11 Best Help Scout Alternatives for Ecommerce Customer Service

Help Scout excels in email support but may lack broader features. Explore alternatives like Omni24 for comprehensive support with omnichannel and automation tools.

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Help Scout Alternative

Help Scout is a popular customer service platform that allows ecommerce businesses to manage customer inquiries and provide personalized support.

But, while it’s a great option for email support, it may not be the best choice if you’re looking for a comprehensive customer service solution.

That’s where Help Scout alternatives come in!

We’ve compared some of the best Help Scout alternatives that offer a more well-rounded approach to customer support for small businesses as well as enterprises.

From live chat to social media integration, these platforms provide a range of features to help you better engage with your customers. So, let’s get going!

Why Are Businesses Looking For Help Scout Alternatives?

Businesses are looking for Help Scout alternatives for various reasons, ranging from limited integration options to high cost, limited functionality and poor customer support.

Why Are Businesses Looking For Help Scout Alternatives
  • Global support and localization: For businesses operating internationally, Help Scout’s language support features may be insufficient. Alternatives that offer better multi-language support and region-specific customizations are appealing.
  • Limited integrations: Help Scout is not as flexible as other customer service tools when it comes to integrating with other software that a business may use, making it tricky for companies that have implemented certain systems.
  • Feature gaps: Help Scout may lack specific features that are crucial for certain industries or business models. Companies might look for alternatives that offer more comprehensive feature sets or specialized functionalities tailored to their needs.
  • Limited scalability: As businesses grow, they need a customer service tool that can keep up with increasing demands, and some find that Help Scout doesn’t have the scalability they need.
  • Limited automation: Many businesses are looking for a tool that can automate certain tasks to save time, but Help Scout is not as advanced in automation as other alternative tools.
  • Limited reporting: Data is essential to improving customer service and growing a business. However, Help Scout’s reporting capabilities are limited, making it challenging to analyze and improve performance.

Price: Help Scout can be pricey, especially for businesses that want to add additional features, which is why some are looking for more affordable alternatives with similar capabilities.

Top Features to Look in Help Scout Alternatives

How to choose the best software for your business? Begin with learning various beneficial features to streamline their customer support operations.Here’s the list to learn more.

Top Features tro Look in Help Scout Alternatives

Omnichannel HelpDesk

One of the crucial features to look for in a Help Scout alternative is an omnichannel HelpDesk. The feature lets customers reach out to support staff across various channels. It can be email, social media, or even voice calls.

An omnichannel HelpDesk ensures that customers can stay connected with support teams through their preferred channels, while support agents can handle different interactions through a centralized dashboard.

Live Chat and Messaging

Look for alternatives that offer real-time communication channels like live chat and instant messaging. These aspects should support multi-channel conversations, chatbots for initial customer interactions, and the ability to transfer chats to human agents seamlessly.

The ideal solution will also include features like chat transcripts, canned responses, and the option to initiate proactive chats based on user behavior.

Advanced Ticketing System

Seek alternatives with robust ticketing systems that can efficiently manage and prioritize customer inquiries. Key features should include ticket categorization, automatic ticket assignment, SLA tracking, and the ability to merge/split tickets.

Look for systems that offer customizable ticket fields, tagging capabilities, and advanced search functionality to help agents quickly find relevant information as well as resolve issues effectively.

Knowledge Base

An effective knowledge base feature should allow easy creation, organization, and maintenance of self-service content. Look for alternatives that offer customizable templates, version control, and analytics to track article performance.

The ideal solution will also include features like suggested articles for agents and internal knowledge bases for team use. It also offers the ability to integrate the knowledge base with other support channels.

Customer Support Workflows

Seek alternatives that offer customizable workflows to automate routine tasks and streamline support processes. Find features like rule-based ticket routing, automated responses for common inquiries, and the ability to create complex, multi-step workflows.

Preferably, the tool should also offer workflow templates and visual editors to make creating while also managing workflows easier.

SLA Management and Audit Logs

The alternatives you look for should provide robust SLA management tools, including the ability to set and track multiple SLA policies based on various criteria. The system should offer real-time SLA monitoring, escalation processes, detailed reporting, etc.

Seek solutions with comprehensive audit logs that track all changes and actions within the system for accountability as well as compliance purposes.

Conversational Routing

The tool that offers intelligent routing capabilities will ensure customer inquiries are directed to the most appropriate agent or team. The alternatives should have features like skills-based routing, load balancing, and the ability to route based on custom criteria.

The preferred platform should also support round-robin assignment, priority-based routing, and the flexibility to easily adjust routing rules as your team needs to evolve.

11 Best Help Scout Alternatives for Customer Service & Help Desk

Customer service and help desk software is essential for any business looking to provide top-notch support to their customers.

Omni24

Best Help Scout alternative for SMB and mid-scale businesses

Omni24

Omni24 is a customer experience management platform that offers real-time messaging, automation, and intelligence features. It enables businesses to connect with customers through various channels, including social media, web chat, email, etc.

Key features:

  1. Omnichannel capabilities: Integrates with various communication channels, allowing businesses to provide a seamless experience to their customers across all touchpoints.
  2. Collaboration tools: Collaboration features that streamline teamwork in customer service. These tools facilitate seamless communication among team members, allowing them to share information, assign tasks, and work together on complex issues.
  3. AI-powered intelligence: Omni24 uses artificial intelligence to analyze customer data, providing insights that can be used to improve customer engagement and satisfaction.
  4. Knowledge Base: Knowledge Base serves as a centralized repository for support articles, FAQs, and best practices. It empowers customers with self-service options and helps agents quickly access information to resolve issues.
  5. Ticket Management: Organizes customer inquiries into trackable tickets, enabling prioritization, assignment, and resolution tracking. The feature streamlines support workflows as well as ensures no customer request falls through the cracks.

Pricing: Omni24’s pricing starts from $29/user/month and goes up to $129/user/month as you include add-ons. All plans come with 14 days free trial that typically include a shared inbox, knowledge base and omnichannel support.

Veemo

Top Help Scout alternative offering all-in-one customer solution

veemo dashboard

Veemo is a cloud-based customer support software that offers an all-in-one solution to manage customer queries, feedback and issues. It is designed to help businesses increase agent productivity and provide excellent customer service.

Key features:

  1. Multichannel Support: Veemo allows you to manage customer queries from multiple channels including email, phone, chat, social media and more.
  2. Automated Ticketing System: The software provides an automated and customizable ticketing system that assigns tickets to agents based on priority/skills.
  3. Collaborative Agent Dashboard: Veemo offers a collaborative agent dashboard that enables multiple agents to work together on a ticket. It reduces the response time and increases productivity.
  4. Self-service Knowledge Base: The software offers a self-service knowledge base that allows customers to find solutions to their issues on their own. It frees up agent time for more complex queries.
  5. Analytics and Reporting: Veemo provides detailed analytics and reporting on customer trends, agent performance as well as customer satisfaction to make data-driven decisions.
  6. Self-Service Portal: The self-service portal allows customers to find answers to their questions independently. It includes FAQs, knowledge bases and guides, reducing the workload on support teams.

Pricing: Veemo comes with three pricing plans – the Growth plan starts at $29/user/month with basic features. The Team plan is priced at $79/user/month with more features. The software pricing is also customizable as per business requirements

Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service software that brings together customer conversations from various channels, including email, chat, social media and phone, into one platform. It also allows agents to manage tickets from one place, collaborate with colleagues while providing quality service to customers.

Zendesk enables customers to contact your business on any channel and for agents to manage tickets from one place, providing a seamless experience for both parties. Agents can collaborate with colleagues in real-time, making it easier to solve complex customer issues.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a customer support software that offers a wide range of features to help businesses provide exceptional customer service. The software offers a user-friendly interface, automation tools, and social media integration to streamline customer support operations.

Freshdesk offers an intuitive interface, allowing agents to quickly resolve customer issues and focus on providing quality support. It automates repetitive tasks, such as ticket assignment, categorization and prioritization. This helps agents focus on more complex issues and improves efficiency.

Salesforce

Salesforce Service Cloud is a powerful customer service platform that offers a range of tools designed to help businesses streamline their support operations. The cloud-based tool enables companies to manage customer inquiries, track cases and provide multi-channel support across various social media channels as well as messaging platforms.

Key features of Salesforce include customizable dashboards and reporting tools that offer real-time insights into customer service performance. Intelligent case management enables companies to manage customer inquiries efficiently using automated workflows to route cases to the right teams or agents.

HubSpot Service

HubSpot Service is a customer service software that offers a complete suite of tools that helps businesses understand, grow and connect with their customers. With its customizable support modules and advanced reporting, businesses can provide excellent customer service as well as satisfaction.

The customer service software enables ticketing management to easily track and manage customer inquiries from multiple channels. Its knowledge base allows businesses to create, publish and manage relevant knowledge articles for their customers.

Support Bee

Support Bee is a help desk software designed to streamline customer support processes. It provides a platform for businesses to manage customer inquiries and support tickets in a centralized location.

The comprehensive platform allows businesses to receive support requests via email, social media and web forms, centralizing all customer interactions. The software enables team members to collaborate on customer support tickets, eliminating the need to manually transfer inquiries between team members.

Gladly

Gladly is a cloud-based customer service platform that aims to unify customer interactions across different channels such as email, phone, chat and social media. By merging all customer conversations into one timeline, Gladly enables businesses to provide seamless customer experiences and personalized support.

Gladly’s unified inbox allows agents to view all customer conversations in one place, making it easier to manage and prioritize customer inquiries. Here, customer profiles are automatically updated with interactions from various channels. This means that agents have a comprehensive view of the customer’s history, enabling personalized interactions.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a help desk software that offers multi-channel support to businesses of any size. It is designed to help businesses manage their customer interactions in one place.

The multi-channel support platform offers seamless integration with popular communication channels all in one place, ensuring customers can reach you from virtually any platform. With its advanced automation tools, agents can streamline tasks, such as ticket routing, canned responses and tagging, to provide quick support. It frees up time to focus on more pressing customer requests.

Intercom

Intercom is a customer messaging platform that allows businesses to have personalized conversations with their customers. It combines messaging, automation and data in one platform for a better customer experience.

The platform sends targeted messages to specific customer segments based on their behavior or profile. It automates repetitive tasks and workflows to save time while also improving efficiency.

ProProfs Desk

ProProfs Desk is a customer service software designed to assist businesses in managing their support operations more efficiently. Features such as ticket management and live chat offers a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to improve their customer support.

ProProfs Desk helps businesses manage customer inquiries through a centralized ticketing system, making it easier for customer support agents to tackle multiple inquiries at once. The software also includes a live chat feature that enables agents to engage with customers in real-time, helping them resolve issues quickly and efficiently.

What to Consider When Evaluating Help Scout Alternatives?

Choosing the right customer support software can be a daunting task, especially with the plethora of options available in the market. Here’s what you need to consider.

What to Consider When Evaluating Help Scout Alternatives
  • Functionality: Consider the features and functions that you need in a customer service software. Does the alternative include all the necessary features you require? For example, some alternatives might not offer chat features, while others might not have the ability to create complex automations.
  • Integrations: Evaluate how well the alternative integrates with your current workflows and tools. Ensure that it supports the integration you need, including integration with your CRM, e-commerce platform, payment gateway and other essential tools.
  • Usability: Usability is a critical factor in choosing an alternative to Help Scout. Ensure that the chosen alternative is user-friendly and can be easily adopted by you as well as your team. You want to be sure that it doesn’t take a long time to learn how to use the software.
  • Pricing: Evaluate the cost of each alternative to Help Scout, considering your budget and the resources available. Look out for any hidden charges, such as charges for additional integrations, upgrades or fees.
  • Security and compliance: Consider the security and compliance provisions of each alternative. Look for alternatives that adhere to data privacy regulations, such as the GDPR & CCPA. They should have reliable security measures to protect your data and your customers’ data.
  • User reviews and reputation: Research user reviews and case studies to get real-world feedback on the alternatives you’re considering. Pay attention to reviews from businesses similar to yours in size and industry.

Why is Omni24 One of the Top Qualtrics Alternatives?

Although Help Scout is undoubtedly one of the top players in the market, there are several Help Scout alternatives available and Omni24 is one of them. Omni24 brings a complete suite of customer communication features, from live chat to a knowledge base and omnichannel support. With its user-friendly interface and easy-to-use functionalities, you can efficiently manage all your customer support needs.

Omni24 also supports enterprise-level businesses and offers scalability as your needs expand. Hence, if you are looking for a Help Scout alternative that offers more features and cost-effectiveness, Omni24 is the way to go.

Scale Your Conversations with Omni24’s Digital Customer Experience Platform

Omni24’s DCX platform harnesses automation and AI to deliver unified customer experiences across digital channels, while keeping human touch.

Frequently Asked Questions about Help Scout Alternatives & Competitors

When choosing a Help Scout alternative, it’s important to consider factors such as your business size, budget, the complexity of your customer support needs and any specific features you require. Take the time to research and compare different options to find the best fit for your business.

The pricing of Help Scout alternatives can vary depending on the features and plans offered. Some alternatives may be more affordable for small businesses or startups, while others may be better suited for larger enterprises with more complex support needs. It’s recommended to request pricing quotes from multiple providers to compare costs.

While Help Scout alternatives may offer similar core features such as ticketing systems, knowledge bases and reporting tools, the specific features as well as integrations can vary. It’s important to review the feature sets of different options and ensure they meet your business requirements.

Some Help Scout alternatives may cater more towards specific industries or business sizes, offering specialized features or support for certain types of businesses. Consider your industry and business size when evaluating different options to find a solution that aligns with your needs.