Over the previous few years, there was a common market development towards specialization. Whether or not you’re within the restaurant enterprise or promoting software program, the adage “the riches are within the niches” appears to ring true. Nonetheless, not all companies take the route of specialization. Some, as an alternative, have chosen to go together with a broader market strategy.
One instance of this within the buyer assist software program house is LiveAgent. Although they began out specializing – they have been initially a stay chat device – they’ve since added to their product providing. Although that has improved the general performance of the device, it’s additionally taken some focus away from these core options that set them aside within the first place.
For those who’re a present LiveAgent consumer who’s trying to make a change or should you’re simply beginning your search and wish to collect extra choices, we’ve a listing of eight LiveAgent options so that you can take into account.
8 greatest LiveAgent options
All the instruments under are within the buyer assist software program house, so there’s some function overlap. That stated, every device has no less than one key differentiator that makes it a greater match for sure groups and use instances.
Greatest LiveAgent different for customer-focused groups.
Assist Scout is a whole communication platform constructed for customer-facing groups. By specializing in just a few key instruments, Assist Scout’s in a position to supply unimaginable performance and worth. Our shared inbox will help enhance productiveness with instruments like workflows, saved replies, and collision detection. It additionally encourages collaboration with inside notes and @mentions, serving to clients get the solutions they want, hassle-free.
With Docs you’re in a position to create, handle, and set up service-related content material. The WYSIWYG editor makes content material creation a breeze. You possibly can additional enrich articles with several types of media and even get entry to Docs-specific stories to higher perceive how content material is performing and establish content material gaps.
Beacon enables you to supply stay chat and offers you entry to proactive messaging by an embeddable widget. You’re in a position to connect with a Docs website, which lets clients search by assist documentation straight from the widget.
Assist Scout additionally comes loaded with pre-built efficiency dashboards. Studies assist you higher perceive particular person and staff efficiency. If you wish to get extra granular, you are in a position to arrange customized views to give attention to the metrics that matter most to you.
Final, however definitely not least, you get entry to Assist Scout’s world-class assist staff, accessible by e-mail 24/6 to reply any questions you could have.
Value: Beginning at $20/consumer monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for groups utilizing Zoho.
Zoho Desk is a buyer assist platform that features a variety of totally different instruments you should utilize to create an ideal buyer expertise. They provide a shared inbox, a data base builder, and a stay chat device. In addition they have an honest quantity of integrations that mean you can hook up with different instruments in your assist stack.
Productiveness options like primary automations, inside notes, and saved replies will help scale back handbook work on your staff and preserve buyer conversations shifting easily. For those who’re a consumer of Zoho’s flagship product – their CRM – the 2 instruments combine seamlessly, giving your brokers much more perception into who they’re speaking to.
Value: Free plan accessible. Paid plans beginning at $14/agent monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for groups needing CRM capabilities.
Kustomer is principally a hybrid of a assist desk and a CRM. You get entry to the assist instruments you’d anticipate, like a shared inbox, however you even have the flexibility to create buyer profiles. Having that further data will help brokers resolve requests extra rapidly and simply.
Their different foremost differentiator is their Kustomer IQ function. It’s an AI-powered bot that does issues like type and assign tickets to scale back handbook work. It may well even reply to primary requests, saving time on your staff. That stated, there are different instruments you should utilize to arrange these sorts of automations which are fairly a bit cheaper.
Value: Beginning at $89/consumer monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for enterprise groups.
Zendesk is without doubt one of the greatest recognized buyer assist software program choices in the marketplace. Their product contains fairly just a few buyer assist instruments like a shared inbox, a stay chat device, a data base builder, and even AI-assisted responses (although that performance is restricted to their highest-cost plans).
Although all of these options are good should you want them, until you’re a really giant staff, Zendesk is likely to be greater than you actually need. That complexity may also imply an extended implementation time in addition to an prolonged onboarding interval for brokers, making it useful resource intensive in fairly just a few methods.
Value: Beginning at $19/agent monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for phone-heavy groups.
Freshdesk is a really comparable providing to Zendesk. They provide a whole lot of the identical instruments like a shared inbox, a data base builder, and stay chat software program. In addition they have productiveness instruments like automations and integrations. That stated, they do have just a few issues that set them aside.
The primary is their phone-focused options. Out of everybody on the checklist, they in all probability have probably the most choices for telephone assist, so should you’re in a name middle setting, Freshdesk is effectively price trying out. One other distinctive factor they provide is a beta function known as High quality Coach (it’s restricted to sure accounts for the second) that allows you to create scorecards to QA buyer conversations and establish data gaps in your staff.
Value: Free plan accessible. Paid plans beginning at $15/agent monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for groups utilizing Salesforce.
Salesforce is a particularly well-known software program possibility within the gross sales world. Many could also be shocked to know they’ve been making assist software program for years. The newest iteration is Salesforce Service Cloud, which is an omnichannel assist platform together with instruments like a shared inbox, stay chat software program, and a data base builder.
Service Cloud additionally has some distinctive administration options like agent scheduling capabilities and quantity forecasting (although some options are restricted to higher-cost plans). For those who use every other Salesforce merchandise, they join with Service Cloud to open up further performance and provides your staff much more methods to ship nice service.
Value: Beginning at $25/consumer monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for groups new to customer support.
One of the simplest ways to think about Hiver is as a Gmail add-on. It really works together with an present Gmail account and offers you entry to buyer support-specific options like the flexibility to assign emails to totally different brokers, go away inside notes, and see when another person is already engaged on a dialog to scale back duplicate work.
For those who solely supply e-mail assist, then Hiver may very well be an ideal answer. Nonetheless, if you wish to add different channels like chat or a data base, you’d have to purchase different instruments as they don’t at the moment have these as choices. For those who anticipate your assist perform will proceed to develop, it could be higher to hunt out choices that may serve you each now and into the longer term.
Value: Beginning at $15/agent monthly.
Greatest LiveAgent different for groups needing multi-language assist.
HappyFox presents a shared inbox, a stay chat device, a data base builder, and an automations device known as workflows. Most of their options are pretty normal, however one standout is the flexibility to do multi-language assist. If that’s an essential function in your checklist, HappyFox could also be price trying out.
We must always be aware, as an alternative of getting a bundle of a number of instruments, every is offered individually. In some methods the a la carte strategy is sweet, because you solely pay for what you want. Nonetheless, should you want a number of instruments, it could get costly and doubtlessly complicated to determine the associated fee.
Value: Beginning at $29/agent monthly.
Discovering the best match
Whether or not your wants are very particular or a bit broader, buying any software program answer is a big endeavor. With the best instruments, your staff can excel and supply clients with a good larger stage of service, so it’s best to take your time earlier than selecting a selected possibility.
Make a listing of your wants, get hands-on expertise with the ultimate choices by demos, and have a wide range of stakeholders take the finalists for a spin to ensure they work for everybody’s wants. In order for you just a little extra steerage in making a decide, take a look at our Purchaser’s Information to Selecting the Proper Assist Instrument.