Best AI Customer Support Software 2023 - Top 5 Service and Help Desks
Customer retention is the key
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Focus on increasing customer retention first
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Don’t overspend on growth marketing without good retention rates
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What’s the ideal customer retention rate?
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Next steps to increase your customer retention
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Discover how customer support tools evolve with the development of AI bots making the best choice for workflow automation this year.
Table of contents
- How to Choose Customer Support Software
- Help Desk vs Service Desk Software
- Top 5 Help Desks Software in 2023
When you have a stable audience it's hard to meet their expectations without proper “equipment”. But the market variety leaves a lot of questions. Which one meets my business needs? Which one is the most efficient in the long run? Which one is easier to integrate and onboard a team?
That's why the search should start not with catalog browsing but with defining objectives you'll try to solve with such a product.
How to Choose Customer Support Software
There are basic points you should discover when analyzing your business when it's time to find the tool. The first ones to start are the hardest ones - company requirements. Let's go through the stage step by step:
Inquiry volume
It's all about ticket management. How many messages does your team receive dally, monthly, etc.? How they should be monitored, received, allocated, and prioritized? It's all dependent on the size of your department and the goals you set for it.
Product information
The more complicated product you have (whether it's digital or physical) the more comprehensive knowledge base you require for customers and your team. Plan FAQ and other content in advance and ensure it can be integrated with a tool.
Automation needs
That's the overall goal, right? How much time you can save without losing service quality? Define what routine tasks you can leave out to an AI based bot including reporting and performance analytics you want to monitor. It also concerns self-service like AI chat bots and SLAs.
Integrations
You might already have tools in your set like CRM, data sources, and contact apps. To provide seamless experience you need to make sure that tools related to live customer support can be integrated with the app.
Permissions
You may want to differentiate the access between members of your team to avoid unknown settings changes, replies, and other events that might negatively affect the workflow. Most of the tools allow setting user roles allowing them to focus on their part of the workload.
Multi-channel
How customer can reach out to you? Social media, emails, etc.? Do you need all of these channels for support? Omnichannel is a trended strategy but not every product requires it. Consider also if your team requires desktop, web, mobile, or cross-platform software.
Industry requirements
Some business scopes come with specific compliance clauses you need to adhere to during customer communication. It also covers the minimum security level you should establish for personal data. Consider it choosing AI chatbot free plans.
Feedback collection
Customer service is the core source of your product review. That's why decide how you're going to run, manage and analyze CSAT surveys, collect ratings, and so on, and what options software can offer.
Team backup
Think in advance about onboarding and further training as well as about internal communication. Should it be within the app or other tools? Make sure that the user interface allows fast and accurate performance.
Customization
Naturally, you want to apply your brand voice to customer service and work under your workflow. The tool should allow that whether initially or allow integrations like Ioni that will help you create a personal approach to each client.
Scalability
Choose a software solution that can scale with your business. Consider your growth speed and ensure that the software and even the included Open AI chat bot can accommodate the increased service volume.
Budget
Research the reputation and history of the software vendor. Check for reliability, years on the market, ratings, and reviews. Platforms like Capterra, G2, etc. are here to help. This way you'll be able to raise the cost-efficiency possibility.
Help Desk vs Service Desk Software
If you plan to establish an effective message-only support team these are the software choices you should consider on the initial and later stages of your brand growth. They can vary in available integrations and processing specifics and amounts
Help Desk
Created for communication necessary for the resolution of IT-related issues (hardware/apps) that users or employees can face. This type contains a customizable ticket management system with auto-routing that allows providing responsive support and a required knowledge base for helpful self-service.
Service Desk
Unlike help desks, it allows dealing with requests from the majority of company departments like HR, etc. Service desks basically enable centralization of all issues helping maintaining brand reputation and force equal scalablity across all its segments.
Whether you opt for help or service desk you should also consider live chat 24/7 tools, AI chat gpt addons, knowledge base storages, feedback and performance analytics features. Otherwise, it'd be harder to handle actual customer support challenges.
Top 5 Help Desks Software in 2023
The following tools have been holding the top charts during the last few years. As vendors, these companies have earned their reputation among different business sectors including IT and SaaS. Let's go over the basic features that allow them to meet actual user requirements.
Zendesk
The platform offers a full suite of tools to deliver the best experience. It allows creating an efficient workspace with internal or integrated automation. With pricing starting from $19, it's suitable for startups and that's wide it made the list of Ioni integrations.
Jira Service Management
One of the first choices for the IT company since the vendor offers not just support tools but other project management and development apps to deliver quality products. For the combination of tech and business side, the price starts from $21 per agent for teams of 4 or more.
Freshworks Service Suite
Another popular choice for SaaS vendors - an AI-driven all-in-one solution. Freshdesk upgrade supports scalability helping brands meet audience expectations. The recent launch of Freddy AI bot only emphasized its orientation on efficiency. The pricing is starting from $15 per agent for teams of 11 or more.
Hubspot Service Desk
Used by thousands of sales teams worldwide CRM is only one product from the set of tools helping the SME sector to grow. Offering a free version the advanced pricing starts from that allows maintaining seamless personalized experience at all stages. $9 per user.
Salesforce CS
With the reputation of an enterprise-grade solution, the vendor follows actual trends and enters the era of AI customer support. It offers self-service, automation, and all the tools to keep your CSAT score on the level. The price starts from $25 per user.
When it comes to choosing the software for your business it always should be a deliberate decision. It's not all about the money. It's about the time your team will spend on onboarding and adjusting that will affect the time they dedicate to the goal - customer retention.