Customer Service& Support Blog
To truly understand modern consumers, consider the following questions:
· How long are you willing to wait for an email response?
· What is your patience for the delay in real-time chat replies?
· As a communication channel on social media, are you willing to let customers bear some unprofessional behaviors (slow response times, replies that are not timely and professional)?
If you find yourself eager to quickly resolve these issues, then you are indeed a leader among modern consumers.
To meet these expectations, you need customer service software that enables seamless communication, shortens first response times, and maximizes customer satisfaction. The right software can make all the difference.
However, the opportunity to choose the right software lies in selecting software that can accurately and broadly meet these needs. It must fit your budget and have the capability to enable your agents to resolve more queries in a shorter amount of time. First, consider the following questions:
Do you want to purchase traditional tools (such as Zendesk and Freshdesk) to gain their features and extensive workflow automation?
Do you want to use next-generation AI-native tools like Udesk to achieve over 75% automation through intent detection, native and generative AI, and human support?
Are cost, scalability, and management's monitoring of customer service some of the issues you hope to address with this platform?
To help you evaluate, we have compiled a list of the top customer service software for 2024 based on their advantages, unique use cases, pricing, and more.
What is customer service software?
It comes in various forms, such as Live chat software, Ticketing systems, and self-service tools with features like automation and reporting.
In this article, we will delve into how Customer Service Systems work, discuss different brands of customer service systems, each with their own features and the types of businesses they excel at serving. Readers can gain insights and understand what is suitable for their business and operations.
- Udesk is a highly cost-effective, professional, and comprehensive supplier.
A budget-friendly supplier that offers a full range of customer communication channels from text to voice, and has a customer service system with a deep level of AI.
Udesk's self-developed NLP, ASR, and Chatgpt interfaces provide intelligent intent recognition, AI-driven answers, sentiment analysis, language AI, and Agent Copilot features, creating customer service that stands out in the industry.
Although it has been proven that its AI-driven self-service experience can effectively resolve at least 70% of customer inquiries, it also allows for a seamless transition from AI to human agents when necessary, ensuring that complex customer issues are handled effectively.
In Udesk, customer service representatives can manage customer communications through a unified system that provides detailed insights into customer data and communication history. Any agent can continue from where another agent left off, without any interruption in communication.
Udesk offers integration with all major customer service platforms, including Slack, Genesys, and more. Therefore, you can achieve omnichannel coverage for your entire business on a single dashboard.
Main Feature 1: AI Chat Bot and Automation
Udesk provides AI automation features to shorten customer response times and handle smaller, more mundane tasks.
The conversational Chat BOT uses natural language processing (NLP) capabilities to offer personalized customer interactions. They can understand customer inquiries in multiple languages and regional dialects, providing accurate responses in real-time based on support content, without human intervention.
Udesk also offers a visual automated bot creator for building and deploying modular workflows. These bots can seamlessly perform daily tasks such as prioritization and routing, and can be designed from scratch or using pre-built templates, customized according to different industries and business needs, with most of the work configured by Udesk's staff. You only need to provide guidance, and we will take care of the rest.
Main Feature 2: Multilingual Customer Support
The days when language barriers prevented businesses from providing customer service are long gone. Now, tools like Udesk help break down the language barriers between customers and customer service representatives.
The Natural Language Processing (NLP) system is directly embedded into the platform, supporting real-time messaging, allowing bots to understand context-specific nuances and complex sentences. This tool is designed with advanced multilingual intent recognition technology, capable of understanding customer intent in over 150+ languages, making it an ideal customer service system solution.
The multilingual feature of Udesk also enhances support operations through multilingual chatbots and one-click FAQ translations for all supported resources. The multilingual chatbots can assist, guide, and automatically detect the customer's language to resolve issues correctly.
In the corporate database knowledge base, providing the correct answers for customer service to find quick solutions can shorten customer response times, save resources, and reduce customer churn rates.
Udesk provides integrated reporting tools for real-time analysis of every step of the customer journey, supporting team productivity and the effectiveness of the help center.
On the Insight dashboard, you can gain a comprehensive analytical overview to monitor relevant data for customer service and clients. You can track key metrics such as customer activity and customer service performance trends, and compare the performance of different customer service representatives within the team. This provides intuitive data analysis to identify areas for improvement so you can take appropriate action.
Udesk also provides metrics on the effectiveness of Udesk and chatbots in user engagement by tracking indicators such as FAQ views, deflections, searches, and user feedback.
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Pricing:
Call Center+Ticket：
$765/Year
Live Chat+Ticket：
$969/Year
Omnichannel+Ticket：
$1118/Year
2. Zendesk: Comprehensive solution for large teams
Users can also manage chat and phone conversations based on the selected plan. The focus is on timely customer responses and seamless conversation management, regardless of the channel.
Main Features
Chatbots for AI interaction
Detailed data analysis
Send messages via social media, voice, chat, and email
Track using hashtags and keywords
Pricing
Starting price at $55/month/agent
Includes a 30-day free trial
It features a customer self-service knowledge base, enabling support teams to focus on more urgent customer requests.
Main Features
Real-time chat functionality allows customers to initiate conversations with the support team.
A centralized tool that allows users to view omnichannel communications, such as customer requests made through social media, live chat, and email.
Instant customer feedback through micro-surveys
Shared inbox
Email integration and management
Pricing
Starting at $20 per month/user.
4. Zoho Desk: Optimized for Remote Teams
With features like conversational AI, omnichannel communication, and automation, the tool leverages predictive intelligence to provide customer support teams with better ways to manage customer interactions. Larger teams can utilize self-service options to resolve customer issues.
Main Features
Sentiment analysis through its AI tool Zia is used to analyze and tag help desk tickets for easy sorting by customer support agents.
Ticket System
Customer Data Analysis
Knowledge Base Articles
Real-time Chat Software Solutions
Pricing
The starting price is $7/user per month
Includes a free trial
5. Salesforce Service Cloud: Scalable for growing businesses
This allows for a wide range of functionalities, including task management, facilitating collaboration, and enhancing productivity.
Salesforce Service Cloud also enables customer support through self-service channels, live chat, and email. Support teams can gain more insights into customer behavior through additional components such as AI tools and field service.
Main Features
Providing personalized services through mobile devices allows agents to resolve cases anytime and anywhere.
The Live Agent feature allows agents to connect with customers via the web for instant chat on any device.
Embedded knowledge base helps agents find and provide the correct answers in a timely manner.
Social customer service can be accessed through various channels, including Twitter and Facebook.
Pricing
Starting price is $25 per month/user
Includes a free trial
6. Freshdesk: An ideal choice for multichannel support
Main Features
Create customer ticket statuses to monitor the various stages of tickets.
Seamlessly collaborate with other agents by linking related tickets and providing consistent responses.
Consolidate all support-related communications across phone, email, website, and social media platforms.
Create a self-service portal using a knowledge base and forums.
Pricing
Starting price is $15/month/agent
Includes a free trial
How to evaluate the best customer service tools?
Today, there are numerous customer service software solutions, and choosing the right one can be challenging. However, here are some important features to consider.
Flexible platform switching
Perfect customer service software should typically run easily on various devices. You should not choose customer service software that is limited to specific devices, as this will hinder your business from adapting to customer expectations.
Udesk supports different devices, including PC, MacBook, iOS, Android, and more.
Integration with multiple applications
Typically, businesses need to use multiple applications to run their support operations. Migrating from one platform to another can be chaotic, leading to data fragmentation, scalability issues, security risks, and a lack of centralized control.
Udesk, as the right customer service software solution, easily integrates with 90% of mainstream software on the market, such as X, Facebook, Amazon, and other important applications, to ensure seamless data flow. Centralizing incoming requests within one system.
Transparent, low-cost, and high-value pricing
Which customer service software will provide the greatest return on investment and fit your budget? Financial considerations are an important component in choosing the best customer service software.
Therefore, you should look for customer service tools that can provide a transparent view of pricing plans. Pay attention to additional fees, add-ons, or the possibility of future upgrades. Some platforms have hidden costs, so be sure to check carefully before making a commitment.
Udesk's pricing is transparent and balanced, with each module having a corresponding price. Combining the pricing plans that best suit you is the purpose of our service.
High-quality support
If the support service of the customer relationship management tool is poor, it would be ironic. You need to access a platform that prioritizes customer communication and provides top-notch support for your team when needed.
Most customer service tools offer free basic support, so look for them. Send an email to the support team, check their response time, and the quality of support operations.
Scalability
As your business grows, you need a platform that grows with you. Choosing customer service software that limits your business growth or future needs can be counterproductive.
Select scalable software to accommodate increases in workload and workforce without significant differences in cost and functionality.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I determine which customer service software is best suited for my business needs?
You should first define your requirements to identify the customer service software that fits your business needs. What goals do you want to achieve with the customer service software? For example, if you want to collect customer feedback, the software you choose should be able to create reports and surveys.
What key features should customer service software look for?
The main features to look for in customer service software are Omnichannel support, ease of setup, powerful analytics, ticket management, reporting capabilities, and the availability of a self-service portal for knowledge management.
Your customer service software should help your business provide personalized service. While you need software that makes your support team efficient, you should prioritize a solution that allows your customers to find solutions in a timely manner without constantly waiting for a human support agent.
How can I make the most of customer service software for my business?
As your business grows and it seems impossible to keep track of incoming requests, customer service software can streamline your handling of these requests.
By using this software, each request will receive a unique reference number, helping your support team quickly search for requests, retrieve communication history, and address unresolved issues without causing customer dissatisfaction.