Connect your Intercom to Zendesk integration in 2 minutes

You can do this by going to your settings within Zendesk (click on the cog on the left hand side), and navigating to API in the ‘Channels’ section. We have numerous customers that do this and benefit greatly from our out-of-the-box integration with Intercom. Like so many others, Monese determined that Zendesk was the best solution to provide seamless, omnichannel support because of its scalability and reliability. You could say something similar for Zendesk’s standard service offering, so it’s at least good to know they have Zendesk Sell, a capable CRM option to supplement it. You can use Zendesk Sell to track tasks, streamline workflows, improve engagement, nurture leads, and much more.

Zendesk Support has voicemail, text messages, and embedded voice, and it displays the phone number on the widget. Users can also access a resource library to stay updated on the latest trends, product announcements, and best practices. Intercom regularly hosts webinars that are recorded and stored for future reference. To sum things up, one can get really confused trying to make sense of the Zendesk suite pricing, let alone calculate costs.

Important differences between your articles in Zendesk and Intercom

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. The Zendesk Workspace provides agents a single workspace with access to all team collaboration and customer communication channels so that an agent can manage all conversations without switching interfaces. Zendesk has a help center that is open to all to find out answers to common questions. Apart from this feature, the customer support options at Zendesk are quite limited.

Intercom’s dashboards may not be as aesthetically pleasing as Zendesk’s, but they still allow users to navigate their tools with few distractions. Zendesk is quite famous for designing its platform to be intuitive and its tools to be quite simple to learn. This is aided by the fact that the look and feel of Zendesk’s user interface are neat and minimal, with few cluttering features. Lastly, Intercom offers an academy that offers concise courses to help users make the most out of their Intercom experience.

Customer stories: Learn why so many businesses are choosing Zendesk

When it comes to advanced workflows and ticketing systems, Zendesk boasts a more full-featured solution. Due to our intelligent routing capabilities and numerous automated workflows, our users can free up hours to focus on other tasks. One place Intercom really shines as a standalone CRM is its data utility. As with just about any customer support software, you can easily view standard intercom zendesk user data within the messenger related to customer journey—things like recent pages viewed, activity, or contact information. Intercom’s chatbot feels a little more robust than Zendesk’s (though it’s worth noting that some features are only available at the Engage and Convert tiers). You can set office hours, live chat with logged-in users via their user profiles, and set up a chatbot.

• But sooner or later, you’ll have to decide on the subscription plan, and here’s what you’ll have to pay.
• Zendesk has traditionally been more focused on customer support management, while Intercom has been more focused on live support solutions like its chat solution.
• But this also means the customer experience ROI tends to be lower than what it would be if you went with a best-in-class solution like Zendesk.
• The learning and knowledgebase category is another one where it is a close call between Zendesk and Intercom.

Businesses should always consider a tool’s TCO before committing to a purchase. Many software vendors aren’t upfront about the cost of using their products, maintenance costs, or integration fees. Altogether, this can significantly impact affordability in the long term. Intercom is the new guy on the block when it comes to help desk ticketing systems. This means the company is still working out some kinks and operating with limited capabilities. Prioritize the agent experience to maximize productivity and customer satisfaction while reducing employee turnover.

Zendesk vs Intercom: functionality

This serves the dual benefit of adding convenience to the customer experience and lightening agents’ workloads. 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. See for yourself how transforming your customer support can help improve ROI. However, customers can purchase multiple Intercom plans to use together, or purchase add-ons to select just the features they want.

• But with perks like more advanced chatbots, automation, and lead management capabilities, Intercom could have an edge for many users.
• Customers increasingly expect to receive fast, convenient, and personalized support.
• Agents can respond in any channel by typing in the text box and have access to deep customer experience history and background in the right-hand column.
• Pre-selected assignment rules customize each ticket’s destination, assigning routing paths to agents or departments based on customer priority status, query type, or issue details.
• When you combine the help desk with Intercom Messenger, you get added channels for customer engagement.

The Sell dashboard, different from the Service dashboard, features pre-built widgets that agents can organize however they want, to view the metrics they care most about. Design and send out mobile push messages–phone pop-ups containing text and images that prompt customers to take action and redirect to a specific app page when clicked. The Agent Workspace highlights tickets based on the issue and urgency, assigning each one a priority–agents can also tag tickets based on recency, hold-vs-open status, and urgency. One more thing to add, there are ways to integrate Intercom to Zendesk.

Create tickets in Zendesk for new conversations in Intercom

Is it as simple as knowing whether you want software strictly for customer support (like Zendesk) or for some blend of customer relationship management and sales support (like Intercom)? Powered by Explore, Zendesk’s reporting capabilities are pretty impressive. Right out of the gate, you’ve got dozens of pre-set report options on everything from satisfaction ratings and time in status to abandoned calls and Answer Bot resolutions. You can even save custom dashboards for a more tailored reporting experience.

From the inbox, live agents and chatbots can refer to and link knowledge base articles, to elaborate on replies and help customers locate answers. Chatbots are automated customer support tools that can assist with low-level ticket triage and ticket routing in real-time. How easy it is to program a chatbot and how effective a chatbot is at assisting human reps is an important factor for this category. Novo has been a Zendesk customer since 2019 but didn’t immediately start taking full advantage of all our features and capabilities. At first, the company relied on Intercom for its live chat support needs, but with the rapid changes and sky-high service needs, it quickly became apparent that the support team needed a full-service solution. Users can benefit from using Intercom’s CX platform and AI software as a standalone tool for business messaging.

Apps and integrations are critical to creating a 360 view of the customer across the company and ensuring agents have easy access to key customer context. When agents don’t have to waste time toggling between different systems and tools to access the customer details they need, they can deliver faster, more personalized customer service. Intercom’s ticketing system and help desk SaaS is also pretty great, just not as amazing as Zendesk’s. Their customer service management tools have a shared inbox for support teams.

With simple setup, and handy importers you’ll be up and running in no time, ready to unlock the Support Funnel and deliver fast and personal customer support. Use ticketing systems to manage the influx and provide your customers with timely responses. No matter how a customer contacts your business, your agents will have access to the tools and information they need to continue and close conversations on any channel.

For real zen, switch to Intercom

But keep in mind that Zendesk is viewed more as a support and ticketing solution, while Intercom is CRM functionality-oriented. Which means it’s rather a customer relationship management platform than anything else. Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch? Intercom enables customers to self-serve through its messaging platform. Agents can easily find resources for customers from their agent workspace. The highlight of Zendesk’s ticketing software is its omnichannel-ality (omnichannality?).

Many businesses choose to work with Intercom because of its focus on personalization and flexibility, allowing companies to completely customize their customer service experience. On the contrary, Intercom is far less predictable when it comes to pricing and can cost hundreds/thousands of dollars per month. But this solution is great because it’s an all-in-one tool with a modern live chat widget, allowing you to easily improve your customer experiences.

If this becomes a persistent issue for your team, we recommend contacting Zendesk. Easily track your service team’s performance and unlock coaching opportunities with AI-powered insights. Yes, you can find the Intercom integration in the Zendesk Marketplace—and it’s free to install. Check out the research-backed comparison below to better understand how each solution can add value to your organization. Keeping this general theme in mind, I’ll dive deeper into how each software’s features compare, so you can decide which use case might best fit your needs.

Administrator reports allow managers to observe real-time CSAT scores, conversation volume, first response time, and time to close. Below, we’ve compared the usability of Zendesk’s and Intercom’s agent dashboards and administrator controls. As for the category of voice and phone features, Zendesk is a clear winner.