Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs Zendesk Comparison 2023

One of these differences is the ability for agents to connect to customers through their own apps versus using a collaboration feature. In 2014, they acquired Zopim, a Singapore based live chat company. The tool was later integrated with Zendesk, making it more robust. Winner — Intercom edges out Zendesk here due mainly to its customizable workflow capabilities.

You can opt for code via JavaScript or Rails or even integrate directly with the likes of Google Tag Manager, WordPress, or Shopify. The highlight of Zendesk’s ticketing software is its omnichannel-ality (omnichannality?). Whether agents are facing customers via chat, email, social media, or good old-fashioned phone, they can keep it all confined to a single, easy-to-navigate dashboard.

App Ecosystem

On one hand, Zendesk offers a great many features, way more than Intercom, but it lacks in-app messenger and email marketing tools. You can create different inboxes for support and sales, add permissions, and use mentions to collaborate on challenging customer questions. Most help desk systems offer complementary features such as chat, and knowledge base. For Intercom, it’s the opposite as ticket management appears to be a complementary feature. With Zendesk, businesses can build a dedicated help center and a community forum to encourage customers to at their own pace- while reducing the ticket volume.

It offers a suite that compiles help desk, live chat, and knowledge base to their user base. This enables them to speed up the support process and build experiences that customers like. Zendesk directly competes with Intercom when it comes to integrations. This live chat service provider offers 200+ integrations to its user base. With a mix of productivity, collaboration, eCommerce, CRM, analytics, email marketing, social media, and other tools, you get the option to create an omnichannel suite.

Zendesk Pros and Cons

Streamline support processes with Intercom’s ticketing system and knowledge base. Efficiently manage customer inquiries and empower customers to find answers independently. Intercom’s messaging system enables real-time interactions through various channels, including chat, email, and in-app messages. Connect with customers wherever they are for timely assistance and personalized experiences.

Access a shared workspace, a shared inbox that can track SMS, calls and email, knowledge base management, automation, reporting, and more with Zendesk. Because it offers so many different options, this is a great Intercom alternative for large and enterprise companies who need sales and service solutions at scale. These HubSpot alternatives for customer support, sales, and marketing teams will help you streamline your work and save time and money.

Zendesk vs. Intercom: Which is better?

On the other hand, you need to be careful about the various needs and requirements of your support team. It enables you to get quality product feedback from the right customers at the right time through the app or by email. Intercom assists with the onboarding and retention of customers through targeted email and in-app messages triggered by time or behavior.

The company caters to businesses across the globe and has offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Sydney, etc. Zendesk Message and chat enable users to connect to their customers on a scalable app. This allows agents to work on their own device anytime and anywhere. Having the two presented side by side, which is the best CRM solution? The answer, as with most things in life, is that it depends on your specific needs and ultimate goals.

Our wishlist for Chatra

For example, you can easily change the default language, change the appearance of the chat widget, or make it available only for some customers. Depending on your business needs you will need appropriate live chat software. Intercom and Zendesk are two popular options that we wanted to compare and help you decide which one works for you.

Further, if companies plan to create multi-channel campaigns, Intercom makes a great fit. However, customers should keep in mind that Intercom does not offer voice. From the inbox, live agents and chatbots can refer to and link knowledge base articles, to elaborate on replies and help customers locate answers. Both Zendesk and Intercom are standout performers when it comes to providing comprehensive multi channel support, catering to diverse customer needs. Zendesk offers a versatile array of communication channels, including email, chat, social media, phone, and web forms.

Zendesk customers are switching to Intercom every single day

Operators can easily switch from one conversation to another, therefore helping operators manage more interactions simultaneously. Now that we know a little about both tools, it is time to make an in-depth analysis and identify which one of these will be perfect for your business. Here’s a list of criteria we’ve used to differentiate the two for you.

• Zendesk has a rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars, based on over 5,600 reviews.
• This approach not only enhances user understanding but also significantly boosts user engagement.
• If you want to deliver better customer service, live chat is the key.
• Factors may include the content in the review, feedback provided by other readers, the age of the review, and other factors that indicate review quality.
• Create a chatbot with minimal coding and customize it to your heart’s content.

There is no harm in testing the waters before committing to one or the other, as both Zendesk and Intercom offer free trials. If you’re an enterprise team, check out Zendesk, otherwise, stay away, and check out another option like Help Scout. They “integrate” with almost everything (what that even means is many things… does that mean it’ll do what you want it to do? questionable), they have help docs, an included community platform even. It brings with it anxiety of responding (had one client that wouldn’t use the restroom out of fear they weren’t there to respond to a customer shortly after implementing Intercom into their business.

We sell a high-touch, high ASP product (caskets) and have scaled to where we’re adding several more customer service agents to our company. Customers often call or chat with us multiple times prior to the purchase and post-purchase, as these are emotional, time-sensitive purchases. Intercom is better designed for smaller companies and teams, while Zendesk is suitable for large companies to skyrocket customer support. In addition, Intercom offers omnichannel inbox, robust reporting, and automated workflows. Intercom calculates the price based on the number of seats (users) you request.

Though Intercom chat window says that their team typically replies in a few hours, I received the answer in a couple of minutes. Their agent was always trying to convert me into a lead along the way, but heck, that’s a side effect of our job. Honestly, when it comes to Zendesk, it is not the most modern tool out there. As I’ve already mentioned, they started as a help desk/ticketing tool, and honestly, they perfected every bit of it over the years. As it turns, it’s quite difficult to compare Zendesk against Intercom as they serve different purposes and will fit different businesses.

• Inside a ticket, the workspace center console displays the ticket’s conversation.
• It isn’t as adept at purer sales tasks like lead management, list engagement, advanced reporting, forecasting, and workflow management as you’d expect a more complete CRM to be.
• If you seek to enhance customer engagement through chat-based support, in-app messaging, and proactive outreach, Intercom may be the superior option.
• Drift is the closest alternative to Intercom in that it also focuses heavily on sales and marketing.

Remember, before you opt for a full-fledged plan, it’s always better to go for a free trial to see how the solution really works. In addition to this, Intercom provides your business the right platform to offer proactive support. You can use targeted messages to suggest quick tips to new customers or to simply update them about scheduled outages or changes in business hours.

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