In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, the ability to provide exceptional customer support is no longer just a desirable plus but an essential foundation for sustainable growth.
As businesses vie for customer loyalty amidst a sea of countless vendors offering similar services, it is only those who truly excel in nurturing customer relationships that can emerge as triumphant victors in the race for revenue expansion.
Zoho is often known best in the market for its flagship CRM tool, but Zoho Desk, offering a comprehensive suite of features, has long been a popular choice of help desk software for customer success and team collaboration.
However, there might be many reasons why Zoho Desk is not the best fit for your specific business needs necessitating you to search for Zoho Desk alternatives. The reasons may include basic plans lacking some important features, an overwhelming suite of features for small businesses, and a lack of customization options for live chat support etc.
If you are a business owner looking for reliable alternatives to Zoho Desk, this article is here to help. We’ll dive into some top-notch Zoho Desk alternatives, highlighting their most prominent features and pricing structures, so you can find the best fit for your business.
Zoho Desk Alternative: Must Have Features
Some features constitute the core functionality of help desk software and must be present in any alternative to Zoho Desk. These include:
- Ticket management: Allowing you to handle customer inquiries and support tickets with automated routing and categorization for efficient resolution.
- User-friendly Interface: Built for collaboration and escalation of customer support inquiries the UI must be intuitive.
- Reporting functionality: Allowing managers to monitor the performance of the sales team, customer satisfaction and to meet service level agreement demands.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a great alternative to Zoho Desk and caters best to businesses with more phone-centric operational needs. With an intuitive user interface, it offers a range of features, including:
- Multi-Channel Support: Offers a Team Inbox where incoming support requests from multiple channels such as email, chat, phone, social media and self-service portals are organized and managed by agents.
- Team Collaboration: Fosters teamwork with shared inboxes, internal notes, and team huddles to ensure seamless communication.
- Automated Workflows: Allows you to set up automated ticket assignments based on skill and performance level of service agents.
- SLA Management: Enables you to set response and resolution time targets against customer support tickets to meet service level agreements.
- Customizable reporting: Empowers you with insights into your support team performance by generating customizable reports.
Pricing
Freshdesk offers a cardless free trial and a per user pricing strategy. Plans start from $15 per user per month and are billed annually. It also offers a free plan for teams of up to 10 agents.
Zendesk
Zendesk is one of the most popular help desk platforms in the market and a great contender in the list of Zoho Desk alternatives. It is best suited to enterprise level teams that can get the most out of its features. Some of them include:
- Ticketing System: Let’s you streamline support operations with an intuitive ticketing system that automates ticket routing and assignment.
- Knowledge Base: Enables you to build an easy-to-use self-service knowledge base and community forums to empower customers to find help with instant answers to common queries.
- Live Chat: Allows you to engage with customers in real-time through web chat to provide immediate assistance.
- Automated Workflows: Allows you to automate repetitive tasks and create custom workflows to enhance productivity and shorten ticket resolution time.
- Integrations: Seamlessly connects with other business tools such as CRM systems, project management software, and analytics platforms for true omnichannel support.
Pricing
Zendesk also offers multiple pricing plans, with the basic plan starting from $19 per user per month and suite plans start at $49 per user per month. They also provide a free trial period to explore the platform.
Important Consideration
Basic plans are cheap but very bare bones offering only email and social support. More complete tools for the same price point are available in the market. This makes it a good option for enterprise level clients.
ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk is a feature-rich alternative to Zoho Desk that delivers top-notch customer support. Here are some notable features:
- Knowledge Base: Creates a comprehensive knowledge base with articles, FAQs, and guides to enable customers to find answers to their questions independently.
- Live Chat: Allows you to engage with customers in real-time through a live chat feature, offering instant assistance and resolving issues promptly.
- Email Integration: Seamlessly integrates with email platforms to convert customer emails into support tickets, ensuring no communication gets missed.
- Customer Feedback: Gather valuable feedback through surveys and ratings to measure customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
Pricing
ProProfs Help Desk offers a 15 day free trial and an affordable single-tier pricing plan of $20 per user per month, billed annually. It also offers monthly billed plans at a higher $30 per user per month. This single tiered plan gives you access to all the features offered.
Important to Consider
ProProfs is much more accessible and affordable for growing businesses and allows you to monitor CSAT, NPS and resolution time etc. through impressive customer feedback features.
Conclusion
While Zoho Desk is an excellent help desk solution, exploring Zoho Desk alternatives can help you find the perfect solution for your business requirements. Freshdesk, Zendesk, and ProProfs are just a few of the noteworthy options available to your business.
Each platform offers unique features, pricing structures, and scalability options, ensuring that you can provide exceptional customer support and streamline your support operations effectively. Take the time to evaluate your needs, test out free trials, and choose the alternative that aligns best with your business goals.
