Zendesk vs Intercom: A comprehensive comparison guide

With a multi-channel ticketing system, Zendesk Support helps you and your team to know exactly who you’re talking to and keep track of tickets throughout all channels without losing context. The setup is designed to seamlessly connect your customer support team with customers across all platforms. There are many features to help bigger customer service teams collaborate more effectively — like private notes or a real-time view of who’s handling a given ticket at the moment, etc. At the same time, the vendor offers powerful reporting capabilities to help you grow and improve your business. Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch?

Both of these tools have unique strengths and weaknesses, and choosing between them can be difficult for businesses of all sizes. In navigating this conundrum, several digital tools can come in handy, and two of the most popular options are Intercom and Zendesk. As both platforms have their pros and cons, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for your business.

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However, Intercom may be the better choice if a business is more sales-oriented. Ultimately, the decision between these two tools will depend on company size, budget, and specific business needs. In-app messages are notifications sent to users while they’re engaged with an app on mobile or PC. It allows companies to interact with customers while they’re active in the app, delivering information based on time or behavior. They may be utilized to alert consumers about product updates, provide assistance, and promote specials that are relevant to them. Zendesk’s dashboard ties together your customer interactions from every possible channel.

Intercom’s Security

Send surveys at key points throughout the customer buying cycle, utilizing multiple types of question formats. Surveys turn customer insights into action, with triggers and campaign response adjustments depending on customer responses. The Sell dashboard’s Tasks page sorts all of an agent’s tasks by due date. Set triggers to target particular audiences at the right time, utilize carousels as part of a communication campaign, and compare carousels with A/B testing.

This is aided by the fact that the look and feel of Zendesk’s user interface are neat and minimal, with few cluttering features. Companies looking for a more complete customer service product–without niche bells and whistles, but with all the basic channels you want–should look to Zendesk. Small businesses who prioritize collaboration will also enjoy Zendesk for Service. Here, we’ve outlined the support options that Intercom and Zendesk provide to companies using their platforms. However, customers can purchase multiple Intercom plans to use together, or purchase add-ons to select just the features they want. Zendesk wins the self-service tools category because it provides extensive help center customization options.

Intercom live chat is modern, smooth, and has many advanced features that other chat tools don’t. It’s highly customizable, too, so you can adjust it according to your website or product’s style. So when it comes to chatting features, the choice is not really Intercom vs Zendesk. The latter offers a intercom vs. zendesk chat widget that is simple, outdated, and limited in customization options, while the former puts all of its resources into its messenger. The only relief is that they do reach out to customers, but it gets too late. In terms of customer service, Zendesk fails to deliver an exceptional experience.

Mobile app: Zendesk Vs. Intercom

When you authorize your account to work with Influx, we’ll use this access to read the content of tickets. Freshdesk can be considered a powerful Intercom alternative designed for small businesses. Drift is a close alternative to Intercom because it adds weight to sales and marketing.

However, over the years, Intercom has evolved into a complete customer communication platform with features like live chat, email marketing, and customer support. Intercom has positioned itself as a messaging platform rather than a comprehensive CRM solution. Intercom offers an integrated knowledge base functionality to its user base. Using the existing knowledge base functionality, they can display self-help articles in the chat window before the customer approaches your team for support. You can create these knowledge base articles in your target audience’s native language as their software is multilingual. They offer an omnichannel live chat solution that integrates with multiple messaging platforms and marketing channels and even automates incoming support processes with bots.

AI Is Key to Elevating CX Quality for Support Channels For…

The official description from its website says, “Unlock the power of customer experiences”. Our service uses encryption-at-rest (AES-256), encryption-in-transit (TLS), and industry standard security procedures. At anytime you can download, view, export, backup, and/or delete your mailboxes – and easily migrate to or from another email service provider. Our service ensures your mailboxes are only accessible by you and are not stored in a shared database.

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. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Plus, Zendesk’s integration with various channels ensures customers can always find a convenient way to reach out. Intercom has a unique pricing structure, offering three separate solutions, each intended for a distinct use case.

Zendesk is primarily a ticketing system, and its ticketing capability is overwhelming in the best conceivable manner. All client contacts, whether via phone, chat, email, social media, or any other channel, land in one dashboard, where your agents can quickly and efficiently resolve them. Zendesk is a customer service platform that allows you to communicate with customers via any channel. Some of the links that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation. So, by now, you can see that according to this article, Zendesk inches past Intercom as the better customer support platform. There is a simple email integration tool for whatever email provider you regularly use.

Intercom’s chatbot functionality is a standout feature, while Zendesk’s ticketing system can help resolve support issues on time. Intercom is a customer messaging platform that enables businesses to engage with customers through personalized and real-time communication. This differentiates it from Zendesk, which offers a more traditional CRM experience. Intercom’s primary focus is engaging and communicating with customers through live chat, in-app messaging, and email. This makes it a great choice for businesses that want to provide their customers with a more personal experience.

When comparing the omnichannel support functionalities of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms show distinct strengths and weaknesses. Intercom, on the other hand, is ideal for those focusing on CRM capabilities and personalized customer interactions. Easily reply to customer conversations and manage workload in a smart & automated way. Lastly, Intercom offers an academy that offers concise courses to help users make the most out of their Intercom experience.

Zendesk’s integration with these tools allows businesses to track customer interactions, personalize messaging, and automate workflows. Intercom offers a wide range of integrations with various third-party tools, including CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and analytics tools. Intercom’s integration with these tools allows businesses to track customer interactions, personalize messaging, and automate workflows.

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 aim to assist businesses in making informed decisions when selecting a customer service platform. NovoChat, on the other hand, is great for businesses that primarily engage with their clients through messaging apps. The program is simple to use and includes all of the necessary capabilities for providing good customer service.

Zendesk is yet another powerful way to help businesses interact with their customers. If not, then you should because it will ease much of your workload as you would not have to waste your precious time in finding the helpdesk operator, plus zero management issues. In conclusion, Intercom and Zendesk have implemented robust security measures to protect their clients’ data. Customers can feel confident that their data is secure when using either platform. Zendesk’s core feature has always been its ticketing system, and it remains the industry’s finest. Since Zendesk’s inception, its ticketing system has remained the best in the business.

Zendesk and Intercom offer help desk management solutions to their users. The company’s products include a ticketing system, live chat software, knowledge base software, and a customer satisfaction survey tool. Zendesk also offers a number of integrations with third-party applications. No matter how a customer contacts your business, your agents will have access to the tools and information they need to continue and close conversations on any channel.

This packs all resolution information into a single ticket, so there’s no extra searching or backtracking needed to bring a ticket through to resolution, even if it involves multiple agents. When it comes to budgeting, Intercom is one tool that’s better to overestimate than underestimate. This makes it easier to get a more accurate sense of the total cost of ownership, which will increase if you want to leverage the full range of features. Because of its easy navigation and interface, Intercom has always received positive words from its users.

• This serves the dual benefit of adding convenience to the customer experience and lightening agents’ workloads.
• In-app messages and email marketing tools are two crucial features that Zendesk lacks when compared to Intercom.
• You can create these knowledge base articles in your target audience’s native language as their software is multilingual.
• That their customers are fully satisfied with their products and services, and so is the motto of our Desku chatbots.
• It enables them to engage with visitors who are genuinely interested in their services.
• 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.

Intercom also offers a few features that are unique to its platform – one of these being the ability to segment users based on their behavior. This means that you can send targeted messages to different groups of users based on how they interact with your product. Intercom also offers a suite of tools for customer support, including a knowledge base, a help center, and a community forum. Both Zendesk and Intercom are customer support management solutions that offer features like ticket management, live chat and messaging, automation workflows, knowledge centers, and analytics. Zendesk has traditionally been more focused on customer support management, while Intercom has been more focused on live support solutions like its chat solution.

Company fit: Zendesk Vs. Intercom

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. Novo has been a Zendesk customer since 2019 but didn’t immediately start taking full advantage of all our features and capabilities.

Agents can use the desktop chatbox to respond to customers in any outbound channel. 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. We have numerous customers that do this and benefit greatly from our out-of-the-box integration with Intercom.

Users also point out that it can take a couple of hours to get used to the flow of tickets, which doesn’t happen in CRM, and they aren’t pleased with the product’s downtime. After signing up and creating your account, you can start filling in your information, such as your company name and branding and your agents’ profiles and information. Since Zendesk has many features, it takes a while to learn how to use the options you’ll be needing. The setup can be so complex that there are tutorials by third parties to teach new users how to do it right. To sum up this Intercom vs Zendesk battle, the latter is a great support-oriented tool that will be a good choice for big teams with various departments. Intercom feels more wholesome and is more client-success-oriented, but it can be too costly for smaller companies.

Its ability to seamlessly integrate with various applications further amplifies its versatility. Intercom focuses on real-time customer messaging, while Zendesk provides a comprehensive suite for ticketing, knowledge base, and self-service support. Compared to Zendesk and Intercom, Helpwise offers competitive and transparent pricing plans.

On the other hand, Zendesk is a more comprehensive customer support tool that offers a broader range of features, including ticket management, knowledge base creation, and reporting and analytics. Its robust ticketing system and automation capabilities make it an excellent option for businesses with high-volume customer support needs. Additionally, Zendesk’s customizable dashboards and reporting features provide valuable insights into customer support performance.

What’s worse, Intercom doesn’t offer a free trial to its prospect to help them test the product before onboarding with their services. 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.

We wish some of their great features were offered in multiple plans, but none features overlap among plans. Intercom offers admin full visibility and control over all company inboxes, as well as agent access controls and role management. Intercom wins the sales pipeline tools category because its campaigning and sequencing tools integrate all channels and unique services, like carousels and product tours. The ticket display’s Side Conversations tab allows agents to initiate internal conversations via email, Slack, or ticketing system notes–without leaving the ticket. Agents can choose if the message is private or public, upon which a group thread is initiated in the ticket’s sidebar, where participants can chat and add files. Intercom offers a range of customer support options, including email, phone, and live chat support.

Messagely’s live chat platform is smooth, effective, and easy to set up. With Messagely, you can increase your customer satisfaction and solve customers’ issues while they’re still visiting your site. Intercom isn’t as great with sales, but it allows for better communication. With Intercom, you can keep track of your customers and what they do on your website in real time. Like Zendesk, Intercom allows you to chat with online visitors and assist with their issues. Depending on your needs, you can set up Intercom on your website or mobile app and add your automations.

Ultimately, the choice between these two platforms will depend on the specific needs of the business and the type of customer interactions they are looking to manage. Intercom was founded in 2011 by Eoghan McCabe, Ciaran Lee, Des Traynor, and David Barrett. Initially, the platform was designed to help businesses communicate with their customers through targeted messaging.

With a mix of productivity, collaboration, eCommerce, CRM, analytics, email marketing, social media, and other tools, you get the option to create an omnichannel suite. The customer support platform starts at just $5 per agent per month, which is a very basic customer support tool. If you want dashboard reporting and integrations, you’ll need to pay $19 per agent per month.