Customer service software lets teams improve their customers’ experience through support availability on multiple communication channels, efficient and quality ticket resolution, and insightful self-help resources. While you can find these features in a stand-alone software product, customer relationship management (CRM) systems could also include customer service tools. We evaluated dozens of products to find the best customer service software for small business teams. Show
*Based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for slightly higher rates. Between all of the software options on this list and elsewhere, it’s tricky to pinpoint exactly what features you need most, which product attributes are critical to your business, and which solution would serve your needs best. Our guide on how to choose customer service software helps you navigate this space and find the right product for you. Freshdesk: Best Customer Service Software for Small Business (Overall)Freshdesk
 Overall Score: 4.86 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Freshdesk Pricing at a Glance*
Freshdesk Contact Center
Freshdesk Customer Success
Add-ons
*Pricing based on annual billing, monthly billing is also available for a higher cost Freshdesk is the help desk solution offered by Freshworks for managing contact center, customer support, or customer experience management operations. It includes scalable pricing options, a free plan, and add-ons or integration with Freshsales or Freshmarketer. Additionally, teams can decide what modular capabilities they need, such as a central contact center, omnichannel communication, customer success tools, or field management solutions. For managing customer service, Freshdesk gives the best overall value. Not only does it have excellent pricing in terms of free-plan availability and low-cost subscriptions, but its customer support features are also elaborate and serve many use cases. Teams, for instance, can collect, track, and route support tickets, set case priority levels, and engage with customers through phone, email, chat, and social media. There’s even built-in gamification to motivate agents, tools for storing canned agent responses, and reporting on help desk operations. Businesses with newer users with limited experience using a CRM system or customer service software may not like Freshdesk’s user interface. Because of all its support capabilities and the clunky layout of the user interface, Freshdesk is relatively difficult to navigate from page to page. Really Simple Systems is the best alternative for all-around system ease of use. Freshdesk Plan SummaryFreshdesk Key Features
Freshdesk ticket creation rules (Source: Freshdesk) Freshdesk live chat channel (Source: Freshdesk) Freshdesk Customer SupportFreshdesk customer service for its users comes with 24/7 email support on all plans. There’s also 24×5 support by phone on all paid plans and 24×5 live chat channels for Pro and above users. Lastly, the provider offers a knowledge base and community forum resources for self-service. Want to learn more about why Freshdesk is excellent customer support software? Check out our in-depth Freshdesk review for detailed features and usability insights. Visit Freshdesk Really Simple Systems: Best for Feature Ease-of-UseReally Simple Systems
Overall Score: 4.68 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Really Simple Systems Pricing at a Glance*
Add-ons
*Pricing based on annual billing, monthly billing is also available for a higher cost Really Simple Systems is an all-in-one CRM system for managing sales, marketing, and customer support operations. It’s well-priced and can serve startups and growing businesses well with free and scalable options. The product also offers plenty of customization in terms of data fields, tables, dashboards, pages, and charts—allowing it to meet the needs of nearly any type of business. Really Simple Systems is the best customer service software for usability in terms of setting up the system, using the features, and navigating the interface. The modern color scheme and layout with minimal buttons lets those even with minimal CRM experience utilize its features. Once the customer support module is set up, users can manage customer cases, prioritize tickets based on SLAs, and automatically assign cases based on emails or web form submissions. Really Simple Systems, unfortunately, does not have any customer service solutions for managing field services—which is useful for businesses that need to be on-site to assist customers such as contractors, IT management firms, or industrial equipment providers. Salesforce Service Cloud offers the best field service management features for businesses that need that functionality. Really Simple Systems Plan SummaryReally Simple Systems Key Features
Pro tip: Did you know that a CRM is an excellent solution for managing both sales and customer service activities? To learn about ways to use a CRM to boost satisfaction and support efficiency, check out our article on how to use a CRM for customer service. Really Simple Systems Customer SupportReally Simple Systems offers customer support during standard business hours for North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Users can access live chat, email, and phone assistance in those time zones. There’s also an online blog, webinars, tutorial videos, and a self-service Support Hub that explains how to use certain features. Want more insights? See how this platform can be an excellent sales and customer support solution for your business by checking our Really Simple Systems review to learn more about its features, usability, and best for scenarios. Visit Really Simple Systems HubSpot Service Hub: Best Free Customer Service SoftwareHubSpot Service Hub
Overall Score: 4.55 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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HubSpot Service Hub Pricing at a Glance*
**Allows for individual purchase of Service Hub module or bundling options with Sales, Operations, Marketing, and CMS Hubs for additional costs. The HubSpot Service Hub is one of many software products offered by HubSpot. Teams can either purchase it individually or bundle it with other hubs such as sales, marketing, operations, and the content management system (CMS). The interface and features demand only a slight learning curve to operate, and the free plan is available for unlimited users. What makes HubSpot the top free customer service software isn’t just the accessibility for limitless agents but also the features included on the free-forever plan. For example, HubSpot’s free option includes the ability to store and share up to five email templates for engaging with customers and a team inbox to manage inquiries. It also allows for free live chat communication with customers and a full ticket management system to track service requests and automate ticket-related tasks. SLA features let users automatically prioritize ticket requests based on urgency, customer expectations, or a condition in the contract agreement. HubSpot’s SLA tools, unfortunately, are fairly expensive—starting at $450 per month for up to five users. Freshdesk is the best SLA management solution available on the Growth plan for $15 per user/month. HubSpot Service Hub Plan SummaryHubSpot Service Hub Key Features
HubSpot service product library (Source: HubSpot) HubSpot ticket management (Source: HubSpot) HubSpot Service Hub Customer SupportHubSpot offers robust customer support capabilities—offering some 24/7 availability via phone, chat, and email channels depending on the plan. There are also plenty of online resources, such as a community forum, blog, tutorials, and certification options on HubSpot Academy. Learn how the HubSpot Service Hub can benefit your business and supplement well with the native HubSpot Sales, Operations, Marketing, and CMS Hubs in our HubSpot Service Hub review. Visit HubSpot Service Hub Happyfox: Best for Managing Global Customer SupportHappyfox
Overall Score: 4.53 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Happyfox Pricing at a Glance*
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost as well as two-year and three-year billing for lower prices. Payment options for unlimited agents are also available for bulk deals. Happyfox is a customer support platform that has features for service, IT management, and operations support teams. There are various pricing options available depending on the modular needs, billing preferences, and the number of users, including bulk options for unlimited agents that start at $1,499 per month. The system has excellent usability ratings and features for tickets, SLA, a help desk, a self-service portal, and agent productivity management. Despite this product’s widespread capabilities in customer support, the big standout solution is the multilingual agent portal available on the Mighty plan. This feature lets teams engage with customers, provide self-help content and resources, and parse through email messages in 35 different languages. The language tools are applicable to both agents and customers located globally. Agent collision management is a feature that automatically detects and notifies users if multiple support team members are assisting on the same ticket. This capability, unfortunately, is not available until the Enterprise plan. Freshdesk has low-priced collision detection and response functionality for just $15 per user/month. Happyfox Plan SummaryHappyfox Key Features
Happyfox multilingual support (Source: Happyfox) Happyfox Customer SupportHappyfox comes with self-service options such as an online blog full of resources and the Happyfox University for tutorials, learning modules, and accreditations. Users can also reach their support team through email, live chat, or phone during standard hours (PST) or 24/7 depending on the subscribed tier. To find out more about how this customer support software can meet your business’s service objectives, check out our Happyfox review. Visit Happyfox Zoho Desk: Best for Help Desk System CustomizationZoho Desk
Overall Score: 4.51 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Zoho Desk Pricing at a Glance*
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. Zoho Desk is one of Zoho’s many native software products that also include Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Books, and Zoho Recruit. This system is highly scalable to a customer service team’s needs with regard to pricing and free plan availability. Some of its core support features include ticket tracking, customer surveying, contract and SLA management, and omnichannel communication through social media, phone, email, and chat. This platform offers robust system customization for businesses that need to adjust their customer service software to a unique industry or business operation. Users can custom design ticket templates, layouts, self-service portals, and data views to meet their needs and their customers. Businesses can also rebrand the customer support modules with their logos and marketing schema to make them their own. Engaging with customers through live chat is a convenient and quick way to assist them or obtain information. Unfortunately, Zoho Desk does not allow this feature until the Enterprise plan for an expensive cost. HubSpot Service Hub is the best product alternative, with live chat included for free. Zoho Desk Plan SummaryZoho Desk Key Features
Zoho Desk support ticket customization (Source: Zoho) Zoho Desk Customer SupportZoho Desk comes with 24×5 email support on all plans. Additionally, 24×5 phone support is available for Standard users and above, as well as 24×5 live chat for Professional plan users and above. There are also tons of online resources such as documentation, case studies, FAQ pages, and video tutorials. Get the full details of Zoho Desk in our comprehensive Zoho Desk review. You’ll learn the ins and outs of its features, pricing, and top use cases. Visit Zoho Desk Zendesk: Best for Managing Self-service ResourcesZendesk
Overall Score: 4.33 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Zendesk Pricing at a Glance*
*Pricing based on annual billing. Monthly billing is also available for higher prices. The Zendesk service platform is a support ticket management and communication solution, and the counterpart to the CRM Zendesk Sell. Teams can choose software Suite options consisting of customer service modules with workflow automation, collaboration tools, and omnichannel communication. Alternately, there are also foundational support options that primarily have features for ticket, SLA, and customer survey management. While other platforms on this list give teams the ability to create self-service portals and help resources to their customers, none do it better than Zendesk. The system allows teams to manage multiple help centers at once with custom articles to assist with common customer questions. They can also design a self-service portal for customers to track support requests and contributions to other users, as well as integrate community forums for customers to connect. Zendesk, though advanced and robust in customer service capabilities, is not ideal for teams seeking a free or low-cost alternative. Zoho CRM and Really Simple Systems are terrific alternatives—both offering a free plan and scalable paid plans that suit smaller businesses. Zendesk Plan SummaryZendesk Key Features
Zendesk Service adding content to help center (Source: Zendesk) Zendesk bulk editing knowledge base articles (Source: Zendesk) Zendesk Customer SupportZendesk has uniform customer support for all their plans, including availability during standard business hours on live chat, email, and phone channels. There are also optional professional service packages that provide dedicated personnel and resources. These support plans cost an additional $3,000, $8,000, $9,000, or $20,000, depending on the package, and gives businesses migration, transition, or product optimization services. To see if Zendesk has the features and integrations you need, check out our Zendesk review. You’ll learn about best-for scenarios and what other users say about the product. Visit Zendesk Salesforce Service Cloud: Best for Managing Contract Terms and EntitlementsSalesforce Service Cloud
Overall Score: 3.99 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Salesforce Service Cloud Pricing at a Glance*
Add-ons
*Pricing based on annual billing. Essentials offers monthly billing for slightly higher prices. Salesforce Service Cloud is a powerful software solution for case management, designing a customer help center, and integrating with third-party or native software. It’s also an ideal platform for communicating with customers through phone, chat, email, and social media channels and generating performance reports and analytics to improve support operations. Arguably the most valuable feature, however, is the centralized order management with terms and entitlement tracking. Teams can ensure they meet contract requirements by storing entitlement data within order or account records. For example, they can view whether there’s an active product warranty for a specific order or if a particular client requires subscription-based agreements like dedicated phone support. Salesforce’s complexity and widespread use cases make the platform challenging to set up for new users and design the system’s data fields, layouts, and pages. Really Simple Systems is the superior alternative for the all-around usability category. Salesforce Service Cloud Plan SummarySalesforce Service Cloud Key Features
Salesforce creating service contract (Source: Salesforce) Salesforce Service customer record with entitlements (Source: Salesforce) Salesforce Service Cloud Customer SupportUsers of Salesforce Service Cloud have the option to use the default, standard success plan for access to Trailhead, the Help Portal, the community forum, and live chat support. Teams can also upgrade to the Premier or Signature success plans, adding 24/7 phone support. Is Salesforce Service Cloud the right platform for you? Find out in our full Salesforce Service Cloud review with thorough insights into features, usability, integrations, and pricing. Visit Salesforce Service Cloud Insightly Service: Best for Reporting Agent Performance & Support QualityInsightly Service
Overall Score: 3.49 OUT OF 5 What We Like
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Insightly Pricing at a Glance
Insightly Service helps businesses streamline their customer support operations through premade macro responses to common customer inquiries, automated ticket assignment and tracking, and survey management to obtain feedback and customer satisfaction. The platform also lets teams handle SLA requirements and service expectations, and create self-service portals, forums, and a knowledge base for their customers. Customer service managers especially love Insightly Service for its reporting and dashboard features. They’re easy to use, customizable for all sorts of data, and let businesses evaluate their performance in terms of tickets resolved, ticket resolution efficiency, open cases, and individual agent production. There are also options to pull data for customer surveys to see if they’re satisfied with your brand, support, and products. Usability and pricing flexibility are the primary downfalls of Insightly Service as it’s tough to set up the system, navigate the interface, and it only has three, costly pricing options to choose from. Though multiple products on this list can adhere to one of these attributes, only Really Simple Systems can truly fulfill all of them. It’s by far the easiest platform to use, offers a free plan, and has cost-friendly paid options scalable to any business. Insightly Plan SummaryInsightly Key Features
Insightly Service dashboard report (Source: Insightly) Insightly Customer SupportInsightly Service offers default standard support for its users which comes with an online knowledge base, webinar access, product guides, and email support. There are also optional premier success plans starting at $3,000 per year which add in priority email and phone support, adoption programs, and a dedicated customer success and account manager. Considering adopting Insightly Service into your business? Our Insightly Service review will help you make an educated and informed purchase decision. Visit Insightly How We Evaluated the Best Customer Service Software CompaniesTo determine the best customer support tools, we considered platforms with features specific to assisting with inquiries, obtaining feedback, or engaging with customers. Communication through live chat, email, or phone and a ticket support management system, for example, helps teams easily complete those tasks and save time. We also looked into each software in terms of standard product attributes such as price, system ease of use, and customer support. We found Freshdesk to be the best customer support software for small businesses as it has a free plan for up to 10 users and low-priced paid plans. Ultimately, Freshdesk offers teams the best overall value for what they pay for. They get comprehensive ticket and case management, a wide range of communication channels, high-level performance reporting, AI support insights, and agent productivity tools all for as little as $0 to $79 per user/month. Visit Freshdesk The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process of the best software for customer service management:
30% of Overall ScoreWe looked at general features found in most CRM and customer service software solutions, such as integration options with outside tools, reporting & analytics, and a mobile app. We also evaluated other service-specific features like a phone or chat system to respond to customer requests, and a ticket management system for tracking resolutions on customer inquiries and service rep performance. 20% of Overall ScorePricing takes into account free plan availability and the scalable pricing options users can purchase as their business grows. Additionally, we looked at the availability for a subscriber to either pay monthly or save by paying annually. Lastly, we evaluated the costs specifically for customer support and service capabilities, and whether it was included in the CRM system or a separate purchase. 20% of Overall ScoreThe solutions are also evaluated on platform usability in terms of the expertise required to set up an account and integrate with native or third-party applications. We then looked at the skill needed to operate the customer service features and reviewed the overall intuitiveness of navigating the system’s interface. 20% of Overall ScoreExtensive support and service help prevent poor user experiences and outcomes users may encounter while using any of these customer service tools. This was evaluated in terms of hours and the availability of customer support through phone, live chat, and email channels. We also look at online resources for self-service options like tutorials, forums, or training modules. 10% of Overall ScoreIn addition to first-hand experience with these customer service systems, we evaluated what other users say about each product. These criteria take into consideration how real customers feel, based on their reviews, to gain insight into the popularity, ease of use, and overall value of each platform. *Percentages of overall score Bottom LineSupport teams can increase customer satisfaction by investing in solutions that manage and track support tickets, respond to customer requests on multiple channels, and create self-help resources for customers. Though Freshdesk is our pick for the top customer service software for small businesses, others on this list may be better suited for specific teams. This is based on their usability requirements, budget, and required features, like robust customization or analytics capabilities. You May Like…
What technology can be used to improve customer service?Arguably the most important technology is still the smartphone. From the smartphone, customers have access the cloud. They can call numbers and send texts via SMS that are answered by chatbots. They can leverage VR/AR tools for incredible experiences and hands-on education.
What are tools used in customer service?From help desk software solutions, to live chat, social media support, a customer information form, community forums, and mobile apps, these customer service tools offer many opportunities for businesses to get closer to their clients.
Which tool is most useful in helping customer service support?18 best customer service software tools to enhance the customer experience. Zendesk.. Sprout Social.. Hootsuite.. MailChimp.. Apple Business Chat.. Facebook.. SurveyMonkey.. Slack.. What are the information systems tools technologies used to support their customers?Besides, customer service management tools help businesses manage, capture, and automate all their customer service processes while delivering the best possible experience.. Chatbot. All customer service organizations will soon be using some kind of automated assistant. ... . Live Chat. ... . Video Chat. ... . Co-browsing. ... . Chat SDK.. |
