Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Zendesk
2007
San Francisco, CA
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
160,000+
Cloud
Yes
Zendesk Suite At A Glance
Product Overview
Zendesk Suite is an all-in-one solution that helps Sales and Service teams provide better customer service. It includes the Messaging feature (formerly Zendesk Chat), which will be the focus of this review. If you’re looking for a help desk solution, head over to our review on Zendesk Support.
Zendesk Messaging allows agents to chat with customers in real time. Users can set up a chatbot on their website or mobile app, which acts as the customer’s first point of contact. The chatbot collects the customer’s demographic information and provides instant answers to their questions. If the customer needs to communicate with an agent, the chatbot routes them to an appropriate agent, and the agent can then continue the conversation via chat. Zendesk Messaging integrates with other messaging systems, such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Apple Business Chat and WhatsApp.
The software has numerous benefits, such as:
- Improved customer service
- Increased agent productivity (e.g., bots as self-service, engaging in unlimited concurrent chats)
- Customizable features
- Multilanguage capability
Features
Here are a few key features of Zendesk Messaging.
Answer bot – The Answer bot is a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to answer a customer’s question and/or route them to an appropriate agent. Users can set up the Answer bot in a few clicks with the Flow Builder, including custom colors, automated responses, pre-chat forms, routing rules and other workflows. The bot can be placed onto a website, mobile app or social channel. Users can also build their own bot from scratch or integrate their own bot with Zendesk Messaging.
Mobile live chat – Zendesk has a dedicated Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS and Android devices, so developers can set up live chat within the brand’s mobile app.
Agent Workspace – The Agent Workspace portal allows agents to communicate with customers within multiple channels (e.g., chat, email, text) from a single interface. Agents can access a customer’s profile that includes contact information, purchasing history, interaction history and other important details, so they’ll have relevant context for the conversation. The portal also stores the chat transcript, and agents can send the transcript to the customer, too.
Additional Workspace features include unlimited concurrent chats, Shortcuts and Macros for creating and storing personalized responses, real-time notifications on incoming messages and chats, the ability to send files via chat and transferring chats to another agent or department.
Reporting and analytics – Users can track their chat and messaging metrics with prebuilt and customizable dashboards and reports. They can take action based on real-time data, as well as spot trends within historical data. Users can also share dashboards and reports with their team or leadership.
Target Market
Zendesk Suite targets companies of all sizes in many industries, such as health care, education, retail and telecommunications. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.
- Homebridge
- Ingersoll Rand
- Instacart
- Mailchimp
- OpenTable
- Slack
- Stanley Black & Decker
- Tesco
- Uber
- Wrike
Implementation/Integration
Clients can sign up for a free trial via the Zendesk Suite website and begin using the software quickly. At the end of the trial, they can add their credit card information to their account and select a subscription plan. Companies that have complex business needs can partner with the Zendesk Professional Services team to develop an implementation plan based on the company’s requirements.
The software integrates with over 1,000 third-party systems (e.g., marketing automation software, content management systems, telephony providers, project management solutions) through the Zendesk Marketplace.
Customer Service & Support
Users can browse the knowledge base for answers, engage with other users in a community forum and submit support tickets. In addition, they can contact the support team by phone, email or live chat. Zendesk has add-on Premier support plans that include one-hour response time guarantees, designated support team oversight, tailored proactive monitoring and a technical account manager for strategic needs.
Zendesk also offers free and paid online training courses on its software and customer support best practices for admins, developers and agents.
Pricing
Zendesk Suite has four pricing plans (billed annually), which are:
- Suite Team – The Suite Team plan costs $49 per agent, per month and includes a ticketing system, messaging, the ability to create a single help center, automation and workflows, up to 50 AI-powered automated answers, a unified Agent Workspace, reporting and analytics, up to 50 MB data storage per agent and up to 2 GB file storage per agent and over 1,000 prebuilt apps and integrations.
- Suite Growth – The Suite Growth plan costs $79 per agent, per month and includes all of the features of the Suite Team plan, plus the ability to create multiple help centers, advanced workflow options, up to 100 AI-powered automated answers, up to 100 MB data storage per agent and up to 5 GB file storage per agent, custom apps and integrations, a self-service customer portal, AI-powered knowledge management, customizable ticket layouts, up to 50 light access licenses, Service Level Agreement (SLA) management and multilingual support and content.
- Suite Professional – The Suite Professional plan costs $99 per agent, per month and includes all of the features of the Suite Growth plan, plus up to 100 light access licenses, conversation routing, integrated community forums, private conversation threads, customizable dashboards, advanced voice capabilities, HIPAA compliance and an events connector for Amazon Web Services.
- Suite Enterprise – The Suite Enterprise plan costs $150 per agent, per month and includes all of the features of the Suite Professional plan, plus custom team roles and permissions, advanced knowledge management, a customizable Agent Workspace, customizable branding for web conversations, up to 1,000 light access licenses, advanced reporting and analytics and a sandbox environment for change management. Zendesk has additional enterprise-ready plans that start at $215 per agent, per month that include additional custom features.
Shortcomings
Zendesk Suite’s pricing could be expensive for small teams. Also, some users have reported that the interface looks dated and can be hard to navigate.
Screenshots
About
Founded in 2007, Zendesk is a service-first CRM software provider whose software is designed to help businesses improve their customer relationships. It aims to offer an easy-to-use and accessible platform that’s scalable and can be implemented quickly. In addition to the Zendesk Support Suite, the vendor’s portfolio includes the Zendesk Sales Suite for sales professionals and Zendesk Sunshine, an open source CRM platform.
Zendesk received widespread recognition, including a spot in Gartner’s 2017 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center. It’s headquartered in San Francisco, and has over 4,130 employees in 17 locations, including Mexico, Canada, France, Japan and Australia.
