Best of Customer Service Technology

Starting a business has never been easier than today. As you read these lines, new startups are being launched with little more than a single click on the mouse. The ever-growing market creates fierce competition, and high-quality products are no longer enough to keep your business sustainable.

To grow a successful business, you need to market your product. One of the best marketing strategies is exceptional customer service delivery. When your customers spread the news of their good experience with your company by word of mouth, they become brand advocates that influence other people to buy. Similarly, disgruntled customers tend to share their negative reviews with others. Online complaints in particular can go viral and completely destroy your business.

In a world where customer reviews can make or break your business, you shouldn’t take chances with poor customer service. However, providing customer service becomes challenging when your company has few employees and you have many demands on your time. To ease the burden and increase the quality of your customer service, consider using a customer service software. The following is a list of best customer service apps available on the market.

#1. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is an award-winning, cloud-based help desk solution that helps you manage customer issues and boost your productivity. The software supplies your company with tools such as help-desk ticketing, support forums and a knowledge base. As a result, no customer inquiries fall through organizational cracks and you have a searchable index of solutions that can speed the resolution of similar cases.

Freshdesk solves the problems that result when customers can’t contact your customer service department by letting them create support tickets via email or from your website. The software features include multi-channel capabilities, game-based productivity enhancements, SLA policy management and customer self-service portals.

You can integrate Freshdesk with many existing software solutions, including CRM apps, which extends the usefulness of previous investments. Pricing starts at $0 for the basic 3-user version and goes up to $70 per month per agent for the top-of-the-line premium package.

#2. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is another customer service software that provides multi-channel support. Unlike many other similar apps, LiveAgent is simple, intuitive and easy to use. The software offers multilingual solutions and comes with 39 translations available.

LiveAgent helps you with your customer service strategy by integrating with social media and email accounts. Gamification improves employee engagement and performance while contact forms allow you to add customer service support to your website. Ticketing, file sharing and other collaboration features ensure that your entire team can contribute to the customer service effort.

Pricing for LiveAgent begins at $12 monthly per agent for the basic version with 3 agents included. The middle tier of the application adds features and costs $20. For the all-inclusive package, you will need to pay $25 per month for each user, with the first three users included in the base price.

#3. Zendesk

More than 40,000 organizations already use Zendesk, making it one of the most popular customer service solutions on the market. The software serves companies of every size including startups and giant companies such as Zappos.

Zendesk scales with your company and supports as many as 500 agents and thousands of daily tickets. It integrates email, social media, chat and web-based resources to make customer interaction easy and effective. The software works well on mobile devices, enabling on-site, mobile and remote employees to support your customer service effort.

Zendesk supplies robust self-service tools that give your customers 24/7 access to support resources, including an online community, FAQ pages and a searchable knowledgebase. You can add custom branding to Zendesk to give your customers a consistent experience across all your communication channels.

Choose one of five flexible service plans available and move seamlessly between them as your company’s needs change. Pricing for the essential version starts at $5 monthly for each agent. The enterprise package costs $99 per agent every month.

#4. Vision Helpdesk

With Vision Helpdesk, you get a unified customer service platform that integrates social media, web-based forms, email, chat and voice calls.

Vision Helpdesk has three available products. The standard version supports multiple channels and a single brand. Satellite Desk gives you a multi-brand, multi-company solution that simplifies the simultaneous support of more than one company. The third software Service Desk offers IT service management (ITSM) support.

The standard Vision Helpdesk includes everything needed to support your customers with excellence. The multi-channel support guarantees round-the-clock customer access to support services. You can use staff and client management tools to match your customers with the agents that have the expertise to address their particular needs.

Other useful software features include a module-based architecture, time tracking, ticket billing and helpdesk security features.

Vision Helpdesk costs $7 monthly per agent when you choose to pay for 12 months at a time. The annual Satellite Help Desk package costs $14 monthly per user, and the Service Desk annual plan costs $21 monthly per agent.

#5. TeamSupport

TeamSupport, as the name suggests, provides a customer support suite that connects your departments, human resources and institutional knowledge, allowing you to offer world-class support for your customers. The organizational unity made possible by TeamSupport means that every customer gets optimal attention whenever they report an issue.

Helpdesk ticketing creates a traceable record for every issue that agents can forward to the various departments and employees in your company. The software scales to accommodate small businesses and enterprises alike, so you can rely on having the same tools available as your company grows. Advanced Customer Service Portal provides knowledge base and community forums offering 24/7 support for your customers.

TeamSupport also has mobile apps available, so all your employees can participate and collaborate from home, while traveling or in the office. The software simplifies pricing just as it simplifies your customer service effort. Two available plans cost either $40 or $55 per agent every month.

In conclusion, there are many fantastic options available on the market if you want to enhance customer experience and provide exceptional customer service. Each of the above software applications reduces the stress associated with supporting customers and improves the efficiency of your agents. Choosing the right package for your business enables you to turn high-quality customer service into an effective marketing tool for your business.

Image: Photospin

Heather Redding is a part time assistant manager and freelance writer based in Aurora, Illinois. She is a coffee-addict who enjoys swimming and reading. Street photography is her newly discovered artistic outlet and she likes to capture life’s little moments with her camera. You can contact Heather via Twitter here.