Zendesk VS Intercom: In-Depth Analysis & Review

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. As for Intercom’s general pricing structure, there are three plans, but you’ll have to contact them to get exact prices. The dashboard’s left-hand column organizes and sorts all tickets by urgency.

As a call center solution, Zendesk is quick to set up and easy to manage. Due to its cloud-based nature, your agents can be located anywhere in the world, as long as they have a headset and an Internet connection. Another feature Intercom offers that Zendesk doesn’t is email marketing tools. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your customers.

Ease of Use and Support

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. It is also not too difficult intercom versus zendesk to program your own bot rules using Intercon’s system. Your typical Zendesk review will often praise the platform’s simplicity and affordability, as well as its constant updates and rolling out of new features, like Zendesk Sunshine.

When an agent clicks on a conversation, the full conversation history populates the middle screen. Behavior-based messaging allows you to customize every last detail of triggers and rules including–which channel sends the message, when it sends, where it sends, and who gets targeted. Sequence all channels–chat, web post, email, chatbot outreach, tour message, banner, push notification, or carousel–mixing and matching modes of outreach to fit campaign goals.

Introducing Zendesk and Intercom

You can get push notifications never to miss an update or communication. You can use it to create and manage tickets, respond to customers, or use canned replies. The main difference between Freshdesk and Intercom is that Freshdesk is the customer support product from the parent brand, Freshworks.

From the inbox, live agents and chatbots can refer to and link knowledge base articles, to elaborate on replies and help customers locate answers. Novo has been a Zendesk customer since 2019 but didn’t immediately start taking full advantage of all our features and capabilities. This conversational marketing and sales automation tool helps businesses connect quickly with customers who are ready to purchase their products. Drift is leading companies through the customer solution-driven revolution by using conversations to unlock and expand their compound annual rate. LiveChat is an online chat software that allows customer service representatives to communicate with customers through their website or selected messaging apps. LiveChat makes it easy for companies to manage, customize, and rebrand their platform.

Zendesk vs Intercom Comparison 2024: Which One Is Better?

The top of the agent workspace shows an agent’s open tickets, ticket statistics, and satisfaction statistics, as well as tabs depicting all current tickets. Agents can respond in any channel by typing in the text box and have access to deep customer experience history and background in the right-hand column. Intercom wins the reporting and analytics category due to its unique visualization and display formats for contact center and article data. Reporting and analytics provide metrics, trends, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that offer insights to agents and administrators.

Zendesk’s help center tools should also come in handy for helping customers help themselves—something Zendesk claims eight out of 10 customers would rather do than contact support. To that end, you can import themes or apply your own custom themes to brand your help center the way you want it. From there, you can include FAQs, announcements, and article guides and then save them into pre-set lists for your customers to explore. Zendesk also packs some pretty potent tools into their platform, so you can empower your agents to do what they do with less repetition. Agents can use basic automation (like auto-closing tickets or setting auto-responses), apply list organization to stay on top of their tasks, or set up triggers to keep tickets moving automatically. I tested both options (using Zendesk’s Suite Professional trial and Intercom’s Support trial) and found clearly defined differences between the two.

The future of customer service is integrated, AI-enhanced—and powered by Intercom

The strength of Zendesk’s UI lies in its structured and comprehensive environment, adept at managing numerous customer interactions and integrating various channels seamlessly. 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​​​​​​. While both platforms have a significant presence in the industry, they cater to varying business requirements. Zendesk, with its extensive toolkit, is often preferred by businesses seeking an all-encompassing customer support solution.

Both options are well designed, easy to use, and share some pretty key functionality like behavioral triggers and omnichannel-ality (omnichannel-centricity?). But with perks like more advanced chatbots, automation, and lead management capabilities, Intercom could have an edge for many users. The highlight of Zendesk’s ticketing software is its omnichannel-ality (omnichannality?). Whether agents are facing customers via chat, email, social media, or good old-fashioned phone, they can keep it all confined to a single, easy-to-navigate dashboard. That not only saves them the headache of having to constantly switch between dashboards while streamlining resolution processes—it also leads to better customer and agent experience overall.

CRM

Intercom’s pricing is much more customized, offering two monthly plans geared to very small businesses. Larger companies will need to book a demo and receive a custom quote for services. Zendesk for sales starts at an affordable monthly rate, but you’ll have to purchase higher tiers in order to integrate with services like Zapier or HubSpot. Finally, their highest tier offers support for unlimited sales pipelines, advanced reporting, and other premium features. While Zendesk’s pricing may seem confusing at first glance, it’s much easier if you choose to purchase one of their Zendesk Suite plans.

• Check out the research-backed comparison below to better understand how each solution can add value to your organization.
• Zendesk for Service transforms customer queries and conversations from all channels–call, web chat, tweet, text, or email–into tickets in the Agent Workspace.
• Besides, the prices differ depending on the company’s size and specific needs.
• When comparing the omnichannel support functionalities of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms show distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Intercom also excels in real-time chat solutions, making it a strong contender for businesses seeking dynamic customer interaction. This unpredictability in pricing might lead to higher costs, especially for larger companies. While it offers a range of advanced features, the overall costs and potential inconsistencies in support could be a concern for some businesses​​​​. Zendesk wins the major category of help desk and ticketing system software.

Real-time analytics are displayed on a live feed, providing necessary information on your dashboard and broadcasting it to your support agents. This can help your agents determine where they should allocate their time to assist their customers most effectively. Zendesk is your best bet if you’re looking for a virtual call center solution, and you won’t be disappointed with the fully functional support platform that it offers. But if you’re already using Intercom, then you can use a compatible integration in order to meet your needs. Intercom’s Help Center is also efficient with comparable features to Zendesk. You can publish knowledge base articles, organize them by category and integrate them into your messenger to streamline your chat experience.

So Zendesk takes the edge when it comes to customer support, but at the end of the day, you will receive great support from either option. For example, if your agents see there is a spike in call volume or messages coming in from a certain channel, they can direct their attention to where customers need support the most. Those looking for the most advanced real-time analytics for making educated decisions should look to Zendesk for their customer service needs. Zendesk offers its own call center software called Zendesk Talk, which is a virtual call center solution embedded into its ticketing system. It allows agents to provide personalized support using voice over internet (VoIP) technology.

This gets you unlimited email addresses and email templates in both text form and HTML. Help desk SaaS is how you manage general customer communication and for handling customer questions. Zendesk for Sales offers three plans, ranging from $19 to $99 monthly per user, with free trials available for each plan. Zendesk for Service and Zendesk for Sales are sold as two separate solutions, each with three pricing plans, or tiers.