Intercom vs Zendesk: Which One is Right for Your Business?

Zendesk is a customer service platform that allows you to communicate with customers via any channel. Companies looking for a more complete customer service product–without niche bells and whistles, but with all the basic channels you want–should look to Zendesk. Small businesses who prioritize collaboration will also enjoy Zendesk for Service.

• While both tools offer top-of-field feature sets that can simplify your customer support processes dramatically, identifying which is right for you can take time and effort.
• Intercom’s Messenger lets users schedule timely, targeted, and personal messages sent based on triggers and customer actions, and is automatically translatable into over 30 languages.
• While Intercom does not offer free trials, they do offer demo versions of each plan.
• Intercom, on the other hand, places a greater emphasis on live chat and the creation of personalised interactions.

One place Intercom really shines as a standalone CRM is its data utility. You can even improve efficiency and transparency by setting up task sequences, defining sales triggers, and strategizing with advanced forecasting and reporting tools. Starting at $19 per user per month, it's also on the cheaper end of the spectrum compared to high-end CRMs like ActiveCampaign and HubSpot. You can create articles, share them internally, group them for users, and assign them as responses for bots—all pretty standard fare. Intercom can even integrate with Zendesk and other sources to import past help center content.

“The Zendesk Suite” (Chat + Support + Guide + Talk)

Using the existing knowledge base functionality, they can display self-help articles in the chat window before the customer approaches your team for support. You can create these knowledge base articles in your target audience’s native language as their software is multilingual. Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch?

The creators of LiveChat said that they specifically designed this bot to provide fantastic customer service for a price that anyone can afford. It integrates with over 100 SaaS solutions and services thousands of businesses all over the world. The LiveChat platform handles hundreds of millions of chats each year—hence why LiveChat is one of the top providers of customer service solutions today. The chat automation features available with Intercom are helpful for your support team and help your customer conversations stand out from the crowd. You can also integrate apps like Google Meet or Stripe to create more engaging experiences for your customers. Proactive, in-app messages are notifications sent to users while using an app on mobile or desktop.

Zendesk vs. Intercom: Sales Pipeline and Lead Nurturing Tools

We’re big fans of Zendesk’s dashboard with built-in collaboration tools, but we wish the Agent Workspace came with the Team or Growth plans–not just Professional. Zendesk for Service sells three plans, ranging from $49 to $99 monthly per user, with a 30-day free trial available for each plan. Inside a ticket, the workspace center console displays the ticket’s conversation.

From the inbox, live agents and chatbots can refer to and link knowledge base articles, to elaborate on replies and help customers locate answers. Zendesk and Intercom also both offer analytics and reporting capabilities that allow businesses to analyze and monitor customer agents’ productivity. As a result, companies can identify trends and areas for improvement, allowing them to continuously improve their support processes and provide better service to their customers.

Zendesk vs Intercom: Which One Is Right for You?

They have offices all around the world including countries such as Mexico City, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Singapore, São Paulo, London, and Dublin. Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry.

The entire thread is saved within the ticket for future agents to reference. Agents can add each other to internal notes within a ticket, looping in team members to collaborate when necessary. For example, you can assign all inbound technical queries to an engineer; or, assign all pricing queries to the sales team.

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