Help Scout vs. Zendesk

At the heart of the help desk solution lies customers and hence, they need to be taken care of. Help Scout and Zendesk are two splendid help desk solutions and have numerous features that have to be evaluated to make the final decision process.

Let us learn more about intended users, pricing info, features, merits, and demerits of Help Scout and Zendesk help desk solutions.

Intended users – Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Help Scout is a cost-effective and reasonable help desk solution that is the right option for users from all walks of life – freelancers, small organizations, non-profit organizations, etc.

Zendesk scores over Help Scout in terms of features like UI usability and customizability. However, we could see from the following pricing info that Zendesk is not the right option for smaller organizations that are tight on budget.

Pricing info – Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Help Scout is designed to be pocket-friendly and this help desk solution is available in 2 pricing options viz. Standard and Plus. The standard option is available at the rate of 20 USD per month per user and this plan bags one doc Knowledge base, five mailboxes, workflows, satisfaction ratings, and reports.

If you would like to relish better features, you would consider upgrading to the Plus feature which is available at the rate of 40 USD per month per user and this plan boasts of cutting-edge reporting features. In addition to these plans, users may also opt for a free plan which can be used by three users and offers 1 mailbox.

Zendesk renders a free 30-day trial option for users so that they could decide whether it is the right option for them or not. Zendesk offers 4 pricing options to suit different user groups Essential (5 USD per agent per month), Team ( 19 USD per agent per month), Professional ( 49 USD per agent per month), and Enterprise ( 99 USD per agent per month).

Features – Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Ticket Management -Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Help Scout supports a collision detection feature and this helps to notify instantaneously if any other user is working on the same ticket. It is also fortified by an instant search feature which empowers clients to get hold of the information that they need at the drop of a hat.

Branding / CSS control features enable users to leverage the business as it offers multiple settings which offer CSS control. It also gets more than 75 keyboard shortcuts which help in easier ticket management. What if you get multiple conversations from the same user?

You could merge it easily for easier control. Canned responses help to answer common questions straightaway.

Zendesk offers flawless ticket management solutions with multiple desirable attributes like default views, macros, and RTF. Users may also view the ticket on the basis of factors like ticket status, assignee, group, and the like. Macros serve to reply to common requests in the form of standard answers.

On-hold ticket status enables users to differentiate response times of your group with respect to that of a third party.  Keyboard shortcuts help in easier ticket management and control. It also renders dynamic content attribute where ticket details could be incorporated with respect to the preferred language option.

Macros serve to reply to common requests in the form of standard answers. On-hold ticket status enables users to differentiate response times of your group with respect to that of a third party.  

Keyboard shortcuts help in easier ticket management and control. It also renders dynamic content attribute where ticket details could be incorporated with respect to the preferred language option.

Reporting and Analytics -Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Help Scout has truly ‘upped the ante with its powerful reporting and analytics features. It boasts of simple and innate reporting capabilities. The user could filter reports on the basis of multiple parameters like date, conversation mode, and the like.

Reports are created in such a way so as to help you in easily measure customer satisfaction parameters and thereby improve the business operations. Help Scout reports are printer-friendly which implies that you could print the reports easily and share them with other users also.

Reports API helps users retrieve all the metrics and reports pertinent to your organization. Conversation drill down is yet another feature worth mentioning.

The real forte of Zendesk lies in reporting and analytics capabilities and the range of reporting features that it offers like Summary reports, At Glance reports, Comparison Reports, and Top-N analysis reports serve as a testimonial for this note.

To help users in a better way, Zendesk provides 16 different report tracking parameters to meet different types of user requirements. Features like ticket response and resolve time, load analysis, top agent performance, etc. are conceived to complement Zendesk’s reporting forte.

Getting to know about your client can help you to adapt the business model so as to boost your helpdesk service. Zendesk has also integrated satisfaction surveys into the chat section to get to know about user satisfaction and gauge team performance.

It helps to focus on your weak points and slowly transform them into your strong points.

Safety -Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Security and privacy is often touted as the USP of Help Scout help desk solution – It gets all of the security-relevant certifications like HIPAA Business Associate Agreement, PCI DSS standards, and ISO 27001/27002 to stay relevant in the helpdesk niche.

Other features like encryption of sensitive data, HTTPS for all pages Data backup in numerous locations, etc. further add value to its safety feature.

Zendesk also offers a wealth of safety attributes like two-factor authentication, SSL encryption, and SSL certificate hosting. In order to stay updated about the significant changes which are integrated into your helpdesk solution, audit logs come to your rescue.

To offer added safety, the Network access restriction feature enables limited access from specific IP ranges. In order to feel the power of premium safety features like SSO with SAML support, custom roles, permissions, etc. one needs to scale up to higher versions.

Integrations -Help Scout vs. Zendesk

Help Scout offers a plethora of integrations – as high as forty plus 3^rd party integrations – Hively, WooCommerce, Agile CRM, Talk desk, and Screen steps to quote a few. It also provides a good number of integrations for the analytics sector like KISSmetrics and Segment.io.

Zendesk has also devoted its focus to rendering an admirable integration suite with prominent social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and CTI integrations. In addition to this, it also offers integration with tools that back time tracking, e-commerce, etc.

Zendesk

Pros

• Admirable customization feature
• Asset management feature
• Good social ticketing factor

Cons

• Expensive helpdesk solution
• No WYSIWYG editor

Help Scout

Pros

• Innate inbox and document editing features
• Easy to use help desk solution
• Good customer care solution and appreciable documentation
• Reasonably priced

Cons

• It usually takes some time to update the inbox counts
• A limited number of features