Do you want to go directly to the answer? the best customer service software for most people is gorgias or freshdesk.
good customer service software puts your support teams in the best possible position. they will stay better organized with less work. that’s more time to resolve issues and provide a five-star experience.
Reading: Review how to improve customer care platforms list
Your employees have exactly what they need the moment they pick up the phone or respond to a live chat. your customers wait less time and never have to repeat information. it’s a win-win that I recommend exploring.
8 Best Customer Service Software of 2022
- gorgias: the best integrations with e-commerce platforms
- freshdesk: Best Customer Service Software to Keep Costs Down
- liveagent: Best Customer Service Software for Live Chat Support
- hubspot: The Best Free Customer Support Software
- zoho desk: the best customer service software for ticketing
- zendesk: Best Customer Support Software with Support Package Options Available
- groove: Best Customer Service Software for Small Teams and Startups
- help scout: Best Customer Service Software for Nonprofits
- includes 300 tickets/month (additional $40 for additional 100)
- unlimited users
- live chat and chat campaigns
- up to 150 integrations including shopify, bigcommerce and social media platforms
- includes 2000 tickets/month ($36 add-on for additional 100)
- onboarding assistance
- customer surveys
- income statistics
- magento integration
- includes 5,000 tickets/month ($36 add-on for additional 100)
- fully managed onboarding
- team management tools
- twitter integration
- a dedicated customer success manager
- ticketing
- collaboration
- field service
- automation
- customer self-service
- reporting
- multi-channel support
- unlimited agents
- ticketing by email
- team collaboration
- knowledge base
- input trend reports
- automations
- collision detection
- market applications
- helpdesk
- sla management
- office hours
- automatic ticket assignment
- custom agent roles
- custom portal
- business reports
- multiple time zones and slas
- skill-based ticketing
- create a test environment without impacting agents or customers
- ip whitelist
- hypaa compliant
- extensible api rate limit
- issuance of tickets by email
- live chat
- voice and video calls
- social media integration
- seven day ticket history
- an email address for ticketing
- a live chat button
- a phone number for call center support
- unlimited ticket history
- unlimited issuance of tickets by email
- load data from your crm
- multi-brand support
- unlimited live chat
- monitor visitors in real time
- chat invitations
- chat satisfaction surveys
- unlimited call center support
- video calls
- gamification
- unlimited call storage
- ticketing
- live chat
- chatbots
- team email
- conversations inbox
- email templates
- closed ticket reports
- time to close reports.
- includes two paid users
- canned fragments
- scheduling meetings
- agent productivity reports
- calling
- includes five paid users
- ticket status, routing, automation, and pipelines
- knowledge base
- 1:1 video creation
- custom reports
- nps surveys, experience and support
- includes ten paid users
- playbooks and goals
- hierarchical teams
- user roles
- sso
- loose integration
- up to three agents
- ticketing by email
- help center
- private knowledge base
- the predefined islands
- mobile app
- multilingual help desk
- social and community channels
- product-based ticket management
- public knowledge base
- escalations
- workflow and assignment rules
- monitoring rules
- customer satisfaction scores
- ticketing for various departments
- team management
- telephony
- automatic time tracking
- entry templates
- share tickets
- mobile sdk
- live chat
- ai
- customize the help center
- advanced process management
- scheduled reports
- validation rules
- role-based data exchange
- ticketing support
- web, mobile and social messaging
- voice, sms and live chat support
- up to 50 responses powered by artificial intelligence
- a single help desk for customer self-service
- up to 100 responses powered by artificial intelligence
- multiple help centers for customer self-service
- AI-powered knowledge management
- multilingual content and support
- custom ticket designs
- omnichannel support
- social messaging plugin
- self-service knowledge base
- dashboards and reports for all channels
- conversation partner edition
- multiple entry forms
- roles and permissions with skill-based routing
- multi-brand support
- chat widget and web sdk
- content clues to identify knowledge gaps
- 24/7 phone support and live chat
- a mailbox
- knowledge base
- live chat
- web widget
- assignments and mentions
- 5 mailboxes
- full reporting history
- rules
- api access
- 40+ integrations
- 25 mailboxes
- teams
- whatsapp and sms
- integrations with salesforce, hubspot and jira
- unlimited mailboxes
- priority support
- dedicated customer service manager
- sso/saml
- enterprise-grade security
- three mailboxes
- beacon with live chat
- messages for up to 10,000 customers
- reports
- automated workflows
- 50+ integrations
- 10 mailboxes
- custom fields and teams
- salesforce, hubspot and jira apps
- hypaa compliance
- sso/saml authentication
- unlimited mailboxes and document sites
- flexible users
- concierge onboarding
- exclusive account administrator
- enterprise-grade security
- phone
- live chat
- chatbots
- support tickets
- social networks
In the next section are detailed reviews of each customer support software I recommend. you will learn about the main features, benefits, use cases, pricing and more.
Most of these providers will let you try the software for free, and several of my recommendations actually offer forever free versions of their customer service software
You really can’t know how the software will work until you see it in action; follow the links to get your free trial, freemium service or demo.
best customer support software reviews
gorgias: the best integrations with e-commerce platforms
In e-commerce, the overlap between customer service and sales presents opportunities to create new and loyal customers. gorgias offers a variety of tools to help you maximize those opportunities.
one of the key ways gorgias does this is through a simple integration with three of the most popular ecommerce platforms: shopify, magento, and bigcommerce.
In all three cases, gorgias pulls customer data, interactions, and order histories from the platform to give you a complete view of your performance with customers.
Agents working on gorgias will be able to update customer orders, addresses, and issue refunds without having to log in to shopify separately, for example.
This reduces the chance you’ll make redundant contact with buyers, allows you to highly personalize content, helps you set routine customer service tasks (such as common questions or requests) on autopilot, and unlocks new customer insights. customers through powerful machine learning.
Beyond that, gorgias offers a fantastically clean interface for your customer service reps to organize, address, and track tickets. centralizes communication through channels such as SMS, social networks, live chat and email.
gorgias’ omnichannel capability allows your team to engage with customers as they engage with ads, social media posts, and other material before they even land on your website. therefore, your customer service team is already warming up customers before they add anything to their cart.
gorgias is priced a bit higher than other options on this list, but each level allows for unlimited users and contains generous feature sets.
basic — $60 per month
pro — $360 per month
everything in basic, plus:
advanced: $900 per month
all in pro, plus:
You can reduce these fees by paying annually. the annual plan reduces the cost of the basic plan to $50/month, the professional plan to $300/month and the advanced package to $750/month.
There is also a custom enterprise level that can be arranged in consultation with gorgias.
If your eCommerce business knows you’re missing out on sales opportunities, give gorgias a try through their free seven-day trial or by setting up a live demo.
freshdesk: best for keeping costs down
freshdesk is another of the most popular help desk solutions on the market today. why? because it has everything you need for modern customer service teams at an exceptionally low price.
You can try the entire platform free for 21 days with as many agents as you want, no credit card required. If you like it, agent pricing starts at $15 per month, or you can keep using a limited version of freshdesk for free forever.
That’s right, a free customer service plan forever with unlimited agents. there are some features worth upgrading, but it does have the ability to track incoming tickets from email and social media.
for the small business that needs a better way to answer incoming questions, freshdesk is all you need at no cost.
When you’re ready to upgrade, freshdesk offers several plans at competitive prices. Choose the channels you want to communicate, the type of support you want to provide, and design workflows that make sense for your line of business.
you won’t have to try to fit your customer service experience into a rigid template if you go with freshdesk.
they offer a number of useful features:
This is great if you want to streamline your customer service solutions on a single platform. as such, freshdesk makes team collaboration and automation a breeze.
If you’re currently using another help desk solution and aren’t happy with it, freshdesk makes it easy to switch to their software. their team will help you make the switch easily.
and with freshworks academy, your in-house training service, you’ll be able to train anyone on your team to master the freshworks system in no time.
Here’s an overview of the plans and pricing. all fees are based on an annual plan. prices are a bit higher if you go month to month.
free
growth: $15 per month per agent
pro — $49 per month per agent
company: $79 per month per agent
Omnichannel pricing (including phone and messaging channels) starts at $29 per month per agent. It’s definitely cheaper to stick with fewer channels, but this is an exceptionally low price for omnichannel support.
freshdesk integrates with hundreds of the most popular business software brands, so it will likely fit right into your system without expensive setup.
Try the full freshdesk platform for free with a 21-day trial.
liveagent – Best for Live Chat Support
liveagent helps you manage all customer requests from multiple channels on a single platform.
combine all communication and support in one place, no matter where your customers are.
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liveagent saves you time, simplifies the process and allows you to increase the profitability of your support team.
liveagent has tools for:
is designed for the modern customer support team. your employees only have to navigate a single interface to be there for customers on whatever channel they need.
with liveagent, the entire customer conversation is right in front of your agents, even if you started with a chat, moved to email, and then phone.
Customers don’t have to repeat information and the agent doesn’t struggle to find the information. it’s just a better experience for everyone.
here’s a closer look at liveagent’s customer service software plans and pricing:
free — $0 forever
ticket: $15 per month per agent
ticket + chat: $29 per month per agent
all included: $49 per month per agent
For all paid plans, liveagent has additional pricing for features like social media integration, time tracking, audit logs, and more.
Overall, it’s a simple and flexible tool for managing live customers with ticketing and live chat. try it for free.
hubspot: the best free customer support software
hubspot offers some of the best tools on the internet to connect with customers and build relationships. They’re best known for their marketing and sales, but their customer support software is also exceptional.
The best part for small businesses is that you can use hubspot customer support software for free. they also offer freemium software for sales, marketing and the best free crm on the market.
free hubspot customer support software features include:
hubspot is proof that you don’t need to spend a lot of money improving your customer service with software. After all, this won’t cost you anything.
Upgrading to a premium plan, known as the hubspot service hub, gives you many more tools to build and automate workflows. you certainly don’t need to be a developer to create exactly what you need.
For those of you who want access to advanced features and benefits, here is an overview of the paid plans:
Primary: $45 per month
Professional: $450 per month
company: $1200 per month
all fees above are based on an annual contract. monthly service center fees start at $50 for the starter plan and $500 for the professional plan.
hubspot also offers a full suite of product packages for marketing, sales, service, cms, and operations in one plan. Pricing is based on the size of your contact list and starts at $45 per month with an annual commitment. try hubspot for free to get started.
zoho desk: best for ticketing
zoho is one of the most popular names in the world of business software and crm. they offer tools for sales, marketing, email, collaboration, finance, accounting, human resources, and business intelligence.
but one of the best solutions they offer is zoho desk – it and help desk software. You can set up a ticketing system that spans any channel you use: phone, chat, social, email, and more.
You’ll also be able to route tickets between departments quite easily. Whether your business has multiple brands under one roof or different levels of customer support, you’ll be able to set up efficient workflows.
All of this saves your customers time and improves their experience. they contact the right person and receive the relevant assistance. they can communicate via email and call back; your service agents will see all the interaction.
zoho desk has solutions for customer service agents, managers, and customers. but, above all, it could be said that it is the best customer service software to manage and close tickets.
let’s take a closer look at zoho desk plans and price points:
Free — $0
Standard: $14 per month per agent
Professional: $23 per month per agent
business: $40 per month per agent
No matter how big, small, or complex your business is, Zoho Desk has a plan for you. try it for free.
zendesk: best software with support package options
zendesk is one of the best overall customer service software solutions on the market today. It’s used by over 169,000 businesses in over 160 countries, including big brands like uber, venmo, shopify, and slack.
They will give you all the tools you need to manage omnichannel customer service. You can provide customer support via email, live chat, voice, facebook, twitter, wechat, whatsapp and more.
the software makes it possible to connect all your data sources to a single location. therefore, when a customer contacts you for support, the correct information will automatically be displayed.
zendesk is flexible, so it can meet the needs of any business. you can get a custom solution that fits into your existing support environment.
You can send messages to customers through web pages, mobile devices and social networking sites. if a customer reports a problem via twitter or facebook, you can have zendesk automatically generate a ticket.
here’s a quick overview of the zendesk support suite plans, features, and pricing:
suite team: $49 per agent per month
suite growth: $79 per agent per month
professional suite: $99 per agent per month
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business suite: $150 per agent per month
There is also a fully customized business plan that starts at $215 per agent per month. this is designed for larger organizations that need additional assistance with granular controls and increased compliance.
You can try any zendesk software or support package with a free trial. if you are looking for a custom solution, please contact the zendesk sales team.
groove: best for small teams and startups
groove is not as popular or well known as some of the other options on our list.
If your business has outgrown email for customer support and is receiving inquiries across multiple channels, groove may be the best option for you to consider.
where they really shine are their team collaboration tools. you can add private internal notes to discussions, quickly mention teammates to onboard them, and assign specific tasks to team members.
“Shared inbox” for teams is a big step up from basic email. think about how many clicks per day you can eliminate when you assign someone to a ticket next to the reply button on any email.
groove has exceptional automations to optimize your customer service. set rules, labels, canned responses, and custom folders with your preferences to eliminate the heavy lifting.
Another standout feature of groove is the ability to customize your knowledge base. this is crucial for companies that want to offer customers self-service tools.
Knowledge base themes are fully customizable, beautifully designed and mobile responsive. groove customer support software plans and pricing are as follows:
Starter: $9 per month per user
plus — $19 per month per user
pro — $29 per month per user
company: custom prices
I would recommend groove for small teams and startups. in fact, they have a special start-up fee for companies with less than ten employees. eligible businesses can get a 93% discount on the professional plan.
help explore: best for nonprofits
help scout is unique in that it is a certified b corporation, which means it strives to make a positive impact on the environment and communities. so it really goes the extra mile to support organizations that share the same values.
If you’re a nonprofit that supports human rights, environmental sustainability, or tech underrepresentation, help scout will give you a significant discount on your customer service software.
Some of you might even be eligible for discounts of up to 100%. that’s right, free.
even if it doesn’t fall into any of those categories, help explore is still one of the best solutions for customer service.
You can set up shared inboxes for your team and make collaboration easy. You can also give your customers the ability to email you if your team can’t respond quickly enough to incoming chat requests
The interface is also very welcoming. this is not a tool that you will have to spend tons of time training people how to use.
here’s a closer look at the plans and pricing:
Standard: $20 per month per user
plus — $35 per month per user
company: custom prices
These rates are based on an annual contract. month-to-month plans are available for an additional fee. you can try help explore for free with a 15-day trial.
how to choose the best customer service software for your business
There are certain features and considerations to keep in mind when evaluating different options.
this is the methodology we use and recommend here at quick sprout.
number of agents
companies with five service representatives will not need the same software as a company with 50 agents.
that’s why the size of your customer service team is crucial to your final choice.
Larger teams need features for things like collaboration and role-based ticketing, but that won’t be necessary for a smaller company.
channels of communication
what is the ideal way (or ways) for customers to contact your company? good customer service software will support a variety of channels, including:
Adding more channels gives customers more choice, but it also creates more work for your business on the back-end. that is why it is important to find customer service software that brings together all these channels.
A tool like Live Agent allows an employee to see a single history of customer interactions across all channels. a person could reach out on facebook, get help via email, and call back months later – your customer service rep sees the whole story.
You can imagine how confusing it would be if you were offering a multi-channel service without giving employees a single dashboard to manage it.
feature packs
all of the customer service software on our list do an exceptional job of marketing their core features. but with that said, you should only focus on the features you need the most.
For example, are you looking for customer service software specifically for live chat? liveagent will be the best choice for you. For a solution for your field service agents, use the Salesforce Service Cloud. there are even tools for customer support, sales, and marketing crm built into individual product packages.
My suggestion is this. identify the features you definitely need. then find the right plan that has all those features.
price
The price of customer support software varies based on a wide range of factors. many solutions charge you based on the number of customer service agents on your team.
The features available in your package will also have a significant impact on what you pay for.
Customer service is definitely not something you should skimp on. it’s okay to spend money. but with that being said, not all of you need to overdo it. Small businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits with smaller teams can use free customer support software without compromising quality.
the best customer service software in a nutshell
satisfied customers come back and spend more money. dissatisfied customers can cause significant damage to your reputation. that’s why you should rely on the best customer support software like gorgias, liveagent, hubspot and freshdesk.
all businesses should prioritize customer service. To provide impeccable service and keep customers satisfied, you can harness the power of software to automate and optimize your system.
See also: 10 Proven Ways to Improve Customer Experience – Qualtrics
