Customer service software is the foundation of effective service operations. With 76 percent of customers expecting personalized care, one-size-fits-all assistance is inadequate. To keep consumers delighted, you must have tools that facilitate communication and agents who are effective. That, of course, begins with collaborating with an excellent software vendor.

What is Customer Service Software?

Customer service software is a set of technologies meant to assist firms in tracking, managing, organizing, and responding to large-scale customer assistance requests.

Unlike a shared email inbox, customer support software includes a ticketing system that consolidates customer requests from many channels, such as email, live chat, messaging, and phone. Support agents can use predetermined ticket responses, collaborate on tickets, and automatically categorize them for easy reference. A customer support system can also allow customers to self-serve using a knowledge base.

Support teams can improve support operations by automating repetitive processes, gathering insights, and making data-driven decisions using advanced customer service tools such as reporting, analytics, and artificial intelligence.

Businesses frequently combine customer service tools with other systems, such as a billing or customer relationship management (CRM) platform, to build a 360-degree customer perspective and deliver more personalized help.

Types of Customer Service Software

When selecting customer service software, it is important to think about the size of your customer service team and what channels you want to utilize.

CRM: One helpful tool that can be included in this type of system is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program which stores information such as purchase history, interactions with personnel from your company and all pertinent customer data for easy access.

Live chat software: serves customers quickly by enabling real-time support through text conversation, usually faster than phone assistance alone would provide them with an answer or help.

Ticketing systems: Helps you track, manage & organize customer interactions across multiple channels. You can use these systems to efficiently distribute workload amongst teammates, collaborate with each to resolve issues and measure support efficiency.

Self-service portals: Self-service tools allow users instant resolution without having direct contact with members of the team working on their behalf – creating convenience while still delivering excellent results.

Suites (All-in-one): These are platforms that encompass all of the above tools in one solution.

Top Customer Service Software Solutions

Let’s go into the top customer support tools and go over the crucial details. We will provide an overview of the product, as well as a list of features, beginning prices, and trial information.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk offers award-winning customer service software that empowers businesses to deliver fast and personalized customer support at scale.

Agents can seamlessly respond to customer requests across any channel from a single workspace, eliminating the need to switch between dashboards. They can see key information like a customer’s past support issues and seamlessly build a 360-degree customer view with over 1,500 plug-and-play integrations. Agents can also collaborate with other teammates and departments via Slack or Microsoft Teams directly within Zendesk.

AI is built into the agent workspace to help customer service teams manage greater ticket volumes while maintaining high customer satisfaction. AI can identify and label incoming tickets based on conversation priority, intent, sentiment, and language—as well as agent capacity, status, and skill—so they get routed to the right place. It also guides agents in real time, providing ticket summaries and tools to improve the tone of their replies.

Advanced reporting and analytics help you determine how to operate more efficiently and identify changing customer needs so you can adapt quickly. Plus, with enterprise-class security features, you can ensure your customers’ data stays safe.

The customer service software is easy to use, maximizing productivity and ensuring you can move at the speed of your customers. Simply put, Zendesk is a complete customer service solution that works right out of the box—without the need for developers or third-party consultants—resulting in a fast time to value and a low total cost of ownership.

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month. 14-day free trial available.

2. Intercom

Intercom’s customer support solution uses automation and messaging to help internal customer service teams. Intercom Messenger works as a supplement to a business’s existing support tools. Intelligent routing lets businesses direct inquiries to specific agents based on skills, availability, and customer history.

The platform generates tickets through Messenger and other communication channels, such as email, and sends them to a shared inbox. Messenger can provide live support through chat or offer self-service options for customers to find answers at their own pace.

Intercom’s AI tool, Fin, offers conversational support by answering frequently asked questions or surfacing help center articles. Additionally, Fin can summarize conversations in the inbox and automatically populate ticket information. Intercom also features a marketplace with over 350 integrations.

Pricing: Plans start at $39 per seat/month. 14-day free trial available.

3. Salesforce Service Cloud

The customer service platform from Salesforce provides agents with an omnichannel workspace for customer support. Agents can view each ticket’s relevant context within their workspace, including customer contact details, prior interactions, and purchase history. The Swarming feature lets teams collaborate on cases by adding agents with specific skills to a dedicated Slack channel.

Read Also: The Best Business Software for Time Tracking and Management

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.

Just note that Salesforce can be complex and may take users longer to learn. Because Salesforce isn’t exclusively a CX tool and offers a product suite for sales and marketing, businesses looking to level up their customer service may find it easier to achieve their goals with software specializing in the customer experience.

Pricing: Plans start at $25 per user/month. 30-day free trial available.

4. Front

Front is a customer service solution that allows users to configure automated workflows and integrate additional channels into a shared inbox. The shared inbox helps keep customer inquiries in one place. It automatically consolidates customer inquiries across channels and routes messages to the best-suited agent.

Each customer interaction gets logged, allowing agents who touch the account to access customer history for future customer support. Front includes built-in collaboration features so teams can communicate on tickets. It also features unified reporting for analytics on team performance and customer satisfaction.

Businesses can build a help center to assist with customer self-service. Knowledge base administrators can control user permissions to designate who can create, edit, and publish content. The help center also integrates with the live chat system so customers can toggle between self-service and customer support.

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per seat/month. 7-day free trial available.

5. Tidio

Tidio is a customer service platform for small and midsize businesses. Featuring a help desk ticketing system, Tidio allows users to organize and manage customer requests in a shared inbox. The software can turn emails, live chats, and social media messages into tickets that route to the team inbox.

Tickets are also customizable, so users can add notes and create custom tags. Tidio can automatically assign tickets to agents and close them upon resolution. The software can also send an automated satisfaction survey once the interaction is over.

Tidio’s live chat tool features prewritten responses that help agents answer common questions. The chat window displays what customers are typing in real time, so the assigned agent can prepare a reply before the customer sends the message. Tidio also has a conversational AI chatbot, Lyro, that can assist customers with automated support.

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month. A free plan and a 7-day trial are available.

6. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 offers online customer support software. The platform allows teams to provide omnichannel support and manage customer requests from a single location. Businesses can also configure it to queue the requests by channel. Additional customizations include creating prewritten responses and configuring wait time rules.

Every customer interaction from all channels gets logged into your CRM. The system collects customer data and creates a new lead if the customer does not have an existing profile. Bitrix24 also offers prebuilt and customizable activity reporting features.

Bitrix24’s built-in video calling allows agents and customers to connect face-to-face when resolving issues. With screen sharing and recording, agents can demonstrate solutions, walk customers through steps, and capture sessions for reference or training. There’s also videoconferencing for broader team collaboration, enabling group discussions with up to 48 people at a time.

Pricing: Plans start at $49 per organization/month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.

7. HappyFox

HappyFox is a customer service solution and help desk management software provider. It features a ticketing system that helps teams organize requests and features a single customer view for omnichannel support. With automation, customizable workflows, and AI-powered chatbots, HappyFox helps automate everyday tasks.

Managers can use HappyFox to coordinate work schedules. They can define the work hours of their team and configure schedules to support service level agreements. The feature can also account for non-working hours when calculating time-based conditions.

HappyFox also offers self-service options, like an online knowledge base, so customers can find answers to questions without generating a support ticket. Customers can also track support tickets, engage in community forums, and refer to help center articles and FAQs—all within a single self-service portal.

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per agent/month. A free trial is available.

8. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk offers customer support software with tools and automation options that automate agent workflows. For instance, Zoho Desk’s software provides omnichannel support with a single-view dashboard so agents can handle customer issues in one place. The ticket management system can organize tickets according to status, due date, and priority.

Other Zoho Desk features include self-service resources, SLAs, AI, an advanced response editor, and built-in analytics. The platform allows you to track customer data and generate reports with key performance metrics. Users can also create dashboards to visualize and track specific ticket metrics.

Zoho Desk also features an AI-powered assistant, Zia, which can detect how customers feel based on their language and automatically route tickets to agents with that context. Additionally, Zia can auto-tag tickets and notify agents when unusual activity takes place in the ticket workflow.

Pricing: Plans start at $7 per user/month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.

9. ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a cloud-based customer service tool for enterprises. It features a customer self-service portal that allows users to create service requests or find help center articles without interacting with an agent. Customers can join community forums to ask questions and share their experiences.

Businesses can also automate workflows to help agents with repetitive tasks. Users can design processes to identify, log, resolve, and close incidents to avoid retyping information. Teams can also create cross-enterprise workflows that provide end-to-end views.

ServiceNow also offers customer service management (CSM) tools with generative AI technology. With its Now Assist tool, users can get AI-powered suggestions for responses. Additionally, ServiceNow’s AI offers suggestions to help agents take the next steps toward ticket resolution.

Pricing: Contact ServiceNow

10. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a customer service tool that focuses on live chat. It includes features like a real-time typing view, customer service website monitoring for chat engagement, and proactive chat invitations based on active agents and their availability. LiveAgent’s universal inbox collects help requests and routes them to specific agents.

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.

Users can configure LiveAgent’s workflow automation tools with its Rules feature. Rules can automate routing, tagging, and ticket resolutions. LiveAgent is also customizable with a library of integrations to connect with third-party tools.

Pricing: Plans start at $9 per agent/month. A free plan and free trials of 7 or 30 days are available.

Final Words

It is apparent that customer service software may have a significant positive impact on firms, particularly their support efforts and progress. Businesses must be aware of the various types available as well as their benefits when deciding on the best one for their needs.

Companies must keep up with technological advancements in order to stay ahead of the competition by delivering excellent customer service. Investing in this type of tool may result in improvement and success! Its primary features are analytical capability and cloud-based administration platforms. Exploring how implementing these solutions might benefit your organization should not be overlooked!