Let’s delve into the best Customer Service Software solutions available today, highlighting their key features. Here’s an overview of these software products, including a list of functionalities, starting prices, and trial information to help you choose the right customer service software for your business.
1. Zendesk
Zendesk offers award-winning customer service software designed to enable businesses to deliver fast, personalized, and scalable customer support. It’s a robust customer service platform used by numerous companies worldwide to manage customer interactions effectively.
Customer service agents can seamlessly manage customer inquiries from all channels within a unified workspace, eliminating the need to switch between different dashboards. They can instantly access crucial information such as customers’ past support interactions and create a 360-degree customer view with over 1,500 plug-and-play integrations. Zendesk also facilitates seamless collaboration among customer service agents and other departments directly within the platform via integrations with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
AI is deeply integrated into the agent workspace to assist customer service teams in managing high ticket volumes while maintaining excellent customer satisfaction. AI capabilities include intelligent ticket routing based on conversation priority, intent, sentiment, and language, as well as agent capacity, status, and skills. This ensures tickets are efficiently directed to the most appropriate agents. The solution also provides real-time assistance to agents by summarizing ticket content and offering tools to refine the style and tone of their responses. Zendesk’s AI is built upon over 18 billion real-world service interactions, providing a deep understanding of customer service dynamics and enabling businesses to leverage personalized support from day one.
Advanced reporting and analytics within Zendesk help businesses identify more efficient workflows and evolving customer needs, ensuring adaptability and flexibility. Furthermore, enterprise-level security features effectively protect customer data.
Zendesk’s customer service software is designed for ease of use, helping businesses maximize productivity and stay aligned with their customers. It is a comprehensive, out-of-the-box solution that requires no developers or external consultants, leading to a fast return on investment and low total cost of ownership.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $19 per agent/month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Learn more about Zendesk pricing plans.
Take 30 seconds to start a free Zendesk trial or request a Zendesk demo.
2. Intercom
A screenshot showing Intercom's customer support software help center interface.
Intercom’s customer support solution leverages automation and messaging to empower internal customer service teams. The Intercom Messenger integrates with existing support tools, enhancing their functionality. Intelligent assignment capabilities allow businesses to route inquiries to specific customer service agents based on skills, availability, and customer history, ensuring efficient handling of support requests.
The platform generates tickets from Messenger and other communication channels, such as email, and consolidates them into a shared inbox for streamlined management. Intercom Messenger facilitates live chat support and self-service options, enabling customers to find answers independently, reducing the workload on support teams.
Intercom’s AI tool, Fin, provides conversational support by answering frequently asked questions and directing users to relevant help center articles. Fin can also summarize conversations within the inbox and automatically fill in ticket information, further enhancing agent efficiency. Intercom also offers a marketplace with over 350 integrations, extending its functionality and compatibility with other business systems.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $39 per license/month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Further Reading: Explore the Intercom integration for Zendesk and see how Zendesk compares to Intercom.
3. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce’s customer service platform provides customer service agents with an omnichannel workspace to manage customer support effectively. Agents can view all relevant ticket context within their workspace, including contact details, previous interactions, and customer purchase history, enabling personalized and informed support. The Swarming feature enhances team collaboration by allowing agents to bring in colleagues with relevant skills into a dedicated Slack channel to resolve complex issues collectively.
Within Salesforce Service Cloud, customer service managers can customize workflows and automate ticket routing to ensure inquiries are directed to the right support agents efficiently. Robust reporting and analytics features, with pre-built dashboards, enable management to monitor team performance across all channels. Reports can also include swarming metrics, such as top responders and the percentage of cases opened and closed, providing insights into team efficiency and workload distribution.
However, it’s important to note that Salesforce can be complex, and users may experience a longer learning curve. As Salesforce is not solely a CX tool and offers a suite of products for sales and marketing, businesses primarily focused on enhancing their customer service might find it easier to achieve their goals with software specifically designed for customer experience.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $25 per user/month. A 30-day free trial is available.
Further Reading: Learn how to integrate Salesforce with Zendesk and how Zendesk compares to Salesforce.
4. Front
A screenshot of Front customer service software showing an email conversation in a shared inbox.
Front is a customer service solution designed to allow users to configure automated workflows and integrate multiple channels into a shared inbox. This shared inbox is central to Front’s functionality, helping to consolidate customer inquiries in one place. It automatically gathers customer requests from various channels and routes messages to the most appropriate customer service agents, enhancing efficiency and organization.
Every customer interaction is logged, providing customer service agents who engage with the customer account with access to the customer history for future support. Front includes built-in collaboration features, enabling teams to discuss tickets internally, improving teamwork and knowledge sharing. It also offers unified reporting to analyze team performance and customer satisfaction, helping businesses to identify areas for improvement and optimize their customer service strategies.
Companies can build a help center using Front, supporting customer self-service and reducing the volume of direct inquiries. Knowledge base administrators can control permissions, defining who can create, edit, and publish content, ensuring content quality and consistency. The help center can also be integrated with the live chat system, allowing customers to seamlessly transition between self-service and direct customer support as needed.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $19 per license/month. A 7-day free trial is available.
Further Reading: Discover how Zendesk compares to Front.
5. Tidio
Tidio is a customer service platform tailored for small and medium-sized businesses, offering a suite of features to streamline customer interactions. Tidio provides a help desk ticketing system that allows users to organize and manage customer inquiries within a shared inbox. The software can convert emails, live chats, and social media messages into tickets, which are then routed to the team’s inbox for efficient handling.
Tickets in Tidio are customizable, allowing users to add notes and create custom tags for better organization and tracking. Tidio can automatically assign tickets to customer service agents and close them once resolved, ensuring a smooth workflow. The software also supports automated customer satisfaction surveys that can be sent once an interaction is completed, providing valuable feedback on service quality.
Tidio’s live chat tool includes pre-written responses, helping customer service agents quickly answer common questions and maintain consistency in communication. The chat window shows a real-time preview of what customers are typing, allowing assigned agents to prepare a response even before the customer sends the message, enhancing response times. Tidio also features an AI chatbot, Lyro, which can assist customers with automated support, handling routine inquiries and freeing up agents for more complex issues.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $29 per month. A free plan and a 7-day free trial are available.
6. Bitrix24
A screenshot showcasing the task list in the Bitrix24 customer service software user interface.
Bitrix24 provides online customer support software designed to offer comprehensive customer interaction management. The platform enables teams to deliver omnichannel support and manage customer inquiries from a single, unified location. It can be configured to queue inquiries by channel, ensuring that requests from different sources are organized and handled efficiently. Further customization options include creating pre-designed reply templates and configuring wait time rules to optimize response times and service levels.
Every customer interaction across all channels is logged in Bitrix24’s CRM system, providing a complete history of customer communications. The system automatically collects customer data and creates a new lead if the customer does not already have a profile, integrating customer service with lead management. Bitrix24 also offers both pre-configured and customizable activity reporting features, enabling businesses to track key performance indicators and gain insights into customer service operations.
Bitrix24’s integrated video call feature allows customer service agents and customers to connect directly to resolve issues, enhancing communication and problem-solving efficiency. Screen sharing and recording capabilities enable agents to visually demonstrate solutions, guide customers through steps, and record sessions for future reference or training purposes. Video conferencing is also available for broader team collaboration, supporting group discussions with up to 48 participants simultaneously.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $49 per company/month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
7. HappyFox
HappyFox is a customer service solution provider specializing in help desk management software, designed to streamline customer support operations. It features a robust ticketing system that helps teams organize inquiries and provides a single customer view for omnichannel support, ensuring agents have a comprehensive understanding of customer interactions. With automation, customizable workflows, and AI-powered chatbots, HappyFox helps automate routine tasks, freeing up agents to focus on more complex issues.
Managers can use HappyFox to coordinate agent schedules effectively. The software allows defining team working hours and configuring schedules to align with service level agreements, ensuring consistent service coverage. The scheduling feature can also account for non-working hours when calculating time-based conditions, improving the accuracy of service metrics.
HappyFox also offers self-service options, including an online knowledge base, enabling customers to find answers to common questions without needing to create a support ticket, reducing ticket volume and improving customer autonomy. Customers can also track support tickets, engage in community forums, and access help center articles and FAQs through a unified self-service portal, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $29 per agent/month. A free trial is available.
Further Reading: Learn how HappyFox Workflows integrates with Zendesk.
8. Zoho Desk
A screenshot showing an overview of the user dashboard for Zoho Desk customer support software.
Zoho Desk offers customer support software equipped with tools and automation options designed to streamline customer service agent workflows. Zoho Desk software provides omnichannel support with a unified dashboard view, allowing customer service agents to manage customer issues in one central location, improving efficiency and reducing the need to switch between applications. The ticket management system can organize tickets by status, due date, and priority, helping agents focus on the most critical tasks.
Additional features of Zoho Desk include self-service resources, SLA management, AI-powered assistance, an enhanced response editor, and integrated analytics. The platform allows businesses to track customer data and generate reports with key performance metrics, providing insights into support operations. Users can also create dashboards to visualize and monitor specific ticket metrics, aiding in performance analysis and improvement.
Zoho Desk also features an AI-powered assistant, Zia, which can detect customer sentiment from their language and automatically route tickets to customer service agents with this context, ensuring empathetic and effective support. Furthermore, Zia can automatically tag tickets and notify customer service agents when unusual activities occur in the ticket workflow, enhancing proactive issue management and agent responsiveness.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $7 per user/month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
Further Reading: Discover how Zoho integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk compares to Zoho.
9. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a cloud-based customer service tool designed for enterprise-level operations, offering robust features and scalability. It includes a self-service portal that allows users to create service requests or find help center articles without needing to interact directly with customer service agents, empowering customers to resolve issues independently. Customers can also join community forums to ask questions and share their experiences, fostering a collaborative support environment.
Companies can automate workflows within ServiceNow to assist customer service agents with repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency and reducing manual effort. Users can develop processes to automatically detect, log, resolve, and close specific incidents, eliminating the need for redundant data entry and streamlining issue resolution. Teams can also create cross-departmental workflows with end-to-end visibility, improving coordination and process management across the organization.
ServiceNow also provides tools for Customer Service Management (CSM) enhanced with generative AI technology. With the Now Assist tool, users can receive AI-powered suggestions for responses, improving response times and consistency. Additionally, ServiceNow’s AI offers suggestions to guide customer service agents on the next steps for ticket resolution, further enhancing agent productivity and effectiveness.
Pricing Information: Contact ServiceNow for pricing details.
Further Reading: Learn how Zendesk compares to ServiceNow.
10. LiveAgent
A screenshot showing the ticket system interface for LiveAgent customer support software.
LiveAgent is a customer service tool with a strong focus on live chat functionality, designed to provide real-time customer interaction capabilities. It includes features such as real-time typing view, website monitoring for proactive chat engagement, and proactive chat invitations based on the availability of active customer service agents, enhancing customer engagement and immediate support. LiveAgent’s shared inbox consolidates support inquiries and routes them to specific customer service agents, ensuring efficient ticket distribution and management.
Beyond its chat tool, LiveAgent’s help desk features integrated call center software with both inbound and outbound call capabilities, a comprehensive ticketing system, a knowledge base, and reporting and analytics tools. Businesses can create call recordings, set up IVR flows, and monitor activities in real-time, offering a full suite of communication and support management tools. Customers can request a callback instead of waiting on hold without losing their place in the queue, improving customer convenience and satisfaction.
Users can configure LiveAgent’s workflow automation tools using the rules feature, allowing for the automation of inquiry routing, tagging, and resolution. Rules can be set up to streamline repetitive tasks and ensure consistent ticket handling. LiveAgent is also customizable with various integrations to connect with third-party tools, extending its functionality and compatibility with other business systems.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $9 per agent/month. A free plan and free 7- or 30-day trials are available.
11. Freshdesk
Freshdesk, a customer service product by Freshworks, provides a platform for support teams to manage, prioritize, and respond to customer inquiries from a single location, enhancing efficiency and organization. The ticketing system directs inquiries from all channels to a team’s inbox, providing a centralized view of customer interactions. Trend reports within Freshdesk can help teams analyze ticket activities, identify patterns, and optimize support workflows.
Users can configure ticket fields to automate the routing, categorization, and prioritization of incoming inquiries, ensuring tickets are handled effectively and efficiently. Users can create custom ticket statuses, allowing customer service agents to track the stage of each ticket, improving visibility and workflow management. The system can also detect when customers end a conversation by expressing thanks, preventing tickets from being accidentally reopened, and ensuring accurate ticket status management.
However, it’s important to note that the Freshworks platform consists of three systems: Freshdesk, Freshchat, and Freshcaller. Each system has its own workspace, requiring agents to open each in a separate tab to access customer information. This setup might slow down customer service and potentially cause agents to miss important information due to the need to navigate between different interfaces.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $15 per agent/month. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.
Further Reading: See how Zendesk compares to Freshdesk.
12. Hiver
A screenshot showing reports and analytics for Hiver customer care software.
Hiver is a multichannel customer service help desk specifically designed for Google Workspace, integrating seamlessly with Google’s suite of tools. Instead of requiring a completely new platform, Hiver adds common customer service features to a company’s existing Google programs, such as shared inboxes, analytics, and SLA management. Companies that prefer to leverage their existing Google communication infrastructure may find Hiver a convenient and efficient solution.
Hiver’s shared inbox features customizable views where users can select conversation categories and filters to personalize the emails displayed, enhancing inbox organization and efficiency. Conversation IDs allow users to track email threads by assigning them a number and resurfacing them as needed, improving thread management. The program also offers notes and @mentions, enabling users to collaborate internally without forwarding emails or CC’ing in email threads, streamlining internal communication and collaboration.
Additionally, businesses can create a knowledge base within Hiver, hosting FAQs, instructions, and troubleshooting guides to support customer self-service. Customers can navigate through articles using an embedded search bar, making it easy to find relevant information quickly. If readers cannot find what they need, they can submit a support ticket directly from the knowledge base, providing a seamless transition from self-service to direct support.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $15 per user/month. A 7-day free trial is available.
13. ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs offers a help desk solution designed to streamline customer support operations for businesses of all sizes. The software enables teams to manage, track, and close tickets efficiently, improving response times and customer satisfaction. It includes a shared inbox for team collaboration, allowing customer service agents to view and manage conversations in one central location, enhancing teamwork and coordination. Customer service agents can prioritize tickets, automate tasks, and involve teammates in conversations, improving workflow efficiency and issue resolution.
Customer service agents can view customers’ ticket history and export conversations as PDFs for record-keeping and reference. The program also offers private notes for internal collaboration on side conversations, facilitating agent communication without confusing customers. Collision detection is a key feature, preventing multiple customer service agents from unknowingly working on the same ticket simultaneously, enhancing efficiency and reducing redundant efforts.
Additional features of ProProfs include a self-service knowledge base, enabling customers to access articles and FAQs independently, reducing ticket volume and improving customer autonomy. The integrated live chat software allows for real-time support via a web widget, providing immediate assistance to website visitors. ProProfs also offers surveys, enabling teams to collect feedback and track Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores, helping businesses to measure and improve service quality.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $19.99 per user per month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
Further Reading: Learn how ProProfs integrates with Zendesk.
14. Help Scout
A screenshot showing the shared inbox interface for Help Scout customer support software.
Help Scout’s customer service software consolidates customer data, interactions, and history into a shared inbox, ensuring customer service agents have the necessary context for every inquiry, enabling personalized and informed support. The inbox includes features like private notes for internal collaboration and collision detection to prevent two agents from working on the same issue simultaneously, improving teamwork and efficiency.
Help Scout’s AI tools include AI Summarize and AI Assist, enhancing agent productivity and response quality. AI Summarize helps users condense email threads into bullet points for quick review, while AI Assist suggests generated text while agents are writing responses, improving response speed and consistency. AI Assist can also refine content, adjust tone, and translate it into other languages, offering versatile support for communication needs.
Businesses can manage short surveys and collect Customer Satisfaction ratings directly on their website or within their app using Help Scout. Additionally, Help Scout includes an app directory with over 100 integrations for support, marketing, e-commerce, communication, CRM, and analytics, extending its functionality and compatibility with various business tools.
Pricing Information: Paid plans start at $20 per user/month. A 15-day free trial is available.
Further Reading: Explore how Zendesk compares to Help Scout.
15. HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub provides a shared inbox that allows customer service agents to access customer history, ticket information, and queue details in one unified interface. HubSpot Service Hub is integrated with HubSpot’s CRM to synchronize information across different tools, ensuring data consistency and accessibility. Customer service agents can also work from a mobile inbox, enabling them to stay active and responsive while on the go, improving flexibility and service availability.
With HubSpot Service Hub, businesses can create customer portals and custom feedback surveys, enhancing customer engagement and feedback collection. The customer portal allows customers to view, open, and respond to their support tickets and access the company’s knowledge base, improving self-service capabilities and customer autonomy.
Users can automate follow-up responses based on survey results to gain further insights into customer feedback and issues, enabling proactive service improvement. Key performance metrics, such as agent productivity, response time, and support volume, are accessible through the reporting and analytics dashboard, providing valuable data for performance monitoring and optimization. Each dashboard can display up to 30 reports, offering comprehensive performance insights.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $18 per month for two users. A free plan is available.
Further Reading: Learn more about HubSpot for Zendesk and how Zendesk compares to HubSpot.
16. Kustomer
Kustomer is a customer service platform designed to help support teams manage customer interactions efficiently and effectively across multiple channels. It consolidates customer data from various sources into a timeline view, displaying customer history, preferences, and interactions in a chronological conversation flow, providing a comprehensive customer context for agents. Customer service agents can access pre-written replies, suggested actions, and ticket tagging options, streamlining their workflow and improving response times.
Kustomer offers AI tools that utilize natural language processing to detect customer intent, enhancing automated support capabilities. The solution can analyze conversations and track customer sentiment, allowing businesses to identify whether customers are satisfied or dissatisfied, improving service monitoring and responsiveness. Support teams can also leverage Kustomer’s AI to classify and route conversations based on customers’ historical data, optimizing ticket routing and agent workload.
The platform includes live reporting and analytics dashboards that display real-time customer service metrics, providing up-to-date performance insights. Kustomer can store report data for up to two years, enabling long-term trend analysis. Users can perform one-time data exports or set up regularly scheduled report exports, offering flexible data access and reporting options.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $89 per user/month.
Further Reading: Discover how Zendesk compares to Kustomer.
17. Gorgias
Gorgias is a customer service software solution that offers a help desk with a shared inbox system, designed to enable support teams to collaboratively manage customer inquiries, especially for e-commerce businesses. Gorgias integrates with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, allowing customer service agents to access customer data, order information, and order history directly within the support interface, improving efficiency and providing contextual support.
The software offers automation features such as AI-powered responses, pre-written replies for frequently asked questions (FAQs), and templates to handle repetitive inquiries, reducing agent workload and improving response times. AI can scan incoming tickets to detect their intent, automatically closing spam messages and answering legitimate inquiries, such as order status requests, without agent intervention.
Gorgias also features a customizable interface, allowing businesses to create workflows that automatically assign, tag, and close tickets, streamlining ticket management processes. Pre-written responses enable customer service agents to provide standardized answers to customer questions, ensuring consistency and speed in communication. The system can also consider rules that identify VIP customers to prioritize their inquiries, ensuring high-value customers receive prompt and excellent service.
Pricing Information: Plans start at $10 per month. A free trial is available.
Further Reading: Learn how Zendesk compares to Gorgias.
