allows you to track the effectiveness of your knowledge base articles and self-service resources. Support requests are managed as ongoing conversations rather than tickets which are shared via a unified inbox allowing multiple team members to share knowledge and solutions.

So when it comes to chatting features, the choice is not really Intercom vs Zendesk. The latter offers a chat widget that is simple, outdated, and limited in customization options, while the former puts all of its resources into its messenger. Intercom is more for improving sales cycle and customer relationships, while Zendesk has everything a customer support representative can dream about, but it does lack wide email functionality. On the other hand, it provides call center functionalities, unlike Intercom. You could technically consider Intercom a CRM, but it’s really more of a customer-focused communication product.

CRM, Customer Service, Customer support

For an area of focus as critical as customer support, it can mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a lost account. When it comes to customer support software, Zendesk is #1 in popularity and brand recognition. There are several notable alternatives to Intercom in the customer support and engagement space, including Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, HubSpot, and Zoho Desk.

Considering that Zendesk and Intercom are leading the market for customer service software, it becomes difficult for businesses to choose the right tool. Sometimes, businesses do not even realize the importance of various aspects you must consider while making this choice. For small businesses, the choice depends on the complexity of their CRM needs. Zendesk’s more affordable plans may be suitable if essential CRM functions are enough. However, if businesses seek a more personalized customer experience, Intercom’s advanced features could be beneficial.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Both Zendesk and Intercom are standout performers when it comes to providing comprehensive multi channel support, catering to diverse customer needs. Zendesk offers a versatile array of communication channels, including email, chat, social media, phone, and web forms. This breadth of options ensures that businesses can effectively engage with their customers through their preferred communication method. However, it’s essential to consider the strengths of Zendesk, which offers a comprehensive and versatile customer support platform.

Intercom can even integrate with Zendesk and other sources to import past help center content. I just found Zendesk’s help center to be slightly better integrated into their workflows and more customizable. Triggers should prove especially useful for agents, allowing them to do things like automate notifications for actions like ticket assignments, ticket closing/reopening, or new ticket creation. Their template triggers are fairly limited with only seven options, but they do enable users to create new custom triggers, which can be a game-changer for agents with more complex workflows.

You can always count on it if you need a reliable customer support platform to process tickets, support users, and get advanced reporting. You can also use Intercom as a customer service platform, but given its broad focus, you may not get the same level of specialized expertise. The choice between the two platforms would depend on the specific needs and preferences of each business. For businesses that want to focus on simple and effective customer engagement, Intercom is an easy choice. It excels in real-time customer communication and helps support teams create personalized customer experiences. When it comes to utility, Zendesk’s utility may not be as robust as a pure CRM solution.

Zendesk’s extensive feature set and customizable workflows are particularly appealing to organizations looking to streamline and scale their customer support operations efficiently. Zendesk is distinguished by its robust and versatile customer support solutions. It provides a comprehensive platform for managing customer inquiries, support tickets, and interactions across multiple channels. On the other hand, Intercom shines in its focus on conversational engagement and real-time communication with customers.

Their reports are attractive, dynamic, and integrated right out of the box. You can even finagle some forecasting by sourcing every agent’s assigned leads. Keeping this general theme in mind, I’ll dive deeper into how each software’s features compare, so you can decide which use case might best fit your needs. With over 160,000 customers across all industries and regions, Zendesk has the CX expertise to provide you with best practices and thought leadership to increase your overall value.

Vendor Support Quality

You can carry out records import in a few simple moves, applying our automated migration tool. If you’re trying to organize a elaborate data structure, feel free to go with our customized way. Compare Intercom and Zendesk Chat based on their key features and functions to find the right one for your business. You can contact the sales team if you’re just looking around, but you will not receive decent customer support unless you buy their service. Here is a Zendesk vs. Intercom based on the customer support offered by these brands. Zendesk will meet all your needs, whether you are a budding startup or an enterprise player.

On the other hand, Intercom lacks many ticketing functionality that can be essential for big companies with a huge client support load. In a nutshell, none of the customer support software companies provide decent assistance for users. Their chat widget looks and works great, and they invest a lot of effort to make it a modern, convenient customer communication tool. The Intercom versus Zendesk conundrum is probably the greatest problem in the customer service software world.

The customer service reps I talked to were very helpful during the entire process. Help Desk Migration solution will spare you from copy pasting data entities or setting lacking fields throughout Intercom to Zendesk migration. Help Desk Migration app permits you map record fields and transform your data migration. You preserve the structure of your business data with minimum effort.

What better way to start a Zendesk vs. Intercom than to compare their features? Easily track your service team’s performance and unlock coaching opportunities with AI-powered insights. It also offers a Proactive Support Plus as an Add-on with push notifications, a series campaign builder, news items, and more. 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. Rated 5 stars out of 5 on G2, ThriveDesk is highly regarded by users.

Intercom’s products are used by over 25,000 customers, from small tech startups to large enterprises. Zendesk provides limited customer support for its basic plan users, along with costly premium assistance options. On the other hand, Intercom is generally praised for its support features, despite facing challenges with its AI chatbot and the complexity of its help articles.

intercom or zendesk

They charge for customer service representative seats and people reached, don’t reveal their prices, and offer tons of custom add-ons at additional cost. You can create dozens of articles in a simple, intuitive WYSIWYG text editor, divide them by categories and sections, and customize with your custom themes. If you create a new chat with the team, land on a page with no widget, and go back to the browser for some reason, your chat will go puff. Help Desk Migration ensures you experience no downtime and continue serving your customers seamlessly. Once the Full Data Migration is complete, run a Delta Migration to import only new or updated records from Intercom to Zendesk without duplicating data. Willing to know more about help desk software import and export and customer service ​​enhancement?

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Apart from this feature, the customer support options at Zendesk are quite limited. First, you can only talk to the support team if you are a registered user. The cheapest plan costs about $74/month (when billed annually) and consists of one seat and 1,000 people reached/month.

intercom or zendesk

You cannot invest much in this software if you are a small business, as it would exceed the budget requirements. The help center in Intercom is also user-friendly, enabling agents to access content creation easily. It does help you organize and create content using efficient tools, but Zendesk is more suitable if you want a fully branded customer-centric experience. Zendesk is an all-in-one omnichannel platform offering various channel integrations in one place.

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.

Additionally, Intercom’s call center and advanced analytics rely on third-party integrations, whereas Zendesk offers solutions like Zendesk Sell, Talk and Explore. If you need a highly customizable, all-in-one platform with extensive built-in features, Zendesk may be the better choice. 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. It’s an invaluable tool for businesses aiming to enhance customer satisfaction, increase conversions, and build lasting relationships.

intercom or zendesk

Although you cannot be with your customers all the time in real-time, through Desku’s live chatting, you can actually have their back. Winner — Intercom edges out Zendesk here due mainly to its customizable workflow capabilities. https://chat.openai.com/ If your company is looking for customer support software, you have likely heard of Intercom and Zendesk. HubSpot helps seamlessly integrate customer service tools that you and your team already leverage.

The product has an elegant, minimalist design implemented in Ruby on Rails and provide… When reviewing a product, users are asked to assess the product’s overall quality, which includes assigning specific ratings for ease of use, value for money, customer support, and functionality. Initially started as a simple live chat platform in 2011, Intercom now positions itself as a conversational support platform focused on enabling personalised, messenger-based experiences. When it comes to real-time analytics, Zendesk is winning our hearts.

These features empower businesses to create highly targeted and personalized email campaigns, ensuring efficient communication and nurturing of customer relationships. 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.

Together, these security measures eliminate the dangers of data leak. Employing Help Desk Migration tool, don’t worry about safety of valuable data. We commit to the fresh requirements, run constant advancements, and consistently audit all facilities. Ensure you comprehend thoroughly what the entities will look like after you’ve imported them.

If money is limited for your business, a help desk that can be a Zendesk alternative or an Intercom alternative is ThriveDesk. Choose the plan that suits your support requirements and budget, whether you’re a small team or a growing enterprise. As you dive deeper into the world of customer support and engagement, you’ll discover that Zendesk and Intercom offer some distinctive features that set them apart. Let’s explore these unique offerings and see how they can benefit your business. Now that we’ve discussed the customer service-focused features of Zendesk and Intercom, let’s turn our attention to how these platforms can support sales and marketing efforts. Research by Zoho reports that customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help companies triple lead conversion rates.

When comparing the cost of Intercom to Zendesk, it’s important to consider the pricing structures and potential variations based on your specific customer support and engagement needs. In contrast, Intercom follows a pricing structure that can be straightforward for businesses looking for specific functionalities. However, it’s important to note that Intercom’s pricing can vary depending on factors such as the number of users, conversations, and additional features you require. In some cases, Zendesk may be considered a more cost-effective option compared to Intercom, particularly for businesses with smaller budgets or those looking for more predictable pricing. Agents can quickly grasp the context of customer interaction through these support tickets and sentiment analysis that AI facilitates.

In this article, we will explore the key differences between Intercom and Zendesk, two popular customer support platforms. Both Intercom and Zendesk offer a range of features to help businesses manage customer interactions, but there are some distinct differences between the two. Moving on, Dominic delves into the features offered by Zendesk and Intercom. He highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each, shedding light on the key functionalities that set them apart. From automation and knowledge base management to integrations and analytics, Dominic gives viewers a comprehensive overview of what these platforms bring to the table. Zendesk, a customer service-focused tool, is renowned for its robust ticketing system and help desk capabilities.

Zendesk vs. Intercom: Which one should you choose?

Consider the features and capabilities, user interface, pricing, integration options, and customer support offered by each platform. By doing so, you can make an informed decision that best aligns with your business goals and enhances your customer support efforts. Intercom’s pricing is based on the number of users and the desired features, making it more suitable for small to medium-sized businesses. Zendesk, on the other hand, offers tiered pricing plans based on the number of agents, making it a better choice for larger enterprises. It’s important to consider your budget and the specific needs of your business when evaluating the pricing options. Intercom distinguishes itself by excelling in real-time customer engagement.

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. With both tools, you can also use support bots to automatically suggest specific articles, track customers’ ratings, and localize help center content to serve your customers in their native language. 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. 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.

Their AI-powered chatbot can enable your business to boost engagement and improve marketing efforts in real-time. Intercom’s live chat reports aren’t just offering what your customers are doing or whether they are satisfied with your services. They offer more detailed insights like lead generation sources, a complete message report to track customer engagement, and detailed information on the support team’s performance.

Intercom focuses on real-time customer messaging, while Zendesk provides a comprehensive suite for ticketing, knowledge base, and self-service support. What sets Zendesk apart is its user-friendly interface, customizable workflows, and scalability. It caters to a wide range of industries, particularly excelling in e-commerce, SaaS, technology, and telecommunications.

Additionally, the platform allows for customizations such as customized user flows and onboarding experiences. In a nutshell, both these companies intercom or zendesk provide great customer support. I tested both of their live chats and their support agents were answering in very quickly and right to the point.

Zendesk and Intercom offer basic features, including live chat, a help desk, and a pre-built knowledge base. They have great UX and a normal pricing range, making it difficult for businesses to choose one, as both software almost looks similar in their offerings. Zendesk, just like its competitor, offers a knowledge base solution that is easy to customize.

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There are even instances where customers don’t receive the first response in more than seven days. They have similar features, but Intercom has lots of features and tools that better integrate each other. So it will transmit the live data on the users and what they are doing in your app. This option is useful for those who are looking for a smooth switch from Zendesk to Intercom.

This enables your operators to understand visitor intent faster and provide them with a personalized experience. Analytics features Intercom has is done through add-ons such as Google Analytics, Statbot, Microsoft Teams, and more. With ThriveDesk, you can supercharge your website’s growth and streamline customer interactions like never before. It can team up with tools like Salesforce and Slack, so everything runs smoothly. And considering how appropriate Zendesk is for larger companies, there’s a good chance you may need to take them up on that.

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Help Desk Migration’s Demo with custom data greenlights you pick 20 entities for a test transfer. Move your multilingual help center to your new help desk app effortlessly! Apply our “Migrate content translations” opportunity and import translated language versions of each article automatedly.

Integration capabilities are vital for ensuring a smooth workflow across various business processes. Assessing how Zendesk and Intercom integrate with other systems and tools used within the organization is critical for achieving operational synergy and efficiency. After an in-depth analysis such as this, it can be pretty challenging for your business to settle with either option. That’s why it would be better to review where both the options would be ideal to use.

Intercom is a customer messaging platform that enables businesses to engage with customers through personalized and real-time communication. Zendesk and Intercom offer help desk management solutions to their users. Zendesk offers simple chatbots and provides businesses with straightforward chatbot creation tools, allowing them to set up automated responses and assist customers with common queries. Zendesk may be unable to give the agents more advanced features or customization options for chatbots. Choosing the right customer support tool for your business is vital to providing exceptional customer experiences. Both Intercom and Zendesk offer powerful features, but their suitability depends on your specific business needs and budget.

When comparing the user interfaces (UI) of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms exhibit distinct characteristics and strengths catering to different user preferences and needs. In terms of pricing, Intercom is considered one of the most expensive tools on the market. At the same time, they both provide great and easy user onboarding. Yes, you can integrate the Intercom solution into your Zendesk account.

Their help desk is a single inbox to handle customer requests, where your customer support agents can leave private notes for each other and automatically assign requests to the right people. Intercom stands out for its modern and user-friendly messenger functionality, which includes advanced features with a focus on automation and real-time insights. Its AI Chatbot, Fin, is particularly noted for handling complex queries efficiently.

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