In a highly competitive post-COVID market, customer service is going to be one of the most crucial factors that separate your business from the competition.
Unlike before, today the challenge is not simply to stand-out. Every business needs to pivot, embrace innovation, and transform.
But with customer expectations higher than the tallest skyscrapers, how do you offer more transparency, less back and forth, and faster responses to your customers?
The answer lies in the adoption of comprehensive, intuitive, and smart customer service solutions.
In this blog, we will discuss how customer service tools can give a technological advantage to your business and explore ten awesome support tools to transform your customer experience.
Why Do You Need Customer Service Tools?
1. Efficient and Smart Support
With customer queries and complaints pouring from multiple channels, it becomes really hard to keep a track of all customer communications without missing a single query.
Customer support tools automatically convert these requests into tickets that can be easily assigned, tagged, and prioritized for smooth ticket management. Hence, no message is missed, everything can be tracked and no single thread of communication is lost.
2. Omnichannel Support
Customer support software facilitates omnichannel support without requiring your agents to switch from one window to another. The support software also comes with trackers and social media monitoring modules that allow you to keep track of all your passive mentions as well.
So, be it a tweet, a message, a chat, or a casual mention on social media – you can keep track of everything and respond instantly.
3. Efficient Escalation
It is common for an agent to handover a complex customer query to some expert support agent. While this handover or escalation might be tricky or complex when done manually, it becomes effortless and seamless with support tools.
Customer support tools come with built-in features for easy and efficient escalation to maintain the customer experience levels without disrupting the normal workflow.
4. Insights into Customers
Data is the new “oil” for modern businesses, and getting direct insights into your customer data puts you in a better position to understand their needs and concerns.
The best customer support software solutions come with advanced analytics and AI or ML-based data processing features.
So, you can gain actionable insights into your customer behavior, past interactions, purchase motivation, exit intent, and much more to align your brand offerings accordingly.
So, customer service tools are nothing short of a game-changer when it comes to transforming the customer experience, and rightfully the “catalyst for positive change“, as quoted by the Boston Consultancy Group.
Given below is a list of the best customer support software that offers exceptional support features and that can help you take the first step towards delivering delightful customer experiences.
Top Customer Service Tools to Deliver Exceptional Support
1. Zendesk – Knowledge base
Recent stats reveal that 67% of customers prefer self-service over agent-based support and 91% of them would use an online knowledge base, if available.
Zendesk is a powerful knowledge base software that allows your customers to troubleshoot issues on their own. It also plays a pivotal role in inculcating a self-education culture in a business organization and allows your support agents to learn and train themselves without explicit support.
Zendesk offers:
- Help center
- Community forum
- Voice support
- Answer bots
Pricing: Plans start from $49/agent/month.
2. ProProfs Help Desk – Help Desk Software
ProProfs Help Desk is one of the most versatile customer service software tools, offering an exceptional and comprehensive help desk with diverse functionalities. It provides automated ticket conversion with smart operations, advanced analytics, and comprehensive reporting features. It comes with shared inboxes to de-clutter your email and boosts agent productivity with automation.
You can use the smart reporting and performance features for advanced monitoring, and also leverage the built-in knowledge base to streamline your customer support for sterling results.
Unique Features:
- Live Chat
- Canned Responses
- Auto-routing of tickets
- Automated notifications and surveys
Pricing: There is a forever free plan, and paid plans start at $10/agent/month.
3. Talkdesk – Cloud Contact Centre
As per a recent Deloitte survey, 88% of companies identify customer experience as the key brand differentiator, and having a smart, AI-powered contact center gets the job half-done!
Talkdesk is an AI-powered cloud contact center software that allows you to deliver great customer experiences with its smart features. It is an online customer support software for unified gains, namely – workforce engagement, customer engagement, and effortless collaboration at the workplace. It employs AI and knowledge management to offer smart insights and advanced analytics features as well.
Talkdesk offers:
- Customer self-service
- Security monitoring
- Agent assistance
- Sourcing contact center talent
Pricing: Talkdesk plans start from $65/agent/month
4. Qualaroo – Customer Feedback
Gartner outlines that customer reviews are an effective way to improve your business reputation and tap the potential customer base. However, gathering valuable feedback is just getting half of the job done. It’s only when you process and gain actionable insights from this feedback that you can transform your customer experiences.
Qualaroo is an exceptional customer and user feedback software that surveys your visitors in real-time and helps in website or app optimization as well. It outperforms email surveys multiple times and improves your understanding of your customers via AI-powered reports and analytics.
Qualaroo offers:
- Advanced targeting
- Customization and branding
- Professional templates
- Prototype testing
Pricing: Paid plans start from $80/month. You can use any plan for free for 15 days.
5. BIGContacts – CRM & Contact Management
Studies reveal that 62% of customers still prefer email for support as compared to calls, messages, etc. With such high popularity among the masses, email emerges as one of the most powerful customer service tools.
BIGContacts is an easy-to-use CRM, email, and contact management software that enables you to manage your prospects and nurture customer relationships efficiently. It offers sales CRM, marketing automation, and tracking features for tasks, contacts, and calendars. It allows you to capture more leads and boosts your conversions as well as customer retention.
BIGContacts offers:
- Powerful sales reporting
- Automated exports and reporting
- Tracking for sales pipeline, commissions, and stages
- Lead nurturing
Pricing: The basic plan starts from $10/agent. There is a free trial for all the plans.
6. LiveChat – Live Chat Support
Statistics reveal that 51% of customers become recurring shoppers and 38% are more likely to make their first purchase from a company that offers live chat support. Hence, live chat has a significant impact on your customer experience, as well as revenue.
LiveChat is powerful chat software that does an impressive job in this regard and offers an all-inclusive customer service solution to all types of businesses. It offers a direct line of contact in real-time and allows your customers to resolve their doubts regarding deliveries, orders, cancellations, returns, and much more, in seconds.
LiveChat offers:
- Chat operations (tags, archives, transfer, and ratings)
- File sharing
- Canned responses
- Notifications
Pricing: The basic plan starts from $16/agent/month.
7. MobileMonkey – Unified Chatbot
Customer service chatbots are becoming increasingly popular as one of the best customer service applications these days. They are like customer support reps that are online 24X7 for 365 days a year and can offer instant query resolution. Chatbots allow your customers to resolve basic queries without human agent intervention and help you minimize communication load to a great extent.
MobileMonkey is a smart AI-powered chatbot that comes with a unified chat inbox to see, track and respond to all customer communications via chat in a single window. It allows you to capture more leads, boost your sales and build fulfilling customer relationships.
MobileMonkey offers:
- Customer surveys
- Drip campaigns
- Agency client management
- Automated on-site chat on multiple platforms
Pricing: The basic plan starts from $14.25/month.
8. Zoom – Video Conferencing
Nothing beats face-to-face interaction when it comes to complex business interactions or urgent queries. A simple video conference can resolve many hidden and simple queries that are generally not shared by customers or clients because of some reservation.
Zoom is a wonderful mention in this category in that it is emerging as a winner in the pandemic-stricken workplace environment. Meetings are super-easy to set up, and you can leverage multiple smart controls, such as chat, private chat, editing of shared files, screen share and remote features, etc.
Zoom offers:
- HD video and audio conferencing
- Video recording and transcripts
- Team chat
- Streamlined calendering
Pricing: The Personal Meeting plan is free and the basic paid plan starts at $14.99/host/month.
9. JIRA – ITSM Capabilities
Service management in IT business organizations differs in various technical facets and requires precise metrics for performance and tracking. Jira Service Management is an exceptional customer service platform with ITSM capabilities that facilitates effortless collaboration across your Development and Operations teams.
This efficient collaboration allows them to respond to business changes in an agile manner and deliver great customer and employee experiences. It offers visibility across various development phases and enables you to respond to complex client queries rapidly with insights stemming from rich contextual information.
Jira offers:
- Incident management
- Asset management
- Problem management
- Change management
Pricing: The paid plans start from $20/agent/month, and there is a free plan as well.
10. Hootsuite – Social Media Support
Forbes quotes social media as a powerful way to capture today’s customers and also outlines that every mention, every person, and every activity is crucial to make the most of this channel.
With an increase in the number of customers seeking support via social media, it has become essential to have a strong and robust presence across the major social media channels.
Hootsuite is a top customer service software that allows you to leverage the power of social media in a smart and efficient manner. You can spot, track and analyze trends in real-time, and engage at scale across multiple social media handles.
Hootsuite offers:
- Post creation and scheduling
- Upcoming campaign planning
- Advanced analytics
- Tracking and responding to communication and mentions
Pricing: Paid plans start from $29/month.
Say yes to happy customers & productive teams!
While it is easy to list multiple customer services software, finding the one that meets your unique business needs requires careful consideration. The final decision must stem from:
- A careful evaluation of the type and extent of customer queries you have
- Major areas your customer experience is lacking
- The amount your business is willing to spend on CS tools
If you belong to the SME world, we recommend investing in scalable tools with diverse functionalities. This will allow you to offer 24×7 assistance to your growing customer base.
If you are a bean-sized start-up, opting for customer service tools with a free plan is your best bet.
Finally, if you are looking for customer care software for an enterprise-level business setup, you must invest in tools that offer customized feature bundles.
Now that you are aware of the options available to you, pick the one that suits you the most, and transform your customer experience today!
