The 22 Best Customer Service Software Tools in 2023

LiveAgent is an omnichannel cloud-based software with the necessary tools to support your call centers. While it has standard call center tools like call routing and transfers, it also has more advanced features like unlimited call recordings and callbacks. That way, your customers can still communicate with your team even when your agents are busy or unavailable.

Our AI is built on over 18 billion real service interactions, so it understands customer service and enables you to unlock the power of personalized support from day one. In terms of prices, the company offers seven all-in-one plans for customer support and three additional packages for sales. The basic solution for the help desk, live chat, social messaging, and knowledge base support costs $69 per agent per month. A simpler plan for communication with customers via email, Facebook, and Twitter is more affordable at $25 per agent per month. Another standout feature is its real-time live chat, which includes a chat embedded on your website, chat invitations, and a real-time typing view.

Salesforce Service Cloud lets agents customize workflows and automatically route tickets to the right support agent. Additionally, reporting and analytics features with prebuilt dashboards allow management to monitor team performance across channels. Reports can also include Swarming metrics like top responders and the percentage of open and closed cases. On the one hand, you need to ensure a positive customer experience, and on the other, you need to make sure your team is comfortable within the established support flow. I’ve outlined six general steps recommended by support managers worldwide that will keep both customers and support staff happy with your strategy.

It includes a shared inbox for team collaboration, allowing agents to view conversations in one place. Agents can prioritize tickets, automate tasks, and tag teammates into the conversation. While most customer service software solutions solve for a specific use case, Service Hub is unique in that it’s part of the HubSpot customer platform. With features that make it easy to deliver authentic, personalized service, Service Hub empowers you to prioritize the customer experience. This cloud-based customer service software seamlessly integrates with your CRM, help desk solutions and other crucial business applications. Offering features such as call center IVR menus, skill-based routing, and live call monitoring, Aircall transforms the customer experience into a competitive advantage.

A support software for non-tech users, User-friendly customer service solution and customer help software without tech jargon is most sought after. Powerful reporting features are necessary to track and measure team performance and customer satisfaction. Live dashboards give you a birds-eye view of the happenings in your customer service tool so you can prevent bottlenecks and escalations. One-click reports make it easy for you to look back and derive insights that influence your customer service strategy.

What is customer service management (CSM)?

By being awarded reward badges and levels, your support agents can feel motivated to perform better. Improved productivity will affect how many tickets they resolve and how fast, which can save you money and improve customer satisfaction at the same time. The best way to strengthen customer relationships is to engage with your customer base and provide personalized service. A help desk software solution is the perfect tool for engaging with customers, as it makes the whole process streamlined and hassle-free.

The notification system is excellent, ensuring no members of the team miss any changes. Criticisms include glitchy automation and a lacking a thorough onboarding process. ClickUp users love its customizability, ease of use and also praise the mobile app. However, it’s important to note that the app has come off complex to some and does have a learning curve. Another negative aspect mentioned by ClickUp users is the guest interface that is hard to navigate. Customer service software tool like gamification can boost employee productivity by bringing a game aspect to the workplace.

Users can configure ticket fields to automate routing, categorizing, and prioritizing incoming requests. Users can create custom ticket statuses that help agents see what stage the ticket is in. The system can also detect when a customer ends a conversation saying, “Thank you,” so the ticket isn’t accidentally reopened. Manage customer service with greater awareness to exceed customer expectations, prevent churn, and maintain your company’s reputation. The next step should be to prepare a rough plan to fulfill the requirements of different touchpoints.

We’ll be comparing each software’s feature list, price, and customer ratings from independent software review sites. LiveChat’s message sneak peek feature lets agents preview what customers are typing before sending the messages. This foresight helps your team to proactively prepare responses, leading to more efficient and personalized interactions. LiveChat is a comprehensive solution, combining live chat responsiveness with the convenience of help desk features.

The 17 best customer support platforms

For example, if you want to make and receive phone calls from your customer service software, ensure that it contains a built-in blended call center. Customer service software is the key ingredient in an exceptional customer experience. However, finding the right software is challenging as most providers offer similar features and promise to help you accomplish the same goals. To help you choose the best software for your business, niche, and industry, we’ve curated a list of the best customer service solutions of 2024.

ActiveCampaign users praise their customer support team, as well as the implemented step-by-step guides and video tutorials. They also love the insights they gain from customer engagement tracking features, as well as the long list of available integrations. On the other hand, some users experience glitchy automation, which can lead to delays.

• One mistake companies make is implementing changes in response to customer feedback without following up on the results.
• Teach them about service recovery, and if something goes wrong, give them the authority to make things right for customers.
• If you are looking to provide B2B support, sometimes even a free customer service platform will suffice.

You need to offer timely, personalized assistance no matter how big or small your business is. Good customer service software is what you need to ensure that your support team is able to manage customer conversations better and build long-term customer relationships. Zendesk, a market leader in the customer service software realm, has earned its esteemed reputation due to its highly intuitive interface, robust set of features, and customizable integrations. The platform’s ease of use allows for a streamlined experience that doesn’t require an extensive tech background, making it accessible to a wide range of users. Beyond basic request management, social monitoring software can also be a great social media customer service tool. It helps you watch out for mentions of your company, competitors, and industry on social channels, giving you a heads up to issues so that they can be handled proactively.

Automations

A customer service system is a system used by companies to manage, track, and deploy their services to their customers. These systems track the entire process of customer service right from the start. This is used to track the inflow of customer service requests and the number of requests successfully addressed. Intercom users enjoy the shared inbox, ease of use, and customer engagement options. However, some customers report having trouble with certain features and modules like filters, articles, and outbound marketing. Jira is a bug tracking and project management tool used by agile software development teams.

It offers bots, a shared inbox, and a self-service knowledge base software. ActiveCampaign is a user experience automation platform ideal for small and mid-sized businesses. The service cloud solution offers email, marketing, and sales automation as well as customer relationship management. In addition, the software promises to improve customer engagement via powerful segmentation and personalization across various channels.

You need to find a tool that meets your immediate needs and is flexible enough to cover future needs, all while staying within budget. Here are a few trends that are being discussed in the world of customer service software. Some of the features above are common across nearly every customer support platform; others are less common or are implemented quite differently.

This includes 5 email channels, 1 feedback widget, 5 advanced web forms, and access to 1 social media account. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The professional plan starts at $23 (USD) and includes 10 channels, 1 department feedback widget, 10 department web forms, and 1 social media account. Customer service software that includes a knowledge base builder will allow you to create online resources that help customers find answers on their own while also relieving stress on your team. This push for personalized support makes it even more important to choose a tool that gives your team access to customer information like past conversations and order history. Having customer data on hand ensures that they don’t need to repeat themselves, always receive relevant information, and never feel like a number. The feature set of software platforms built for customer service covers a wide range, but it can be generally categorized into six major focus areas.

They can call, write, send letters, complain all over social media, and whatnot. Better yet, Zendesk uses intelligent routing to send customers to the agent who’s best suited to answer their questions. Zendesk even helps teams create critical self-service content so brands can foster a customer-focused culture and empower customers to solve simple issues themselves. These features improve employee engagement and retention and build customer loyalty. Engaging the customer with personalized service can prevent customers from feeling neglected. Create customer profiles with purchase history and demographic details that your agents can reference so they can provide customer-oriented support.

Businesses can empower customers to find answers to their queries quickly and efficiently by using the right kind of knowledge sharing software. It allows customers to access a centralized knowledge base that contains all the information they need to solve their problems. However, suppose a customer uses a channel like email, social media, or a messaging app to contact your company. In that case, the system will simply create a ticket and assign it to a specific department/agent based on predefined criteria.

It may be helpful to think of an internal knowledge base as geared toward your employees, while an external knowledge base is geared toward your customers. Shared inbox software is like a lite version of help desk software, since it tends to focus mainly on email interactions and not on the additional channels that a help desk may cover. You could — in theory — build either one with just two or three tools, but the overall quality and efficiency of your efforts would be greatly impacted. Text-Em-All offers transparent pricing, and they even offer the ability to calculate costs using a handy cost calculator on their site. Along with straightforward pricing, they also offer a user-friendly interface and top-notch support to make sure all your needs and concerns are addressed.

A good pre-sale experience will greatly benefit and streamline the process of post-sale servicing. It will also create a unified mindset and code of conduct for the employees to interact properly and deal with customers. This will ultimately translate into the customer service platform’s success because this becomes the human component of the overall system. The first step in building a system that covers every aspect is first to understand the entire process of customer interaction. Doing this will enable you to build a multi-layered system, which functions as a customer service platform and builds customer experience.

The right customer service tools can boost team morale and enhance the employee experience. Simplified and streamlined workflows, automated routine tasks, and intuitive workspaces create Chat PG an environment that helps agents thrive. For example, AI chatbots can handle repetitive requests, so your support reps can focus on addressing more engaging questions and complex issues.

The goal of the customer service team is to make the buying process enjoyable and hassle-free. If you are currently looking to implement and add a customer service system to your company, you should have a look at our HelpDesk Software. It has all the integrated components which a successful and effective customer service system needs.

If you’re a fan of contacting support on live chat, make sure that the company you choose offers live chat support. If you’re more into talking it out, find out whether your preferred vendor offers toll-free numbers and offers support at an appropriate time for your time zone. Please note that the most popular customer service software solutions can be pretty pricey.

In a survey, 40% of consumers cited “multiple options for communicating” as the most important feature of a company’s customer service department. A https://chat.openai.com/ can help automate most support processes and offer multiple channels to customers. You can dedicate all of your team’s efforts towards tackling the customer’s problems instead of figuring out paperwork and maintenance. Intercom is widely recognized as one of the leading customer service software due to its innovative and comprehensive approach to customer interaction. Features include everything from the free plan plus automation capabilities, collision detection, custom email server, ticket views, and SSL.

Beyond Slack, you can use Salesforce Service Cloud to provide support via email, live chat, and self-service channels. The platform also offers add-ons like field service and AI tools and can integrate easily with Salesforce’s CRM for added customer insights. Hesk is a reliable, cloud-based ticketing system that’s easy to use and set up. It lets your team create custom ticket fields and modify feature arrangements so that the interface is aligned with the agent’s workflow. It also has a ticket submission tool where customers can create web-based tickets and assign them directly to an available agent.

Key features to look for in customer service software

Groove can be a good fit for businesses with lean support teams since it also comes with a knowledge base that helps with reducing support volume. Companies typically use cloud-based customer service software to enable faster, more efficient customer support delivered by multiple customer service agents all working within the same tool. Beyond the features mentioned, Buffer has reporting capabilities to help track performance and post engagement. If most of your support requests come through social media channels, then a stand-alone social media management tool like Buffer might be a good choice. The platform allows you to engage with customers across many social platforms, including X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Freshdesk also has a few features such as an AI responder and field service management tools that are offered as à la carte add-ons.

Then, try to profile your customers and segment them into groups that will be helpful not only to support staff but also to other departments. There are many ticketing systems in the market, but you don’t have to put yourself at risk. Enjoy a 14-day HelpDesk trial and experience the best collaboration and customer communication features.

Knowledge base software is a tool that allows you to create, store, organize, manage, and share self-service content with an audience. Things like FAQ pages, video tutorials, and how-to articles are all common types of content housed in a knowledge base. Helpshift has flexible, use-based pricing to ensure your team only pays for what you need. For instance, they offer a free plan for teams that are only looking to collect feedback from users.

So, let’s begin with the best all-in-one software for customer service and proceed to stand-alone solutions for each channel. It provides you with all the necessary features to manage incoming calls from customers more effectively and keep them all in one database. Even though people like call centers for their immediacy, companies often fail to provide it on a decent level. From all-in-one to field-specific, we’ve collected 20 solutions for you to choose from. Zendesk integrates with other platforms, like Shopify and Instagram, so Chupi is done jumping between different systems, and important information is no longer slipping through the cracks. The company has seen a 300 percent increase in care-based sales, with 69 percent of tickets resolved in one touch.

• ClickUp is a versatile project and task management platform with customization options.
• Five9 aims to transform the call center experience and the team’s overall efficiency.
• Most people will recognize the Jira brand name from the project management and issue tracking software often used by development teams.
• It’s intuitive and easy to use and offers a variety of templates for different categories of tasks.

Cloud-based customer service software is a solution that’s hosted on the internet and simply requires a laptop or a phone to use. Its low maintenance and high convenience make it preferable when compared to the other types. As of May 2023, LiveAgent’s “Small” business plan starts at $9 per agent per month when billed annually. This includes 1 incoming email account, 3 outgoing email accounts, 10 departments, 1 live chat button, 1 API key, and chat satisfaction surveys. No matter which software you choose, it’s the service you deliver to your customers that matters. Don’t let the search for the “perfect customer service software” stop you from defining and delivering the service experience that will keep those customers coming back.

Along with its chat tool, its help desk has built-in call center software with inbound and outbound capabilities, a ticketing system, a knowledge base, and reporting and analytics tools. Businesses can make call recordings, establish IVR flows, and monitor activity in real time. Customers can make callback requests instead of waiting on hold without losing their place in the queue.

There are solid collaborative tools for post management such as a social content calendar, a review and post-approval flow, and tools to help you properly optimize and time your content. There are also social listening features to help you keep an eye out for mentions of your company across the web. While these tools are considered to be the best in customer service, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the right fit for your business.