Intercom vs Zendesk What are the differences?

When it comes to integrations, Zendesk and Intercom both offer diverse possibilities, but here, Zendesk takes the lead. Zendesk boasts an extensive array of integration options, with over 1,500 apps in its ecosystem. HubSpot and Salesforce are also available when support needs to work with marketing and sales teams. Intercom focuses on real-time customer messaging, while Zendesk provides a comprehensive suite for ticketing, knowledge base, and self-service support. By exploring their distinct offerings, we aim to assist businesses in making informed decisions when selecting a customer service platform. Freshdesk is a comprehensive customer support platform offering automation, self-service, and multi-channel support for businesses of all sizes.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Overall, when comparing Zendesk to Intercom, Zendesk’s features will probably win out over time. But the most important thing is that you get a help desk that you believe in—and that you integrate it into a website as thoroughly as possible. While Intercom also provides a user-friendly interface, some users may find it a tad overwhelming, especially when juggling multiple support requests. Zendesk’s simplicity, combined with its robust functionality, significantly reduces the margin for errors and confusion.

They do have a ton of similarities, but recognizing the differences may help you to make the crucial decision about which one to use for your business. Zendesk lets you chat with customers through email, chat, social media, or phone. Intercom assists with the onboarding and retention of customers through targeted email and in-app messages triggered by time or behavior. We empower clients to suceed with unique features like multi-brand support centers, custom ticket statuses, asset and task management for cross-department use cases.

We hope that this Intercom VS Zendesk comparison helps you choose one that matches your support, marketing, and sales needs. But in case you are in search of something beyond these two, then ProProfs Chat can be an option. Zendesk also offers detailed reports that can be shared with others and enable team members to collaborate on them simultaneously.

First, you can only talk to the support team if you are a registered user. In this article, we comprehensively do a comparison of Zendesk vs Intercom, examining their key features, benefits, and industry use cases. By exploring their distinct offerings, we zendesk chat vs intercom aim to assist businesses in making informed decisions when selecting a customer service platform. Messagely’s pricing starts at just $29 per month, which includes live chat, targeted messages, shared inbox, mobile apps, and over 750 powerful integrations. Zendesk is a leading customer service software that offers a comprehensive suite of tools for businesses to manage customer support, engagement, and relationships. Its user-friendly interface, robust ticketing system, and extensive integration options make it popular for businesses seeking efficient customer service solutions.

So if an agent needs to switch from chat to phone to email (or vice versa) with a customer, it’s all on the same ticketing page. There’s even on-the-spot translation built right in, which is extremely helpful. You can create dozens of articles in a simple, intuitive WYSIWYG text editor, divide them by categories and sections, and customize them with your custom themes. Chat features are integral to modern business communication, enabling real-time customer interaction and team collaboration. Given that we’re neither Intercom nor Zendesk, we ourselves were curious to see how these two titans of customer service differ. Zendesk is quite famous for designing its platform to be intuitive and its tools to be quite simple to learn.

Intercom Differentiation

Provide a clear path for customer questions to improve the shopping experience you offer. Intercom’s reporting is less focused on getting a fine-grained understanding of your team’s performance, and more on a nuanced understanding of customer behavior and engagement. It’s definitely something that both your agents and customers will feel equally comfortable using. While both Zendesk and Intercom offer the essentials, like zendesk chat vs intercom ticketing, issue resolution, and automation, the devil’s in the details when it comes to which is best for your unique needs. Also, all of Hiver’s pricing plans come with a 7-day free trial, and no credit card is required to sign up for the trial. For standard reporting like response times, leads generated by source, bot performance, messages sent, and email deliverability, you’ll easily find all the metrics you need.

Intercom’s CRM features include customer journey tracking, custom data parameters, and list segmentation, which are useful for targeted marketing and engagement. You can use these features to create custom funnels, segment users based on specific behaviors, and automate personalized communications. Today, amid the rise of omnichannel customer service, it offers a centralized location to manage interactions via email, live chat, social media, or voice calls. However, if you are looking for a robust messaging solution with customer support features, go for Intercom.

Still, for either of these platforms to have some email marketing or other email functionality is common sense. Intercom has a very robust advanced chatbot set of tools for your business needs. There is a conversation routing bot, an operator bot, a lead qualification bot, and an article-suggesting bot, among others.

Her favorite topics include career development, productivity, and email marketing. Our Intercom vs. Zendesk comparison shows that both platforms share similarities in most of their services. However, depending on your business needs, one will offer more functionality than the other. Not only that, the platform offers granular reporting and analytics on performance and emerging trends. It eliminates the back-and-forth of switching between platforms like live chat. The in-app messenger on Intercom is well-integrated, unlike Zendesk, which requires expert configurations.

This makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to engage customers directly within their product, app or website. It also supports email and other channels – like Whatsapp, SMS, social media channels and more, through integrations. But its core strength lies in providing a seamless, conversational experience for customers. Ultimately, the choice between Intercom and Zendesk depends on your specific needs and priorities. If you prioritize real-time messaging and customer engagement, Intercom may be the better option for you.

Messaging Platform

Say what you will, but Intercom’s design and overall user experience are leaving all its competitors far behind. It’s beautifully crafted and thought through, and their custom-made illustrations are just next level stuff. You can see their attention to detail in everything — from their tools to their website. Zoho Desk helps you simplify customer service operations, improve agent productivity, and deliver lasting customer experiences. Intercom offers fewer integrations, supporting just over 450 third-party apps. This makes it challenging to customize the software as your business grows.

While both platforms offer email marketing tools, Zendesk’s email marketing features are more robust and comprehensive. Zendesk’s email marketing functionalities include advanced segmentation options, powerful automation tools, and detailed email tracking capabilities. These features empower businesses to create highly targeted and personalized email campaigns, ensuring efficient communication and nurturing of customer relationships. On the other hand, Intercom brings a dynamic approach to customer support. Its suite of tools goes beyond traditional ticketing and focuses on customer engagement and messaging automation. From in-app chat to personalized autoresponders, Intercom provides a unified experience across multiple channels, creating a support ecosystem that nurtures and converts leads.

PRODUCTS

Examining the roadmap of both platforms helps businesses envision how their customer support needs can align with the evolving market trends and technological innovations. Optimizing the utilization of Zendesk and Intercom involves implementing effective strategies and best practices. Providing actionable tips for businesses to maximize the potential of these platforms enables them to leverage advanced functionalities and enhance their overall customer support operations. On the other hand, Intercom has all its (fewer) tools and features integrated with each other way better, which makes your experience with the tool as smooth as silk. Intercom calculates the price based on the number of seats (users) you request.

For those of you who have been waiting for the big showdown between these two customer support heavyweights, we are glad to present the ultimate Zendesk vs Intercom comparison article. Use HubSpot Service Hub to provide seamless, fast, and delightful customer service. And you would be surprised to know that the Intercom does not have a VOIP call service. Integrations are the best way to enhance the toolkit of your apps by connecting them for interoperable actions and features. Both Zendesk and Intercom have integration libraries, and you can also use a connecting tool like Zapier for added integrations and add-ons.

Intercom vs Zendesk features & functionality

The years of experience in business messaging have helped Intercom develop features that address nearly all the problems that employees have to face while interacting with customers. Intercom is another SaaS company that was founded in 2011 with the aim to help businesses build better customer relationships through personalized, messenger-based experiences. The company https://chat.openai.com/ caters to businesses across the globe and has offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Sydney, etc. When making your decision, consider factors such as your budget, the scale of your business, and your specific growth plans. Explore alternative options like ThriveDesk if you’re looking for a more budget-conscious solution that aligns with your customer support needs.

For a deeper insight into the functionality of Intercom and Zendesk Chat, explore the videos provided below. Review the video content to make an informed decision and select the option that best suits your needs. View the attached screenshots to easily evaluate the similarities and differences between Intercom and Zendesk Chat user interfaces. Experience the amazing capabilities of Intercom and Zendesk Chat on desktop and mobile devices for unparalleled productivity and flexibility. Evaluate your company’s criteria to determine which set of standards best matches your goals. Our mission is to break apart what CRM is and means.Here we discuss anything that helps create more meaningful lasting work relationships.

Zendesk excels with its powerful ticketing and customer support capabilities, making it ideal for streamlining service operations. Zendesk offers your agents a unified workspace to collaborate on support tickets. This single window allows your team members to combine several channels for better efficiency and improved customer experience.

This is aided by the fact that the look and feel of Zendesk’s user interface are neat and minimal, with few cluttering features. There is a Starter plan for small businesses at $74 per month billed annually, and there are add-ons like a WhatsApp add-on at $9 per user per month or surveys at $49 per month. Easily reply to customer conversations and manage workload in a smart & automated way.

These pricing structures are flexible enough to cater to all business sizes and types. Moreover, the pricing model ensures customer transparency and reveals the costs that businesses will incur. The Suite Team plan, priced at $69 per agent, adds features like live chat and messaging, while the Suite Growth plan at $115 per agent introduces automation and advanced analytics. When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, it’s essential to understand their core features and their differences to choose the right solution for your customer support needs. These include ticketing, chatbots, and automation capabilities, to name just a few.Here’s a side-by-side comparison to help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. This live chat software allows companies, such as ours, to have real conversations with customers.

Additionally, Zendesk’s extensive analytics and reporting capabilities help businesses tailor their services to elevate customer service experience and increase customer satisfaction. Overall, Zendesk’s extensive features and customization options make it a powerful choice for diverse business requirements. When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, Zendesk stands out with its robust and versatile customer support solutions. It offers a comprehensive platform for managing customer inquiries and support tickets across multiple channels, providing businesses with a powerful toolset for customer service management.

However, it’s essential to recognize that Zendesk has its own array of strengths, particularly in its comprehensive and versatile customer support platform. Intercom’s pricing structure offers different plans to cater to various customer support and engagement needs, accommodating users with different budgets. Yes, you can use Intercom on the front end for customer communication and Zendesk on the back end for managing support tickets and workflows. This combination maximizes the strengths of both help desk platforms, providing a seamless experience for managing customer accounts from initial interaction to issue resolution.

Let us dive deeper into the offerings of Zendesk and Intercom to make a comparison at a glance. This comparison is going to help you understand the features of both tools. Honestly, when it comes to Zendesk, it is not the most modern tool out there. The cheapest (aka Essential) ‘All of Intercom’ package will cost you $136 per month, but if you only need their essential chat tools only, you can get them for $49 per month. Intercom doesn’t really provide free stuff, but they have a tool called Platform, which is free.

This is one of the best ways to qualify high-quality leads for your business and improve your chances of closing a sale faster. Intercom is a customer support messenger, bot, and live chat service provider that empowers its clients to provide instant support in real-time. This SaaS leader entered into the competition in 2011, intending to help its clients reach their target audiences and engage them in a conversation right away. It’s an opportunity for Zendesk to differentiate itself, but unfortunately it didn’t get very high marks from users, either. Reviewers were frustrated by how long it took for their tickets to get resolved, as well as the complexity with which they were tossed around from department to department. Given that these are two services predicated on making you better at customer support, you’d think they’d be able to handle it better themselves.

A customer service department is only as good as its support team members, and these highly-prized employees need to rely on one another. Tools that allow support agents to communicate and collaborate are important aspect of customer service software. Chatbots are automated customer support tools that can assist with low-level ticket triage and ticket routing in real-time. How easy it is to program a chatbot and how effective a chatbot is at assisting human reps is an important factor for this category. Adopting HappyFox led to substantial cost reductions, improved response times, and decreased staff workload.

The Intercom versus Zendesk conundrum is probably the greatest problem in customer service software. They both offer some state-of-the-art core functionality and numerous unusual features. The former is one of the oldest and most reliable solutions on the market, while the latter sets the bar high regarding innovative and out-of-the-box features. Zendesk AI is the intelligence layer that infuses CX intelligence into every step of the customer journey.

In the dynamic landscape of customer support platforms, choosing between Zendesk and Intercom depends on various factors such as budget, specific business requirements, and long-term goals. Businesses should carefully evaluate their needs and consider scalability, user-friendliness, and integration capabilities before deciding on the platform that best suits their requirements. Zendesk’s pricing offers a range of plans, including a tiered model with different levels of features and capabilities. While the pricing can be flexible, it may become more costly as your organization’s requirements and usage increase. ThriveDesk is a help desk software tailor-made for businesses seeking extensive features and a powerful yet simple live chat assistant. Even better, it’s the most cost-effective, lightweight, and speedy live chat solution available for Shopify business owners.

In addition, Intercom offers omnichannel inbox, robust reporting, and automated workflows. The bot feeds customers and employees the relevant articles upon making a query. This makes things faster for support teams to access information without bothering other users. LiveAgent offers social media integrations so agents can respond to customer interactions across various social media platforms. The help desk also has self-service options, including a knowledge base tool that helps customers complete common tasks on their own.

But if you’re not familiar with them, think of the software as an online human resource department. The methods that help desks use, however, are meant to cater to possibly thousands to millions of messages. Because there could be a thousand customers complaining at any given Chat GPT hour to all your staff having problems with business protocols. Generally, humans can’t handle this volume of exchange, that’s why help desk software was made. In this case, all customer requests will be routed properly, leaving no gaps in your customer service operations.

Intercom offers an offline messaging feature where customers can leave their inquiries during offline hours. Zendesk offers a broader range of pre-built integrations than Intercom, and setting them up is easier since Zendesk provides a library of guides. Unlike Intercom, Zendesk also allows report customization on metrics relevant to business objectives. Not only that, Zendesk supports data segmentation based on custom-defined criteria. Unlike Intercom, Zendesk requires HTML and CSS coding skills to implement detailed customizations. However, the platform offers enough customization options to align the modifications with your brand.

From handling multiple questions to avoiding dreaded customer-stuck loops, Aura AI is the Swiss Army Knife of customer service chatbots. It’s built for function over form — the layout is highly organized and clearly designed around ticket management. You get an immediate overview of key metrics, such as ticket volume and agent performance as well as a summary of key customer data points. While most of Intercom’s ticketing features come with all plans, it’s most important AI features come at a higher cost, including its automated workflows.

The customer journey timeline provides a clear view of customer activities, helping you understand behaviors and tailor your responses accordingly. It also provides seamless navigation between a unified inbox, teams, and customer interactions, while putting all the most important information right at your fingertips. This makes it easy for teams to prioritize tasks, stay aligned, and deliver superior service. Not to brag 😏, but we specifically developed our platform to address the shortcomings in the current market. By going with Customerly for your customer service needs, you can get the best of both worlds (Zendesk and Intercom), plus some extra features and benefits you haven’t even thought of, yet. The dashboard follows a streamlined approach with a single inbox for customer inquiries.

• For those of you who have been waiting for the big showdown between these two customer support heavyweights, we are glad to present the ultimate Zendesk vs Intercom comparison article.
• Intercom calculates the price based on the number of seats (users) you request.
• This scalability ensures businesses can align their support infrastructure with their evolving requirements, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
• These features can add significant value for businesses aiming to implement more sophisticated support capabilities as they scale.

These weaknesses are not as significant as the features and functionalities Zendesk offers its users. Zendesk and Intercom offer a free trial of 14 days, but you will eventually have to choose once the trial ends. The pricing strategies are covered below so you can analyze the pricing structure and select your customer service software. Intercom’s messaging platform is very similar to Zendesk’s dashboard, offering seamless integration of multiple channels in one place for managing customer interactions. Although Intercom offers an omnichannel messaging dashboard, it has slightly less functionality than Zendesk.

Moreover, agents can collaborate with other members or teams and get real-time updates about who is viewing a ticket at any given moment. Both platforms offer distinct strengths, catering to customer support and engagement aspects. However, compared to the more contemporary designs like Intercom’s, Zendesk’s UI may appear outdated, particularly in aspects such as chat widget and customization options. This could impact user experience and efficiency for new users grappling with its complexity​​​​​​. Zendesk and Intercom also both offer analytics and reporting capabilities that allow businesses to analyze and monitor customer agents’ productivity. As a result, companies can identify trends and areas for improvement, allowing them to continuously improve their support processes and provide better service to their customers.

Experience targeted communication with Intercom’s automation and segmentation features. Create personalized messages for specific customer segments, driving engagement and satisfaction. You get a dashboard that makes creating, tracking, and organizing tickets easy.

Sometimes, businesses do not even realize the importance of various aspects you must consider while making this choice. If you are looking for more integration options and budget is not an issue, Intercom can be the perfect live chat solution for your business. It is also ideal for businesses who are searching for conversational chatbot functionality. Their AI-powered chatbot can enable your business to boost engagement and improve marketing efforts in real-time. It introduces shared inboxes tailored for different teams, such as sales, marketing, and customer success.

However, for more advanced CRM needs like lead management and sales forecasting, Intercom may not make the cut, unfortunately. What’s even cooler is its ability to use AI to forecast customer behavior. Agents can use this to anticipate and proactively address issues before the escalate, or even arise in the first place. It goes without saying that you can generate custom reports to hone in on particular areas of interest.

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. 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. Yes—as your business’s needs grow, you will require a more sophisticated case management system. But that doesn’t mean you have to completely switch from your current provider if you’re not quite ready.

• It offers robust features for automating routine tasks such as ticket routing, creating queues, creating ticket statuses and more.
• This is one of the best ways to qualify high-quality leads for your business and improve your chances of closing a sale faster.
• Businesses across various industries rely on these platforms to manage and streamline customer interactions, enhance communication, and provide timely assistance.
• If you have been wondering which to choose, Intercom or Zendesk, the good news is you aren’t alone.

Discover customer and product issues with instant replays, in-app cobrowsing, and console logs. This is not a huge difference; however, it does indicate that customers are generally more satisfied with Intercom’s offerings than Zendesk’s. Many use cases call for different approaches, and Zendesk and Intercom are but two software solutions for each case. There are also several different Shopify integrations to choose from, as well as CRM integrations like HubSpot and Salesforce. No matter what Zendesk Suite plan you are on, you get workflow triggers, which are simple business rules-based actions to streamline many tasks.

Zendesk offers more advanced automation capabilities than Intercom, which may be a deciding factor for businesses that require complex workflows. But they also add features like automatic meeting booking (in the Convert package), and their custom inbox rules and workflows just feel a little more, well, custom. I’ll dive into their chatbots more later, but their bot automation features are also stronger. Managers can choose to automatically route tickets and agents can prioritize conversations that need immediate attention.

If your business is established and you need to cut down on those ticket resolution times, Zendesk may be worth it. The only relief is that they do reach out to customers, but it gets too late. Zendesk uses its native Answer bot and leverages NLP to analyze customer inquiries. It then goes on to generate responses from its in-depth knowledge base content.

In this case, each customer service software has a unique way of generating reports such as scheduling, the scope of the analysis, customer reports, and more. Zendesk and Intercom offer various pricing plans, but Intercom is generally more expensive. Zendesk’s pricing plans start at $19 per month, while Intercom’s pricing plans start at $74 per month. If you are a small business with basic CRM needs, then the Zendesk Support Team or Intercom Starter may be a good option for you. If you are a growing business with more complex CRM needs, then the Zendesk Enterprise or Intercom Pro plan may be a better option for you. What’s really nice about this is that even within a ticket, you can switch between communication modes without changing views.

This feature enables support agents to proactively engage with customers and provide assistance. Intercom provides an extensive range of automation tools and workflows, allowing businesses to automate repetitive tasks and streamline their customer support processes. In contrast, while Zendesk does offer some automation capabilities, it may not be as robust and customizable as Intercom. Help desk SaaS is how you manage general customer communication and for handling customer questions. Zendesk has more pricing options, and its most affordable plan is likely cheaper than Intercom’s, although without exact Intercom numbers, it is not easy to truly know the cost.

With top-notch customer service, we enthusiastically recommend HappyFox for its AI-driven support solutions that unify every team and workflow. Startups, SMBs, and enterprises from across various industries rely on Zendesk to help elevate their customer experience. Intercom’s full CRM suite offers many different use cases, rather than focusing on customer service and support. Alternatives to Intercom, like Zendesk, were built specifically for the customer experience. Though HubSpot Service Hub includes features like a reporting dashboard, contact management, live chat, team email, and conversation routing, it has limitations. The support ticket and related email thread need to be closed independently, creating a disjointed experience.

These shared inboxes facilitate seamless customer interactions across multiple channels, ensuring that teams can collaborate efficiently and maintain consistent, top-notch support. Zendesk and Intercom are prominent players in the field of customer support and engagement platforms, each offering unique capabilities and advantages to address varying user requirements. Yes, you can replace Zendesk with Intercom as both customer support platforms have a rich set of features and integrations. The Intercom vs. Zendesk pricing may be justified by the value-added services and minor features that they have for their all-in-one pricing. For example, for businesses that want just a couple of features, there are subscription packages. Each of such packages contains a set of tools from basic to advanced features.