With businesses now being expected to maintain an online presence 24/7 for customers around the globe, it has never been more important to provide an equally consistent and competitively high level of customer service around the clock. This can pose a challenge for businesses of all sizes, due to the variety and volume of queries with a quick response and action regularly required. Therefore, choosing the right help desk software to collate these queries and present a high level of customer service is vital for the future of your business, but with so many on the market, which do you choose? There are many different features to consider, such as the options for omnichannel support, automated responses, and the need for whole teams to have access. We have rounded up our top 5 choices below to help you decide.
Top 5 E-Commerce Help Desk Software
- Freshdesk – the best help desk software for small businesses
- HappyFox – the best help desk software for larger businesses
- HubSpot Service Hub – the best help desk software for teams
- Gorgias – the best help desk software for eCommerce businesses
- Intercom – the best help desk software for sales and marketing
1. Freshdesk – the best help desk software for small businesses
PRICING: A ‘free forever plan for unlimited agents is available and includes email ticketing, trend reporting, and access to the Knowledge Base software.
6 paid plans ranging from the Growth plan from $15/user per month, through to the Omnichannel – Enterprise plan costing $99/user per month, billed annually. Features vary depending on the plan, however, the three Omnichannel plans allow the use of a live chatbot and calling functionality.
KEY FEATURES:
- Automations including automated responses
- Workflow and SLA management
- Cross-team collaboration
- Extensive dashboarding capabilities
REASONS TO USE:
- Impressive multiple mobile user support
- High level of brand customization
- Easy to structure organizations and users by role
- Integrates well with other customer service software
- Fantastic free offering for businesses wanting to keep costs low
REASONS TO AVOID:
- Integrations with WordPress and other eCommerce sites were reported as glitchy
- Some reports of unreliability
- Steep learning curve
2. HappyFox – the best help desk software for larger businesses
PRICING: No free tier available. There are 5 paid tiers ranging from the Mighty tier costing $29/month for 1 agent and basic but comprehensive functionality, including omnichannel ticket creation, to the Unlimited Agents tier costing $1499/month. All other paid tiers only offer support for 1 agent per month which could become costly for businesses needing support for the full team.
KEY FEATURES:
- Seamless and efficient integrations including Slack and Microsoft Teams
- Omnichannel ticket creation
- HappyFox University – training program program to help onboard new employees
- HappyFox Workflows – fast automated routings that can be quickly set up
REASONS TO USE:
- AI assistance can be used to schedule automatic responses to common queries
- Impressive business intelligence reporting tools
- Highly customizable
- SEO capabilities and support to help track marketing efforts
REASONS TO AVOID:
- Limited social media inflow – restricted to Facebook and Twitter only
- It May be too expensive for smaller businesses
- Learning curves may be experienced for some of the opensource codings for workflows
- Lack of users at lower-paid price points
3. HubSpot Service Hub – the best help desk software for teams
PRICING: 4 different pricing tiers, starting with the Free tier offering live chat and ticketing functionality as well as simple inquiry management tools. The most expensive tier is the Service Hub Enterprise tier at $1,200/month for 10 users, intended for multi-team support and comprising team and project management tools as well as all inquiry management functionality.
KEY FEATURES:
- Customer monitoring and profiles are automatically stored
- Unlimited creation of personalized templates for both email and chat
- Automatic notifications
- Dashboard platform with the capability to track many different useful metrics
- Ability to add tags to customer interactions to quantify the nature of interaction and issue
REASONS TO USE:
- High level of data security
- Easy integrations and APIs especially with Hubspot CRM tools
- Tickets are user-friendly for users to interact with
- Auto-assign tickets between team members to manage workload
- Mobile optimization is high
REASONS TO AVOID:
- SteepThe steep learning curve with the training needed for initial set-up
- Customer service reported being intermittent
- UX/UI can be clunky
- It May be expensive depending on what features you require
- Confusion with team use
4. Gorgias – the best help desk software for eCommerce businesses
PRICING: A free trial is available. 3 paid pricing tiers starting with the Basic edition for $50 annually for unlimited agents, up to 350 monthly tickets, and 150 integrations in addition to Shopify, Facebook, and Instagram integrations. The Pro edition costs $250 annually for up to 2,000 tickets/month, advanced reporting, and up to 3 phone numbers. The Advanced plan costs $625, billed annually, and includes 5,000 tickets/month, up to 10 phone numbers, a dedicated success manager, and full onboarding.
KEY FEATURES:
- Self-contained knowledge base
- Combine queries from email, phone, social, and live chat channels
- Queries automatically added to customer interaction history and profile
- Unique Shopify integration
REASONS TO USE:
- The auto-tagging function reduces the manual need to tag the nature of queries
- Automatic allocation and responses reduce time spent on manual work
- All features and usage are specifically intended for eCommerce businesses so are catered to be as useful as possible to this market
- Email-like UI makes finding queries easier than competitors, especially with view-customization functionalities
- A wide array of integrations, especially with BigCommerce, Magento, and Shopify
REASONS TO AVOID:
- Efficient spam filters sometimes prevent genuine customers from getting through
- Chatbot still allows messages to be sent even when the team offline
- Steep learning curve initially
- Feedback surveys cannot be modified if the customer makes a mistake – which may affect ratings
- The follow-up function to highlight outstanding tickets is lacking
5. Intercom – the best help desk software for sales and marketing
PRICING: No free tier is available, but free trials can be requested. Exact details about which features are included in the pricing tiers are unclear – potential customers will need to contact Intercom directly for an exact quote, however, the starting monthly price for the Essential plan is $38. Custom Bot features start from $99/month, and Help Centre Articles from $49/month.
KEY FEATURES:
- The ability to cater messaging to individuals leads to aiding conversion
- Continuous tracking of lead referrals and browsing behavior
- 24/7 messaging is available due to clever scheduling
- AI-run chatbot to help direct query to correct team and gather user information
- Team inbox allows multiple users to attend to different tickets
- Support for attachments and screenshots
REASONS TO USE:
- Fantastic integration with other systems and tools
- Users reported a positive impact on leads and sales generation
- Fast and efficient customer service
- Simple and easy to use and set-up
- Constantly working on new system developments of features
REASONS TO AVOID:
- Lack of sophisticated support for extensive data analysis
- Syncing and integrations lacking compared to competitors
- Notifications unreliable
- AI is reported to need some work, especially on custom responses
- No way to tag tickets or monitor the nature of queries
- Obscure pricing may be difficult to gauge when budgeting – add-ons may push the cost up beyond a viable level
References and Links
- https://www.g2.com/products/freshdesk/pricing
- https://www.g2.com/products/gorgias/reviews
- https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/86951/intercom
- https://uk.pcmag.com/cloud-services/70330/the-best-help-desk-software
- https://www.techradar.com/best/best-helpdesk-software