The 17 best customer service software for 2024

Here are some frequently asked questions about customer service software for small businesses. With multiple options available in the market, it’s hard to come to a consensus on how to choose the best customer service software. With Wotnot, you solve business challenges such as getting more leads, booking more appointments, and scaling your customer support with cutting-edge chatbots. You have to fill out a form and submit your company for consideration before unlocking these features (and remember that call rates apply on top of your regular subscription). Once you jump through those hoops, though, you can start sending and receiving SMS messages right on the platform, having them appended to the activity log of each contact. You can also start calls from the dashboard or—I find this really handy—from your sales pipeline’s deal cards.

To help you find the perfect software for your customer support team, we have created an easy guide. This guide helps you understand what to look for in support tools, and we also share our favorite picks for the best customer service software. ClickDesk integrates with third-party platforms like Shopify, WordPress and Google Apps. Can Small Businesses Customize Customer Service Software to Fit Their Needs? Many customer service software solutions offer customization options to fit the specific needs of small businesses.

While some CRM platforms may have sophisticated analytical tools, Apptivo demystifies this by breaking down win-loss analyses, sales projections and performance metrics into digestible visuals. This means actionable insights are more readily available, even for those who aren’t data scientists. Apptivo offers a level of flexibility and customization that’s invaluable for small businesses, striving to adapt the tool to their specific workflow rather than the other way around. Custom views, layouts and fields can be easily adjusted, making the CRM mold to your business’s unique requirements. This feature alone sets it apart from competitors that often prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution.

What Features To Look For in a CRM for Small Business

For example, AI chatbots can handle repetitive requests, so your support reps can focus on addressing more engaging questions and complex issues. Some of ProProfs’ additional features include a knowledge base for self-service, allowing customers to access articles and FAQs. And its live chat software allows for real-time support via a web widget. ProProfs also has surveys that help teams collect feedback and track customer satisfaction (CSAT).

For small businesses, every customer counts and personal connections drive growth. That’s precisely why choosing the right customer service software has to be a strategic one. The simplicity, support for multiple relationships, and personalization tools are so robust that they compensate for the lack of advanced analytics and reports.

In addition to sales, it includes email marketing and a company activity feed to improve communication between teams. There’s support for creating self-service portals for your customers, help desk features, and automatic lead scoring too. Zendesk is a customer service solution that provides omnichannel support through email, live chat, voice, and various social media platforms. It connects all your data sources into a unified location, ensuring the right information is always available when a customer reaches out. Hiver is a help desk tool that fits intuitively within Gmail’s User Interface to provide fast and empathetic customer service automation. Hiver lets support teams assign, track, and collaborate on customer queries and support tickets arriving in shared inboxes.

Like an instant messaging app, live chat software lets you interact directly with customers in real time. This usually happens through a set of predefined rules set up in the software application. Investing in customer service software is a long-term decision, one that you’d want to get right. But, as a small business, your resources are usually limited, so you must evaluate all your options carefully, including the cost of software development.

Given that almost every software offers a free trial, you can try them out and decide what works best and caters to all your business needs, including your budget. WotNot’s No-code Bot Builder allows you to easily build bots with an intuitive visual builder. You can also manage multiple chatbots for different activities based on the triggers and conditions defined by you.

Take control of the situation by making a list of what you are looking for before you begin the search. For the sake of clarity, create a “must-have” features list to narrow down the options. Compile the information gathered from team members, along with your business goals and timeline markers to create the list. For example, if you are using the CRM for marketing purposes, then software with marketing automation, lead tracking and data analysis might be on your must-have list.

The system can also accommodate rules that identify VIP customers to prioritize their requests. HubSpot Service Hub offers a shared inbox that provides agents with customer history, ticket information, and queue details. HubSpot Service Hub connects with HubSpot’s CRM to sync information between its suite of tools. Agents can also work from a mobile inbox to stay active while on the move. Let’s drill into the best customer support tools and lay out the important details.

Users can also create dashboards to visualize and track specific ticket metrics. Our customer service software is easy to use, maximizing productivity and ensuring you can move at the speed of your customers. Follow our guide for the basics of customer support software and details about the top customer service tools so you can find the right solution.

customer service email templates and best practices for contacting customers

It offers tools for managing customer communications, ticketing, feedback, and knowledge base creation, all aimed at improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. The platform’s AI-powered chatbot, Einstein Bots, can automate responses to common customer inquiries, freeing agents to handle more complex issues. It helps centralize all your service-related customer interactions, and, depending on the tool, it can handle support requests from multiple channels like email, live chat, social media, and phone. When it comes to social media customer service, Sprout Social has a shared inbox that allows your team to easily manage and respond to customer comments and direct messages.

• The help center also integrates with the live chat system so customers can toggle between self-service and customer support.
• It allows you to manage your leads, contacts, opportunities and customers.
• Below are eight tools, including help-desk services as well as live chat, social media and mobile support systems, which can help your small business connect with consumers better.
• Customer relationship management systems continue to become more sophisticated, functional and comprehensive.
• More modern live chat tools also let you do things like route chats, send canned responses, and create custom forms to collect your visitors’ information.

Once you program benchmarks for response times and resolution rates, every ticket is automatically monitored and held against these standards. If a ticket doesn’t meet either benchmark, management is notified so they can address the issue. This not only helps your team reduce potential churn, but it also helps managers set a precedent for what excellent customer service looks like. Hesk is a reliable, cloud-based ticketing system that’s easy to use and set up. It lets your team create custom ticket fields and modify feature arrangements so that the interface is aligned with the agent’s workflow.

Uncomplicate email management and support, right from your Inbox

The software offers simple setup, integration with the rest of their platform, and tools to help team productivity. Bad customer service doesn’t just affect current customers, either — it influences potential customers too. When you create a foundation to work with, it will be much easier to know what you’re looking for. This is especially helpful when you’re sorting through long lists of functionalities and prices for your new customer service software options. Thankfully, we’re on hand to do that job for you, saving you the hassle. We’ve done the hard work on your behalf, narrowing it down to six of the very best options—two communication software tools, two help desk software tools, and two live chat software tools.

Adding Zendesk service desk software allowed the department to manage and close tickets efficiently. Knowledge base software serves as a centralized hub for self-help information. This online library contains answers to common questions, step-by-step guides, and troubleshooting tips. Customers and agents can search through FAQs, articles, and even video tutorials to find solutions independently, reducing pressure on your support team.

We have a full article on how to pick the right help desk tool — despite the title, it’s a handy guide for how to approach most customer service software decisions. Collecting features help you answer the question, “How do we get customer communications into this system so we can handle them? ” They provide the first point of interaction between the customer and the customer service software. At its core, help desk software lets you manage and streamline customer conversations to create a better customer experience and agent experience. Customer service software is a set of tools used to collect, organize, respond to, and report on customer support requests.

When you’re ready to opt into a more robust platform, you can simply upgrade to a premium version of Service Hub. While these tools are considered to be the best in customer service, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the right fit for your business. The good news is that there is customer service software to fit any budget.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The customer service platform from Salesforce provides agents with an omnichannel workspace for customer support. Agents can view each ticket’s relevant context within their workspace, including customer contact details, prior interactions, and purchase history. The Swarming small business customer service solutions feature lets teams collaborate on cases by adding agents with specific skills to a dedicated Slack channel. Help Scout’s “Standard” plan is designed for small teams aiming to deliver excellent customer support and is priced at $20 per user per month as of May 2023.

Other features include push notifications, analytics and the ability to customize colors, fonts and other branding elements. Helpshift supports iOS, Android and frameworks, such as Unity and Cocos. With Intercom, you can also trigger automated chats based on user behavior and custom events.

You can also spot team members who may need additional training or support. After all, it’s a lot easier to retain and resell to an existing customer than it is to bring in a new one. Desktop and mobile options mean you can always access the customer data you need, no matter where your business is operating that day.

This report comes on top of the general sales pipeline data that’s stock to almost every app in this category. Use these to understand which tasks take longer and who’s having trouble moving through projects—that person might need help, advice, or an encouraging word. Integrating your CRM with other apps helps you get the most out of your investment. Learn how to get started with CRM integration and ways to add automation to help your team be even more productive in your system.

Comprehensive customer service software streamlines handling these varied requests, ensuring each customer experiences prompt, effective, and personalized support. In this post, we’ll lay out some of the most effective customer service software options available. We’ll also include some free tools you can adopt if you’re just starting to scale your customer service team. AI can both assist customers directly and to provide company employees with better tools and suggestions for managing and optimizing their work. Nimble CRM elevates the practice of customer relationship management by embedding social media into its core functionality. While most CRMs offer social media as an afterthought or add-on, Nimble centralizes it, offering social profile matching and enrichment right off the bat.

Besides My LiveChat’s free plan, the company offers four paid packages, which eliminate the My LiveChat branding. There’s the automatic call logging feature, where Freshdesk automatically generates a support ticket with all the relevant customer details attached once you finish a call using RingCentral. 💰 You can also use this calculator to see roughly how much your business could save by using RingCentral to support your team’s communications with clients, customers, and each other. Now, let’s look at a few tools in each of these categories, along with how they can help enhance the customer experience. More modern live chat tools also let you do things like route chats, send canned responses, and create custom forms to collect your visitors’ information. This is doubly true today in the “Experience Economy,” when customers value a positive experience even over price.

While this might seem daunting, it’s actually good news for small businesses. It means you can compete head-to-head with huge companies, even if they undercut you on price. Unlike big-box companies and corporations, there’s little room for error when it comes to small business customer service. Every new client who walks through the door could make, or break, your success.

Look for providers with a strong reputation for data privacy, security, and ethical practices. Ensure that the software adheres to industry standards and regulations to protect customer data. Additionally, consider the transparency and explainability of the AI algorithms used by the software. Look for providers that provide clear insights into how the algorithms make decisions and offer explanations for their recommendations. Evaluate the software’s track record, customer reviews, and case studies to gauge its effectiveness and reliability. Finally, consider the scalability, integration capabilities, and user-friendliness of the software to ensure it aligns with your business needs and can be easily adopted by your team.

We’ll pay particular attention to how RingCentral’s products can help you provide an even better standard of customer service. With Zapier’s Simple CRM template connected to a set of Zapier Tables to hold your data, you can adapt it to match the exact needs of your sales processes. You can create screens to view data, include forms to record deal updates, and add pages to edit contact details as needed. Together, you can use Zaps, Interfaces, and Tables to create custom apps to tackle business problems with an automation-first mindset. After a few weeks of getting things done, you can take a look at the reports to spot any productivity problems.

Open-source software, such as a CRM, is ideal for niche businesses requiring specific features not offered by the large traditional platforms. Instead of being developed and controlled by one company, it consists of a source code published publicly and shared by users and developers all around the world. What makes an open-source CRM beneficial is that anyone with the know-how can “open up” the software https://chat.openai.com/ themselves and change features, interface elements and virtually anything else as they see fit. Paid plans include features such as custom dashboards, inventory management, advanced customization and scoring rules. You can also create a mobile app for your business in minutes using Zoho Creator. It allows you to access your business data from anywhere, directly from your Android and iOS devices.

This feature and the platform’s AI-powered automation capabilities enable companies to provide responsive and consistent customer service. The platform also provides powerful analytics tools that help businesses identify areas of strength and areas for improvement. Tidio is a customer service offers one of the best medium or small business customer service software options.

Sending out mass communication over the phone can be time consuming and costly, but it’s sometimes necessary. Text-Em-All is one of the best in the business for automated phone communication. Lisa Trifone, founder and CEO of Bright Iris Film Co., suggests dedicating time to understanding your customers’ expectations and ways your business can exceed them. Investing in the resources needed to learn more about your customers will deepen your connection, which makes them more inclined to choose your brand. Want to take control of your customer experience on WhatsApp—while tracking questions that are coming in through Facebook Messenger? You can use RingCentral’s tightly integrated customer engagement features to get it done.

Recently, an onboarding specialist told me about one HubSpotter who recently purchased customer service software for their business. Both of us being former support agents, my colleague and I were amazed that this company only had one person responsible for fielding service inquiries. Before adopting customer service tools, this lone rep was stuck using a traditional email inbox to manage dozens of cases each day. Does the platform provide phone-based assistance, and how extensive are the service hours? We also look at the depth of online knowledge bases, specifically whether they include articles, FAQs or video tutorials that allow users to find solutions independently.

It also comes with self-service features like a knowledge base and support forums. LiveAgent is acclaimed as one of the top customer service software solutions, recognized for its robust feature set and its focus on real-time customer interaction. By integrating multiple channels like email, live chat, phone, and social media into a single interface, LiveAgent provides a comprehensive platform for customer service management.

When customers are dissatisfied with a company, many turn to social media to vent their frustration. At other times, they’ll tag or mention the business to get their attention. You can get a handle on social media customer service and respond to issues with Hootsuite’s Sparkcentral. Unlike a shared email inbox, customer service software contains a ticketing system that consolidates customer requests across channels, including email, live chat, messaging, and the phone. Support agents can utilize predefined ticket responses, collaborate on tickets, and automatically tag tickets so they are easily referenceable.

AI in CRM refers to the use of artificial intelligence technologies, such as machine learning and natural language processing, to improve customer relationship management. It enables businesses to automate and optimize CRM activities, such as lead management, customer segmentation, and sales forecasting. This includes 5 email channels, 1 feedback widget, 5 advanced web forms, and access to 1 social media account.

We will note, however, that the AI functionality is only available on the higher-cost omnichannel support plans. Aircall offers a number of different plans suited to teams of all sizes. All their plans include phone support essentials like IVR, the ability to set custom business hours, and call queuing. Having those core features on all plans means your team can get phone support up and running quickly. This live chat tool may not have the catchiest of names, but it definitely boasts functionality that can help you reshape your customer experience. There’s a reason RingCentral won PCMag’s Editors’ Choice in business communications.

Take a closer look at our top picks so you can find your ideal CRM software. An omnichannel agent workspace provides a dashboard with a unified view of customer data, interactions across channels, and ticket history (aka the entire customer journey) for all departments to access. An omnichannel workspace allows businesses to meet customers where they are. It gives agents, management, sales reps, and anyone who interacts with consumers the context they need to deliver a high-quality customer experience at scale. With advanced customer service tools—like reporting, analytics, and AI—support teams can automate repetitive tasks, gather insights, and make data-driven decisions to improve support operations.

This includes custom workflows, personalized communication templates, and configurable settings to align with the business’s unique processes. Yes, most customer service software can integrate with other business tools like CRM systems, marketing software, and sales platforms. This integration allows for a more unified approach to customer management and a comprehensive view of customer interactions. Zendesk is a helpdesk that’s preferred and used by many enterprises and small businesses alike. Its basic plan lets you offer customer support via email and social media channels, including Twitter and Facebook.

You don’t have to make a large investment in physical IT infrastructure or hire IT staff to manage your CRM. Many CRM solutions are available as software as a service (SaaS), which means that you only pay for what you use and can stop using it at any time. With each one, you’ll have to compromise on features or limits to users or storage, for example. Zoho CRM, monday.com and EngageBay are Forbes Advisor’s picks for the best free CRM plans.

It automatically tags and scores leads based on distinct activities, such as email interactions and website visits. This feature allows small businesses to surgically target the right audience segments, reducing the waste of resources on poorly targeted marketing campaigns. The real-time alerts about high-potential leads further help to streamline effort and focus.

Additionally, ServiceNow’s AI offers suggestions to help agents take the next steps toward ticket resolution. It features a customer self-service portal that allows users to create service requests or find help center articles without interacting with an agent. Customers can join community forums to ask questions and share their experiences. HappyFox also offers self-service options, like an online knowledge base, so customers can find answers to questions without generating a support ticket. Customers can also track support tickets, engage in community forums, and refer to help center articles and FAQs—all within a single self-service portal.

Small businesses looking to grow their customer base without managing multiple apps or platforms. The pricing tiers also offer a path of growth, leading from basic functionalities to more advanced features as a business matures. With features such as form automation and Chat PG SEO recommendations, HubSpot makes it possible for businesses to generate leads and manage customer relationships without breaking the bank. Before Nottingham Trent University used service desk software, the IT department was considered an ineffective call center.

You can compare the value you’re getting out of your CRM features to the cost and determine if it’s helping increase total conversions, reduce sales cycle times, or increase repeat customers. Moreover, the ticketing, help desk, and VoIP calling functionalities help prioritize and serve users better. You can also create self-service portals that empower customers to look up answers themselves.