Quality customer service is a vital part of every business that wants to scale. However, constantly executing quality customer service across a large pool of markets isn’t easy especially as a small business.
The best alternative would be to utilize customer support service platforms that make it easier for you to monitor the effectiveness as well as improve the efficiency of the customer service you render in your business.
So, while this article will keenly discuss these platforms, it will also address the vital aspects a customer service software can play for your business.
What is Customer Support Services?
Customer Support Services tool is a collection of tools used to receive, coordinate, and report on customer support requests.
It can handle one or more communication channels, such as email, chat, texting, and self-service. It can also interact with external communication platforms such as social networking or community chat systems.
Customer service software is usually used by businesses to allow more effective customer care provided by multiple customer service agents.
Check Out; Product-Centric vs Customer-Centric: Which Approach is Best for My Business?
What are the Advantages of Customer Serivce Software?
You can definitely provide excellent customer support without the use of specialized software, and many online businesses begin with little more than a free email address. Growing businesses, on the other hand, often encounter limitations and rough edges.
Using advanced customer support tools allows you to provide better customer service. Here are some of the main ways it facilitates such interactions:
Provide more open and reliable assistance.
Workflows, tagging, knowledge base integration, saved responses, and other dedicated software features enable your team to spend more time serving customers and less time battling their tools.
Collect consumer feedback.
Identify, collect, and organize all beneficial reviews, feature requests, bug reports, and use cases so that they can be used to develop the product.
Collaboration is more efficient
Customer support software allows you to minimize duplicated tasks, keep track of customer requests, organize a response across several teams, and provide up-to-date responses.
Increase the size of your service
Maintain high-quality service as the business expands by using software that can organize several teams of agents to serve a large customer base, as well as organizational features, automations, and integrations with other tools.
Analyze and report on your findings
Use customer service software’s built-in monitoring features to understand improvements in support volume, team morale, customer type and size, and much more.
What are the Types of Customer Support Services?
The terms “customer service software” and “customer support software” encompass a wide range of applications, from a free Gmail account to a massive corporate call center system.
Customer support software, on the other hand, is usually classified into one of six main types:
Service desk software –
Service desk software, which is similar to support desk software, is commonly used in IT Service Management functions.
It can include ticketing and help desk features, but it also includes strategic areas such as change requests, service setup, and license management.
A shared inbox may be as easy as several individuals signing into a single email address, but these words usually apply to specialized software with additional features used to receive, handle, respond on, and report on customer emails by multiple team members at the same time.
Phone support resources –
Phone support has a longer history than the commercial web, and despite several newer alternatives, it remains popular. Many easy, fast phone support services, as well as modern types of large call center systems, have been made possible by Internet-based telephony.
Systems for messaging and talk –
For years, live chat has been a customer service standard, but messaging has recently gained traction. Both platforms include a more conversational approach to customer contact, with chat being real-time and messaging allowing for an asynchronous approach.
Knowledge base software –
Rather than the one-on-one orientation of other customer service platforms, a knowledge base is a powerful tool for enabling one-to-many information sharing.
Many customers choose to self-serve, and knowledge base software assists in capturing, writing, and publishing the information required for a positive self-service experience.
What are the Top 16 Customer Support Services Platforms?
Here are the top 15 Customer Support Services Platforms you can opt for this 2022:
#1. Zendesk
Cost: Starting from $19/month per agent.
Zendesk is one of the best customer support services platform that is commonly used by many businesses.
It offers a full range of critical support solutions, such as help desk, live chat, and knowledgebase management. This platform helps Companies communicate with their customers via every medium, such as social media, web, mobile app, email, and phone.
Zendesk’s ultimate goal is to assist companies in improving customer service, lowering support costs, and increasing productivity.
For instance, Zendesk includes all of the required help desk resources. It includes a ticket processing system that can handle thousands of tickets every day and can be run by 5 to 500 agents at the same time.
Furthermore, it acts as a centralized portal for interactions from various support networks, such as email, web, talk, and social media.
Another advantage of Zendesk is that it has a customer-facing web interface that you can mark with your company’s logo.
This can be outfitted with the platform’s Help Center, a Quora-like knowledge base app where consumers can check for answers and find solutions to their problems.
To top it all off, the platform includes analytics features that make it simple to track customer engagement and gain insight into opportunities.
#2. Freshdesk
Cost: Free (Unlimited Agents), Blossom: $19, Garden: $35, Estate: $49, Forest: $89 (per agent, per month, billed yearly) (higher prices if billed monthly)
Freshdesk is one of the most popular customer support solutions these days. This help desk software includes the majority of the resources and features that users can expect from a traditional help desk software.
These resources include automated ticketing systems, team-wide support inboxes, social customer support, knowledge bases or information hubs, and community forums.
The system also includes ticket-time monitoring features, which aids in identifying bottlenecks that impede support operations. With their excellent free trial plan, you can easily determine if it will meet the needs of your business.
With its Arcade element, Freshdesk has also followed gamification trends. The idea is very interesting, as this scheme awards agents with points for each ticket that is successfully and on time-resolved.
Because of this one-of-a-kind feature, companies can transform customer service into a pleasurable experience for both themselves and their customers.
#3. Freshservice
Cost: Starter ($19), Growth ($49), Pro ($89), Enterprise ($109).
The software is also available as a smartphone app for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Blackberry platforms, allowing you to provide support to your clients even while you are on the go or only relaxing at home on your sofa.
Freshservice was established to offer first-rate cloud customer support to companies of all sizes. The framework is designed with a plug-and-play ITIL structure, making it simple for users to deploy and incorporate right away.
A thorough analysis into Freshservice information reveals that the platform allows users to build easy-to-access knowledge bases and boasts amazing features and functions.
Furthermore, Freshservice includes tools to assist users in focusing their attention on crucial aspects such as vendor management, event management, issue management, change management, and release management.
Their tools all work together to make one of the best customer support services platforms.
#4. LiveAgent
Cost: Ticket: $9, Ticket+Chat: $29, All-Inclusive: $39 (per agent, per month)
Here’s a quick rundown of LiveAgent: it’s another award-winning platform that combines multiple communication channels into a single hub. Within, you’ll find all of the essential help desk functionality, such as live chat, file sharing, communication forms, email support, and social media integration.
If you want to go beyond conventional help desk power, we suggest taking a look at LiveAgent’s gamification suite, POP3 accounts, and intuitive statuses, which set it apart from its competitors. As with Freshdesk, you will be provided with a thorough and free trial to see what the software is all about.
The vendor has a fantastic free trial package that allows you to test out all of the products.
LiveAgent is extremely simple to use. The framework humanizes customer service experiences and provides agents with access to a centralized information base that can assist them in resolving any situation.
Simultaneously, it prevents spam, allows for customization for customized engagement, and unifies storage in a simple form and request inbox. It improves the company’s efficiency in handling inquiries (due to the original routing).
It improves the company’s efficiency in handling inquiries. To make it even easier, LiveAgent also help rate individual agents and making the most of social media platforms.
#5. ProProfs Help Desk
Cost: Free ($0), Essential ($10), Premium ($15) per month.
ProProfs Help Desk is a free software solution that provides a comprehensive set of customer service features. Its user-friendly interface equips support teams with all the resources they need to work on customer issues both individually and collaboratively, allowing them to address issues more efficiently.
ProProfs Help Desk assists in the streamlining of customer service tickets from different channels.
Another standout aspect of ProProfs Help Desk is the self-service knowledge base, which helps minimize ticket volume by up to 80% and gives support teams more flexibility to concentrate on problems that need their assistance.
ProProfs Help Desk also provides reporting resources to team managers so that they can keep track of their team members’ success based on customer reviews, satisfaction ratings, and other primary performance measures, or KPIs.
You can also develop personalized surveys to collect real-time customer reviews. Additionally, ProProfs Help Desk offers online training for upskilling, reskilling, and other purposes.
#6. Mailchimp
Cost: Free ($0), Essential (R190), Standard (R280), Premium (R5,500) per month
Businesses can use MailChimp to build, deliver, and monitor email newsletters, signup forms, and event invitations.
However, when implementing a customer service software solution, such as signup forms and event invites, teams can personalize emails with targeted customer segments.
When you consider their services, you discover they rank as one of the best customer support services platforms.
#7. ClickDesk
Cost: Free: $0, Lite: $14.99, Pro: $24.99, Enterprise: $39.99 (per month per agent)
Do you want to provide on-demand customer service on your website? Try ClickDesk, a live-chat app platform that allows your company’s customer support team to carry on numerous conversations (including live chat, audio, and video chat), remain coordinated and respond to consumer questions and complaints.
Live chats can also be recorded using Google Hangouts, which is an option with ClickDesk.
#8. Olark
Cost: Billed monthly: $17, Billed yearly: $15, Billed every 2 years: $12 (per agent)
Olark is another Customer service software that is worth going for. It is kind of live chat app that can be easily customized and includes automation. So, if you are looking for a live chat support system, Olark is right for you.
You can easily customize your live chat to represent your company’s identity. Its automation features deliver greetings and personalized messages to customers based on their actions and route conversations to the team.
Another great feature of Olark is the ability to quickly retrieve insights and data from all of the live chat transcripts that are searchable on the website. It also comes with a two-week free trial, a pre-chat survey, and chat reviews.
#9. LiveChat
Cost: Starter: $16, Team: $33, Business: $50, Enterprise: $149 per month (per seat – logged in agent, billed annually).
Similar to Olark is LiveChat. LiveChat is a quick and user-friendly live chat app that works with clients such as PayPal, IKEA, Huawei, and others. It allows you to integrate over 130 popular tools, such as Salesforce, Messenger, and Shopify.
If you’re not sure if it’s for you, you can always begin with a free 30-day trial that includes Team features.
One interesting aspect of LiveChat that is rarely found on other platforms is that it charges per seat, and multiple agents can share one seat. Their customer care pickup rate is applaudable as they remain one of the customer support services platforms.
#10. ZohoDesk
Cost: Free: $0 (3 free agents), Professional: $12, Enterprise: $25 (per agent, per month, billed yearly) (higher prices if billed monthly).
Zoho, best known for its web-based office suite, now provides full-featured customer support applications called ZohoDesk. It includes Zia, the artificial intelligence, to support the customer service team.
For example, Zia can show agents relevant answers to customers’ questions directly from the knowledge base you built in the first place, allowing customers to support themselves.
Customers can also directly talk or chat with Zia through your website or mobile apps, and Zia will answer based on the knowledge base.
Aside from artificial intelligence, ZohoDesk offers insights into the customer service team, customization, and security. Hence, it is one of the customer support services platforms.
#11. HelpSpot
Cost: Free: $0 (up to 3 agents), Paid plans starting at $599 per year for 5 agents (prices increase as agents increase).
HelpSpot is yet another all-in-one customer service software solution that includes everything one would expect: ticket processing, automation, a customer self-service platform, and real-time monitoring.
Its efficient ticket management system transforms email, phone calls, forms, and APIs into tickets automatically. Each ticket has a distinct owner to prevent disputes and misunderstandings.
Therefore, the app is also directly integrated with Thermostat to enable you to develop, manage, and submit customer satisfaction surveys. The most serious flaw is its exorbitant costs.
#12. HubSpot
Cost: Free of cost.
HubSpot provides a fully free version of its CRM platform, which is widely used by small businesses.
However, the app provides all of the basic CRM software features. It allows you to keep track of your company’s activities, such as contacts and company profiles, assigning and monitoring deals, and handling all of that data in a comprehensive dashboard (visible to all team members).
Furthermore, you can use this CRM app to increase inbound sales. Not to mention, HubSpot has integration options with common apps such as SalesForce, Shopify, and Microsoft Dynamics. Hence, it boasts as one of the best customer support services platforms
#13. Helpshift
Cost: Not publicly Available
If your company’s mobile app is available, then HelpShift is right for you. Helpshift can be used to provide customer service directly from your smartphone. Your customers won’t have to visit your website, search for answers, or call your company. Helpshift makes getting answers as simple as texting, resulting in a better customer experience.
Moreso, it is known as a market leader in in-app support, specializing in in-app support for mobile devices. Helpshift offers adjustable, usage-based pricing to ensure that the team only pays for what they require.
We believe Helpshift is a great choice for those looking for in-app support for their mobile assets because of its easy setup and strong support from their team.
#14. HappyFox
Cost: Mighty Plan, $29/month per agent, Fantastic Plan, $49/month per user, Enterprise Plan, $69/month per user, Enterprise Plus Plan, $89/month per user.
HappyFox will automatically translate support requests reported via various channels – phone calls, talk, email, social media, and web inquiries – into tickets in an integrated, effective help-desk system. For more complex problems, the platform can recognize common issues and group related cases, as well as split tickets among multiple agents.
Furthermore, HappyFox integrates with a variety of business applications, including Google Apps, Salesforce, SugarCRM, Insightly, SurveyMonkey, and FreshBooks, to help you streamline customer support with the tools your company relies on the most.
HappyFox provides four different plans. For a personalized price quote, please contact HappyFox.
#15. ngDesk
Cost: Next Gen Plan: Free
ngDesk bills itself as a “free, cloud-based customer service app.” The app integrates a simple ticket management system with ngDesk Pager, an automatic incident alerting system.
In order to have an all-in-one solution, the company will soon add free Live Chat, Phone, and CRM solutions.
It is completely customizable, as is most customer software, and provides data-driven insights into your company. It functions as one of the super customer support services platforms.
#16. Atera
Cost: Pro ($79USD / mo), Growth ($119USD / mo.), Power ($149 USD / mo.) per technician
Atera is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) program that provides IT professionals with a centralized platform for processes such as support desk operation, billing, and reporting. IT experts and managed service providers can quickly handle and address customer problems with the help of this software.
According to Atera user feedback, it is one of the first platforms to integrate RMM, remote access, and professional services automation (PSA) into a single software. This means that Atera will meet all of your IT needs on its own.
References
- https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-service-software
- https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7575-customer-service-solutions.html
- https://customer-support.financesonline.com/top-10-customer-support-software-for-your-company/
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