Welcome to the future of customer service!
In an era dominated by technology, customer service automation software has helped my team support a rising customer base and get more done with limited resources.
In this blog, I will reveal 10 customer service automation systems to enhance process efficiency, reduce human errors, and elevate the overall customer experience.
| Tools | Best For | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| ProProfs Help Desk | Automated Ticketing System | Free plan available. Paid starts at $19.99/month |
| Zendesk | Help Center | $55/user/month |
| Freshdesk | AI-Powered Ticket Management | $15/user/month |
| Help Scout | Automated Workflows | $20/user/month |
| Hiver | Condition-Based Assignments | $10/user/month |
| LiveAgent | Time Rules | $9/user/month |
| Zoho Desk | Automated Ticket Escalations | $14/user/month |
| ProProfs Chat | Automated Chatbots | $19.99/user/month |
| HelpDesk | Auto-Tagging Tickets | $29/user/month |
| HappyFox | Ticket Templates | $26/user/month |
10 Best Customer Service Automation Software
Now it’s time to explore each tool’s features and capabilities from head to toe.
Allow me to share the list of ten tools that have been a part of my support team over the past sevent to eight years. Let’s explore their unique features, cons, and pricing details for a fair analysis.
1. ProProfs Desk – Best for Automated Ticketing System
I have been using ProProfs Help Desk for over three years now and feel it’s an automation powerhouse.
Right from ticket assignments to notification sharing, there are multiple tasks that we have successfully automated. The result? We have witnessed a 2X increase in the number of customer issues we handle, and consequently, our CSAT score has also gone up.
I really love the canned responses feature that lets me share one-click replies to common customer queries related to product availability, return and refund policies, and many more. Also, automated email notifications and alerts ensure everyone in our team is updated on the ticket progress and never miss out important actions.
Besides the automation features, I’m sure you will find the tool’s omnichannel capabilities quite impressive. You can bring conversations from email, live chat, web forms, and other channels to a shared space, so agents have better visibility.
What you’ll like:
- An easy-to-use interface can help your team get started in no time.
- Multichannel ticketing via email, live chat, help center, and web forms
- Ticket prioritization for urgent customer issues that demand immediate attention
- Monitor agent ratings and other important metrics to improve support performance
What you won’t like:
- Frequent feature updates can be overwhelming for some users
- More integration options should be available
Pricing:
FREE for a single user. Plans start at $19.99/user/month for 2 or more users. No hidden fees. A 15-day money-back guarantee.
2. Zendesk – Best for Help Center
Image Source: Getvoip.com
When anyone asks me about the most cost-effective to automate customer service, I always suggest they create an online help center covering FAQs, video tutorials, etc. The help center works 24/7, even when your team is offline.
Zendesk’s help center feature helped us get our help center up and running in no time. We could reduce the overall ticket volume by providing self-service options and quick resolutions to our global customers.
Besides this, you can also use this tool to create an online community forum. Your forum becomes an immersive platform where customers can raise questions, share answers, and view upcoming product updates or feature releases.
On the downside, I feel Zendesk’s pricing is quite expensive, making it an unsuitable option for startups, small businesses, and even some mid-segment companies.
What you’ll like:
- 100+ integrations to improve customer service performance
- AI answer bots to handle routine customer queries
- In-depth performance analytics and reports
- Community forums to enable customers to discuss their queries online
What you won’t like:
- Expensive subscription plans make Zendesk an unsuitable option for small businesses
- The tool comes with a steep learning curve
Pricing:
Starts at $55/user/month.
3. Freshdesk – Best for AI-Powered Ticket Management
Image Source: Freshdesk
Freshdesk has gained tremendous popularity in recent years – thanks to its AI-powered automation features.
Its AI, called Freddy, can quickly refer to past tickets to suggest fields for new ones, making ticket management easy and eliminating the hassle of sorting and prioritizing incoming requests.
Also, I loved how Freddy could automatically scan through our ticket queue and suggest if any ticket needed immediate attention from customers, agents, or supervisors.
If you run an online business, I suggest you integrate Freshdesk with Shopify, Magento, or other e-commerce platforms. This will help you easily view customer purchase history and recent transactions in one place.
What you’ll like:
- Agent collision detection to prevent multiple team members from working on the same issue
- Omnichannel capabilities to interact with customers on multiple channels
- WhatsApp integration to interact with your customers in an instant
- Ticket forms can be uploaded on your webpages to capture detailed information
What you won’t like:
- Multiple icons and features on the home dashboard can be confusing for first-time users
- Attaching files, especially images, to tickets takes a lot of time
Pricing:
Starts at $15/user/month
Read More: Top 15 Freshdesk Alternatives & Competitors
4. Help Scout – Best for Automated Workflows
Image Source: Help Scout
When it comes to building automated workflows for customer service, Help Scout always comes to my mind.
From ticket tracking and management to sharing automated replies or notifications, Help Scout helped me automate mundane tasks and get more time to focus on taking care of our customers.
For instance, I could easily create workflows using specific conditions. Whenever a customer message contained the word “refund,” a tag with the same name was automatically applied to it.
Initially, it can be a struggle to create different workflows, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite fun.
What you’ll like:
- Help center can be made public or restricted to specific visitors
- Article ratings help you measure your content quality
- Real-time collision detection to avoid duplicate replies
- AI can be used to summarize long email threads
What you won’t like:
- You will have to pay extra to use the in-app messaging feature
- The AI features are still at an early stage and don’t give reliable results at times
Pricing:
Starts at $20/user/month
5. Hiver – Best for Condition-Based Assignments
Image Source: Hiver
Is ticket routing driving your team nuts? I think Hiver has a solution for you!
Hiver is a Gmail-based customer service solution that lets you turn your inbox into a full-fledged help desk system. My favorite feature is the condition-based ticket assignments. Let me explain how it works.
While using Hiver for around six months, I could create specific conditions to automatically assign incoming emails to agents. For instance, emails containing the word “payment” in the subject line or the email body were automatically assigned to the accounts department.
On the downside, Hiver’s Lite plan is limited to just two shared inboxes. Since the software is built around email ticketing, I feel they should offer more shared inboxes in every plan.
What you’ll like:
- @ mentions help you invite team members to discussions
- Android and iOS apps for seamless field service
- Knowledge base to empower customers with self-service
- SLA reminders to avoid SLA violations
What you won’t like:
- Hiver’s Lite plan is limited to just two shared inboxes
- More integrations with third-party tools should be offered
Pricing:
Starts at $10/month.
6. LiveAgent – Best for Time Rules
Image Source: LiveAgent
LiveAgent is another impressive platform that seamlessly integrates live chat, ticketing, and automation.
I got the opportunity to explore LiveAgent’s different features during my 30-day free trial period. What impressed me the most was its time-based rules. As the name suggests, these rules aren’t action-triggered but instead are time-conditional.
Some examples of time-based triggers are – Tickets older than, ticket status changed older than, tickets due in less than, etc. The system will automatically make changes to such tickets at the pre-defined time.
Besides this, LiveAgent offers a Universal inbox feature to manage different communication channels like live chat, email, phone, and social media in one place.
What you’ll like:
- Automated ticket assignments for improved task allocation
- Spam email filtering to avoid insignificant messages in your help desk
- Ticket Tags to better organize help desk tickets
- Private notes to promote internal discussion among team members
What you won’t like:
- Some must-have features, such as custom roles and time tracking, are only offered in the Large Business plan
- LiveAgent’s overall user interface seems quite outdated and needs improvement
Pricing:
Starts at $9/user/month
7. Zoho Desk – Best for Automated Ticket Escalations
Image Source: Zoho Desk
At some point, we’ve all encountered customer complaints or inquiries where timely responses were missed. For managers, it’s crucial that they are promptly alerted about such overdue tickets.
This is where Zoho Desk comes to the rescue with its automated ticket escalations feature. The tool allowed us to automatically escalate tickets that had passed their due time (based on SLAs).
In fact, with this feature in place, even agents became more mindful of the deadlines as they knew no ticket could slip through the cracks.
Zoho Desk also comes with pre-built templates for ticket forms, notifications, and email responses. I’m sure this will help you save time and respond faster.
What you’ll like:
- Multi-brand help centers can be created for your different brands
- Android and iOS mobile app to support customers even on the move
- Zoho CRM integration helps you get complete customer information
- Automated time-tracking to generate accurate bills for clients
What you won’t like:
- The live chat feature is only available in the Enterprise plan
- Round-robin ticket assignments and collision detection are not offered in the Standard plan
Pricing:
Starts at $14/month.
8. ProProfs Chat – Best for Automated Chatbots
If there is one customer service automation feature that everyone should look forward to this year, it has to be a chatbot.
ProProfs Chat helped my team create chatbots in simple steps and deploy them on multiple channels. For instance, we have deployed customer service chatbots on our website, online help center, and even mobile app.
The best part is that you don’t have to be a coding genius to create your chatbot’s conversational flow. Almost anyone can get started quickly with ready-to-use chatbot templates.
In addition, you can use this tool to share personalized greetings with website visitors and promote your ongoing offers or discounts. You can also access chat transcripts and download them for internal training or monitoring purposes.
What you’ll like:
- Chat sneak peek feature to see what customers are typing before they send their message
- Chat invitations can be sent to customers based on the time they spend on a website
- Bot performance reports to monitor how many successful chats your bot can handle
- Post-chat surveys to capture feedback and measure agent performance
What you won’t like:
- Too many features can be overwhelming for new users
- More industry-specific chatbot templates should be added
Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid starts at $19.99/month.
9. HelpDesk – Best for Auto-Tagging Tickets
Image Source: HelpDesk
If you are struggling to keep your help desk inbox up to date and organized, you can try HelpDesk.
This simple tool will help you automatically tag incoming tickets so every conversation stays highlighted, and agents can quickly decide which issue they need to work on.
Your agents can add Tags based on the ticket content, source, type, or the expertise needed to address the case. Also, in the absence of recent customer activity, HelpDesk allows you to automatically send a personalized follow-up message to convey your care.
Even though HelpDesk offers a single subscription plan, it’s quite expensive compared to other automated customer service software out there.
What you’ll like:
- Bulk actions can be performed on similar tickets
- Statuses and priorities for improved ticket organization
- Weekly summary reports to get an overview of your team’s achievements
- Email signatures can be configured to build trust with customers
What you won’t like:
- HelpDesk is quite expensive given the features it brings to the table
- Customer support isn’t responsive at times
Pricing:
Starts at $29/user/month
10. HappyFox – Best for Ticket Templates
Image Source: HappyFox
HappyFox is a versatile solution designed to streamline customer support operations. With intuitive ticketing, automation, and a centralized knowledge base, it empowers teams to provide efficient and responsive assistance.
I was particularly impressed with HappyFox’s ticket template feature, which helped us simplify our ticket creation process.
We created different ticket templates for different teams so that the system could automatically pull in relevant information from the message and even add custom fields if required.
That being said, I am not much impressed with HappyFox’s overall look and feel. The main interface seems clunky as there is too much information to scan.
What you’ll like:
- CSAT surveys to capture instant feedback from customers
- Facebook and Twitter integrations to keep an eye on social media mentions and comments
- Private notes to encourage internal collaboration
- Chatbots can be trained to share answers from your knowledge base
What you won’t like:
- The main interface displays too many details and icons that can be overwhelming for new users
- The software vendor should offer more in-depth performance metrics
Pricing:
Starts at $26/month.
Which Is the Best Customer Service Automation Software?
The best tool for your team will always depend on factors like your team size, specific feature requirements, budget, etc. However, some options can work great for all types of businesses and industries.
If you are in a hurry and want straightforward recommendations, I would be happy to be of help.
Here are the top 3 recommended tools that have nailed customer service automation:
Option A: ProProfs Help Desk
Unlike other tools in the market, ProProfs Help Desk offers all the automation tools and capabilities you will need to support a large customer base. From ticket routing and notification sharing to surveys, you can automate repetitive tasks and focus more on personalized assistance.
Option B: Hiver
If Gmail is your primary communication channel, you can consider Hiver for your team. The tool will help you convert your email inbox into a full-fledged help desk system, incorporating additional channels like live chat and knowledge base.
Option C: Zoho Desk
In my opinion, Zoho Desk is another simple and affordable automated customer service software that can help you manage ticket escalations with ease. As soon as a support ticket violates any SLA, it can be automatically escalated to the appropriate team leader or manager.
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:
User Reviews/Ratings
Direct experiences from users, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites such as G2 and Capterra, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.
Essential Features & Functionality
The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.
Ease of Use
The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.
Customer Support
The quality of customer support is examined, taking into account its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.
Value for Money
Value for money is evaluated by comparing the quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they would be getting their money’s worth.
Personal Experience/Expert’s Opinion or Favorites
This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the personal experience of the writer and the opinions of industry experts.
If you’re still uncertain, my recommendation is to explore ProProfs Help Desk. It offers a comprehensive customer support suite with robust automation features like automated ticket assignments, canned responses, automated CSAT surveys, chatbots, and more.
If you have any further questions, feel free to explore this small FAQ section below.
Learn More About Customer Service Automation
How can customer service automation benefit my business?
Customer service automation boosts your business by increasing efficiency, reducing response times, and enhancing customer satisfaction. Automated processes streamline tasks, allowing your team to focus on more complex issues, ultimately creating a seamless and positive customer experience that contributes to improved loyalty and brand reputation.
How does AI play a role in customer service automation?
AI revolutionizes customer service automation by leveraging machine learning and natural language processing. It analyzes customer inquiries, automates responses, and personalizes interactions. AI-driven chatbots provide instant support, while predictive analytics anticipates customer needs. This synergy enhances efficiency, responsiveness, and overall customer satisfaction in the automated service landscape.
How user-friendly is customer service automation software for non-technical users?
Customer service automation software is designed with user-friendliness in mind, ensuring accessibility for non-technical users. Intuitive interfaces, drag-and-drop functionality, and guided workflows simplify the automation process. Non-tech users can effortlessly configure and manage automated tasks, making the software a valuable asset for enhancing customer service without requiring extensive technical expertise.
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