In today’s fast-paced business environment, providing exceptional customer care is paramount. Customers expect quick, efficient, and personalized support across various channels. To meet these demands and stay competitive, businesses are increasingly turning to automation. Automating customer care processes not only improves efficiency and reduces costs but also enhances customer satisfaction by providing faster responses and more consistent service. This article explores a comprehensive list of customer care tools that can help you automate and elevate your customer support strategy.
1. Zendesk
Zendesk stands out as award-winning customer service software designed to empower businesses in delivering rapid and personalized customer support at scale. It consolidates customer interactions from various channels into a unified workspace, eliminating agent juggling between different dashboards. Agents gain a comprehensive 360-degree view of each customer, accessing past support issues and leveraging over 1,500 plug-and-play integrations. Team collaboration is streamlined through integrations with platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, directly within Zendesk.
AI-Powered Automation: Zendesk’s embedded AI is a game-changer for customer service automation. Built on over 18 billion real service interactions, it intelligently manages high ticket volumes while maintaining customer satisfaction. AI capabilities include automatic ticket tagging and routing based on priority, intent, sentiment, and language, ensuring tickets reach the most suitable agent. Real-time AI guidance for agents includes ticket summaries and tone improvement suggestions, making support interactions more effective.
Reporting and Security: Advanced reporting and analytics provide insights into operational efficiency and evolving customer needs, enabling quick adaptation. Enterprise-class security features ensure robust protection of customer data. Zendesk is designed for ease of use, maximizing agent productivity and ensuring businesses can keep pace with customer expectations. It offers a complete, out-of-the-box solution with rapid time to value and low total cost of ownership.
Pricing: Plans begin at $19 per agent per month, with a 14-day free trial available.
2. Intercom
Intercom provides a customer support solution centered around automation and messaging to enhance internal customer service teams. Intercom Messenger acts as an extension to existing support infrastructures. Intelligent routing ensures inquiries are directed to agents based on their expertise, availability, and customer history.
Automated Ticket Management and Self-Service: The platform generates tickets from Messenger and other channels like email, funneling them into a shared inbox. Messenger facilitates both live chat support and self-service options, empowering customers to find solutions independently.
AI-Driven Conversational Support: Intercom’s AI tool, Fin, delivers conversational support by addressing frequently asked questions and suggesting relevant help center articles. Fin also automates conversation summaries within the inbox and pre-fills ticket details. Intercom’s marketplace features over 350 integrations, extending its functionality.
Pricing: Plans start at $39 per seat per month, with a 14-day free trial.
3. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud offers a robust customer service platform providing agents with an omnichannel workspace for comprehensive customer support. Agents gain immediate context for each ticket, including customer details, interaction history, and purchase records. The Swarming feature fosters team collaboration by enabling the addition of agents with specific skills to dedicated Slack channels for efficient case resolution.
Workflow Automation and Analytics: Salesforce Service Cloud enables agents to customize workflows and automate ticket routing to the appropriate support personnel. Pre-built dashboards within the reporting and analytics features allow managers to monitor team performance across all channels. Reports can also incorporate Swarming metrics, such as top responders and case resolution rates.
Scalability and Complexity: While powerful, Salesforce can be complex and may require a steeper learning curve. As part of a broader suite encompassing sales and marketing, businesses seeking a focused customer service solution might find tools specifically designed for customer experience more streamlined and goal-oriented.
Pricing: Plans start at $25 per user per month, with a 30-day free trial.
4. Front
Front is a customer service solution engineered to enable automated workflows and integrate diverse channels into a centralized shared inbox. This shared inbox centralizes customer inquiries, automatically consolidating them from various channels and routing messages to the most qualified agent.
Centralized Customer History and Collaboration: Every customer interaction is meticulously logged, granting agents access to complete customer history for informed support. Front’s integrated collaboration tools facilitate team communication on tickets. Unified reporting provides analytics on team performance and customer satisfaction metrics.
Self-Service Help Center: Businesses can establish a help center to empower customer self-service. Knowledge base administrators have granular control over user permissions for content creation, editing, and publication. The help center is integrated with the live chat system, allowing customers to seamlessly switch between self-service and direct customer support.
Pricing: Plans begin at $19 per seat per month, with a 7-day free trial.
5. Tidio
Tidio is a customer service platform tailored for small and midsize businesses, featuring a help desk ticketing system to organize and manage customer requests within a shared inbox. It converts emails, live chats, and social media messages into tickets routed to the team inbox.
Customizable Ticketing and Automation: Tickets are customizable, allowing users to add notes and custom tags. Tidio automates ticket assignment to agents and closure upon resolution. Automated satisfaction surveys can be deployed post-interaction.
AI-Powered Live Chat: Tidio’s live chat tool incorporates prewritten responses to aid agents in addressing common inquiries. The chat window provides a real-time view of customer typing, enabling agents to prepare responses preemptively. Tidio also features Lyro, a conversational AI chatbot, providing automated customer support.
Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month. A free plan and a 7-day trial are available.
6. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 delivers online customer support software enabling omnichannel support and centralized management of customer requests. The platform allows configuration of request queues by channel, along with customizations including prewritten responses and wait time rules.
CRM Integration and Reporting: Every customer interaction across all channels is logged into the integrated CRM. The system captures customer data and automatically creates new leads for unrecognized customers. Bitrix24 offers both prebuilt and customizable activity reporting features.
Integrated Video Communication: Bitrix24’s built-in video calling facilitates face-to-face agent-customer interactions for issue resolution. Screen sharing and recording capabilities enable agents to demonstrate solutions and record sessions for training or reference. Videoconferencing supports broader team collaboration for up to 48 participants.
Pricing: Plans start at $49 per organization per month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
7. HappyFox
HappyFox is a customer service and help desk management software provider. Its ticketing system organizes requests and provides a unified customer view for omnichannel support. Automation, customizable workflows, and AI-powered chatbots in HappyFox automate routine tasks.
Workforce Management and Self-Service: Managers can utilize HappyFox for work schedule coordination, defining team work hours and configuring schedules to meet service level agreements. The system also accounts for non-working hours in time-based condition calculations.
Customer Self-Service Portal: HappyFox offers self-service options like an online knowledge base, empowering customers to find answers independently. Customers can track support tickets, participate in community forums, and access help center articles and FAQs within a single self-service portal.
Pricing: Plans begin at $29 per agent per month. A free trial is available.
8. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk provides customer support software equipped with tools and automation features to streamline agent workflows. It offers omnichannel support through a single-view dashboard, enabling agents to manage customer issues in one place. The ticket management system organizes tickets by status, due date, and priority.
AI-Powered Automation and Analytics: Zoho Desk features self-service resources, SLAs, AI, an advanced response editor, and integrated analytics. The platform enables tracking of customer data and generation of reports with key performance metrics. Customizable dashboards allow visualization and monitoring of specific ticket metrics.
Zia AI Assistant: Zoho Desk includes Zia, an AI-powered assistant capable of detecting customer sentiment from their language and automatically routing tickets to agents with this context. Zia also auto-tags tickets and alerts agents to unusual ticket workflow activity.
Pricing: Plans start at $7 per user per month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
9. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a cloud-based customer service tool designed for enterprises. It features a customer self-service portal enabling users to create service requests or access help center articles without agent interaction. Customers can engage in community forums to ask questions and share experiences.
Workflow Automation and AI-Assisted Support: Businesses can automate workflows to assist agents with repetitive tasks. Users can design processes to identify, log, resolve, and close incidents efficiently. Cross-enterprise workflows provide end-to-end visibility.
Generative AI Capabilities: ServiceNow offers customer service management (CSM) tools enhanced with generative AI technology. The Now Assist tool provides AI-powered response suggestions. ServiceNow’s AI also suggests next steps for agents to expedite ticket resolution.
Pricing: Contact ServiceNow for pricing details.
10. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a customer service tool with a strong focus on live chat functionalities. Features include real-time typing view, website monitoring for chat engagement, and proactive chat invitations based on agent availability. LiveAgent’s universal inbox aggregates help requests and routes them to appropriate agents.
Integrated Help Desk and Call Center: Beyond chat, LiveAgent’s help desk includes built-in call center software with inbound and outbound call capabilities, a ticketing system, knowledge base, and reporting and analytics tools. Features include call recording, IVR flows, and real-time activity monitoring. Customers can request callbacks, retaining their queue position without waiting on hold.
Customizable Workflow Automation: Users can configure LiveAgent’s workflow automation tools using the Rules feature to automate routing, tagging, and ticket resolutions. LiveAgent is customizable through integrations with various third-party tools.
Pricing: Plans start at $9 per agent per month. A free plan and free trials of 7 or 30 days are available.
11. Freshdesk
Freshdesk, a Freshworks customer service product, provides a platform for support teams to manage, prioritize, and respond to customer requests from a centralized location. Its ticketing system routes requests from multiple channels to a team inbox. Trend reports aid teams in analyzing ticket activity.
Ticket Automation and Customization: Users can customize ticket fields to automate routing, categorization, and prioritization of incoming requests. Custom ticket statuses allow agents to track ticket progress. The system can detect conversation endings like “Thank you” to prevent accidental ticket reopening.
Platform Limitations: It’s important to note that the Freshworks platform is composed of three separate systems: Freshdesk, Freshchat, and Freshcaller, each with its own workspace. Agents may need to navigate between tabs to access complete customer information, which could potentially slow down service and lead to missed information.
Pricing: Plans start at $15 per agent per month. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.
12. Hiver
Hiver is a multichannel customer service help desk specifically designed to integrate with Google Workspace. Instead of a new platform, Hiver enhances existing Google tools with customer service functionalities like shared inboxes, analytics, and SLAs. It suits businesses aiming to leverage their current Google infrastructure for customer support.
Shared Inbox and Collaboration: Hiver’s shared inbox features customizable views, enabling users to personalize email display with categories and filters. Conversation ID allows tracking of email threads, while notes and @mentions facilitate internal team collaboration without email forwarding.
Integrated Knowledge Base: Businesses can create a knowledge base within Hiver to host FAQs, instructions, and troubleshooting guides. An embedded search bar aids customer navigation. If customers cannot find solutions, they can submit support tickets directly from the knowledge base.
Pricing: Plans start at $15 per user per month. A 7-day free trial is available.
13. ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs offers a help desk solution for customer support, enabling teams to manage, track, and resolve tickets. It includes a shared inbox for team collaboration, providing a centralized view of conversations. Agents can prioritize tickets, automate tasks, and tag teammates into conversations.
Agent Collaboration and Self-Service: Agents can access customer ticket history and export conversations as PDFs. Private notes facilitate internal communication. Collision detection prevents multiple agents from working on the same ticket concurrently.
Knowledge Base and Live Chat Integration: ProProfs offers a self-service knowledge base for customer self-help and live chat software for real-time support via a web widget. Surveys help gather feedback and measure customer satisfaction (CSAT).
Pricing: Plans start at $19.99 per operator per month. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
14. Help Scout
Help Scout’s customer care software consolidates customer data, interactions, and history into a shared inbox, providing agents with necessary context for each request. The inbox includes private notes for internal collaboration and collision detection.
AI-Powered Assistance and Automation: Help Scout’s AI tools, AI Summarize and AI Assist, enhance agent efficiency. AI Summarize condenses email threads, while AI Assist suggests text during reply composition, improving content, tone, and enabling translations.
Customer Feedback and Integrations: Businesses can deploy short-form surveys and collect customer satisfaction ratings within their website or app. Help Scout’s app directory offers over 100 integrations for support, marketing, e-commerce, CRM, and analytics.
Pricing: Plans start at $20 per user per month. A 15-day free trial is available.
15. HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub features a shared inbox providing agents with customer history, ticket details, and queue information. It integrates with HubSpot’s CRM to synchronize data across tools. Agents can utilize a mobile inbox for on-the-go support.
Customer Portals and Automation: HubSpot Service Hub enables businesses to create customer portals and custom feedback surveys. Customer portals allow customers to view, open, and respond to support tickets and access the company knowledge base.
Reporting and Analytics: Automated follow-up responses based on survey results gather additional insights. Reporting and analytics dashboards provide key performance metrics like agent productivity, response time, and support volume. Each dashboard can host up to 30 reports.
Pricing: Plans start at $18 per month for two users. A free plan is available.
16. Kustomer
Kustomer is a customer service platform designed to streamline customer interaction management for support teams. It consolidates customer data from multiple sources into a chronological timeline view, providing agents with complete customer history, preferences, and interactions. Agents have access to prewritten replies, suggested actions, and ticket tagging features.
AI-Driven Customer Sentiment Analysis: Kustomer’s AI tools leverage natural language processing to discern customer intent and analyze sentiment, enabling businesses to identify customer satisfaction levels. AI also assists in classifying and routing conversations based on historical customer data.
Real-Time Reporting and Data Retention: The platform includes live reporting and analytics dashboards displaying real-time customer service metrics. Kustomer retains data for reporting up to two years, with options for one-time or scheduled data exports.
Pricing: Plans start at $89 per user per month.
17. Gorgias
Gorgias is a customer service software solution offering a help desk with a shared inbox system for collaborative customer query management. It integrates with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, granting agents access to customer data, order details, and history.
E-commerce Integration and AI Automation: The software offers automation features including AI-powered responses, prewritten replies for FAQs, and templates for repetitive inquiries. AI scans incoming tickets to identify intent, automatically closing spam and addressing legitimate requests like order status inquiries.
Customizable Workflows and Prioritization: Gorgias features a customizable interface for building automated workflows to assign, tag, and close tickets. Prewritten responses ensure standardized answers. Rules can be configured to identify and prioritize VIP customer requests.
Pricing: Plans start at $10 per month. A free trial is available.
Conclusion
Automating customer care is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses aiming to deliver exceptional customer experiences in an efficient manner. The tools listed above represent a diverse range of solutions, each offering unique features and automation capabilities to streamline support processes, enhance agent productivity, and improve customer satisfaction.
From AI-powered ticket routing and response suggestions to self-service knowledge bases and integrated communication channels, these tools provide the means to automate repetitive tasks, personalize customer interactions, and ensure consistent, high-quality support across all touchpoints.
Choosing the right customer care automation tool depends on your specific business needs, scale, and customer base. Exploring free trials and demos offered by many of these providers is a crucial step in determining the best fit for your organization. By investing in the right automation tools, you can transform your customer care operations from reactive to proactive, ultimately driving customer loyalty and business growth.
