We all know how cumbersome the help desk task can be. Not only for the operator, but even the companies find it tedious, too. Thinking how? Well, the companies have to hire an executive operator. Moreover, they will have to put some hours into managing the operator, and the list goes on.
But what about using help desk software instead? Have you ever thought about it? 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.
Moreover, research says that companies can reduce customer resolution times upto a great percentage through the helpdesk software. Today, thanks to the virtual technology revolution, you can find numerous help desk software, but our vote goes for Zendesk and Intercom.
Both of this software are very efficient in providing excellent customer support. And that’s the reason people confuse the two. But don’t worry; today, you will have all your doubts solved through this blog. So, are you all ready?
Key Takeaway :
Intercom and Zendesk are both powerful support solutions with unique features. Intercom excels in real-time messaging and customer engagement, while Zendesk focuses on ticketing and strong customer support. The choice between the two depends on specific business needs and budget considerations. If you want to enjoy the benefits of both Zendesk and Intercom in one place and enjoy better value for money overall, Desku is a strong alternative.
Intercom Vs Zendesk Deep Comparison
Intercom
Intercom helps businesses in resolving customer queries via emails, in-app messages, and live chats. Of course, there are numerous help desk applications, but what stands Intercom apart from them is its mind-boggling qualities:
- Automated Messages: Through its automated messaging power, Intercom helps you connect with your customers by sending messages based on their actions.
- Live Chat: Live chatting helps you understand your customers’ issues in a better way and resolve them accordingly.
- Analytics and Reporting: This is considered to be an important decision-making factor. It will help you out in analyzing the effects of your customer support program.
Customer Segmentation: It is a very good factor that lets you know your customers. And, based on their demographics and behaviour, you can add the flavour of personalization to your customer support process.
Zendesk
Zendesk is yet another powerful way to help businesses interact with their customers. But why is it so powerful? Well, because of its four tempting qualities.
- Workflow Automation: Zendesk’s automation feature helps you automate many help tasks, thus increasing your work efficiency.
- Knowledge Base: Its knowledge base corner actually helps you create informative guides for your customers.
- Ticketing System: It becomes a one-stop solution for all of your management activities, like customer queries, requests, and complaints. however, if you seek more attractive Ticketing System, try these alternatives.
- Multichannel Support: Through Zendesk’s multichannel support, you can connect to your customers on different communication channels like phone, email, chatting and more. Competitors like ServiceNow deserve equal appreciation for this feature.
Desku as an Alternative to Intercom and Zendesk
✅ Powerful chatbots
Desku is not just a world of chatbots. Instead, it’s a powerful world of chatbots. You can consider them as your best friends who will always be having your customer’s back no matter what. Through their high problem-solving power, there will not be a single customer left unanswered. And, what is the main motto of any business?
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 open doors for a long list of happy and fully satisfied customers.
✅ Great live chat
For leading a successful business, communication is one of the keys. Of course, this holds true. Customers will stay with you long if they are not getting any support from your company, especially when you are new to them. Some issues are so crucial that they need to be solved on the spot.
That’s where Desku’s live chat functionality can help you out. It will help you understand your customer’s issue and solve it instantly. Although you cannot be with your customers all the time in real-time, through Desku’s live chatting, you can actually have their back.
Is Desku as good as Zendesk and Intercom?
Absolutely. Here comes Desku as the strong competitor, which can effectively substitute Zendesk and Intercom. Desku provides a user-friendly platform with robust features that enable easy transition during the migration from other support systems. A unique live chat experience with Desku leaves others behind.
The sophisticated nature of its chatbot makes it more than a task automation tool — it takes customer interactions to the next level. What makes Desku unique is that it has competitively priced services with similar features as those provided by other companies but at a lower cost.
Essentially, Desku is not an option but a reliable replacement for Zendesk and Intercom that companies can rely on at lower costs and improved performance. You can also check out HubSpot.
Competitive prices
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.
Amid tight budgeting times, Desku proves to be the buddy for excellent worth and without any costly expenditure. However, the approach is far much wider than merely focusing on what would be more cost-effective but instead exploring ways through which a solution that would suit you best could be realized.
Desku’s pricing is not only competitive but revolutionary in the field of customer support solutions industry. Plans start at $29/month!
Zendesk pros and cons
What are the advantages of Zendesk?
- Multichannel support: Zendesk, through its multichannel communication facility, will help you converse with your customers via phone, email, and social media.
- Versatile ticketing system: The Zendesk ticketing system helps you segment all your customer queries and take action accordingly.
- Robust knowledge base: Through its amazing knowledge system, Zendesk would be able to create informative guides to resolve all your customer’s queries on the go.
- Analytics and reporting: Zendesk’s analytics feature lets you keep an eye on your customer support process, and it also gives you an idea of where it is falling.
- Customizable workflows: There is no doubt that automation eases our tasks. And Zendesk understands it really well. That’s why it includes customization workflows through which you can automate your various customer support processes, like sending messages.
What are the disadvantages of Zendesk?
- Customer support: Yes, Zendesk is solely made for customer support. But, when it comes to its own customer support services, Zendesk is falling back a bit.
- Complex setup: Setting up Zendesk is not more than solving a big puzzle. So, you will surely need the help of a technical expert to set it up.
- Limited integrations: The biggest problem you will be facing with Zendesk is the integrations. It is not going to integrate with all the applications existing in the world.
- Costly: If you are holding a small business, then Zendesk can be a bit costly for you because of its setting and purchase cost.
- Learning curve: The Zendesk features are very clumsy to understand on the go. So, you would require an ample amount of time to be comfortable with it.
Intercom pros and cons
What are the advantages of Intercom?
- Real-time communication: For becoming an instant problem solver, Intercom gives you real-time communication features. Through this, you can conduct live conversations with your customers.
- Knowledge base and self-service: Intercom’s knowledge base corner helps you create information guides for your customers to guide them perfectly while using your services.
- Automation and chatbots: Some customer tasks need to be automated to save your precious time. And, Intercom does it in a good way through its automation feature.
- Customer data and segmentation: One of the best things about Intercom is based on user action; it can segment the customers to give them personalized care.
- Rich integrations: When it comes to integrating with third-party apps, we must say Intercom does it in a tremendous way. There is no single app to which you are not able to integrate Intercom.
What are the disadvantages of Intercom?
- Over-reliance on chat: It’s a harsh reality of Intercom that it has a single communication channel that is chatting. So, it becomes difficult when you need to communicate via phone or email with your customers.
- Learning curve: Although Intercom provides a strong customer support system, it would consume an ample amount of your time to understand its features.
- Pricing complexity: When it comes to affordability, everybody cannot afford Intercom as its pricing is a bit high in terms of its features. So, if your pockets are filled with enough money, then you can think about Intercom.
- Privacy and data security: When it comes to our customer’s privacy, we will have to think twice about Intercom as it is not very secure. So, there are high chances of data leakage, which no enterprise can afford.
- Limited customer support: Even Though Intercom is a customer support application, its customer service isn’t up to the mark.
Features
Whether it is Zendesk or Intercom, both serve some mind-boggling features that you should know:
Email marketing on Intercom
Customer relationships are not built on the go. It requires some time. For that, you need to build a good rapport in front of your customers. For doing that, there couldn’t be a better option than Email marketing.
What cannot be done through email marketing? Automating onboarding messages, product guides, newsletters, and the list goes on. Intercom understands very well that email marketing is no more than a magic wand for building strong customer relations. And that’s why its feature email marketing is a must-check.
Knowledge Base
Both the platforms have the knowledge base feature, and in my opinion, both of them are becoming winners.
In both apps, you can create informative guides related to your different products and services. Then, you can segment them into different categories of your customer query types. And do you know what’s the best part?
It actually has an answer bot who is not more than a helping hand. Through it, you actually get answer suggestions meant for different customer queries, which you can include in your product guides. Sounds interesting, right?
Helpdesk & Ticketing
Zendesk has been ruling the market for ages due to its multi-communication and ticketing system. Whether it’s about communicating via phone, email, or social media, Zendesk will always stay upfront. The best part is that Zendesk always likes advancing with time.
But, if we talk about Intercom, it is not as advanced as Zendesk. You will be able to find the most common chatting system with a single communication channel. So, communicating with customers on different communication channels would be difficult on Intercom.
Real-time analytics on Zendesk
When it comes to real-time analytics, Zendesk is winning our hearts. With its live analytics feature on the dashboard, it makes it easy for you to make instant decisions in no time. Such live insights are very useful in evaluating your customer support process. But, you would not be able to enjoy such a live tracking experience on Intercom.
In-app Messaging on Intercom
Suppose you are thinking that Intercom isn’t offering any attractive features, but it’s actually not true. There is one mind-boggling feature in Intercom, and that is its in-app messaging serving. It’s a very good way of communicating with customers through multi-platform apps. Moreover, the best part is it also lets you send customized messages to various customers on the basis of their actions.
But, you would not be able to experience such a good in-app messaging service on Zendesk.
Virtual call center on Zendesk
Although Zendesk does not have an in-app messaging service, it does have one unique feature, and that is its built-in virtual call assistant, Zendesk Talk. It is a totally cloud-based service; you can operate this VOIP technology by sitting in any corner of the world.
And you would be surprised to know that the Intercom does not have a VOIP call service. So, if you have customers who prefer to call service with an Intercom, it wouldn’t be possible. You would rather have to integrate it with third-party apps like Appy Pie Connect.
User experience and interface
A good user experience is the key to success for any application. And the same thing holds true for Zendesk and Intercom. The user interface is not built using one thing. It includes many things like customization, easy navigation, and much more stuff. So, let me tell you what Zendesk and Intercom’s user experience says:
Zendesk User Experience and Interface
We can say that Zendesk’s user interface is very clean and clear to understand. Besides its easy navigation, it also offers a mesmerizing ticketing system, multichannel communication, and analytics reporting. So, Zendesk’s users are always going to have a smooth experience with it.
The best part about Zendesk is that, along with its amazing features, it also provides its users with a magical wand for customizing them. Whether it’s the ticketing system, knowledge base corner, or branding elements, you get the full right to use them as per your brand’s need.
If you go through Zendesk’s reviews and ratings section, you will get to see a long list of positive appraisals. And we all know that receiving such continuous positive Customer feedback isn’t easy at all. So, you can imagine how user-friendly Zendesk is.
Intercom User Experience and Interface
The intercom does possess an easy-to-access user interface. Its easy navigability allows you to switch between different sections smoothly. So you would never get confused while using Intercom.
Intercom believes in adjusting itself as per its user’s needs. And that’s why it offers a long list of customization options like workflow automation, ticket management system, and layouts.
When it comes to customer communication, Intercom has a perfect layout and customer information storage system. Based on such information, you can easily communicate with your customers and resolve their queries instantly.
Because of its easy navigation and interface, Intercom has always received positive words from its users. So, it’s solid proof of how user-friendly Intercom’s interface is. And this is exactly what businesses need. A customer support application with a beautiful interface.
Pricing
There is a contrast in the pricing plans of either help desk solution. With Zendesk, you get three pricing plans: Support Team, Support Professional, and Support Enterprise. The basic plan costs you nothing over $19 per agent per month. You’ll have to shed $115 per agent per month for the enterprise plan.
With the base plan, you get some sweet facilities like a ticketing system, data analytics, customer chat history, and more. In comparison to that, you enjoy customized agent roles, sandbox, and skills-based routing, besides offering basic functionalities with the expensive enterprise plan.
Talking about the Intercom, it has flexible pricing plans that its experts can help adjust as per your requirements to match contacts and number of seats. So, small businesses love Intercom a lot. The good news is that you enjoy a generous free 14-day trial by opting to get an idea if the particular service is suitable for your business or not.
Conclusion
As we saw, though both Zendesk and Intercom have some spellbound features, they also have some differences:
- User Interface: Intercom, through its advanced features, has a more user-friendly interface than Zendesk.
- Price: Intercom provides great flexibility to its users through its highly adjustable pricing plan. At the same time, Zendesk offers a fixed pricing plan, which wouldn’t be convenient for all businesses.
- Focus: Zendesk’s focus lies in providing ticketing management. For Intercom, real-time messaging services matter a lot.
- Integration: Zendesk easily integrates with third-party apps, while Intercom is slightly difficult.
So, now you have got an in-depth idea about Zendesk and Intercom. No application is less or more in any way. It solely depends on your budget and preferences.
Moreover, if you need to offer real-time messaging and customer engagement, the intercom should be your choice if you want ticketing and strong customer support. Want to enjoy the benefits of both Zendesk and Intercom in one place and enjoy better value for money overall? Go with Desku!
