Bonfire Rating: 4.7/5
Zendesk for Service offers everything SMBs need to take their customer service to the next level!
Zendesk for Service
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Fantastic Ticketing System
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1,200+ Apps & Integrations
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Standard Chatbot Functionality
As a small business owner, you probably know how difficult it can be to find the perfect customer service platform.
Choosing the wrong one can result in long wait times, customer frustration, and loss of revenue as a result.
I’m AJ, and I’ve spent the last decade building my digital agency (while using all kinds of service software).
After a successful exit with the agency, I started Small Business Bonfire (SBB) to help empower business owners and entrepreneurs to succeed.
I knew one of the first customer support platforms we had to talk about first was Zendesk for Service.
We go in-depth into the platform with our testing (over the course of 3 months) to show you why it’s one of our favorites at SBB.
Let’s break it down!
You Can Trust Small Business Bonfire
Since 2009 Small Business Bonfire has been testing and rating thousands of business software to help you (our small business owners) start & scale your organizations. If you want to know more about how we test, please read this article here.
What is Zendesk for Service?
Zendesk for Service is a powerful standalone service solution that helps manage customer requests, improve customer communications across the board, and empower your support teams.
Zendesk for Service is essentially one-half of the overall platform of Zendesk, helping to manage the service half of the CRM.
It’s fantastic for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) because it has some of the most advanced productivity automation and AI-based features of any service desk software on the market.
It also allows you to connect multiple messaging channels all to one centralized location (via the ticketing system) to make things easier.
Here’s a rundown of the features that Zendesk for Service offers:
- Ticketing system
- Robust integrations
- Multichannel support
- Productivity automation
- Help center creation
If you’re invested in improving your customer relationships, we recommend giving Zendesk for Service a try. They offer a 14-day free trial with their plans, so there’s no barrier to entry.
Pros and Cons of the Zendesk for Service
Let’s look at the pros and cons of Zendesk for Service.
Zendesk for Service Pros
- Tons of ways to connect with customers all in one location
- Productivity automation allows agents to focus on what matters
- Easy to use and intuitive interface
- Lots of great integrations
- The help center creation is great for self-service
- Chatbots are easy to set up and connect with customers
Zendesk for Service Cons
- The price can be a bit high
- Lack of customization with chatbots
Who is Zendesk for Service Best Suited For?
Zendesk for Service is a fantastic service to help manage customer success.
We think it’s best suited for the following:
- Small businesses – Zendesk for Service is great for small businesses looking to scale their service efforts with automation and multichannel support.
- Midsize companies – It’s great for businesses with a large customer base because it has powerful AI chat capabilities and agent productivity tools.
Who is Zendesk for Service Not Suited For?
We’ve gone over who Zendesk is great for, but it’s worth considering who it’s not necessarily the best fit for.
We think it’s not suited for:
- Companies on a tight budget – The price can be a bit high for some businesses, so it might not be the best option if you’re on a tight budget.
- Startups – Startups typically might not need the full suite of features that Zendesk for Service offers right away.
Zendesk for Service Software Pricing
Zendesk for Service offers the following 4 pricing plans:
- Suite Team -$49/month (billed annually)
- Suite Growth – $79/month (billed annually)
- Suite Professional – $99/month (billed annually)
- Suite Enterprise – $150/month (billed annually)
The platform also offers foundational support plans at the following tiers:
- Support Team – $19/month
- Support Professional – $49/month
- Support Enterprise – $99/month
How Does Zendesk for Service Pricing Compare?
Compared to Zoho Desk (another popular customer service solution), Zendesk for Service is on the pricier side.
For example, Zoho Desk starts at $20/month with their Standard plan, whereas Zendesk for Service starts at $49/month with their Suite Team plan.
In terms of the most expensive plans, Zoho Desk is very affordable at $50/month for the Enterprise plan. In contrast, Zendesk support costs $150/month for the Suite Enterprise plan.
It’s worth noting that while Zendesk for Service is more expensive than a lot of the competition, it’s got a ton of awesome automation features that make the price tag worth it.
Zendesk for Service Pricing Tips
Zendesk for Service Features
Zendesk for Service has an advanced ticketing system that makes it easy to keep track of customer requests and conversations.
It's incredibly intuitive, allowing agents to quickly sort through multiple tickets and assign tasks with ease.
One thing we love about Zendesk for Service's ticketing is that it logs every customer interaction across your multiple channels as a ticket.
This means that your support team can view and respond to every issue immediately, even if the conversation was part of an automated live chat or message on your website (or mobile app).
Plus, the "interactions" tab shows the history of all conversations related to the ticket. This helps make sure support teams never have to worry about data loss or lost conversations.
We got started by setting up some tickets for our Small Business Bonfire service team, and it was up and running in minutes (shown below).
In our opinion, the ticketing system is the bread and butter of a service solution, and Zendesk definitely delivers the goods.
Zendesk for Service offers some great automation tools for agents, allowing them to focus on nurturing customer relationships instead of busy work.
A few of the most helpful features we found were the following:
- Triggers and automations to streamline the service process
- Views to sort through tickets quickly
- Macros to send responses with just one click
We thought it was awesome how easy it was to be able to easily see which tickets needed the most attention, allowing our support to focus on high-priority tickets first.
Plus, triggers allowed us to do things like sending automated messages when tickets were overdue or automatically assigning tickets to the right team members.
Here's an example of one that we set up.
We also were able to utilize macros to send entire pre-written messages with the click of one button.
Here's what the preview section for our "customer not responding" macro looks like to give you a better idea of how easy it was to select and send.
If you've got a lot of requests coming in at once, this automation feature can save your team a ton of time.
Zendesk for support provides multichannel support so customers can connect from multiple sources while your team views everything from Zendesk.
The support channels that the platform offers are:
- Voice
- Live Chat (Web, Mobile, Social)
We set up our email and live chat during our testing and found both to be easy to use and intuitive.
As we touched on, all of these channels create tickets for every conversation. This allows your support team to see everything in one place.
In today's digital landscape, it's important for SMBs to go with a service option that offers great multichannel support.
Throughout our months of testing the software, we consistently felt that Zendesk for Support delivered in that regard.
AI chatbots have revolutionized the way businesses interact with their customers by allowing a consistency and immediacy that was never possible with human support teams.
These digital assistants can provide swift responses, round-the-clock support, and personalized interactions.
That's where Zendesk for Service comes in with their AI-powered chatbots. We set one up within minutes (with no prior coding knowledge needed).
Here's what the initial creation screen looks like to give you a better idea of the interface.
We simply named our bot and selected our language. From there, we customized some answers and standard responses.
We especially liked how Zendesk for Service takes a rather complicated process and makes it as simple for beginners as possible.
There might be a slight learning curve for users who are completely new to chatbots. However, with the help of their how-to videos and knowledge base of articles, it gets a lot easier as you go.
We were able to test out our bot within minutes and found it to be incredibly helpful for deflecting tickets, freeing up our service team's time for more complex tasks.
Here's our helpful little Bonfire Bot.
The one thing that could have been improved upon is that there are no customization options for the appearance of the chatbot. We've tested other chat solutions that allowed you to add logos, change the color, and add personalized avatars.
We hope to see this added in the future just because we think branding is super important when connecting with your customers through any platform.
Zendesk provides the ability to create a help center for your business to assist customers in solving issues before a ticket ever needs to be made.
What's even better is that the platform allows you to customize the design to fit your branding.
It's also incredibly easy for agents to update the help center with new articles as needed.
Overall, we found Zendesk for Service's help center offering to be a powerful and comprehensive tool for knowledge base management.
We created a simple layout (using one of their helpful templates) that had some announcements and FAQs for customers to check out.
We were able to include quite a bit of helpful information within our help desk in just a matter of minutes.
From real-time analytics to performance reports, Zendesk for Service provides great data about your service team through Zendesk Explore.
The platform collects all of the customer interaction information and presents it in an easy-to-read dashboard. This allows you to quickly see how the team is performing and make changes where needed.
Plus, you can track key metrics like the following:
- Customer satisfaction
- Response time
- Ticket resolution rate
We found the reporting and analytics to be incredibly useful in understanding how our support team was performing.
Zendesk for Service boasts over 1,200 different apps and integrations (and they aren't kidding).
The Zendesk Marketplace (pictured below) makes it easy to find and download all your favorite apps.
Some of our favorites that they offer include:
- Slack
- MailChimp
- Google Drive
- Zapier
- Quickbooks
There are seriously tons. Luckily, we were able to sort by rating and even see reviews that other users had made about each app.
Since we use Slack for most of our communication at SBB, we decided to check out the reviews (screenshot below).
In this particular case, it seemed clear from the reviews that this specific integration was rather limited.
We still went ahead and checked it out just to see during our testing, but it's still nice to be able to do research on how well each app integrates.
Zendesk for Service offers a wide range of customer data management features.
These features allow agents to easily manage and add customer profiles, view tickets and updates in real time, and store customer contact information in one place.
We especially liked how easy it was to click on a contact and have all of their tickets and correspondence available right away.
Here's an example of an SBB contact that we clicked on. As you can see, their information is available in an easy-to-read format, with their open ticket displayed in a clear red color.
What are the Limitations of Zendesk for Service?
Zendesk for Service is an incredibly powerful customer service platform, but it’s not without its limitations.
The most notable limitation is the high cost of some plans – if you’re on a tight budget, then there are cheaper alternatives that don’t have as many powerful support capabilities.
A smaller limitation that’s still worth mentioning is the lack of customization in some aspects of the site, such as chatbots. While it’s possible to accomplish a lot of tasks with this tool, we would have liked to see some more personalized branding options for our bot.
What Sets Zendesk for Service Apart from the Competition?
What really sets Zendesk apart from the competition is the sheer amount of automation and AI-based features that it offers.
The platform is incredibly easy to use, has access to over 1,200 apps and integrations, and its customizable help center feature makes it easier for customers to find answers to their questions.
If you’re looking to scale up your service efforts in a big way, we recommend you check out Zendesk for Service ASAP.
How to Get Started with Zendesk for Service
Upon navigating to the homepage of Zendesk for Service, we were immediately greeted with a call-to-action for us to start our free trial of the software.
This is an excellent way for small business owners to get started before committing to any long-term contracts or paywalls.
We got started by clicking the “start your free trial” link. From there, we were asked to enter our email address, name, and phone number.
After we filled out a few more forms, including “company name,” “number of employees,” and “select a language.”
We liked that we were given the option to select between a ton of languages, including:
- English
- French
- Spanish
- Italian
- Portuguese
A lot of platforms offer support for multiple languages, but very few of them allow you to change it right away in the onboarding process.
After we confirmed our email, we were surprised by a few more in-depth questions to help improve our experience.
These questions included:
- How do people reach you?
- Who do you help?
- How many agents will use the platform?
- When do you plan to launch?
From there, we were taken to a tab called “get started,” which essentially walked us through the entire process of setting up Zendesk for Service.
This onboarding process was honestly one of the best we’ve experienced during our years of testing these products.
Is Zendesk for Service Easy to Use?
Zendesk for Service is very easy to use. This is (in part) because of the extremely helpful “getting started” tutorial that practically guides you through the entire platform (shown below).
Zendesk for Service has an easy-to-use interface and features a modern look that isn’t overly complicated.
There are intuitive icons, menus, and dropdown options to ensure that you can quickly find what you need.
Zendesk for Service Customer Service Review
Given that Zendesk for Service is a customer support platform, we had high expectations for this part of the review.
We found that the customer service team was always quick to respond, knowledgeable, and helpful.
When we had an issue or question, they would respond within minutes with helpful resources or answers.
Zendesk for Service’s customer service team really exceeded our expectations.
Just to test out how quickly we could get assistance, we decided to ask their helpful chatbot a question about creating a bot of our own.
Within less than 5 seconds, we received a ton of prompts with helpful answers from the chatbot. We decided to speak to an agent just to really test out the service capabilities of the platform. We connected with the agent in less than 5 minutes and received the help we needed.
It’s great to see a service solution that has fantastic customer service of its own — 10/10 in our book.
Other Zendesk Products
If you’re looking for a sales-focused product under the Zendesk umbrella, then look no further than Zendesk Sell.
Formerly known as Base CRM, Zendesk Sell is a sales CRM designed to help businesses increase revenue and productivity. It’s essentially the sales CRM half of Zendesk.
Zendesk Sell simplifies the sales process and helps your team focus on what really matters: closing more deals.
Some features offered by Zendesk Sell include:
- Sales triggers
- Email integration
- Task player (task management)
- Power dialer
- Bulk outreach
Plus, it integrates seamlessly with Zendesk for Support with live chat and multichannel messaging. Essentially, You can seamlessly transition your prospects from the sales process to the customer experience (post-sale process).
Zendesk for Service Alternative Comparison
Zendesk for Service is a fantastic option, but it’s not the only customer service solution out there. Here are some great alternatives.
Is Zendesk for Service Worth it for Small Business Owners?
Entrepreneurs and SMBs looking for a reliable customer service solution should definitely consider Zendesk for Service. The platform offers robust automation features, intuitive integrations, and a modern interface that’s easy to use.
The 14-day free trial makes it easy to test the software out before committing to any long-term contracts.
Overall, we’d recommend giving Zendesk for Service a try if you’re looking for a powerful customer service platform. The productivity automation and AI chat features alone make it worth considering in our opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions About Zendesk for Service
Zendesk is great for customer service! It allows service agents to provide better support by responding more quickly to customer questions, solving tickets in real time, forming better customer relationships, and creating an overall better customer experience.
One of the main drawbacks to Zendesk is that it can be quite expensive. Depending on the plan you choose, you may find that the costs associated with using Zendesk are more than what other customer service solutions offer. However, if you want access to some of the best customer support software on the market, we recommend trying it out.
Zendesk is popular because it offers a lot of features that other systems don’t. It provides a ton of workflow automation to eliminate repetitive tasks, solve customer issues as they arise, and provide all the tools your teams need to succeed.
Absolutely! Zendesk understands that companies often use multiple software systems to manage their business operations. That’s why they offer seamless integrations with popular tools like Salesforce and Hubspot.
With the Zendesk and Salesforce integration, customers can create, view, and update Salesforce records directly from the Zendesk interface. This makes it easy for businesses to keep track of customer interactions and streamline their sales process.
The Hubspot integration, on the other hand, allows businesses to sync data between the two platforms, so they can easily manage contacts, tickets, and customer information. With the Hubspot integration, your customer service team can focus on delivering top-notch support while your sales team can continue to nurture leads and close deals.
But that’s not all! Zendesk also offers integrations with other popular tools, such as Slack, Apple Business Chat, Shopify, and Trello, to name a few. This means that no matter what software systems your business uses, Zendesk can work seamlessly with them to help you deliver exceptional customer service.
Zendesk is the go-to solution for customer service software and for a good reason. With its comprehensive software suite, Zendesk enables businesses of all sizes to optimize their customer support workflows, improve efficiency and boost their bottom line.
One of the biggest advantages of using Zendesk is that it allows businesses to streamline their customer support processes. Zendesk’s ticket management system makes it easy to organize customer inquiries, track support requests and provide timely and efficient responses to customers. Additionally, the software comes with a range of automation tools that can significantly reduce the time and resources required to handle customer support tasks.
For instance, one of Zendesk’s most popular features is its automated routing system. This feature automatically assigns incoming tickets to the appropriate department or agent based on the type of inquiry or support request. This ensures that no tickets are overlooked or go unanswered and that customers receive a timely response.
Another benefit of Zendesk is its ability to integrate with other applications and tools. This can significantly increase efficiency by automating tasks that would otherwise require manual input. For example, Zendesk integrates seamlessly with CRM tools like Salesforce, enabling businesses to automatically log customer interactions and support requests.
Finally, Zendesk offers a range of reporting and analytics tools that can help businesses identify and improve upon areas of weakness in their customer support workflows. This can be invaluable when it comes to improving customer satisfaction and reducing churn rates.