With this omni-channel setup, customers no longer have to navigate to your site to receive chat support. Instead, they can get help right where they're working, saving them time and reducing friction in the customer experience. In addition to Intercom, Podium is also a messaging tool that can be used to communicate with customers via live chat.
However, unlike Intercom, Podium has internal communication channels so your agents can communicate with each other privately. Agents can collaborate on complex or time-sensitive service cases, which leads to faster response times and resolution rates.
And, Podium has easy-to-use handoff features that make case transfer seamless for both agents and customers. TeamSupport is a service platform that specializes in self-service tools. It has a "Customer Hub" where customers can create and view the status of their support tickets. They can also search through your company's knowledge base and reach out to service agents using the same interface. This centralizes your team's service operations and makes it easier for you to communicate updates to customers.
Sprout Social provides businesses with tools that manage social media engagement. Part of this includes customer service features that help support agents respond to customers who ask questions or provide feedback through social media channels. With social media quickly becoming a fundamental service medium, Sprout Social gives your team the resources needed to delight your online customer base. SysAid uses a modular approach for its platform, which is different than other help desk providers featured on this list.
Instead of buying all of its tools in a combined package, SysAid users can purchase features as they need them. This lets you fully-customize your SysAid account and ensures you don't spend money on tools and services that your team never uses. Kustomer uses a cool timeline feature to display your customers' data into one, easy-to-understand report.
Your agents can see your customers' purchase history and past interactions, and leverage that data to create a truly personalized service experience. Additionally, Kustomer has single-thread conversations so all communication will be funneled into one chat, regardless of where the conversation takes place.
HappyFox can stand toe to toe with pretty much every other software provider on this list. What makes it unique, though, is its custom reporting tools. It also provides reports on your company's overall service trends, so upper-management has the data needed to make successful changes to support workflows. Help Scout is an all-in-one Saas helpdesk software that lets support teams deliver email, self-service, and live chat support from one centralized tool.
Beacon, Help Scout's chat widget, lets customers search your knowledge base, initiate a live chat conversation, or send an email support request from any page of your website or app. While these tools are considered to be the best in customer service, that doesn't necessarily mean they're the right fit for your business. If you're looking for software that can help scale your service team, take a look at the next section for a list of free tools that you can adopt.
HelpSpot is great for small customer support teams that want to get familiar with fundamental service tools. It has a basic help desk, ticketing system, and reporting features that are all universally applicable regardless of the industry your company is in. Optimize staff. Reduce costs with features that let you…. Lean on AI. Offer self-service support. Increase customer loyalty with features that let you….
Interact across channels. Personalize service. What to look for in customer service software. AI-powered support. Easy-to-use interface. Flexible system. App integration. Accessible to customers. Start using customer service software. Learn more.
Need Help? Chat with a Microsoft sales specialist for answers to your Dynamics questions. Chat Now No thanks. Things like FAQ pages, video tutorials, and how-to articles are all common types of content housed in a knowledge base. Generally speaking, there are two main types of knowledge bases: internal and external. With an internal knowledge base, content is private and may require the user to login to access the information, whereas an external knowledge base is public and accessible to anyone.
It may be helpful to think of an internal knowledge base as geared toward your employees, while an external knowledge base is geared toward your customers. Some tools focus more on one use case than another, but there are also some capable of doing both well. Sometimes customers want to talk to a live person. In those instances, live chat is a great option since it offers the immediacy of phone support while being less resource-intensive.
In order to offer live chat support , you first need access to live chat software. Messaging tools are a broad category referring to software that allow you to do some sort of proactive support. That could come in the form of chatbot software , proactive messaging software , or some combination of the two. In any case, the core goal of a messaging tool is to reduce friction in some way or another for the customer.
Data confirm people generally prefer tasks that require less effort. Customer relationship management CRM software is a tool that lets businesses manage and track customer interactions.
The primary way it can help with customer success is through personalization. Each new channel either requires taking time and energy away from an already established channel or adding new resources to manage it. Our own Mat Patterson explored this topic in depth in a helpful post for those considering social media support. Sometimes referred to a a ticketing system, service desk software is more IT focused and used to manage internal requests for technical assistance — think tools like JIRA.
For example, many teams use a ticketing system to manage bugs reported by customers. The feature set of software platforms built for customer service covers a wide range, but can be generally categorized into six major focus areas. Customer service software tools may include built in interfaces for some channels and integrate with external providers for others.
Organizing features are for taking all that incoming communication and creating useful structure so customer service teams can manage high volumes, understand what needs to be done, and respond in a timely manner. Organizational features in customer service software cover both tools for manually arranging things and tools for taking action automatically.
Collaboration features allow multiple people to effectively work together on the incoming support volume, from frontline support folk to subject experts and business operations folk. These features encompass all the ways a reply can be sent to the customer in question. Responding features can include:. Many customer service software tools offer direct integration with other systems — and APIs for programmatic integration into even more places.
Integrations allow a company to connect their customer service data with tools like:. Features for reporting and analysis in customer service software allow companies to better understand things like who their customers are, what they are trying to get done, where their customers run into trouble, and what they need. Some of the above features are common across nearly every customer support platform; others are less common or are implemented quite differently.
Since there are many different channels for customer service — and many different approaches a team can take — we decided to include a variety of tools. They range from all-in-one solutions down to some more niche offerings such as in-app support.
Help Scout checks all of these boxes. Help Scout is focused on providing a great experience for both your customers and your support team:. With a few plan options to choose from, a la carte add-ons, and even the ability to build a custom plan if need be, Help Scout is a great option for any team. Start in minutes with a free trial.
Knowledge bases empower customers to find answers on their own, which means a faster resolution time for them and fewer tickets for your team.
HelpDocs is a strong contender for those looking to invest in a standalone knowledge base. Their straightforward pricing, robust feature set, and easy-to-use interface all make setting up your first knowledge base a breeze.
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.
Things like team management, robust analytics, smart automations, and a host of other features mean Olark can meet the needs of almost any team.
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