Tag: customer support system

  • A Complete Guide for Using Automated Answering Systems

    As a business owner, improving customer satisfaction is crucial to your success. One way to achieve this is by implementing an automated answering system known as an auto-attendant. This phone-based system can handle a high volume of calls, directing them to the appropriate department or individual, eliminating the need for a live receptionist. This makes it an effective solution for businesses operating outside of traditional hours.

    When it comes to improving customer satisfaction, companies often take various steps to achieve this goal. However, when faced with a high volume of customer requests, concerns, and complaints, it can be difficult to keep up. Fortunately, with the help of automation, automated answering systems are now available to act as customer service representatives and handle all customer inquiries on your behalf.

    Automated answering systems can complement the role of a receptionist by helping to grow your business, manage customer relationships, and streamline processes. They do not replace the need for a human receptionist. It acts as a digital receptionist that is available 24/7 to handle all customer inquiries. This eliminates the worry of missed calls or missed messages, as the service will take care of everything on your behalf. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know about automated answering services.

    What is the process of using automated answering systems and how do they function? This guide will provide a basic understanding for beginners.

    What Is an Automated Answering Service?
    How Does an Automated Answering Service Work?
    What Is Call Deflection?
    Benefits of Automated Answering Services
    Different Sectors That Use Automated Answering Services

    What Is an Automated Answering Service?

    Several companies have live operators on board to answer phone calls and take down key customer messages. Such companies generally rely on automated answering services that take care of the phone whenever the live operators are busy with other tasks.

    Automated answering services are ideal for individuals who frequently receive important calls but cannot answer each call personally. In short, an automated answering service acts as a replacement for a traditional answering service, handling customer requests and inquiries and providing prompt responses without making customers wait on hold.

    An automated answering service is a tool that manages inbound calls, as opposed to an automated calling service which primarily handles outgoing calls. It utilizes advanced AI technology to provide self-service options to customers, allowing them to quickly receive answers to their requests or inquiries without having to wait on hold. This makes it an ideal solution for individuals or businesses that receive a high volume of important calls.

    How Does an Automated Answering Service Work?

    An automated answering service can be customized to fit your business needs. Whether you need to accept payments, route calls to different teams, or perform other tasks, an automated answering service can handle it for you.

    In other words, an automated answering service is a digital receptionist that can answer calls on your behalf, direct customers towards the relevant department, or guide them through a series of menus. An automated answering service generally works in three different ways

    • Answer the calls on your behalf using your existing phone number
    • Play a pre-recorded greeting message that is tailored to your business requirements
    • Guide customers through a series of menus and ask them for their intent and gather all relevant information
    Global IVR Service Distribution by Region

    An automated answering service can gather a significant amount of information, transfer it to the user, and then direct the caller to the appropriate department. Additionally, an answering service can also use a call deflection feature to manage high-volume calls.

    What Is Call Deflection?

    Call Deflection, as per the name, is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) feature that automatically redirects a call from one point to another whenever a particular endpoint is busy. It is one of the many forms of call diversion.

    Automated answering services can be tailored and customised to meet your business requirements and the needs of every client. When it comes to answering services, every time you receive a call, it will be directly routed to an operator who will then ask the caller/customer their name and the nature of the call.

    Once the operator has obtained the information, they will check if the client has a record in their database. If a match is found, the operator will then route the client to the appropriate party. If no client record is found, the operator will take down the client’s message and then convey it to the client via text message or email.

    Benefits of Automated Answering Services

    Apart from saving you from high customer service costs, and improving customer services. An automated answering service serves several benefits such as

    Professional Imaging

    Based on the needs of your business, you can customize your answering service to ensure that all responses are prompt and enhance the company’s professional image.

    Tailored Answering Service

    An automated answering service can be used for a variety of purposes such as receiving payments, scheduling appointments, recording customer requests/complaints, handling inquiries, and more.

    Saves On Operating Costs

    An automated answering service acts as a digital receptionist that collects all customer information on your behalf, eliminating the need for a middleman or agent and ultimately reducing customer costs.

    Minimum Missed Calls

    Not every call requires an agent to be present. An automated answering service can assist by prioritizing important calls and saving time.

    Wait Time Expectations/Queue Management

    Customers waiting in a queue need to know how long they will be waiting before their request is addressed. An automated answering service can provide wait time expectations for better queue management.

    Simplicity And Precision

    An automated answering service can connect customers directly to the appropriate agent or department by asking them a few simple questions.

    Multiple Routing Options

    Many modern answering services have multiple routing options that reduce customer wait times. This allows customers to bypass the queue and speak directly with a designated agent to address their issues.

    24/7 Customer Service

    An automated answering service allows your business to be available 24/7, providing customers with access to customer service across all time zones.

    Added Sales Opportunity

    Automated answering machines are beneficial for both small business owners and large enterprises to improve and increase sales. Customized answering messages can be created to provide customers with the latest offers and product updates whenever they call.

    Different Sectors That Use Automated Answering Services

    As we mentioned earlier in the article, it doesn’t matter whether you are a small business holder or have a large enterprise, having an automated answering service will help your business grow and flourish.

    Businesses of every stature and size can avail of the benefits that come with automated answering service to save time and cut down on operator costs. Furthermore, these services are perfect for businesses that run 24/7, have limited resources, and/or have international clients.

    Moreover, automated answering services are largely dependent on the type of services businesses offer. Based on the services provided, the following are the places where you can find automated answering services used the most.

    MSME: Medium Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) are some of the best businesses that prefer automated answering services. Although the volume of phone calls might be less, they can still reap the benefits associated with an answering service

    HVAC Services: HVAC services, such as plumbers, often receive calls outside of standard business hours. This is where having an active service can come in handy. An automated answering service can take down inquiries and essential messages.

    Growing/Transitioning Business: Businesses on the verge of transition or an update too tend to use answering services that are flexible and can adjust to their growing business needs

    Real Estate: Real Estate generally happens out of work and on the field. At this time, real estate professionals need someone in the office to attend to client calls and inquiries. This is where a tailored automated answering service comes in handy

    Medical And Dental Offices: Thanks to strict HIPAA regulations, medical and dental service providers have to adhere to strictly when taking down customer information over the phone. This is where you can customise an answering service as per HIPAA laws to ensure safe and secure client information

    Insurance Companies: Insurance workers, like real estate people, tend to work odd hours to better match their clients’ schedules. Therefore, in such scenarios, even after-hours calls are equally important. Setting up an automated call answering service will help attend to those calls and give potential customers the information they want.

    Spas And Salons: Unlike the good old days, modern-day spas and salons require you to make a prior appointment. Setting up an answering machine and customising it will help customers make that appointment with ease.

    In short, having an automated answering service is a great option for businesses with multiple operations areas. Therefore, if your business operates in different areas, having an answering service is extremely supportive in growing your business.

    Conclusion

    Automated answering services can complement traditional agents at a call centre and help grow your business in many ways. With an automated answering service, you have a digital receptionist available 24/7 to handle all customer inquiries. This has made it even more important for businesses to have an automated answering service in place to ensure that they don’t miss any important calls, even when they are not physically present to answer the phone. With an automated answering service, businesses can ensure that all calls are answered promptly and efficiently, regardless of the time of day or the location of the caller.

    By having an automated answering service, you can improve customer service, increase productivity, and streamline your business communication. It can also help you save on operating costs, time and staff resources, and provide you with a professional digital presence 24/7.

    FAQ

    What is an IVR dialer?

    An IVR Dialer is an automated dialer that dials numbers from a given database and plays IVR (Interactive Voice Response) messages when connected.

    What is an automated answering system?

    An automated answering system allows your contact centre to answer phone calls without a customer service agent on the line. Instead of your team answering calls, an automated phone answering machine uses self-service and advanced automated AI to answer.

    What is the function of an automated voice answering system?

    Interactive voice response is an automated telephone system that combines pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech technology with a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) interface to engage callers, allowing them to provide and access information without a live agent.

  • No-Code Development Platforms for CRM and Customer Support

    Customer Relationship Management and Customer Support, while often overlooked, are some of the most important and crucial assets of an online enterprise across SMEs of different scales and domains. While you still need a robust infrastructure and web framework for your business to garner customers and attract visitors, the fact is that you need a good CRM to retain them.

    Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and Customer Support tools are generally used by marketing professionals and sometimes by customer support teams to interact with customers. CRM tools help online enterprises build strong relations with customers and retain them, in turn expanding the business and ensuring customer loyalty.

    Although there are various CRM solutions available over the internet, a custom tool that caters to the specific needs of your business would be quite an asset. This is where no-code development tools for CRM and Customer Support come in. Such tools help you build custom CRM and Customer Support Solutions without using code, specifically designed to serve your business. In this article, we compare some of the best No Code Development Tools for CRM and Customer Support, so you can take your pick.

    Crisp
    Zendesk Sunshine
    DronaHQ
    Outseta
    Attio

    Crisp

    Pricing Starts from $25
    Rating 4.5/5

    Crisp No-Code CRM
    Crisp No-Code CRM

    Crisp is a no-code multichannel platform that helps connect companies to their customers and offers various integrations, and automation, as well as a chatbot for seamless customer support and interaction. Be it marketing with targeted emails or cross-channel customer support, Crisp encompasses various tasks and helps you convert leads and retain them coherently. You can also manage and organize your database centrally, and monitor contacts’ website activity regularly.

    Features

    • Enrich contact records with social media profiles and real-time notifications, so you are always prepared to communicate with customers.
    • Chatbots and live chats allow you to interact with and convert leads even when you’re asleep, hence optimizing your work.
    • With Crisp, you also get to track events and target and filter leads with high conversion chances for high work efficiency.
    • Centralize your database with a unique customer data platform to identify prospects and engage with them.
    • Moreover, Crisp also allows users to automatically engage with the website while also segmenting contacts into groups.

    Pricing

    Pro Plan Unlimited Plan
    $25 per month $95 per month
    4 seats included 20 seats included
    Unlimited history, Triggers,
    Canned Responses, Private Notes,
    Customization, and other features
    Knowledge Base, Status Page,
    Chat Reminders, Routing/Assign,
    Automate Campaigns, Analytics,
    and many useful features

    The Basic Plan offers the most basic features such as live chat, mobile apps, and team inbox. In contrast, the Pro and Unlimited plans offer several advanced features including triggers, audio messages, Slack replies, live translations, various integrations, and others.

    Zendesk Sunshine

    Pricing Starts from $19
    Rating 4.3/5

    Zendesk Sunshine No-Code CRM
    Zendesk Sunshine No-Code CRM

    An open and flexible CRM platform, Zendesk CRM allows organizations to manage and store all their customer data in one place and helps them build better customer experience. While the usual CRM platform adheres to the old ways of viewing the customers with a single dimension, Sunshine helps you look at the complete picture and also offers innovation and scalability.

    Features

    • Zendesk offers a customer-centric architecture along with the ability to identify and segment customers in your business.
    • With the primary components of Zendesk Sunshine being Unified Profiles, Events, Objects, and Conversations, it offers you a comprehensive insight into the customer experience.
    • Native to AWS, users can also link Sunshine to Amazon Events Calendar, and stream Zendesk events in real-time.
    • New data sources for products, orders, and customers can be stored as custom objects and used for insights.
    • Messages from different channels can be viewed in a unified manner to better interact with the customer and enhance conversion rates.

    Pricing

    Suite Team Suite Growth Suite Professional
    Includes all the basic
    features and costs $49
    per agent per month
    Offers features such as self-
    service and automation and
    costs $79 per agent per month
    Offers an advanced suite of
    collaborative and analytics
    features and costs $99 per
    agent per month
    Leading ticketing system
    along with cross-
    channel messaging
    All features included in the
    Suite Team along with a Self-
    service portal and AI-powered
    knowledge base
    All features included in the
    Suite Growth along with
    conversation routing and
    community forums
    Automated answers
    along with agent
    workspace with
    reporting and analytics
    Offers custom ticket layouts
    along with light access
    licenses
    Offers custom dashboards and
    private conversation threads
    Data storage with
    robust APIs
    SLA management along with
    multilingual support
    Offers voice capabilities along
    with AWS Events Connector

    DronaHQ

    Pricing Starts from $100
    Rating 4.4/5

    DronaHQ No-Code CRM Development Platform
    DronaHQ No-Code CRM Development Platform

    DronaHQ is a low code development platform that helps users build custom tools including CRM and customer support tools without using code. To say that the demands in an Ecommerce dominated industry are quite dynamic would be an understatement. However, with the suite of features that DronaHQ has to offer, users can find the perfect solution. A custom CRM would mean that the workflow from lead to billing would be seamlessly governed by the organization, making it the ultimate tool to look out for.

    Features

    • Custom design with drag-and-drop functionality, statistics, and a multilingual approach makes the tool all the more appealing.
    • Embed push notifications and screen navigation along with field validations while also integrating with external applications.
    • You can also connect to Google Sheets and even to your online database through Connectors and APIs.
    • Seamlessly manage business processes and workflows with instant sign-offs and real-time database updates.
    • DronaHQ also allows for routine automation with webhook triggers and integrated applications.

    Pricing

    Starter Plan Business Plan Enterprise Plan
    $100 per month billed
    annually
    $500 per month billed
    annually
    Custom pricing based
    on features
    Over 25K tasks per month
    along with 10 published
    applications
    Over 125K tasks per month
    along with 20 published
    applications
    Unlimited published
    apps and tasks
    5K records along with 20 GB
    of cloud storage
    5K records along with 40 GB
    of cloud storage
    Unlimited records with
    custom cloud storage
    2 admins with 5 connectors 10 admins with 25 connectors Unlimited admins and
    connectors

    Outseta

    Pricing Starts from $39
    Rating 4.8/5

    Outseta No-Code CRM
    Outseta No-Code CRM

    Outseta offers various SaaS services including billing, helpdesk, and authentication; CRM is one of them. With Outseta, you can manage all the tasks from lead conversion to billing and customer interaction in one place, and better interact with your leads. Be it managing sales pipelines or tracking customer engagement, Outseta offers a single unified platform for all operational needs of an early-stage startup.

    Features

    • Seamlessly create and manage records and add custom properties with email and customer support requests.
    • Manage your sales pipeline with efficient drag-and-drop tools and track your lead’s progress in real-time.
    • Outseta also allows you to create custom events that correlate with your product and enhance user engagement.
    • Product engagement insights can be used to track your most proactive leads by billing stage, cohort, and based on other factors.
    • Outseta also allows users to track their Gmail conversations so as to not lose context when engaging with a customer.

    Pricing

    Founder Plan Start-up Plan Growth Plan
    $39 per month $79 per month $119 per month
    Up to 1,000 contacts Up to 5,000 contacts Up to 10,000 contacts
    Unlimited members Unlimited members Unlimited members
    All features included All features included All features included

    Attio

    Pricing Custom Quote
    Rating 4.6/5

    Attio No-Code CRM
    Attio No-Code CRM

    Attio is one of the most comprehensive tools when it comes to building other relationship management platforms. With Attio, you can keep your network and team in sync by importing, sorting, and managing contacts, along with building and designing your own workflow. You can also collaborate seamlessly by sharing workflows and contacts in real-time to make the best out of your efforts.

    Features

    • Attio’s automated contact sync automatically imports contacts and updates them whenever there is a new connection.
    • Smart email sharing and sorting allow users to keep track of important conversations that your team members have.
    • You can also make use of various integrations effortlessly including Zapier and other tools with Attio’s efficient API.
    • Manage inbound deals with customizable pipelines and visual investment processes to analyze your portfolio.
    • Attio offers real-time updates along with iOS and Android applications allowing you to stay connected and deploy quick actions.

    Conclusion

    Customer Relationship Management and Support are one of the more important aspects of any business, and making use of custom tools to generate and nurture leads is one of its most underrated aspects. The above-listed tools allow you to embed and use custom tools without using code, in a CRM specific to your needs, and hence serve as the ultimate tools for the development of CRM and Customer Support.

    FAQs

    Code-free tools can be helpful for people with no coding knowledge or those who don’t want to learn coding to get their tasks done. Special skills are not required to use the tools. Users can make changes quickly and easily. Development and customization of the apps are convenient.

    Does no-code have a future?

    Yes, no-code has a future bright future. Code-free platforms are gaining popularity. They can help in cutting down the cost of software development. Users without coding knowledge can develop and customize their apps.

    Which are the best no-code tools?

    Crisp, Zendesk, DronaHQ, Outseta, and Attio are among the best no-code tools.

    What are no-code examples?

    DronaHQ, Zendesk, MailChimp, and WordPress are some examples of no-code.

    Which are the best no-code tools?

    Crisp, Zendesk, DronaHQ, Outseta, and Attio are among the best no-code tools.

    What are the disadvantages of no-code?

    • Limited functionality
    • Speed and Scalability
    • Limitations in customizing applications
    • Security concerns
  • Best Knowledge Management Systems And Tools

    For a software or an SaaS, users often have questions regarding their functioning, features or even any technical issues they might face. This is also true for websites. One common solution for such situations is a Customer Support Platform for customers to contact, and resolve their queries. Although viable, this solution is far from perfect; after all, users don’t really prefer calling customer support if things can be sorted on their own.

    This is where Knowledge Management Systems come in. They help organizations build a repository of frequently asked questions, queries and solutions to possible issues. All the valuable information which might be required by the users, is stored and sorted in one place. These are documented in a format which can be efficiently understood by users. This helps users save time by not having to contact customer support. It allows users to self-help so they can resolve the technical issues all by themselves. This also help in maintaining an easy to find and informative knowledge base for both, customers and employees.

    Knowledge Management Systems have helped various users and organizations in handling customer queries and continue to do so, and in recent times, various such applications have emerged, that claim to be the best in business. This can often be overwhelming, and baffle users, as to which one they should prefer. So here we compare 5 most popular Knowledge Management Systems, so you can make the best pick that suits your business.

    Guru Knowledge Management Software
    Servicenow Knowledge Management
    Document360 Knowledge Management Software
    Confluence Knowledge Management System
    ProProfs Knowledge Management System
    FAQs

    Guru Knowledge Management Software

    Guru | Knowledge Management System
    Guru | Knowledge Management System

    Guru is a robust Knowledge Management System, and a ‘guru’ in its own right. It helps keep users up with the workflow providing any information needed, with just a few clicks. Guru offers a verification workflow and a browser extension for quick information access, along with automated onboarding. Its knowledge alerts keeps the employees updated in real-time and delivers information whenever, and wherever you need it. Also, you can integrate Guru with Slack and Microsoft Teams, for better team collaboration and communication.

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    Pandemic or no pandemic, official work requires team collaboration, especiallyon occasions such as building projects, presentations, or even planning out anevent. Team communication is extremely important in such tasks; and to behonest, Whatsapp and Facebook are more suited to informal conversati…

    Features Offered by Guru

    • Guru allows you to organize information in a way suited to your business or application employees, and is accessible effortlessly.
    • Guru’s browser extension as well as integration with slack allow you to find the necessary information, anytime and anywhere.
    • Guru creates a repository of all required information ranging from Google Docs to Slack to within application, to make it centrally available.
    • It allows you to sync all your internal and external data, in turn keeping it up to date. Moreover, with Collection, Boards, and Groups you can view, who is looking for what, and get insights into your data repository.
    • Keep your knowledge base up to date and expert verified, avoid having duplicate content, and get insights to further improve your knowledge base.

    Pricing for Guru

    Starter Plan Builder Plan Expert Plan Enterprise Plan
    Built for small teams and comes free of cost Built for fast growing organizations and costs $14 per user per month Built for customer facing teams and costs $24 per user per month Built for huge enterprises and offers custom pricing
    Comes with a browser extension, Slack and Microsoft Teams integration All features included in Starter plan with Knowledge triggers, API access, and analytics All features included in Builder Plan along with AI suggestions and Intelligent Duplicate Detection All features included in the Expert plan with other custom features
    Knowledge fields include cards, Q&A, and knowledge clipper Offers knowledge triggers and alerts Offers AI Suggest Expert and Text Along with AI Suggest, it also offers users custom AI integrations
    Starter plan offers users to embed Guru cards Builder plan offers user insights and analytics Expert plan users also get ticket linking with API access Users enjoy ticket linking, API access, along with Guru cards and analytics
    Standard customer succcess support and uptime Roles and groups security with standard support and uptime Roles and groups security with standard support and uptime SAML compliance with user provisioning and deprovisioning along with premiere customer supportSer

    Guru Knowledge Management System

    Servicenow Knowledge Management

    ServiceNow | Knowledge Management Tool
    ServiceNow | Knowledge Management Tool

    Servicenow is an ML driven knowledge management system focused on enhancing self service of customers and boost employee productivity. With its knowledge sharing platform and knowledge gap identification using quality trends and usage tracking, Servicenow endeavors to increase user satisfaction, and help them harness knowledge from communities. Servicenow knowledge management covers for IT, Employee, and Customer workflows, along with your self developed application.

    Features Offered by Servicenow

    • Integrate with Microsoft Word online, and experience a simplified knowledge and additional authoring to manage the learning curve.
    • Identify and visualize knowledge gaps and assign gaps to authors using ML models to enhance self service of customers.
    • Servicenow also allows employees and agents to capture relevant knowledge based articles during their work.
    • Enhance your feedback process using improved organizational knowledge, along with customer and employee knowledge management feedback.
    • You can also convert casual and unshaped conversations into structured knowledge, and deploy information from articles and communities to your knowledge base.

    Pricing for Servicenow

    There is no free plan for service now. They offer quote-based plan. One needs to contact servicenow for the plan and pricing details.

    Servicenow Knowledge Management

    Document360 Knowledge Management Software

    Document360 Knowledge Base Platform
    Document360 Knowledge Base Platform

    Document360 is a Knowledge Base Platform built for growing companies, and allows you to create creative, out-of-the-box self serving knowledge base, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Document360 also furnishes you with an intuitive interface, wherein the editors and reviewers get a Knowledge Base portal which they can edit with ease, while the customers employees can view all the information that they need through the Knowledge Base Site.

    Features Offered by Document360

    • The Knowledge Base Portal offers editors an editor and allows for a category manager, versioning along with rollback.
    • Analytics tool in Knowledge Base Portal informs editors of the traffic, and what the users are more interested in, through metrics, user feedback, and link analytics.
    • The Knowledge Base Site can be customized and branded with navigation menu and custom domain, while also offering you an AI powered search engine in real-time.
    • For SaaS and Websites, Document360 offers a Knowledge Base Assistant, which can be seamlessly integrated with your product, and offers on demand help to customers.
    • Document360 also offers various extensions and integrations including Helpdesks, Chatbots, Analytics tools, CRO tools, as well as conferencing tools.

    Pricing for Document360

    Startup Plan Business Plan Enterprise Plan Enterprise plus Plan
    Costs $49 per project per month Costs $149 per project per month Costs $299 per project per month Offers custom pricing depending on the plan
    Allows for 2 team accounts and costs $5 per additional account per month Allows for 5 team accounts and costs $7 per additional account per month Allows for 15 team accounts and costs $9 per additional account per month Allows unlimited team accounts
    Offers 5GB storage and costs $1 per additional GB per month Offers 50GB storage and costs $1 per additional GB per month Offers 150GB storage and costs $1 per additional GB per month Offers 300GB storage and costs $1 per additional GB per month
    Offers 10k page visits per month along with $1 per month for additional 1000 visits Offers 50k page visits per month along with $1 per month for additional 1000 visits Offers 150k page visits per month along with $1 per month for additional 1000 visits Offers 300k page visits per month along with $1 per month for additional 1000 visits
    Offers 1 Knowledge Base version Offers 2 Knowledge Base versions Offers 6 Knowledge Base versions Offers 12 Knowledge Base versions

    How to create a knowledge base in Document 360

    Best Document Management Software
    Document management (DM) software encompasses a wide range of features andfunctionalities, many of which are critical to effectively running a business[https://startuptalky.com/tag/business/]. Many small to midsize businesses (SMBs), such aslegal firms, creative firms, or media and publishing org…


    Confluence Knowledge Management System

    Confluence | Knowledge Management System
    Confluence | Knowledge Management System

    Confluence by Atlassian is a collaboration and knowledge base platform, which helps centralize all your organization’s important information in one place. It allows you to harness the collective information of your organization from your employees and store the accumulation in the form of easy to find answers. This way, all team members can be motivated, ranging from HR to marketing, to share their information and announcements, to create a knowledge sharing platform, which keeps itself updated in real time.

    Alternatives for Pipedrive CRM for Efficient Sales Management Teams
    With the rise of online tools and SaaS over the web, it has become a consumerhub of software and online services. This exponential rise in both partiesonline, the seller and the buyer, have lead to the rise is demand of SalesManagement Tools. A sales management tool helps you manage leads and clo…

    Pipedrive Alternatives

    Features Offered by Confluence

    • Confluence offers an intuitive structure with pages, where information can be added and edited as well as spaces with pages for individual teams, groups, and personnel.
    • The knowledge base for documentation and product requirements consists of advanced search and page trees to find pages and page hierarchy.
    • Confluence offers you to choose from a collection of customizable templates, and helps you deploy plans with powerful Jira integrations.
    • Real-time editing allows for your knowledge base to always be updated, while the page and inline comments make things simpler form editors.
    • Manage permissions and share information between groups and teams, and spread new information with blogs asserting transparency.

    Pricing for Confluence

    Free Plan Standard Plan Premium Plan Enterprise Plan
    Free for up to 10 users Costs $5 per user and an average $50 a month Costs $10 per user and an average $100 a month Custom pricing according to the plan opted
    Offers unlimited pages and spaces with page versioning, along with structured page tree Offers page and space permissions with insights and audit logs Premium plan offers you analytics with team calendars and permission inspection Enterprise plan offers users admin insights and external collaboration
    Free plan includes password policies and domain verification Standard plan includes password policies and domain verification along with session duration management Offers disaster recovery and IP allowlisting Enterprise plan offers you sandbox along with data residency
    Allows for 2GB of file storage with community support llows for 250GB of file storage with support at local business hours Unlimited file storage with 24/7 premium support Unlimited file storage with 24/7 enterprise support

    Confluence Knowledge Base

    ProProfs Knowledge Management System

    ProProfs Knowledge Base software
    ProProfs Knowledge Base software

    ProProfs is a Knowledge Base Software that helps users to create knowledge bases, user manuals, and documentations. With 24/7 instant self help and access management, ProProfs helps develop team collaboration with over 100 integrations and settings. You can create knowledge bases and help sites within minutes with an easy setup, and help customers find answers to more frequent questions. Also, you get absolute control over your viewership, and choose to make your site public or restrict access.

    Features Offered by ProProfs

    • ProProfs enables team collaboration by creating different groups and assigning different admins, editors and other positions of responsibility to individuals.
    • ProProfs has an easy setup, and needs no software downloads, and can be accessible anytime at any place and any device.
    • It helps reduce customer emails and calls by furnishing them with self-help facilities, while allowing users to customize and brand the knowledge base according to their theme.
    • Secure controls of the knowledge base, retain employee knowledge and store it in an efficient manner, and centralize documents with analytics and reports.
    • ProProfs also offers various integrations including Zendesk, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Disqus among various others, for smooth functioning.

    Pricing for ProProfs Knowledge Base

    Free Plan Essentials Plan Premium Plan
    Free plan offers users 20 Knowledge Base Articles Costs $0.3 per page per month Costs $0.5 per page per month
    Allows for unlimited page views, with 1 knowledge base and manual Allows for unlimited page views, with 1 knowledge base and manual Allows for unlimited knowledgebases, manuals and, docs
    Offers professional templates along with 1 author/editor Offers branding, custom domain, version control, 1 author/editor, and 1 private site Allows unlimited authors, private sites, along with roles and collaboration
    This plan offers users 10 learners in Training makers, 1 operator and 1 agent for help desk Offers basic help widget and integrations with premium customer support Offers advanced help widget, integrations and onboarding and success manager

    ProProfs Knowledge Management Software

    Best Marketing and Sales Tools
    Software as a Service (SaaS) is amongst the three main classes of cloudcomputing service models. It’s a software distribution model which customers canaccess online via third-party providers. It may sound complicated or “techie” tosome, but it’s likely that you use many SaaS [https://startuptalky.com/tag/saas/…

    FAQs

    What is meant by knowledge management?

    Knowledge management is the process of management and maintenance of an organization’s information and knowledge and makes the best use of knowledge. It is stored as a knowledge base so that it can be referred to in the future.

    What is Knowledge management system?

    A knowledge management system is an IT system or tool that stores and retrieves knowledge to improve understanding, collaboration, and process alignment. It helps in organizing all the organizational information and knowledge in the form of guided workflows, FAQs, articles, and more and makes it easily accessible for both internal and external customers.

  • Top 5 Zendesk Alternatives

    The web is brimming with online enterprises, SaaS intelligence, and consumers of the same. And to be able to sell your product successfully, you need something to be able to stand out from the rest; to give the consumer a reason to choose you over your competitors. Additionally, having good customer service, and being there for your consumers for any and every technical support regarding your service is an added benefit. This is where Zendesk comes in.

    What is Zendesk?

    Zendesk is essentially a Customer Support Platform, that allows users to connect with consumers on different channels including chat, email or phone. It helps create a space for customers to interact with each other and with you too. It gathers all your interactions with customers in one place, allowing you to create a seamless and productive workflow so that you can offer your consumers a personalized experience and get better feedback. It makes for a win-win situation for both the parties since it offers both customer satisfaction and honest feedback.

    Although Zendesk is one of the more popular choices for a Customer Support Platform, users might look for Zendesk alternatives to find tools which best suit their business or sales strategy. Here we offer a list of 5 Zendesk alternatives that you can use to find the perfect fit to your business needs.

    Freshdesk
    Kayako
    LiveAgent
    Helpcrunch
    Intercom

    Freshdesk

    Freshdesk Customer Service
    Freshdesk Customer Service

    Freshdesk is one of the few names which primarily appear in the list of Zendesk Alternatives, and for good reason. It is designed to cater to the needs of business of any size or scale, across any touchpoint, over call, chat or email. Along with automation of workflows, you get to interact with your customers to offer a more personalized experience. Chatbots from Freddy AI are easy to deploy for better engagement with customers to resolve the issues faster. It also has a free trial available with all its basic features to try out, so it can be considered as a zendesk free alternative.

    Features Offered by Freshdesk

    • Freshdesk promotes team collaboration through FreshConnect, shared ownership of tickets along with division of tasks with different kind of tickets.
    • Freshdesk scans through the inquiries for automated segregation to assign tickets to the agents they belong.
    • Tickets are also monitored for updates and as soon as there is an update, actions are automatically triggered.
    • Freshdesk helps you collect customer support data and use it to your advantage and offer the customer a better, more personalized experience.
    • Freshdesk also allows you to encrypt communication between server and browser with SSL certified security.

    Pricing for Freshdesk

    Sprout Plan for getting started Blossom Plan for standard support Garden Plan for getting efficient Estate Plan for best performance Forest Plan for enterprise
    Comes free of cost Costs INR 999 per month per agent when billed annually and INR 1399 when billed monthly Costs INR 2599 per month per agent when billed annually and INR 3299 when billed monthly Costs INR 3599 per month per agent when billed annually and INR 4999 when billed monthly Costs INR 7199 per month per agent when billed annually and INR 8999 when billed monthly
    Offers email, social ticketing, and ticket dispatch Offers all Sprout plan features along with automations, market detection, and collision apps Offers all Blossom plan features along with time tracking, CSAT surveys, and performance reports Offers all Garden plan features along with custom roles, reports, and dashboards and portal rebranding Offers all Estate plan features along with routing, sandbox, audit log, and agent shifts and scripts
    Also offers ticket trend and report along with datacenter location Also offers Help desk report and SLA management Also offers multilingual knowledge base and custom apps Also offers customer segments and dynamic ticket forms Includes many more features such as email bot, article suggester and many more


    Top Support Desk Software Solutions
    Keeping customers [https://startuptalky.com/tag/customers/] and users happy iscritical to most organizations’ idea of success. 90% of customers believe an“immediate” response is “important” or “very important” when they have acustomer service question. Help desk software is a suite of tools that …

    Support Desk Software

    Kayako

    Kayako Customer Support
    Kayako Customer Support

    Kayako is a Personal and Connected Customer Service software, that offers support in multiple languages. Kayako offers two kind of services, which are, On-Premise, as a service desk software and Kayako Cloud, for small and medium businesses as a fully integrated help desk. With a live chat software and a context driven customer service, Kayako also offers you shared inbox and a self help knowledge base making it a full-fledged Customer Service Software.

    Features Offered by Kayako

    • Showcase your propensity with visualized customer journeys and unifying their interactions to deliver the best customer support service possible.
    • Offer live customer support to your audience with the Customer Chat Software for effortless and personal communication.
    • Integrate with Zapier and other popular applications and platforms and automate tasks with clicks as many as you can count on your fingers.
    • Kayako offers multichannel conversations to better understand your audience and help them turn into loyal customers.
    • Let your customer resolve issues without support through self service offered by Kayako with Help Center.

    Pricing for Kayako

    Inbox plan Growth plan Scale plan
    Costs $15 per agent per month Costs $30 per agent per month Costs $60 per agent per month
    Offers live chat and email with basic help center Offers all features in Inbox plan along with advanced automation and custom views, fields, and reporting Offers all features in Growth plan with workflow customization and Internal Help Center
    Offers a mobile SDK with over 600 Zapier integrations Offers multiple brands and languages and advanced Help Center Offers custom security and permissions along with Salesforce integration


    Bootstrapped SaaS Startups and tips for Bootstrapping your Startup
    The concept of bootstrapping a business is nothing new. The term originates fromthe concept of “pulling yourself up by your own”. In the business world, theterm generally refers to: “Financing and growing your business without the needfor external assistance in the form of capital investment.” In…

    SaaS startups including Kayako

    LiveAgent

    LiveAgent Customer Service
    LiveAgent Support

    LiveAgent is a robust customer service to stay close to your customers. It offers you various features including real-time customer chat, video calling, tracking and responding to Facebook posts and comments and that of Twitter. Moreover, LiveAgent also flaunts an customizable Interactive Voice Response(IVR) to make things more organized.

    Features Offered by LiveAgent

    • LiveAgent offers users a plethora of integrations including Zoho, Intercom, Stripe, Insightly, and Sendy among various others.
    • Gather around all your communication channels in one universal inbox and let automation take over the rest of your work.
    • LiveAgent collects all your communication reports from different social networks and organizes them based on priority, so you can attend to the most important ones firsthand.
    • LiveAgent also runs time rules in the background with ticket management in the front end. You can also use tags to differentiate between customers.
    • You also get customizable Contact groups, contact management and fields, internal ticketing, and mass actions.

    Pricing for LiveAgent

    Free plan Ticket plan Ticket and Chat plan All Inclusive plan
    Free account with some limitations Costs $15 per agent per month and offers a full sized ticketing solution Costs $29 per agent per month and offers live chat with ticketing Costs $39 per agent per month and offers all features in one plan
    All basic features are included such as ticket history, live chat, call support, and actions on tickets Offers all features of basic plan with advanced reporting, SLAs and multi brand support Offers all features of Ticket plan with feedback management and tracking visitors in real-time Offers all features of Ticket and Chat plan with video calls and call routing
    Other features include spam filters, basic reports, mail templates, and satisfaction surveys Ticket plan allows you to load CRM data along with API and integrations This plan allows you to send chat invitations to your customers along with satisfaction surveys Other features include unlimited call storage, audit log and time tracking


    List of Free Tools You Can Get While Working From Home
    We all are still fighting against Covid-19. There are a lot of news we areseeing these days which are not good at all. Almost the whole world is inlockdown because of Coronavirus. However, we are in this phase together. Hence,many companies are providing free access to their paid tools to help pe…


    Helpcrunch

    Helpcrunch Customer Support
    Helpcrunch Customer Support

    Helpcrunch is an all in one customer communication platform which helps engage customers automatically, generate leads, and support them 24/7. You can customize live chat to match your branding with agent’s avatar and automated greetings to offer your customers a knowledge base and help desk along with multi channel support on the web and on mobile devices.

    Features Offered by Helpcrunch

    • Helpcrunch offers user live chat in real-time along with email marketing through targeted emails for marketing and advertising campaigns.
    • With the help of knowledge base, Helpcrunch allows you to create articles for users to assist themselves in self-service.
    • Interact with your user and provide in-app support with mobile SDKs and applications and give your users the support they deserve.
    • Send automated messages to keep the users engaged and handle customer requests from multiple channels via Help Desk.
    • Create your own eye catching popups and integrate with tools that you currently use for higher lead conversion.

    Pricing for Helpcrunch

    Standard plan Premium plan Enterprise plan
    Costs $12 per user per month Costs $20 per user per month Enterprise plan offers custom pricing depending on your needs
    Offers 1 chat widget, 3 auto messages and popups Offers 5 chat widget, unlimited auto messages and popups Offers all features in Premium plan with additional features
    Offers help desk with knowledge base and full customization Offers all features in Standard plan with advanced customization Furnishes the users with a personal onboarding assisstant



    Intercom

    Intercom Marketing and Customer Support
    Intercom Marketing and Customer Support

    Intercom is a customer relationship oriented platform that helps you communicate with your audience throughout their journey with conversational experiences. Deploying a conversational approach helps deliver a more personalized experience with the perspective of a user and helps retain loyal customers. Moreover, features such as customizable bots, automated answers, outbound message, and help center articles make assistance of the users, all the more convenient.

    Features Offered by Intercom

    • Intercom offers all kinds of customer services including one on one support, self service, and proactive support.
    • Keep your customers engaged with tours and messages and carry out multi channel campaigns to optimize your management further.
    • Intercom offers behavioral data and attributes to segment and personalize messages along with integrations to sync data across your tech stack.
    • Intercom mobile application offers as much functionality as does the desktop tool, along with insights into the user activity on the application.
    • Retain more customers with multiple integrations including Slack, Stripe, Square including other tools.

    Pricing for Intercom

    Start pricing plan Grow pricing plan Accelerate pricing plan Scale pricing plan
    Costs $39 per month and is suited for basic chat and messaging Costs $99 per month and is suited for basic chat and messaging Costs $499 per month and is suited for automated workflows and reporting Costs $999 per month and is suited for automated workflows and reporting
    Includes onle 1 user and offers live chat Includes 5 users and offers inbound and outbound emails Includes 10 members and offers custom bots, team inboxes, and automated assignment rules Includes 10 members and offers SLA rules, workload management and custom permissions
    Additional features include targeted outbound chat, team inbox, and Slack integration Offers all features in Start plan with conversation rating and HubSpot integration Offers all features in Grow plan with ticketing workflow and performance reporting Offers all features in Accelerate plan with SSO and SAML integrations with custom API


    List of Top Customer Experience Management Software in 2020 | Free Tools
    Customer Experience Management refers to collection, organization, and trackingof customer feedback, both negative and positive. It is important to ensure thatyour customer gets a smooth and flawless experience while using your service. Customer experience management software or CEM does exactly …

    Customer Experience Management Tools

    Frequently Asked Question – FAQS

    What is a customer support platform?

    Customer Support Platforms are essentially services you offer to help your customers get the most out of your product and to resolve their problems. It includes things like answering questions, providing assistance with onboarding, troubleshooting, and upgrading customers to a new product or service.

    What are some zendesk free alternatives?

    LiveAgent is a good free alternative to Zendesk, but the plan does have some limitations. Alternatively, Freshdesk has a free trial feature you can check out.

    What are some best zendesk alternatives available?

    Some best Zendesk alternatives are Freshdesk, Kayako, LiveAgent, Helpcrunch, and Intercom to name a few.

    Who are some competitors to zendesk?

    All the alternatives to Zendesk are their competitors such as Freshdesk, Kayako, LiveAgent, Helpcrunch and Intercom amng others.

  • Top 10 Customer Support Solutions for Startups for 2020

    We all are familiar with the business mantra, “Customer is King”. But what does it imply? It asserts the importance of customers and their satisfaction for any business.

    When it comes to startups, you need to go the extra mile to win customers and it undeniably starts with strengthening your customer support. So, we have listed some customer service solutions for startups or online support solutions for you to solve any customer support problem.

    Customer Support for Startups
    Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    Customer Support for Startups

    Let’s look into some points that illustrate the significance of customer support:

    1. Customer Loyalty and Repurchase
      Every business wishes for customer loyalty, and the only way to build that is by ensuring customer satisfaction. You can ask your customers to rate your product, and the higher the ratings are, the higher are the chances of repurchase.
      Through this, you can always keep an eye on your customer’s choices, and when their rating starts to fall, it’s an indication that you need to modify your product or customer service for startups.
    2. Standing Out in the Market
      These days, the availability of products or services is not a problem for customers as multiple companies are into similar businesses. In such a case, the only way to win over them is by offering reliable customer support.
      Companies that provide excellent customer support create an environment where a customer feels much more comfortable and safer. This way, customers will not only repurchase your product but promote it as well. As it is said, “A satisfied customer is the best strategy to ace the market”.
    3. Tackling Negative Publicity
      Many times, brands bear the brunt of negative publicity in the market, either spread by their unsatisfied customers or competition. With the help of customer support, a brand can directly reach out to their customers and clear the cloud of negativity that’s been building around them.
      Many players like Pepsi, ICICI Bank, McDonald’s, to name a few, have adopted this method to tackle negative publicity.

    Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    Now let’s explore some amazing customer support solutions that’ll facilitate you to offer a great experience to your customers:

    1.  ProProfs Help Desk

    customer service solutions for startups
    ProProfs Help Desk | Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    It is a subscription-based online software that facilitates ticketing of service requests and helps desk management. It helps businesses to manage customer service requests promptly and proactively. The salient features of this robust tool are:

    • Management of e-mails from a single point so that agents don’t miss any service request.
    • Knowledgebase where customers can find most of the solutions instantly thereby reducing tickets by 80%.
    • Live Chat whereby agents can answer the queries of customers in real-time.
    • Customer Surveys and reports to track the performance of agents and find valuable feedback.

    Price: Starting from $39/user/month.

    2.  Aircall

    customer service solutions for startups
    Aircall | Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    It is a cloud-based phone system that caters to the needs of modern-day businesses. It takes customer support to another level with:

    • Bundle of call features like Virtual call centres, power dialing, call conferencing, call routing, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), extension, business hours, and blacklisting.
    • Integration with CRM and other help desk tools to allow agents to call from the app and have a well-informed conversation with customers.
    • Tracking of agents’ performance and their status in real-time.
    • Scalability to add new teams, workflows, and numbers according to business needs.

    Price: Starting from $30/user/month.

    3.  Sprout Social

    customer support for startups
    Sprout Social | Customer Support For Startups

    It is a comprehensive social media management and social publishing tool. It allows businesses to build strong relationships with customers. Some of its key features are:

    • Gathering of actionable data from various social accounts of the business to create customer-oriented business strategies.
    • Publishing tools to help business in planning, developing, organising, and delivering content on multiple social platforms.
    • All in one inbox to manage all social accounts and enhance the responsiveness of business.
    • Advanced analytics to study data from social platforms and make strategic business decisions.

    Price: Starts at $99/user/month.

    4.  ChurnZero

    customer service for startups
    ChurnZero | Customer Service For Startups

    As the name connotes, ChurnZero is a powerful tool that mitigates customer churn. It helps businesses to comprehend the product usage trends of users and their health to enhance the overall customer experience. Some of the main features of this tool are

    • Command Center that acts as a single point to manage all activities.
    • Integrations with other CRM, communication, and analytics platforms to drive meaningful insights to enhance customer experience.
    • Reporting and analytics tools to find customer statistics on various metrics like churn rate, growth, etc.
    • Receive customer usage trends in real-time.
    • Tools like NPS survey to monitor the health of customers.
    • From onboarding, expansion, engagement to advocacy, customer journey across all verticals can be created and monitored.

    Price: Users can request a quote based on their business needs.

    5.  TeamSupport

    customer service for startups
    Team Support

    It is an all-in-one customer support tool offering functionalities such as ticket management, customer management, reporting, and analytics. It is regarded as one of the best customer support software for startups. Its salient features are:

    • Tracking of customer details and their management.
    • Service ticket generation and management.
    • Product database to allow agents to see the products that customers are using and issues pertaining to them.
    • Shared calendar and internal chat option to enhance team collaboration.
    • Knowledgebase where customers can get answers to their questions 24/7.
    • Reporting on various customer metrics to improve the overall support.

    Price: Starts from $50/user/month.

    6.  ProProfs Chat

    customer support system
    ProProfs Chat

    It is a robust tool that allows businesses to capture quality leads, initiate chat with customers, close sales, and enhance customer support. Some of its amazing features are:

    • Track service requests and initiate live chats to create an excellent customer experience.
    • Integration of Knowledge Base and Help Desk with live chat to empower agents with customer-centric data.
    • Real-time monitoring of activities of visitors.
    • Pre-chat forms to capture quality leads and post-chat forms to gather feedback from users.
    • Integration with Google Analytics to facilitate tracking of PPC campaigns.

    Price: $8/user/month.

    7.  Keap

    best customer support software for startups
    Keap | Best Customer Support Software For Startups

    Keap is a powerful CRM tool that empowers businesses to foster a bond with their customers through superior customer services. Some of its chief features are:

    • Automated greetings, reminders, text, and emails to capture new leads and to sustain a bond with existing customers.
    • All-in-one platform where appointments can be set, leads can be tracked, quotes can be accepted, and invoices can be processed.
    • Automation of marketing and sales.

    Price: $49/user/month.

    8.  Trello

    best customer support software for startups
    Trello

    It is an amazing team collaboration and project management tool that allows businesses to boost their team’s productivity to enhance customer support. Its key features are:

    • Based on cards and boards concept where cards represent tasks.
    • A task can be created, edited, delegated, and monitored using the tools.
    • Powerful integrations with other apps like CRM, help desk, etc. to enhance the team’s productivity.
    • Team members can chat with each other and add attachments in the chats.
    • Automate tasks to enhance efficiency so that agents can focus on offering better customer support.

    Price: Starts at $9.99/user/month.

    9.  Salesforce

    online support solutions
    Salesforce

    It is one of the top-rated and most popular CRM software. It is even the best solution for startups as they can get started with minimal investment and infrastructure. Its major features are:

    • AI-powered personalized solutions that create a gratifying customer experience.
    • Tracking of customer interactions and information.
    • Updated information empowers businesses to make insightful decisions.
    • Automation of marketing and personalization of emails to enhance customer engagement.
    • An Impactful social experience by integrating social platforms with the tool.

    Price: Starting from $25/user/month.

    10.  ConnectWise

    online support solutions
    ConnectWise

    It is a cloud-based CRM tool acting as a centralized platform to track all customer data. With this tool, businesses can create an amazing customer experience. Its chief features are:

    • Deployed on-premise and its ticket encapsulates all interaction with users (email, live chat, phone call).
    • Reporting tools to measure performance on various metrics and enhance customer experience.
    • Monitoring sales activities and prediction of future trends.

    Price: Users can request a quote based on their business needs.

    Customers prefer a clean experience, and businesses can provide this in the best way by integrating customer support tools. Understand your customer base and identify their preferences and zero down on that support tool that meets their needs and aligns with your business. Eventually, the support you extend to your customers defines the growth of your business.

    This article was contributed by Vineet Gupta. Vineet is an online marketer who loves to study Google search algorithms. He has been helping businesses in brand building and improving sales for more than 8 years now. He has also made contributions to various online publications by sharing his experience in the field of SaaS product marketing and UX optimization. In his free time, he likes to play with his Dog, watch Cricket and listen to Luis Fonsi.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is live chat support?

    Live chat support allows customers to have text-based conversations with support teams via the web. Using live chat software for startups embedded on the company’s website, customers can send their questions to a person (or sometimes an AI bot) who can quickly reply to them in the same small window.

    What are the best live chat solutions for websites?

    Best Live Chat Software for startups:

    • LiveChat.
    • Pure Chat.
    • JivoChat.
    • Olark.
    • SnapEngage.
    • Userlike.
    • Tidio Chat.
    • Smartsupp.

    What is online customer support services?

    Customer Service is defined as any service that helps customers solve problems. Such a service is usually connected to a business or brand which sells products and offers online support solutions.

    What is the best way to provide customer service?

    Ways to deliver great customer service:

    • Know your product.
    • Maintain a positive attitude.
    • Creatively problem-solve.
    • Respond quickly.
    • Personalize your service.
    • Help customers help themselves.
    • Focus support on the customer.
    • Actively listen.

    What is good customer service examples?

    Good customer service includes remembering and appreciating repeat customers, forging a local connection with shoppers, putting your product knowledge to good use, and more.

    What is a customer support system?

    A customer support system helps an organization to manage customer service requests and interact with the customers to resolve their support tickets. A customer support system is the backbone of your business, and the right help desk software will assist you to position your customer service as a competitive advantage.

    What is the difference between customer support vs customer service?

    The difference between customer service and customer support is that customer support teams support a product, while customer service teams provide service to a customer. The customer has everything they want, but there’s no other feedback or information that goes into the experience.