Intercom vs Zendesk: a comparative analysis

But this solution is great because it’s an all-in-one tool with a modern live chat widget, allowing you to easily improve your customer experiences. At the same time, Zendesk looks slightly outdated and can’t offer some features. Some people like Intercom’s conversational support tool, which lets customers talk to you in a more personalised and interactive way.

In our experience, when future clients start thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of Intercom vs. Zendesk, these are the questions they want answers to. As you can imagine, banking from anywhere requires a flexible, robust customer service experience. Monese is another fintech company that provides a banking app, account, and debit card to make settling in a new country easier.

Flowgear is an exceptional platform for custom software and workflow integration in the cloud. The DropPoint technologies and integrated node debugging is crucial to enterprise workflow development. We enable rapid implementation and a high cadence in building complex, multi-endpoint integrations, with sophisticated ETL & data mapping scenarios through our low code visual workflow design. Yes, you can integrate the Intercom solution into your Zendesk account. It will allow you to leverage some Intercom capabilities while keeping your account at the time-tested platform.

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Agents can easily find resources for customers from their agent workspace. Intercom has a wider range of uses out of the box than Zendesk, though by adding Zendesk Sell, you could more than make up for it. Both options are well designed, easy to use, and share some pretty key functionality like behavioral triggers and omnichannel-ality (omnichannel-centricity?).

• Intercom has a dark mode that I think many people will appreciate, and I wouldn’t say it’s lacking in any way.
• Build powerful Application, Data & API Integrations from a single interface in minutes, not months, using our no-to-low code, .NET iPaaS Platform.
• This guide will show you how to connect Intercom and Zendesk to Unito to build your first flow with automated 2-way updates.
• Monese is another fintech company that provides a banking app, account, and debit card to make settling in a new country easier.
• You could technically consider Intercom a CRM, but it’s really more of a customer-focused communication product.

Which means it’s rather a customer relationship management platform than anything else. Intercom built additional tools to aid in marketing and engagement to supplement its customer service solution. But we doubled down and created a truly full-service CX solution capable of handling any support request. The highlight of Zendesk’s ticketing software is its omnichannel-ality (omnichannality?). Whether agents are facing customers via chat, email, social media, or good old-fashioned phone, they can keep it all confined to a single, easy-to-navigate dashboard. That not only saves them the headache of having to constantly switch between dashboards while streamlining resolution processes—it also leads to better customer and agent experience overall.

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For standard reporting like response times, leads generated by source, bot performance, messages sent, and email deliverability, you’ll easily find all the metrics you need. Beyond that, you can create custom reports that combine all of the stats listed above (and many more) and present them as counts, columns, lines, or tables. Powered by Explore, Zendesk’s reporting capabilities are pretty impressive. Right out of the gate, you’ve got dozens of pre-set report options on everything from satisfaction ratings and time in status to abandoned calls and Answer Bot resolutions. You can even save custom dashboards for a more tailored reporting experience. Using this, agents can chat across teams within a ticket via email, Slack, or Zendesk’s ticketing system.

Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch? Intercom and Zendesk can be integrated to create a seamless customer experience. This means that you can track customer interactions across both platforms and use this data to improve your customer support and marketing efforts. The Zendesk Support app gives you access to live Intercom customer data in Zendesk, and lets you create new tickets in Zendesk directly from Intercom conversations. This gives your team the context they need to provide fast and excellent support.

Check out this tutorial to import ticket types and tickets data into your Intercom workspace. Find reporting for all articles (including synced articles) in the Articles report. You’ll see a green confirmation banner indicating the removal has been successful and synced articles will be deleted from your Articles list. Synced articles and their content will be retrievable from the Public API similar to Intercom articles. However, you won’t be able to edit or manipulate synced articles via API calls.

In order to obtain an idea of the financial consequences that will be incurred by your team as well as the predicted number of clients, it is essential to compare their plans in a meticulous manner. Get accurate info in the right place, at the right time, save hours on busywork, and align your team — giving them the freedom to focus and achieve more than ever. This guide will show you how to connect Intercom and Zendesk to Unito to build your first flow with automated 2-way updates. When integrating data, you can fill some Intercom fields that don’t have corresponding Zendesk fields (or vice versa) with constant values. You can use lookup mapping to map target columns to values, gotten from other target objects depending on source data. You can view the integration operation results for each execution in the Run History.

One of these steps is putting in place two-factor authentication (2FA). With this extra layer of security, users must show two forms of ID before they can access their accounts. This makes it even harder for people who aren’t supposed to be there to get in. The Zendesk support system stands out in particular because of its enormous integration ecosystem, which includes a wide variety of plugins and applications developed by third-party developers. Considering the huge number of connectors that Zendesk provides, it appears that the company takes a holistic approach to meeting the varied requirements of businesses. Intercom is second to none when it comes to providing great customer service, particularly in terms of proactive contact and the customisation of in-app experiences.

The Intercom versus Zendesk conundrum is probably the greatest problem in the customer service software world. They both offer some state-of-the-art core functionality and numerous unusual features. Integrating Intercom with Zendesk is a great way to improve the customer experience and boost sales.

But I like that Zendesk just feels slightly cleaner, has easy online/away toggling, more visual customer journey notes, and a handy widget for exploring the knowledge base on the fly. Zendesk also packs some pretty potent tools into their platform, so you can empower your agents to do what they do with less repetition. Agents can use basic automation (like auto-closing tickets or setting auto-responses), apply list organization to stay on top of their tasks, or set up triggers to keep tickets moving automatically.

If that sounds good to you, sign up for a free demo to see our software in action and get started. Users can benefit from using Intercom’s CX platform and AI software as a standalone tool for business messaging. Intercom’s integration capabilities are limited, and some apps don’t integrate well with third-party customer service technology. This can make it more difficult to import CRM data and obtain complete context from customer data. For example, Intercom’s Salesforce integration doesn’t create a view of cases in Salesforce.

AnyDesk vs VNC Connect: which remote desktop solution is right?

The design philosophy is based on keeping things as simple as possible so that even people who have never used the site before can quickly figure out how it works. Use 1000+ workflow templates available from our core team and our community. Skyvia’s import supports all DML operations, including UPDATE and DELETE. This allows using import to perform mass update operations or mass deleting data, matching some condition. Skyvia’s import can load only new and modified records from Intercom to Zendesk and vice versa.

Users like that the platform lets them have talks in real time, which makes it easier to answer customer questions quickly and correctly. People have also said nice things about Intercom’s proactive message features, which let businesses talk to users before they even complain, which improves the overall customer experience. There are many features to help bigger customer service teams collaborate more effectively — like private notes or a real-time view of who’s handling a given ticket at the moment, etc. At the same time, the vendor offers powerful reporting capabilities to help you grow and improve your business.

You can collect ticket data from customers when they fill out the ticket, update them manually as you handle the conversation. Once connected, you can add Zendesk Support to your inbox, and start creating Zendesk tickets from Intercom conversations. View your users’ Zendesk tickets in Intercom and create new ones directly from conversations. As customers come closer to purchasing, they often find themselves weighing the same pros and cons.

• You can also use the HTTP Request node to query data from any app or service with a REST API.
• Intercom, on the other hand, is designed to be more of a complete solution for sales, marketing, and customer relationship nurturing.
• You can always count on it if you need a reliable customer support platform to process tickets, support users, and get advanced reporting.
• G2 ranks Intercom higher than Zendesk for ease of setup, and support quality—so you can expect a smooth transition, effortless onboarding, and continuous success.

This packs all resolution information into a single ticket, so there’s no extra searching or backtracking needed to bring a ticket through to resolution, even if it involves multiple agents. Which platform is “better” depends on the precise requirements and objectives that you have. Skyvia offers a number of benefits for import Intercom data to Zendesk or vice versa. With Skyvia import you can use data filtering, perform data transformations, and many more. Besides, Skyvia supports the UPSERT operation — inserting new records and updating records already existing in the target.

We have numerous customers that do this and benefit greatly from our out-of-the-box integration with Intercom. Yes—as your business’s needs grow, you will require a more sophisticated case management system. But that doesn’t mean you have to completely switch from your current provider if you’re not quite ready. Our integration with Intercom enables bi-directional contact and case synchronization, so you can continue using Intercom as your front-end digital experience and use Zendesk for case management. Businesses should always consider a tool’s TCO before committing to a purchase. Many software vendors aren’t upfront about the cost of using their products, maintenance costs, or integration fees.

Intercom with Zendesk Integration at a Glance

Zendesk’s help center tools should also come in handy for helping customers help themselves—something Zendesk claims eight out of 10 customers would rather do than contact support. To that end, you can import themes or apply your own custom themes to brand your help center the way you want it. From there, you can include FAQs, announcements, and article guides and then save them into pre-set lists for your customers to explore. You can even moderate user content to leverage your customer community. Zendesk, on the other hand, is known for its powerful ticketing system and smart analytics tools.

Intercom’s chatbot feels a little more robust than Zendesk’s (though it’s worth noting that some features are only available at the Engage and Convert tiers). You can set office hours, live chat with logged-in users via their user profiles, and set up a chatbot. Customization is more nuanced than Zendesk’s, but it’s still really straightforward to implement. You can opt for code via JavaScript or Rails or even integrate directly with the likes of Google Tag Manager, WordPress, or Shopify. What’s really nice about this is that even within a ticket, you can switch between communication modes without changing views. So if an agent needs to switch from chat to phone to email (or vice versa) with a customer, it’s all on the same ticketing page.

How to set up a regular sync of all public articles from your Zendesk Guide Help Center into Intercom. With over 100,000 customers across all industries and regions, Zendesk knows what it takes to interact with customers while retaining and growing relationships. Compare Zendesk versus Intercom to determine who will be the best partner for your business at every phase of the customer journey. Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry.

Zendesk might be a better choice if your company puts a lot of value on full customer help, keeping track of issues, and making decisions based on data. Zendesk’s messaging system makes it easier for customers to ask questions and get help, and it makes sure that every question is properly recorded and handled. N8n lets you integrate Intercom with Zendesk to build powerful workflows. Design automation that extracts, transforms and loads data between your apps and services. You can choose from thousands of ready-made apps or use our universal HTTP connector to sync apps not yet in our library.

But with perks like more advanced chatbots, automation, and lead management capabilities, Intercom could have an edge for many users. You can create articles, share them internally, group them for users, and assign them as responses for bots—all pretty standard fare. Intercom can even integrate with Zendesk and other sources to import past help center content. I just found Zendesk’s help center to be slightly better integrated into their workflows and more customizable.

Updated Ticket

Is it as simple as knowing whether you want software strictly for customer support (like Zendesk) or for some blend of customer relationship management and sales support (like Intercom)? Zendesk is billed more as a customer support and ticketing solution, while Intercom includes more native CRM functionality. Intercom isn’t quite as strong as Zendesk in comparison to some of Zendesk’s customer support strengths, but it has more features for sales and lead nurturing. Intercom, on the other hand, was built for business messaging, so communication is one of their strong suits. Combine that with their prowess in automation and sales solutions, and you’ve got a really strong product that can handle myriad customer relationship needs.

You can always count on it if you need a reliable customer support platform to process tickets, support users, and get advanced reporting. In today’s world of fast-paced customer service and high customer expectations, it’s essential for business leaders to equip their teams with the best support tools available. Zendesk and Intercom both offer noteworthy tools, but if you’re looking for a full-service solution, there is one clear winner.

You could say something similar for Zendesk’s standard service offering, so it’s at least good to know they have Zendesk Sell, a capable CRM option to supplement it. You can use Zendesk Sell to track tasks, streamline workflows, improve engagement, nurture leads, and much more. I’ve got a great experience with the integration centre, the staff is absolutely amazing. Find out how easy it is to connect tools with Unito at our next demo webinar. Unito lets you turn Intercom conversations into Zendesk tickets and vice-versa with automated, 2-way updates.

No matter how a customer contacts your business, your agents will have access to the tools and information they need to continue and close conversations on any channel. You can even improve efficiency and transparency by setting up task sequences, defining sales triggers, and strategizing with advanced forecasting and reporting tools. Starting at $19 per user per month, it’s also on the cheaper end of the spectrum compared to high-end CRMs like ActiveCampaign and HubSpot. We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here.

Skyvia offers you a convenient and easy way to connect Intercom and Zendesk with no coding. In terms of pricing, Intercom is considered one of the most expensive tools on the market. In this paragraph, let’s explain some common issues that users usually ask about when choosing between Zendesk and Intercom platforms. And there’s still no way to know how much you’ll pay for them since the prices are only revealed after you go through a few sale demos with the Intercom team. Zendesk is a ticketing system before anything else, and its ticketing functionality is overwhelming in the best possible way. They’ve been marketing themselves as a messaging platform right from the beginning.

Triggers should prove especially useful for agents, allowing them to do things like automate notifications for actions like ticket assignments, ticket closing/reopening, or new ticket creation. Their template triggers are fairly limited with only seven options, but they do enable users to create new custom triggers, which can be a game-changer for agents with more complex workflows. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the nature of these integrations in order to ascertain whether or not they are relevant to the criteria that you have in mind. It is essential to evaluate the compatibility of the connectors offered by each platform with the tools and workflows that you already have in place. During this phase, you will determine the essential features, functionalities, and tools that are essential to the operations of your firm.

Founded in 2007, Zendesk started as a ticketing tool for customer success teams. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. It was later that they started adding all kinds of other features, like live chat for customer conversations. They bought out the Zopim live chat solution and integrated it with their toolset. Zendesk, unlike Intercom, is a more affordable and predictable customer service platform. Also, it’s the pioneer in the support and communication tools market.

By providing banking without boundaries, the company aims to provide users with quick access to their finances, wherever they happen to be. The support team faced spiking ticket volumes, numerous new customer accounts, intercom zendesk integration and the need to shift to remote work. Intercom is the new guy on the block when it comes to help desk ticketing systems. This means the company is still working out some kinks and operating with limited capabilities.

Community boards make the support ecosystem even better by creating a place where people can work together and share their experiences, tips, and ask for help from their peers. These forums are helpful for fixing problems and learning from other people’s mistakes. Both systems include pricing plans that are tiered and vary according to the amount of user seats or active contacts. Intercom is primarily concerned with price on a per-user basis, in contrast to Zendesk, which blends user seats with contact tiers when it comes to pricing.

Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. There is a better user experience with Intercom because the layout is more streamlined. The goal is to make it easier for new users to get around the site and use all of its features without having to go through extra steps. This focus on making things easier for users is meant to make users happier generally and get more people to use the Intercom platform. Create custom Intercom and Zendesk workflows by choosing triggers and actions.

There’s even on-the-spot translation built right in, which is extremely helpful. I tested both options (using Zendesk’s Suite Professional trial and Intercom’s Support trial) and found clearly defined differences between the two. Here’s what you need to know about Zendesk vs. Intercom as customer support and relationship management tools. Intercom helps you support your customers with chat, support and management tools. It is used by over 25k companies as it helps them convert more leads, and achieve the best service for their customers. With Skyvia you can integrate Intercom with Zendesk in a number of ways.

AI and ML make customer service functionalities like chatbots, sentiment analysis, ticket creation, and workflow automation possible. All these features are necessary for operational efficiency and help agents deliver fast, personalized customer experiences. With Zendesk, organizational data silos can be a thing of the past. We make it easy for anyone within your company to access contextual customer information—including their conversation and purchase history—to provide better experiences.

Input your Zendesk account details and grant Intercom the necessary permissions to your Zendesk account. Click on the ‘Install Now’ button to add the Zendesk application to your Intercom. Quickly automate workflows with Intercom and Zendesk using Zapier’s templates. If you’d like to remove the sync with Zendesk (and related data), you can do this from Articles Settings.

Intercom’s solution offers several use cases, meaning the product’s investments and success resources have a broad focus. But this also means the customer experience ROI tends to be lower than what it would be if you went with a best-in-class solution like Zendesk. However, as Monese grew and eyed a European expansion, it became clear that the company needed to centralize data in a single solution that would scale along with them. If a customer starts an interaction by talking to a chatbot and can’t find a solution, our chatbot can open a ticket and intelligently route it to the most qualified agent. Intercom has more customization features for features like bots, themes, triggers, and funnels.