Zendesk vs Intercom A Detailed Comparison

Broken down into custom, resolution, and task bots, these can go a long way in taking repetitive tasks off agents’ plates. Zendesk’s help center tools should also come in handy for helping customers help themselves—something Zendesk claims eight out of 10 customers would rather do than contact support. To that end, you can import themes or apply your own custom themes to brand your help center the way you want it. From there, you can include FAQs, announcements, and article guides and then save them into pre-set lists for your customers to explore.

Once connected, you can add Zendesk Support to your inbox, and start creating Zendesk tickets from Intercom conversations. This means you can use the Help Desk Migration product to import data from a variety of source tools (e.g. Zendesk, ZOHOdesk, Freshdesk, SFDC etc) to Intercom tickets. Intercom has more customization features for features like bots, themes, triggers, and funnels.

Sendcloud is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that allows users to generate packing slips and labels to help online retailers streamline their shipping process. 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.

However, compared to Zendesk, Intercom might not offer the same breadth in terms of integrating a wide range of external channels. While it excels in interactive and engaging communication, especially on mobile, some businesses might find its focus on chat-based interfaces limiting if they need extensive email or voice call support. Intercom’s UI excels in modern design and intuitive functionality, particularly noted for its real-time messaging and advanced features. It is tailored for automation and quick access to insights, offering a user-friendly experience. Nevertheless, the platform’s support consistency can be a concern, and the unpredictable pricing structure might lead to increased costs for larger organizations.

Zendesk users, on the other hand, usually say good things about its powerful support system. With this feature, businesses can easily handle and keep track of customer requests, making sure that no issues get lost. Zendesk’s analytics features are also often praised; they help businesses learn a lot about how customers connect with them, how well agents do their jobs, and overall support trends. Novo has been a Zendesk customer since 2019 but didn’t immediately start taking full advantage of all our features and capabilities. We make it easy for anyone within your company to access contextual customer information—including their conversation and purchase history—to provide better experiences.

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You can even moderate user content to leverage your customer community. Advanced workflows are useful to customer service teams because they automate processes that make it easier for agents to provide great customer service. Intercom enables customers to self-serve through its messaging platform. Agents can easily find resources for customers from their agent workspace. The Zendesk support system stands out in particular because of its enormous integration ecosystem, which includes a wide variety of plugins and applications developed by third-party developers.

The availability of this variety enables users to link Zendesk with a wide range of applications and services in a seamless manner, which results in a workflow that is more streamlined and efficient. Considering the huge number of connectors that Zendesk provides, it appears that the company takes a holistic approach to meeting the varied requirements of businesses. Zendesk’s helpdesk application allows merchants to provide cross-channel support to their shoppers. When comparing the reporting and analytics features of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms offer robust tools, but with distinct focuses and functionalities. Key offerings include automated support with help center articles, a messenger-first ticketing system, and a powerful inbox to centralize customer queries. Understanding the unique attributes of Zendesk and Intercom is crucial in this comparison.

This 24/7 support model is designed to provide continuous, real-time solutions to clients, enhancing the overall reliability and responsiveness of Hivers’ services. Zendesk and Intercom are robust tools with a wide range of customer service and CRM features. For small companies and startups, Intercom offers a Starter plan — with a balanced suite of features from each of the solutions below — at $74 per month per user, billed annually. What’s more, customers can also rate agents, leave comments about their overall experience, suggest rewards or make recommendations for areas of improvement. The Zendesk + Stella Connect integration enables you to create a service recovery workflow to make things right with customers after subpar service interactions.

By providing banking without boundaries, the company aims to provide users with quick access to their finances, wherever they happen to be. If a customer starts an interaction by talking to a chatbot and can’t find a solution, our chatbot can open a ticket and intelligently route it to the most qualified agent. Which platform is “better” depends on the precise requirements and objectives that you have. Both platforms have their unique strengths in multichannel support, with Zendesk offering a more comprehensive range of integrated channels and Intercom focusing on a dynamic, chat-centric experience.

For standard reporting like response times, leads generated by source, bot performance, messages sent, and email deliverability, you’ll easily find all the metrics you need. Beyond that, you can create custom reports that combine all of the stats listed above (and many more) and present them as counts, columns, lines, or tables. Sendcloud adopted these solutions to replace siloed systems like Intercom and a local voice support provider in favor of unified, omnichannel support. The theme is straightforward from both the user and admin sides, so you can easily find and enable necessary options and views. Email us at or use the live chat inside the platform with any questions or feedback. Discover key strategies, tools and channels to grow your business with new…

Skyvia offers a number of benefits for import Intercom data to Zendesk or vice versa. With Skyvia import you can use data filtering, perform data transformations, and many more. Besides, Skyvia supports the UPSERT operation — inserting new records and updating records already existing in the target. This allows importing data without creating duplicates for existing target records.

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Intercom built additional tools to aid in marketing and engagement to supplement its customer service solution. But we doubled down and created a truly full-service CX solution capable of handling any support request. Here are our top reporting and analytics features and an overview of where Intercom’s reporting limitations lie. Zendesk, on the other hand, is known for its powerful ticketing system and smart analytics tools. Zendesk might be a better choice if your company puts a lot of value on full customer help, keeping track of issues, and making decisions based on data.

Zendesk’s messaging system makes it easier for customers to ask questions and get help, and it makes sure that every question is properly recorded and handled. Zendesk, on the other hand, is another top customer service platform that uses strong security steps to keep customer data safe. One of these steps is putting in place two-factor authentication (2FA). With this extra layer of security, users must show two forms of ID before they can access their accounts. This makes it even harder for people who aren’t supposed to be there to get in.

Intercom offers an easy way to nurture your qualified leads (prospects) into customers with Intercom Series. Zendesk’s Help Center and Intercom’s Articles both offer features to easily embed help centers into your website or product using their web widgets, SDKs, and APIs. With help centers in place, it’s easier for your customers to reliably find answers, tips, and other important information in a self-service manner. You can also add apps to your Intercom Messenger home to help users and visitors get what they need, without having to start a conversation. If you’re exploring popular chat support tools Zendesk and Intercom, you may be trying to understand which solution is right for you. In this detailed comparison, we’ll explore the features and characteristics of Intercom and Zendesk, highlighting each of their unique capabilities, so you can identify the right solution for your needs.

By following the tips outlined in this guide, you can easily integrate these two platforms and start reaping the benefits. But it’s designed so well that you really enjoy staying in their inbox and communicating with clients. Intercom live chat is modern, smooth, and has many advanced features that other chat tools don’t. It’s highly customizable, too, so you can adjust it according to your website or product’s style. You could technically consider Intercom a CRM, but it’s really more of a customer-focused communication product.

How to set up a regular sync of all public articles from your Zendesk Guide Help Center into Intercom. Input your Zendesk account details and grant Intercom the necessary permissions to your Zendesk account. Click on the ‘Install Now’ button to add the Zendesk application to your Intercom.

Intercom vs Zendesk: Collaboration and Team Features

Zendesk, less user-friendly and with higher costs for quality vendor support, might not suit budget-conscious or smaller businesses. Zendesk’s per-agent pricing structure makes it a budget-friendly option for smaller teams, allowing costs to scale with team growth. Intercom, on the other hand, is ideal for those focusing on CRM capabilities and personalized customer interactions.

It’s known for its unified agent workspace which combines different communication methods like email, social media messaging, live chat, and SMS, all in one place. This makes it easier for support teams to handle customer interactions without switching between different systems. Plus, Zendesk’s integration with various channels ensures customers can always find a convenient way to reach out.

Founded as a business messenger, it now extends to enabling support, engagement, and conversion. CloudTalk is an intelligent phone system which was designed for customer support teams, especially those working in SMEs or startups. It provides 40+ advanced call centre features and 25+ powerful integrations – including the one with Zendesk, which allows you to call your customers directly from your customer service software. Zendesk, on the other hand, may not stress the same conversation-driven method, even though it has powerful team management tools.

New Closed Conversation

With Skyvia you can integrate Intercom with Zendesk in a number of ways. If you need to load data in one direction, from Intercom to Zendesk or vice versa, you can use Skyvia import. For loading data in both directions, Skyvia offers powerful data synchronization.

The platform is recognized for its ability to resolve a significant portion of common questions automatically, ensuring faster response times. MParticle is a Customer Data Platform offering plug-and-play integrations to Zendesk and Intercom, along with over 300 other marketing, analytics, and data warehousing tools. With mParticle, you can connect your Zendesk and Intercom data with other marketing, analytics, and business intelligence platforms without any custom engineering effort.

Zendesk is renowned for its comprehensive toolset that aids in automating customer service workflows and fine-tuning chatbot interactions. Its strengths are prominently seen in multi-channel support, with effective email, social media, and live chat integrations, coupled with a robust internal knowledge base for agent support. There are many features to help bigger customer service teams collaborate more effectively — like private notes or a real-time view of who’s handling a given ticket at the moment, etc. At the same time, the vendor offers powerful reporting capabilities to help you grow and improve your business. Founded in 2007, Zendesk started as a ticketing tool for customer success teams. It was later that they started adding all kinds of other features, like live chat for customer conversations.

The Zendesk chat tool has most of the necessary features like shortcuts (saved responses), automated triggers, and live chat analytics. Whether you’ve just started searching for a customer support tool or have been using one for a while, chances are you know about Zendesk and Intercom. The former is one of the oldest and most reliable solutions on the market, while the latter sets the bar high in terms of innovative and out-of-the-box features. Intercom also has an omnichannel customer service solution, but it’s fairly limited, with no native voice capabilities and minimal voice integrations.

In fact, the Zendesk Marketplace has 1,300+ apps and integrations, from billing software to marketing automation tools. In today’s world of fast-paced customer service and high customer expectations, it’s essential for business leaders to equip their teams with the best support tools available. Zendesk and Intercom both offer noteworthy tools, but if you’re looking for a full-service solution, there is one clear winner. Intercom also excels in real-time chat solutions, making it a strong contender for businesses seeking dynamic customer interaction.

Additionally, you can trigger incoming messages to automatically assign an agent and create dashboards to monitor the team’s performance on live chat. Zendesk started in 2007 as a web-based SaaS product for managing incoming customer support requests. Since then, it has evolved into a full-fledged CRM that offers a suite of software applications to its over 160,000 customers like Uber, Siemens, and Tesco.

As customers come closer to purchasing, they often find themselves weighing the same pros and cons. In our experience, when future clients start thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of Intercom vs. Zendesk, these are the questions they want answers to. Like so many others, Monese determined that Zendesk was the best solution to provide seamless, omnichannel support because of its scalability and reliability. Brian Kale, the head of customer success at Bank Novo, describes how Zendesk helped Bank Novo boost productivity and streamline service.

Customers increasingly expect to receive fast, convenient, and personalized support. Provide self-service alternatives so customers can resolve their own issues. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. This serves the dual benefit of adding convenience to the customer experience and lightening agents’ workloads.

Intercom allows visitors to search for and view articles from the messenger widget. Customers won’t need to leave your app or website to find the help they need.Zendesk, on the other hand, will redirect the customer to a new web page. With both tools, you can also use support bots to automatically suggest specific articles, track customers’ ratings, and localize help center content to serve your customers in their native language. Intercom allows you to communicate with your clients on a bigger scale. Thanks to this tool, you can see what your customers do and communicate with them in real-time.

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. 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. I just found Zendesk’s help center to be slightly better integrated into their workflows and more customizable. 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.

You can also map fields and build flexible rules to perfectly suit your use case. All plans come with a 7-day free trial, and no credit card is required to sign up for the trial. When integrating data, you can fill some Intercom fields that don’t have corresponding Zendesk fields (or vice versa) with constant values. You can use lookup mapping to map target columns to values, gotten from other target objects depending on source data. You can view the integration operation results for each execution in the Run History.

However, additional costs for advanced features can quickly increase the total expense. The strength of Zendesk’s UI lies in its structured and comprehensive environment, adept at managing numerous customer interactions and integrating various channels seamlessly. However, compared to the more contemporary designs like Intercom’s, Zendesk’s UI may appear outdated, particularly in aspects such as chat widget and customization options. This could impact user experience and efficiency for new users grappling with its complexity​​​​​​. This exploration aims to provide a detailed comparison, aiding businesses in making an informed decision that aligns with their customer service goals. Both Zendesk and Intercom offer robust solutions, but the choice ultimately depends on specific business needs.

• Combine that with their prowess in automation and sales solutions, and you’ve got a really strong product that can handle myriad customer relationship needs.
• Adding our Intercom email to the ticket as CC – This works, but it’s still clunky.
• Intercom isn’t quite as strong as Zendesk in comparison to some of Zendesk’s customer support strengths, but it has more features for sales and lead nurturing.
• You’ll see a green confirmation banner indicating the removal has been successful and synced articles will be deleted from your Articles list.

They bought out the Zopim live chat solution and integrated it with their toolset. Zendesk is a customer service software offering a comprehensive solution for managing customer interactions. It integrates customer support, sales, and marketing communications, aiming to improve client relationships. Known for its scalability, Zendesk is suitable for various business sizes, from startups to large corporations. Once you have your sales process figured out and you’re on the right track to grow your business – you don’t want to lose your customers simply because you don’t have the proper tools to keep them.

If I had to describe Intercom’s helpdesk, I would say it’s rather a complementary tool to their chat tools. Just like Zendesk, Intercom also offers its Operator bot, which will automatically suggest relevant articles to clients right in a chat widget. So you see, it’s okay to feel dizzy when comparing Zendesk vs Intercom platforms. Zapier helps you create workflows that connect your apps to automate repetitive tasks.

In fact, bringing any new lead to your website might cost you a lot of money and time. That’s precisely why taking care of your existing customers can pay off in the long run – especially since they are also more likely to buy from you again. So yeah, all the features talk actually brings us to the most sacred zendesk intercom integration question — the question of pricing. You’d probably want to know how much it costs to get each of the platforms for your business, so let’s talk money now. You can publish your self-service resources, divide them by categories, and integrate them with your messenger to accelerate the whole chat experience.

This will provide live data on who your users are and what they do in your app. 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. Using this, agents can chat across teams within a ticket via email, Slack, or Zendesk’s ticketing system. This packs all resolution information into a single ticket, so there’s no extra searching or backtracking needed to bring a ticket through to resolution, even if it involves multiple agents.

Triggers should prove especially useful for agents, allowing them to do things like automate notifications for actions like ticket assignments, ticket closing/reopening, or new ticket creation. Their template triggers are fairly limited with only seven options, but they do enable users to create new custom triggers, which can be a game-changer for agents with more complex workflows. Use ticketing systems to manage the influx and provide your customers with timely responses. When it comes to advanced workflows and ticketing systems, Zendesk boasts a more full-featured solution.