Customer service has become a major concern for brands in recent years, as it's critical for customer retention. Addressing customers' questions and concerns quickly and correctly will help your brand grow and improve your bottom line.
This is why many brands are turning to customer service apps to help increase efficiency, reach new customers, and keep their current customers happy.
When you use these tools, you'll also be boosting your staff's productivity while decreasing their workload and stress levels. To help you decide on the best customer service apps for your business, we’ve rounded up 10 of them that are worth taking a closer look at.
But before we get into our list, let’s talk about the different types of customer service apps.
There are many different apps designed to help customer service teams. However, it’s important to note that there are many different use cases when it comes to customer service.
Some tools act as help desk software for your website, some tools help you set up a phone number where customer can call you, and some help you create an internal (and external) knowledge base to help customers with self-service options.
Bottom line is that there are different tools for different use cases. So, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you may want to use a customer service tool.
A live chat app allows users to communicate with customer service agents through a text or video interface. Live chat software is ideal for companies that want to provide assistance quickly to their customers on demand — whether it be through their website or mobile app.
It’s useful for answering questions, resolving issues, and even selling products or services. It’s also a great way to interact with customers in real-time and get instant feedback on your brand and products.
A phone support app is designed to connect your customers with a live person who can help solve problems, answer questions, and provide guidance.
It provides a simple interface for your customer to request assistance from you, and it also allows you to easily track all incoming requests so you can prioritize them appropriately.
Email support apps allow companies to manage customer communications in one centralized place.
In addition to helping companies manage their emails more efficiently, some email support apps can even automate responses based on what customers say in their messages — so you don’t have to write out the same responses over and over again.
A knowledge base is a database of information about the products or services your company provides. It's usually organized into categories or questions and answers that customers can search or browse through to find the answers they need.
Knowledge bases are an essential part of any business, whether you're small or large. They are useful for educating customers on products, services, and policies, as well as providing them with quick solutions to their problems.
SMS is an excellent way for companies to reach out to their customers in a fast and effective way, especially when they're on the go. In fact, it's often easier to send an SMS than it is to make a phone call or send an email. SMS messaging also has the benefit of feeling like a personalized connection. People are often more likely to read an SMS message than an email, making it a great way to engage with your customers.
Social media apps can help brands engage with customers by sending them messages, responding to their questions and requests, and even scheduling appointments. Social media apps can also help small businesses manage customer service issues in real time.
For example, if a customer complains about poor customer service on Facebook, the business can immediately respond to the issue and resolve it before it gets out of hand.
There’s no doubt that customer service apps can help you not only improve your customer service operations but also provide customers with top-quality support around the clock.
Here are the 10 best customer service apps to consider as you work to streamline your customer service in the new year:
Okay, let’s dive a bit deeper into each one.
Gorgias is an ecommerce customer service app and chatbot designed to help increase conversions by providing personalized shopping experiences. Agents are able to respond to customer inquiries on multiple platforms, including social media, email, live chat, text, and ads. This helps to increase sales and improve customer satisfaction, as you’re always able to provide support no matter where customers are contacting you from.
With Gorgias, you can also automate responses to frequently asked questions, helping to speed up your customer response time. Easy organization of conversations and collision detection — which prevents two agents from responding to the same ticket — allow you to keep customer queries in order and follow up with people who need further assistance. Plus, the mobile version of Gorgias enables access on the go.
With a free trial available and pricing that starts at $10 monthly, this one’s definitely worth a try.
Chatdesk provides an outsourced customer service app built to handle customer queries while boosting your conversions and improving the overall customer experience. Many companies use Chatdesk in tandem with other customer service apps — for instance, they might use Gorgias to power their customer support across channels and pair it with Chatdesk to provide the voice of their customer support team.
So, rather than competing with other customer service apps, Chatdesk is an add-on solution that allows companies to either completely or partially outsource their customer support to US-based agents. These agents will help answer tickets in your existing help desk solution or customer support software, all in your brand’s tone of voice and desired messaging. To learn more about integrating Chatdesk with your current setup, see our Integrations page.
Notably, Chatdesk can also help you resolve customer questions and issues through multiple platforms, including social media such as TikTok or Instagram, email, SMS, or chat — something most platforms cannot do.
With Chatdesk working behind the scenes, you’re freed up as the owner or manager to focus on other business needs. Best of all, there are no upfront costs and no annual contracts, as you pay per ticket resolved.
Like Gorgias, Zendesk offers ecommerce customer service features that enable easy automation and collaboration. Yet Zendesk is also ideal for businesses that are more than just ecommerce brands. With Zendesk, agents can collaborate across teams without having to leave a ticket; useful features like “side conversations” also integrate with other apps like Slack to allow for seamless interdepartmental communication.
Zendesk also allows for omnichannel customer support, so your agents can respond to customers via messaging, live chat, email, voice, and social. Connected conversations ensure nothing gets lost and agents can easily pick up where the last agent left off. With Zendesk, you can build and integrate your own help center and community forum for self-service options, helping to reduce agents’ workload and resolution times.
Related Reads: Gorgias vs Zendesk vs Chatdesk: Which is best?
Start with the free trial of Zendesk, and move on to a paid plan that best suits your business’s size and needs.
Considering that tech giants like Amazon and Meta rely on Intercom, we couldn’t forget about this customer service app on our list. Yet even with big players using the app, it’s also ideal for emerging businesses that are just getting started. Any business that desires customizable, efficient customer experiences should consider Intercom as they research the best customer service apps for 2023. In particular, businesses in the ecommerce, healthcare, financial services, and education industries may want to consider using this app.
Among the key benefits of Intercom is the ability to unify the efforts of your sales, marketing, and support teams on a single platform. You’ll feel like a powerhouse of customer support as you meet customer needs and optimize opportunities that come your way. With leads automatically routed from marketing or support to sales, your prospects will get immediate engagement, increasing the chances of more sales and upsells. Meanwhile, your sales team can bring in support to address any technical questions.
With multiple integrations, a free trial available, and paid plans starting at $74 per month, Intercom offers many businesses a complete package.
You might be familiar with Sprout Social as a social media management platform, which allows you to scale and monitor your engagement efforts through a unified social inbox. Not only are you able to publish and schedule social content, but you’ll also have access to detailed analytics and listening tools that allow you to uncover trends and insights from social conversations. Using these insights, you can improve your marketing strategy and ensure you’re adapting to customers’ needs.
One unique feature of Sprout Social is its employee advocacy tools, which allow you to empower employees to become brand advocates. While not all of your employees are on your customer support team, they can help field customer questions as well as serve as an extension of your sales team. Oftentimes, they can help direct customers to your support agents, who can answer any technical questions or follow up on customer service requests.
According to the Sprout Social Index, 40% percent of consumers expect brands to respond to their inquiries within the first hour of them reaching out on social media. Fully 79% expect a response within 24 hours. With Sprout Social’s engagement and social customer care tools, you can build your brand and customer relationships and continually measure the impact of your efforts.
Try Sprout free for 30 days; paid plans start at $249 per month.
Kustomer, now part of Meta, touts itself as the top-rated CRM for customer service, allowing for omnichannel messaging, a unified customer view, and AI-powered automations. Large brands like Glossier, Sweetgreen, and Skims use Kustomer to gain a complete view of every customer on every channel.
One key feature of Kustomer is its multichannel bots, which you can deploy across the entire customer journey. This gives you the ability to automate routine agent interactions, provide personalized customer experiences, and generate faster resolutions to customer issues. The integrated CRM also allows you to unify customer data across channels and turn it into actionable insights, so you can easily route, tag, and provide uber-personalized customer care. Furthermore, with its “proactive support” features, Kustomer helps to preemptively head off customer issues before they become big headaches.
Check out the free trial and move on to a paid plan, starting at $29 per month per user.
Better conversations and happier customers: That’s the promise of Re:amaze. Considering that it’s a GoDaddy brand, the app is understandably well-suited for ecommerce businesses looking to deliver better customer service and engagement online. With Re:amaze, you’ll be able to consolidate all of your customer support channels in one place and respond faster to customer inquiries from one helpdesk. The platform combines live chat, email, video calling, social media, SMS, VoIP, and push notification conversations, allowing for seamless communication across channels.
If you own or manage multiple businesses, Re:amaze could be your new customer support best friend. The app allows you to manage all of your businesses in one spot. This makes it easy to track and manage conversations across multiple storefronts or websites. Always look professional and deliver the most efficient, effective customer experiences, whether you have a single website or dozens.
Try the app for free; paid plans start at $29 per user per month.
Startups should definitely consider Freshdesk as they research customer service apps. The free platform makes it easy to get your customer support operations up and running without worrying about added costs. Although the free version is limited in terms of capabilities, you might not need all of the bells and whistles when you’re first getting started.
Plus, Freshdesk offers useful features that come in handy during those busy days of start up. Create automation rules to sort incoming customer inquiries, and easily respond to emails and social messages from a shared inbox. As you grow, you can consider upgrading to a paid plan for access to more robust features like coverage for email, social, chat, and phone requests. With over 150 integrations available, Freshdesk also works seamlessly with many of the customer service apps and other SaaS tools you might already be using.
Once you’ve outgrown the free plan, you can move on to a paid plan starting at $15 per month per agent.
“Built for teams that build customer relationships” — that’s what you’ll get with Front. The app is primarily a communication hub that makes collaboration easy and information readily accessible to support teams. With that, your agents can focus on strengthening customer relationships with each and every conversation.
Front aims to solve a common problem among growing businesses: keeping communication easy and transparent, even as your business grows. Responses are kept fast and accurate, while still providing a personalized, human experience to customers. Collaboration, customer data, automated workflows, analytics, and omnichannel messaging enable teams to work together to provide the best customer experience.
On its website, the app stacks itself up against typical email clients as well as some of the best customer service apps, including Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Intercom. Decide for yourself, with plans starting at $19 per user per month.
Help Scout is one of the most popular customer support options for freelancers and small- to midsize businesses. With its intuitive user interface, Help Scout allows users to get up and running quickly without extensive training — which can be attractive to a busy solopreneur or micro-business owner wearing multiple hats.
Help Scout’s advanced automations enable businesses to customize workflows based on a variety of triggers. Shared inboxes, in-app messaging, live chat, collaboration tools, reporting, customer data, and integrations also provide robust features — which may be why customers have voted Help Scout as the app with the Best ROI, on software review platform G2.
Another useful feature of Help Scout is the ability to build an FAQ and knowledge base with answers to frequently asked questions and common issues. Customers can then more easily turn to self-service options without having to contact an agent.
Get started with a free trial and upgrade to a paid plan starting at $20 per user per month. Also, check out our article on Help Scout alternatives to learn about alternate options.
Digital technology has made providing great customer service a whole lot easier. With only a few taps on their phones — and even less time spent talking to customer support reps — customers can solve most headaches in mere minutes. And while it remains difficult to classify every customer service app out there, both big and small, these 10 are the ones that we feel are the best of the best. Clearly, there is no “one size fits all” type of customer service app, but these apps will help any company grow and deliver better service for their customers.
If you're looking for a customer service app that will help you grow your business or just serve as a convenient way for your customers to contact you for help, one of the customer service apps we've reviewed here should be a great place to start. Do your due diligence, take advantage of free trials, and choose the customer service apps you feel will best meet your company’s growing needs.
To learn more about Chatdesk, schedule a demo and learn how we can help your business.
