Top 10 Customer Service Software That All Businesses Need

Customer service software is a tool that companies collect, organize, and respond to customer requests. They may use it to manage internal communication channels and integrate with external communication tools. Companies usually adopt cloud-based and subscription-based customer service software to enable faster and more efficient customer support. To help you decide what tools to use, here are the top ten customer service software, along with their features and pricing. 

1. Zendesk

Zendesk customer service software enables businesses to establish flawless customer experiences. It allows a seamless flow of communication across channels, resulting in improved productivity and satisfaction of stakeholders. 

Key Features: 

• Ticket routing
• Live chat software
• Native integrations
• Knowledge base
• Application Programming Interface (API)
• Tracking and reporting
• Self-service portal
• Community forums
• Automation

Pricing: 

Suite Team: $49 per user/month

Suite Growth: $79 per user/month

Suite Professional: $99 per user/month

Suite Enterprise: $150 per user/month

Free trial: 14 days 

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a platform that allows teams to deliver relevant customer support. Its sales, support, marketing, social media monitoring, and engagement features facilitate effective communication across all social networks. 

Key Features: 

• Reporting and analytics
• Automation
• Tracking and reporting
• Customer segmentation
• Social media monitoring/management
• Post scheduling

Pricing:

Standard: $89/per user/month

Professional: $149/per user/month

Advanced: $249/per user/month

Free Trial: 30 days

3. Hootsuite

Hootsuite helps teams connect with clients and schedule content in multiple social channels from a secure web-based dashboard. The Zendesk native integration enables Hootsuite to create, review, and update information from various social media channels. In addition, the Hootsuite and Zendesk tandem eliminates the silos between social and support departments. 

Key Features:

• Automation
• Tracking and reporting
• Customer segmentation
• Social media monitoring/management
• Post scheduling

Pricing:

Professional: $49 for one user/month

Team: $129 for three users/month

Business: $739 for five users/month

Free trial: 30 days

4. MailChimp

MailChimp helps businesses to create, send, and track email newsletters, event invitations, and registration forms. Teams can customize the emails with targeted customer segments combined with a customer support system like Zendesk Support. MailChimp can act as an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses.

Key Features: 

• Tracking and reporting
• Contact management
• Landing page and email design tools
• Automation
• Social media monitoring
• Live chat

Pricing:

Free: up to 2,000 contacts

Essentials: $11 per month 

Standard: $17 per month

Premium: $299 per month

5. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a customer service platform that provides businesses with templates for customer surveys to glean insight into product or feedback and customer satisfaction. With its extensive library of integrations, you can efficiently work this tool into your existing workflow. 

Key Features:

• Live results tracking
• Polling
• Tracking and reporting
• Image/audio/video file support
• Email distribution
• Native integrations
• API

Pricing:

Basic: Free

Individual Advantage: $32/month

Individual Standard: $99/month

Individual Premier: $119/month

Team Advantage: $25 per user/month

Team Premier: $75 per user/month

Team Enterprise: Contact the sales team for a quote 

6. Slack

Slack helps internal customers to seek assistance from the HR or IT team from the same communication channel. With Slack’s AI-powered bot, employees can self-serve over Slack at scale. When integrated with customer service software, Slack also enables agents to communicate better with each other when addressing tickets for more streamlined collaboration and faster.

Key Features:

• Live chat
• Video conferencing
• Messaging
• Native integrations
• API
• Community forums
• Surveys

Pricing:

Free plan available

Pro: $6.67 per person/month

Business+: $12.50 per person/month

Enterprise Grid: Contact the sales team for a quote 

Free trial: 30 days

7. Boss Solution Suite

Boss Solutions Suite offers a fully functional ITIL-based help desk software and IT asset management package available on-premise or on the cloud. Their customers include the public, education, and healthcare institutions. Boss Solutions also provides asset, incident, and change management capabilities.

Key Features:

• Ticket routing
• Native integrations
• Knowledge base
• API
• Tracking and reporting
• Self-service portal
• Automation

Pricing:

Essentials: $19 per user/month

Professional: $39 per user/month

Enterprise: $69 per user/month

Free trial: 14 days

8. Jira Service Desk

The Jira Service Management software empowers IT teams with a modern service desk. It has everything they need out-of-the-box, including ITIL-certified processes. Atlassian developed Jira to remove silos between developers, operations, and IT. Non-IT customer service professionals may feel that Jira’s features are excessive for their needs. If unsure, try JIRA’s 7-day free trial to give you a feel for the software.

Key Features:

• Ticket routing
• Live chat
• Knowledge base
• API
• Tracking and reporting
• Self-service portal
• Automation

Pricing:

Free plan: free for up to three agents

Standard: $20 per agent/month

Premium: $45 per agent/month

Enterprise: contact sales for a quote

Free trial: 7 days

9. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is an excellent solution for smaller service teams using WordPress. Its extensive library of native integrations allows your team to seamlessly work it into their existing workflows. Likewise, it has native integration for several popular apps for support teams.

Key Features:

• Ticket routing
• Live chat software
• Native integrations
• Knowledge base
• API
• Tracking and reporting
• Self-service portal
• Community forums
• Automation

Pricing:

Ticket: $15 per user/month

Ticket + chat: $29 per user/month

All-Inclusive: $49 per user/month

Free plan available but with limited capabilities.

10. Freshdesk

Freshdesk helps customer service teams organize collaboration and automation with its interactive interface and competitive pricing packages. Freskdesh offers all the essential features in their more expensive plans, such as team dashboards, social signals, ticket routing, and chatbots.

Key Features:

• Ticket routing
• Live chat software
• Native integrations
• Knowledge base
• API
• Tracking and reporting
• Self-service portal
• Community forums
• Automation

Pricing:

Support Desk Plan: Free

Support Desk Growth: $15 per user/month

Support Desk Pro: $49 per user/month

Support Desk Enterprise: $79 per user/month

Omnichannel Growth: $29 per user/month

Omnichannel Pro: $59 per user/month

Omnichannel Enterprise: $99 per user/month

Free trial: 21 days

Conclusion

Figuring out what customer service software best serves you and your team can be daunting. It would help if you found a tool that meets your immediate needs and is flexible enough to cover future needs, all while staying within budget. Take your time to weigh your options and make a wise decision. The service you deliver to your customers is crucial regardless of which software you choose.