Zendesk vs Intercom Comparison 2023: Which One Is Better?

But that doesn’t mean you have to completely switch from your current provider if you’re not quite ready. As customers come closer to purchasing, they often find themselves weighing the same pros and cons. In our experience, when future clients start thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of Intercom vs. Zendesk, these are the questions they want answers to. Brian Kale, the head of customer success at Bank Novo, describes how Zendesk helped Bank Novo boost productivity and streamline service.

Agents can easily talk to customers, look at the history of their conversations, and use automation rules to make their interactions with customers more efficient. Intercom’s user interface is set up so that agents and customers can respond quickly and have a smooth experience. Intercom’s ticketing system and help desk SaaS is also pretty great, just not as amazing as Zendesk’s.

Zendesk vs Intercom: customer support

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 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. Here comes Desku as the strong competitor, which can effectively substitute Zendesk and Intercom.

Some of the links that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation. Intercom’s native mobile apps are good for iOS, Android, React Native, and Cordova, while Zendesk only has mobile apps for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Every single bit of business SaaS in the world needs to leverage the efficiency power of workflows and automation. Customer service systems like Zendesk and Intercom should provide a simple workflow builder as well as many pre-built automations which can be used right out of the box. Help desk SaaS is general customer communication and for handling customer questions.

Popular Features

When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, evaluating their core features and functionalities is essential to determine which platform best suits your organization’s customer support needs. Let’s explore how Zendesk and Intercom stack up in terms of basic functionalities required by a helpdesk software. Experience targeted communication with Intercom’s automation and segmentation features.

FreshDesk also has an AI-powered support chatbot with predictive support capabilities and a service field management platform. LiveChat is a straightforward chatbot that integrates into a website, similar to Intercom. Next to Ada, LiveChat is also a powerful customer messaging software that satisfies modern companies’ communication needs. It is accessible for representatives using web browsers, selected applications for Windows, Android, Mac OS X, and any mobile devices running iOS. It may appear at first glance that Intercom’s plans are more expensive than Zendesk’s.

Finally, you’ll have to choose your reporting preferences including details about what you’ll be tracking and how often you want to be reported of changes.

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. Intercom refers to itself as a Conversational Relationship Platform, providing insight into who is using your products or visiting your website.

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. 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. Today, both companies offer a broad range of customer support features, making them both strong contenders in the market. Zendesk offers more advanced automation capabilities than Intercom, which may be a deciding factor for businesses that require complex workflows.

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. Advanced workflows are useful to customer service teams because they automate processes that make it easier for agents to provide great customer service. But keep in mind that Zendesk is viewed more as a support and ticketing solution, while Intercom is CRM functionality-oriented. Which means it’s rather a customer relationship management platform than anything else.

The primary function of Intercom’s mobile app is the business messenger suite, including personalized messaging, real-time support tools, push notifications, in-app messaging and emailing. Intercom also does mobile carousels to help please the eye with fresh designs. Intercom bills itself first and foremost as a platform to make the business of customer service more personalized, among other things. They offer an advanced feature for customer data management that goes beyond basic CRM stuff. It gives detailed contact profiles enriched by company data, behavioral data, conversation data, and other custom fields.

Like so many others, Monese determined that Zendesk was the best solution to provide seamless, omnichannel support because of its scalability and reliability. In terms of pricing, Intercom is considered one of the most expensive tools on the market. Zendesk is a ticketing system before anything else, and its ticketing functionality is overwhelming in the best possible way.

Integrations

With Zendesk, you can anticipate customer questions, allowing for shorter reply periods. With its CRM, you have the ability to place your clients in your sales funnels and follow through with them until conversion. Zendesk has over 150,000 customer accounts from 160 countries and territories.

With Messagely, you can increase your customer satisfaction and solve customers’ issues while they’re still visiting your site. 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. For basic chat and messaging, Intercom charges a flat fee of $39 per month for its basic plan with one user and $99 per month for its team plan with up to 5 users. If you want automated options, Intercom starts at either $499 or $999 per month for up to ten users, depending on the level of automation you’re looking for.

• The entire thread is saved within the ticket for future agents to reference.
• Track key metrics, measure campaign success, and optimize customer engagement strategies.
• You get call recording, muting and holding, conference calling, and call blocking.
• Survey responses automatically save as data in users’ profiles, and Intercom provides survey data in analytics and reporting.
• Existing customers have complained consistently about how they aren’t available at the right time to offer support to customers.

Zendesk’s user face is quite intuitive and easy to use, allowing customers to quickly find what they are looking for. Additionally, the platform allows users to customize their experience by setting up automation workflows, creating ticket rules, and utilizing analytics. Zendesk is a possible option to consider if you are looking for a platform that offers comprehensive support and analytics. It is possible that Intercom is the superior option for companies who place an emphasis on real-time and personalised interactions with their customers. Specific priorities, workflows, and the degree to which structured help is prioritised over interactive participation are all factors that will determine the outcome of the decision. Businesses are able to initiate discussions based on user behaviour thanks to the platform’s proactive customer engagement design, which was created for the platform.

While Zendesk can be integrated with third-party email marketing tools like MailChimp, Intercom may be your best bet if regular communication with your customers is a priority. Zendesk’s core feature remains its ticketing system, and its functionality has remained the best in the industry since its inception. As Zendesk started off solely as a helpdesk and ticketing tool, they have perfected this part of their platform over the years. As you can imagine, banking from anywhere requires a flexible, robust customer service experience.

Read more about Zendesk VS Intercom here.