Customer service software helps teams manage and organize help desk tickets more efficiently. With so many options available, choosing the right one for your business can feel overwhelming. You're not alone if you’re currently weighing Help Scout vs Zendesk. Both products offer excellent ticketing features, but they have distinct differences to provide 24/7 Customer Support. This article will help you confidently choose a scalable support solution that enhances team efficiency, improves customer satisfaction, and aligns with your business growth goals.
To enhance help desk operations, consider ChatBees’s AI customer support a valuable tool to help you achieve your objectives. This solution streamlines ticket management and automatically responds to customer inquiries before reaching your team to reduce ticket volume.
What Is Help Scout and Its Key Capabilities
Help Scout stands out among help desk solutions for its impressive customer-focused approach. The company has built a community around its help desk software, which is evident in its team’s approachable demeanor and the extensive knowledge base and resources it provides for users.
When a company uses Help Scout for customer communication, you immediately feel that it cares deeply about customer support.
Live Chat Done Right
Help Scout’s live chat feature focuses on customer expectations. When you implement Help Scout live chat on your website, visitors won't feel like entering an empty room. Instead, it will feel like someone is waiting to talk to them. That’s because you must manually mark yourself as available to start chats, and if you’re inactive in Help Scout for too long, the system automatically marks you as “away.”
This thoughtful implementation of live chat ensures customers won’t be disappointed if they reach out and get a bot response instead of a human. With Help Scout, you can be sure that someone is on the other end of the line, which is a massive relief for small teams.
Workflow Automation Features for Improved Efficiency
Help Scout’s simple yet powerful workflow automation features are another reason the platform is so effective. You can create automatic or manual workflows to help your team handle repetitive tasks and customer inquiries more efficiently.
Specific conditions trigger automatic workflows, while manual workflows allow users to initiate a preset group of tasks as needed. Both workflows will help your team save time and improve organization when managing customer inquiries.
A Human-Centric Approach to Artificial Intelligence
Help Scout takes an approachable, human-centric approach to artificial intelligence (AI). Instead of automating the entire customer service process, its AI features aim to improve customer and support teams' experience. For example, the software can automatically summarize chat threads to help users quickly get up to speed without reading the entire conversation.
User Interface (UI)
Help Scout's interface has remained consistent over the years. Yet, the company recently started modernizing its layout to enhance the user experience. The conversation view (where users spend most of their time) is now more visually appealing and functional, similar to other contemporary help desk tools.
User Experience (UX)
Help Scout provides a smooth user experience with helpful features like collision detection, which prevents two agents from replying to the same conversation simultaneously. Users can also see teammates’ replies as they type and jump in to edit drafts before sending them to the customer.
This collaborative approach helps improve the quality of help desk responses, ensuring customers get consistent, accurate information.
API & Integrations
Help Scout boasts a flexible API and numerous integration options, including a robust Zapier connection. Users can integrate Help Scout with other software solutions to streamline workflows and improve operational efficiency. For example, you can connect Help Scout to project management tools like Asana to create tickets for customer inquiries that need further investigation.
Mobile App
Help Scout has a solid mobile app that allows users to manage customer conversations on the go. While the app is missing a few features, like workflow automation, it allows users to accomplish most of what they want to do outside the office. With a few more updates, the Help Scout mobile app will be top-tier.
Zendesk is a customer service-focused CRM platform designed to help companies better deal with incoming customer support issues. It stands out for its helpdesk and ticketing system. It helps businesses efficiently manage customer inquiries by providing tools for:
Email support
Live chat
Social media interactions
Support request tracking
These features enable teams to resolve issues effectively while maintaining a comprehensive record of all communications.
Streamline Customer Support with Automation
You can save significant time by setting up automations such as routing tickets to the appropriate departments or triggering responses to the most commonly asked questions, allowing customers to solve their queries quickly.
Getting started with Zendesk Ticketing
Zendesk offers an easy registration process with minimal effort. To sign up for your free trial, only provide your email address and fill out other essential information. Zendesk does its best to make your start with its ticketing software as easy as possible. That’s why a major part of the process is a short questionnaire that helps Zendesk determine how you will use it.
Zendesk accommodates the startup guide according to your answers. You can skip this short questionnaire, but I recommend filling it out to get the best experience with the ticketing system. After finishing it, you will be taken to the Zendesk interface.
Navigating the Zendesk Interface
The first screen is the overview, with the get-started guide readily available. It’s pretty elaborate, so getting through every item might take a while. You can skip it and return to it later if you prefer that. The interface in Zendesk is pretty easy to navigate. You can access every main functionality in the panel on the left, while most of the screen space is taken up by the section you choose to view.
Zendesk Ticketing System Features
While Zendesk lists its ticketing system as a feature on its own, it does come with its own set of productivity features that aim to make all types of ticketing communication much more accessible. The ticketing system is multi-channel, as is customary in all modern help desk solutions. It’s also multilingual and multi-brand.
Zendesk offers standard ticketing features such as:
Another essential feature of Zendesk is reporting and analytics. This feature always provides you with handy overviews of your ticketing activities. You have to activate the feature through a separate Zendesk service. You also access the entire history of customer interactions and business rules. Zendesk also gives you access to its native integrations with other software solutions.
Ticketing System Performance and User Experience
Now, it’s time to test the Zendesk ticketing system and see how it performs. The test focuses on the agent’s perspective. I sent myself a couple of test emails to see how quickly they arrived, and I’m happy to report that Zendesk doesn’t have any speed issues in this regard. I also took the first look at the interface inside the ticket.
The interface looks clean and tidy, with almost all available tools on the screen. Some are hidden under the three dots section in the upper right corner.
This design choice is optional. Zendesk’s ticketing looks clean, and some might consider it too bland for their taste. Revealing and presenting all feature buttons directly on the screen could solve this minor issue. The workflow in Zendesk ticketing is designed well. You can select ticket status and what will happen after you reply to a customer ticket.
You can also access text formatting features hidden under a single button. Other things include:
Emojis
Attachments
Links
All of them are accessible at the bottom panel in the reply field. Overall, Zendesk ticketing performs very well. Thanks to the straightforward interface, it’s not difficult to use for any type of user.
Efficient Ticket Management with Zendesk
Managing other communication channels and adding new emails might be more difficult if you’re unfamiliar with the interface and naming conventions. Zendesk’s ticketing system supports all essential features that will help you stem the tide at all times.
Zendesk Pricing
Zendesk offers a broad selection of pricing plans for various business sizes and use cases. Since this review is focused strictly on the ticketing tools, we will mention the three most essential pricing plans with this feature and focus on customer service departments.
There are three main plans with different feature sets and varying values. Let’s take a look at them and see what they have to offer. The Support Team plan is the cheapest one. It will cost you €19 per month per agent with annual billing. It provides an integrated ticketing system with:
The Enterprise plan is the most expensive option. It can be yours for €99 per month per agent with annual billing. You get all the features from the previous two plans and additionally:
Ultimate Help Scout vs. Zendesk Comparison for Effective CX
Help Scout and Zendesk are two of the most widely used help desk solutions for businesses looking to enhance customer service. Both platforms offer:
Robust features
Streamlined ticketing systems
Insightful reporting tools to improve help desk operations
Nevertheless, their different approaches to customer service may appeal to distinct business types.
The tool’s main features
Zendesk
Help Scout
Self-service
⭐⭐⭐
Chat widgets, mobile SDK, and AI knowledge base to tailor content based on the audience’s needs
⭐⭐⭐⭐
AI-driven web self-service to offer instant responses to routine inquiries and a no-code builder to customize a help center for your site
Omnichannel capabilities
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
All communication in a single dashboard across live chat, email, voice, and social media channels
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Shared inbox tool with live chat and email support
Workflows
⭐⭐⭐⭐
SLAs, macros, custom views
⭐⭐⭐
Prioritization and assignment of tickets to relevant agents
SLA management
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Robust SLA monitoring and reporting features and operational level agreements (OLAs)
⭐⭐⭐
Advanced SLA reporting and alerting through Super SLA integration
Integrations
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Over 1,000 third-party integrations
⭐⭐⭐
Around 100 integration options
Analytics & reporting
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reports with multichannel customer data and interactions
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Insights such as top questions, volumes, response times, handle times, and more
Pricing
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Free 14-day trial, pricing ranges from $19 to $115 monthly
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Free 15-day trial, pricing ranges from $25 to $50 monthly
Help Scout vs. Zendesk: Installation Routines
Help Scout comes first. Everything from the customization routine to when your chat bubble goes live is pretty simple. There is a fool-proof 5-step setup process where all the steps and minimum movements are shown. When you log into the Zendesk dashboard, you will receive extended guidance. To start in full swing, you must watch explanatory videos about each block, which takes at least half an hour. What’s nice is that you can easily skip this part and proceed straight to business.
As for the web widget customization, I’d say it could have been better. Most Zendesk competitors do their best to let you customize your chat window to your liking. Here, you have limited style options (well, one) but a quick installation. It cuts both ways.
Comparing Zendesk and Help Scout in 2024 for ease of use, here’s what we find:
Zendesk
Zendesk agent UI offers a dynamic, highly customizable agent workspace, enhancing efficiency. Nevertheless, its complexity may overwhelm new users.
AI Integration: Zendesk’s AI streamlines customer service by smartly directing inquiries to suitable agents and suggesting pre-set responses for faster, consistent replies. This optimizes response times and ensures tailored support, although it benefits from some technical know-how for best results.
Analytics and Reporting: Provides deep, customizable insights, which can be complex for those without analytics experience.
Setup and Training: Zendesk’s setup can be complex and require a detailed approach, but it offers comprehensive training resources to help teams navigate and fully utilize its extensive capabilities.
Help Scout: Known for its user-friendly, straightforward interface. That being said, it needs more customization from Zendesk. Help Scout provides a clean, functional design suitable for basic needs. But, it might not cater to complex, multifaceted business operations.
Key Takeaway:
Zendesk is ideal for businesses looking for a flexible, AI-enhanced agent workspace that offers efficient query routing and automated responses. Yet, some technical know-how is required.
With its user-friendly interface, Help Scout is ideal for operations needing basic, functional design. Nevertheless, it lacks Zendesk’s customization depth and is limited in search functionality and customer engagement customization.
Choose Zendesk for a feature-rich, customizable environment or Help Scout for straightforward, user-friendly operations.
Help Scout and Zendesk: Features Comparison
Many different features must be considered when choosing between Zendesk and Help Scout. These include:
Self-service options
Workflows
Omnichannel functionality, to name just a few
Let’s examine what sets the two tools apart:
Zendesk
Zendesk offers knowledge management functionality to help you upgrade and run your help center. Its AI knowledge base allows you to tailor content based on your audience's needs. You can also use this tool to:
Share AI-powered article recommendations within service tickets
Identify old content for updating
Craft new help center articles
Zendesk provides chat widgets and mobile SDK for context self-service on your website. As for Help Scout knowledge base features include an AI-powered web self-service tool that provides instant responses to routine inquiries.
Building a Custom Help Center with Zendesk
The platform has a no-code builder that enables you to create and customize a help center for your website. Through its Beacon feature, you can place popular help content on specific pages of your website. Plus, you can view article ratings and customer feedback to see how your knowledge base content is performing.
Winner: Help Scout offers consistent and reliable self-service 24/7, suitable for businesses that want a more straightforward approach to customer service.
Did you know…
According to a self-service statistics report, 88% of consumers insist they want access to a self-service platform when shopping online.
Automation
Automation in Zendesk vs. Help Scout presents distinct approaches to enhance customer support efficiency.
Zendesk automations leverage AI to analyze incoming tickets and route them to the most appropriate agent or department, taking into account factors such as:
Agent availability
Expertise
Current workload, which helps:
Distribute support tasks effectively
Improve response times
AI-Powered Chatbots
Zendesk utilizes AI-driven chatbots that interact with customers in real-time, handling routine inquiries and responding instantly to common questions. This automation speeds up customer service for basic queries and allows human agents to focus on more complex issues.
Trigger-Based Actions
Triggers in Zendesk are customizable automated actions activated by specific events in a ticket’s lifecycle. For instance, triggers can automatically send responses when a ticket is received, escalate a ticket after a certain period of inactivity, or notify supervisors of urgent matters. This feature helps maintain a consistent and efficient workflow in customer support operations.
Help Scout
Help Scout offers customizable workflows that automate repetitive tasks. Users can create rules to assign, categorize, and prioritize tickets based on specific criteria, such as:
Customer information
Type of inquiry
Basic Ticket Routing
The platform allows for the automated distribution of tickets, but it’s more straightforward than Zendesk’s AI-based system. It can automatically assign tickets to specific agents or teams based on predefined rules.
Canned Responses
Help Scout allows users to create and use canned responses. These are pre-written answers to common questions, which can significantly speed up response times and ensure consistency in communication.
Key Takeaway:
Zendesk’s automation, with its AI-based ticket routing and chatbots, is tailored for businesses requiring complex customer support solutions. But, due to its advanced features, it may present a learning curve.
Help Scout offers more straightforward automation tools, such as workflow automation and canned responses, making it suitable for small- to medium-sized businesses seeking more straightforward, more efficient support processes.
The choice hinges on whether a business needs intricate, AI-enhanced automation (Zendesk) or prefers easy-to-use, basic automations (Help Scout).
Omnichannel Functionalities
Let’s examine Zendesk and Help Scout’s strategies in centralizing various customer interaction channels for effective support.
Zendesk
Zendesk transforms incoming emails into support tickets, integrating them into its unified interface alongside other channels. This system ensures efficient tracking, prioritization, and response to customer emails and preserves the context and history of interactions.
Zendesk facilitates the customization of email communications with templates and automated responses.
Community Forum
Zendesk’s Community Forum feature fosters an interactive space where customers can:
This forum is valuable for companies because it allows them to build community engagement and gather direct customer feedback, enhancing their understanding of customer needs and preferences.
Knowledge Base
Zendesk offers a Knowledge Base feature that helps a brand’s customers independently find answers to common queries. This self-service tool reduces the volume of direct support requests.
Live Chat (Zendesk Chat)
With its live chat feature, Zendesk Chat enables businesses to provide real-time support to website visitors. This tool is vital for engaging customers, especially during crucial decision-making moments. It increases customer satisfaction through prompt and personalized responses and provides customer insights:
Behavior
Needs
Messaging Platforms
Zendesk supports a variety of popular messaging apps like:
WhatsApp
Facebook Messenger
LINE
SMS
Telegram
WeChat
This integration allows businesses to efficiently manage conversations across these platforms from a single interface, catering to customers' diverse communication preferences.
Phone Support
Zendesk offers comprehensive phone support, including both inbound and outbound calls. The system seamlessly integrates with traditional and VoIP telephony, providing features like:
Call routing
Recording
This functionality is precious for managing complex or urgent issues that require immediate attention.
Web Form and Web Service (API)
These functionalities enable the integration of Zendesk’s support tools directly into websites or apps, allowing customers to make inquiries or requests without leaving the platform.
Social Media Integration
Zendesk facilitates integration with major social media platforms, enabling businesses to manage and respond to customer interactions directly through the Zendesk interface.
Mobile SDK and Web Widget
With these tools, businesses can integrate Zendesk’s support features into their mobile apps and websites, offering users a cohesive support experience across these channels.
Help Scout
Email Ticketing
Help Scout’s platform transforms incoming customer emails into organized support tickets within a shared inbox. This system facilitates efficient email management and tracking, allowing support teams to prioritize and respond to customer emails.
Live Chat
The live chat feature on Help Scout helps companies offer instant, real-time website support, enabling immediate customer engagement. This tool is crucial for addressing inquiries while customers navigate your website.
Voice and Text Integration
Help Scout integrate various voice and text communication tools into the shared inbox. This integration ensures that calls and text-based communications are centrally managed.
Social Media Integration
This feature allows Help Scout users to manage and respond to messages from social media platforms directly from their inbox. It streamlines responses and ensures consistent communication across platforms like:
Instagram
Facebook
Shared Inbox
Help Scout centralize all customer interactions from different channels into one shared inbox. This unified approach enhances team collaboration and efficiency in managing and responding to customer queries.
Key Takeaway:
Zendesk offers a comprehensive omnichannel experience that is ideal for businesses requiring extensive integration with various channels like:
Email
Forums
Social media
Combined with powerful analytics and customization
Help Scout, with a focus on simplicity and user-friendliness, is better suited for businesses prioritizing direct, streamlined customer interactions through channels like:
Email
Live chat
A unified shared inbox
Choose Zendesk for a more diverse and customizable platform or Help Scout for a straightforward, efficient customer communication approach.
Reporting and Analytics
Comparing Zendesk's and Help Scout's reporting and analytics dashboards, it’s clear that both platforms provide valuable tools, albeit with different approaches and levels of complexity.
Zendesk
Tailored Reporting
Zendesk lets you craft custom reports that align with your specific business requirements. These reports can be fine-tuned using metrics and attributes pertinent to your business, such as:
Ticket volume
Response times
Customer feedback
Snapshot Overview
It offers a quick glimpse into crucial metrics and trends, enabling businesses to monitor performance indicators efficiently.
Ticket Sorting
This functionality allows for categorizing and filtering tickets, aiding in a deeper understanding of customer needs and patterns in their requests.
Performance Tracking
These reports are designed to monitor the effectiveness of customer service teams and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Customer Satisfaction
Zendesk facilitates tracking customer satisfaction scores, ensuring that businesses consistently provide an exceptional customer experience (CX).
Data Exporting
Businesses can easily export data in multiple formats:
CSV
PDF
XLS for further analysis or reporting purposes
Seamless Integrations
Zendesk seamlessly integrates with popular API providers like Twilio, Slack, and Salesforce, enhancing its reporting capabilities.
Zendesk Explore
A vital component of Zendesk’s reporting arsenal is Zendesk Explore. It is an analytical service that empowers businesses to gather, analyze, and take action based on customer service data. Zendesk Explore includes ready-made dashboards and offers the flexibility to create custom ones, tailoring your reporting needs.
These dashboards can showcase information across various Zendesk products, such as:
Zendesk Support
Zendesk Chat
Zendesk Sell
Each dashboard is fully customizable, allowing you to focus on the key operational indicators most relevant to your business.
Help Scout
Help Scout offers several reports, including:
All Channels report: Overviews the volume and types of issues handled.
Email report: Focuses on interactions with customer emails.
Chat report: Offers insights into chat workload and performance.
Docs report: It is useful for understanding customer engagement with knowledge-based articles.
Functionalities
These reports include useful functionalities like:
Conversation drill-downs
Popover definitions for metrics
Filtering options
The platform allows for detailed analysis, with individual conversations and metrics options. Nevertheless, the reporting and analytics features could be more robust, lacking advanced customization options.
Key Takeaway:
Zendesk offers customizable, in-depth reporting with features like:
Tailored reports
Performance tracking
Zendesk Explore
Help Scout, on the other hand, provides specialized reports focusing on specific interaction channels and performance metrics – with the option for detailed drill-downs.
Choose Zendesk if you want a high degree of customization and depth in your reports. Help Scout work for more specific, targeted reporting.
SLA Management
A service level agreement (SLA) policy is a predetermined measure of the response and
resolution time your customer service team delivers to your end users. It has a rigid structure consisting of conditions a ticket must meet and the metrics you use to measure service quality.
In Zendesk, you can set targets and measure the time it takes for an agent to respond to a service ticket. You can also check the time a customer’s ticket takes to resolve fully and how long an agent spends on a ticket. Should a ticket fail to meet its SLA targets, the platform highlights it so your agents can intervene and solve the problem.
Help Scout does not include built-in SLA management, but through its integration with Super SLA, you can access advanced SLA reporting and alerts. This tool allows you to:
Create custom rules
Receive chat, SMS, or email notifications
Generate PDF reports to monitor performance
Winner: Zendesk’s SLA policy empowers businesses to deliver a consistent consumer experience and offers group SLAs on enterprise plans. Therefore, Zendesk is the clear winner here.
Integrations
The Zendesk marketplace supports over 1,000 third-party integrations. For instance, Shopify integration enables your agents to access:
Shipping
Billing
Order information within its unified workspace
Agents can receive real-time alerts through Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other productivity apps integrations.
On the other hand, Help Scout's marketplace offers only about 100 integration options, some of which are limited. By connecting to tools like HubSpot or Salesforce, you can enjoy CRM capabilities, allowing you to sync customer data and manage interactions across platforms seamlessly.
Winner: The Zendesk marketplace supports more integrations than Help Scout, making it ideal for regional and global service teams.
Reporting and Analytics
Zendesk’s reporting and analytics integrate data from multiple channels, enabling trend analysis and custom report creation. You can tailor reports using customer service metrics such as ticket volume, customer feedback, and response times and track customer satisfaction scores for service managers and business decision-makers.
Help Scout provides various report types to analyze team performance, including:
Top questions
Ticket volume
Peak hours
It also offers insights into response, handle, and wait times, with features like:
Conversation drill-downs
Filtering options
Metric definitions
Winner: Both Zendesk and Help Scout offer robust reporting and analytics capabilities tailored to different needs. Zendesk excels in integrating data across channels and customizing reports with diverse metrics. At the same time, Help Scout provides detailed insights into team performance and ticket management with useful features for deep analysis. Each platform has strengths, making it equally effective for its use cases.
Customer Support Quality
Several critical aspects stand out when examining the differences in customer support between Zendesk and Help Scout.
Zendesk
Accessing vendor support can sometimes be difficult for users of Zendesk’s basic service plans. Zendesk reserves its advanced, tailored support services primarily for higher-tier subscription levels, which can be a drawback for smaller companies or those with a limited budget.
They have a 2-day SLA with no phone support, and the times I have worked with them, they’ve been challenging. They rarely understand the issue (mainly with Explore), so I’m trying to communicate with them.
The support documentation is incredibly lackluster, and it’s often impossible to know which guide to use because they use nonsensical terminology. This makes even finding the appropriate guide very difficult.
I would not recommend Zendesk solely because of its lack of support. It seems like it’s been built to allow you to do most things but with a non-user-friendly UI.
Zendesk provides specialized support services but at an extra charge. These enhanced support services cost between $1,500 and $2,800, which is a significant cost consideration for businesses working on a tight budget.
Help Scout
Help Scout offers support 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. However, unlike some competitors, Help Scout does not provide a phone callback option for elite plans.
Key Takeaway:
Zendesk’s customer support accessibility varies by plan, with advanced services reserved for higher tiers and additional charges for specialized support. This poses a challenge for smaller or budget-conscious businesses.
Help Scout’s 24/6 support offers consistent and reliable assistance, making it a strong choice for businesses that value steady and accessible customer service.
Help Scout vs. Zendesk: Pricing Plans
Before you fully commit to either Zendesk or Help Scout, you need to understand the cost of each software. So, let’s evaluate the pricing options for Zendesk and Help Scout in the table below:
Cost
Zendesk
Help Scout
License plans
Support Team ($19/mo/agent)
Team ($55/mo/agent)
Growth ($89/mo/agent)
Professional ($115/mo/agent)
Enterprise&Enterprise Plus→Contact sales
Free 15-day trial
Standard ($25/mo/user)
Plus ($50/mo/user)
Pro → Contact sales
Help Scout’s entry plan costs $25 monthly and provides basic help desk features and two shared mailboxes. The Plus plan, priced at $50 per user per month, supports up to 5 shared inboxes and unlimited users and includes advanced reporting tools.
Winner: Tie! Zendesk is ideal for large enterprises needing a scalable customer experience solution, while Help Scout suits small to medium-sized businesses with lower ticket volumes. The best choice depends on your specific needs, making it a tie.
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