In a world where customer service and support is a critical factor for success, customer support chatbots have made it easier than ever to provide customers with fast, reliable support. By leveraging automated customer service chatbots, businesses can provide round-the-clock customer support without having to pay human agents to do so.
To help you make an informed decision about which customer support chatbot best suits your needs, we've compiled the top 6 customer support chatbots for 2023.
What are chatbots?
Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate conversations with humans. By using natural language processing and machine learning, chatbots can understand customer inputs and provide intelligent answers in return. This enables businesses to automate customer service tasks and scale their support operations without needing to hire additional human agents.
Pros and cons of chatbots
Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular as a way to provide customer service and support. They can help businesses save time and money while also providing customers with fast answers to their queries. However, there are some drawbacks to using chatbots as well. For example, they may not be able to understand complex customer inquiries or respond in a personalized manner.
Zendesk (4.3/5 stars on G2)
Zendesk is a multichannel customer service and support software designed to help small-to-medium businesses efficiently answer customer inquiries, address issues, and convert leads. With powerful features such as real-time conversations, automated chatbot workflows, and multilingual support, Zendesk Chat is the perfect multichannel support solution for companies looking to provide quick and efficient customer service.
One of the best things about Zendesk is the ability to integrate with Fullview. While a chatbot is a great tool for businesses, utilizing Fullview will make these chatbots much more comprehensive and powerful than they usually are. Why? Because chatbots are often best suited to simple level 1 queries, whereas Fullview's session replays, cobrowsing, and console logs are excellent when you need to escalate a support ticket from level 1 to level 2 or 3.
Some notable features include:
- A searchable customer self-service portal
- Automated chatbot workflows to automatically route inquiries to the appropriate team member for faster resolution
- Robust ticketing system for more in-depth customer inquiries
Price
Zendesk Chat starts at $19 per agent per month for support-only plans and ranges up to $99 per agent per month for pro plans.
Pros
- Ticket escalation management is streamlined
- Abundant multichannel integration options
- Highly rated ticket response user experience
Cons
- Customization options are limited
- Analytics can be improved
- Mobile user experience is subpar
Intercom (4.4/5 stars on G2)
Intercom is one of the most popular chatbot services on the market, and is well-known as a tool for SaaS customers. Intercom is known for its ability to create custom, automated chatbot workflows that are tailored to your business and customer needs. It's also an excellent customer support chatbot support solution, with options to integrate it with popular third-party apps like Fullview.
Fullview allows you to get a 360-degree view of all customer interactions. As soon as a message comes in on any of these platforms and a chatbot is engaged, you can use specific triggers and workflows to determine which customer inquiries merit escalation. When those come in, agents can quickly review that user's latest sessions in their app (using Fullview Replays) to quickly see bugs and issues in context and understand the support issue at hand. Then, armed with that knowledge, they can initiate a cobrowsing call with multi-cursor screen control and help the user solve the issue.
Some of the most popular features of Intercom include:
- Ability to send out automated messages when clients open your app or webpage
- Integrations with hundreds of existing software such as marketing platforms, CRM systems, and Fullview
- Ability to capture and store customer feedback within the platform
Price
For very small businesses, pricing starts at $74 per agent. However, Intercom can create a personalized pricing plan based on your specific business needs.
Pros
- Easy-to-use dashboard interface
- Integrations with third-party apps
- Highly customizable chatbot workflows
Cons
- Best suited for SaaS companies and may not be ideal for other types of businesses
- Customer service can be challenging to contact and slow at times
- Pricing can get expensive depending on the features you need
Dixa (4.2/5 stars on G2)
Dixa is a customer support software that can be used on your website as a widget. Instead of having to search for an answer or picking up the phone to get support, your customers can receive the answers they need without having to leave the page. Plus, with an upcoming integration with Fullview, customer service teams will quickly be able to use session replays, cobrowsing and console logs to help customers more effectively.
Some of Dixa's features include:
- Live chat options that can be integrated onto your webpage or app
- Knowledge base with the ability to quickly solve customer issues
- Intelligent routing, which ensures customers are routed with the appropriate customer service agent
Price
Dixa offers a variety of plans depending on the needs of your organization. The beginner plan starts at $39 per month, while the pro plan starts at $139 per month.
Pros
- Easy to setup and use
- Highly customizable for your customers' needs
- Integrations with popular third-party service
Cons
- Not as comprehensive a chatbot support software as the other options on this list
- Lack of auto-updates
- Missing a proper mobile application
Salesforce (4.3/5 stars on G2)
Salesforce is a software that provides all the tools you need to manage customer conversations from one place. With options for multichannel communication, you can easily integrate your service across platforms like email, SMS, and social media. Plus, it's easy to set up automated workflows so that customers are routed to the best support agent for their queries when contacting your business via chatbot.
Plus, with an upcoming Fullview integration, customer support teams can vastly improve the support process. With the ability to see customer issues in real-time through the use of session replays, they can quickly solve complex customer issues and help improve customer satisfaction.
Some of Salesforce's features include:
- A multichannel platform that integrates with popular communication sources
- Ability to create custom fields for customers based on their support needs
- Analytics tools to measure customer satisfaction
Price
Salesforce does not have a set price, as their pricing plans are customized for each company's needs. However, the entry-level plan starts at $25 per user per month.
Pros
- Unlimited multichannel support capabilities
- Analytics tools to measure customer satisfaction
- Integrations with Fullview for enhanced customer support
Cons
- Pricing is not transparent and may be expensive for small businesses
- May require extensive setup time to customize the platform to your needs
- Customer service may be slow at times
Freshchat (4.4/5 stars on G2)
Freshchat is a customer communication platform that combines live chat, messaging, and customer data to provide a seamless and personalized customer experience. With the ability to engage your customers on channels they already love, such as WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, and Facebook messenger, and integrations with Instagram, email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, and more, Freshchat is the multichannel support software for companies looking to engage users on all channels. It also has a bunch of chatbot capabilities and customizations — you can build a bot to answer customer conversations, you can build one auto-update customer data — or one that does it all!
Some notable features include:
- Customizable chat widgets
- Automated chatbot conversation flows
- Multichannel integration (e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.)
- Team collaboration tools
- Customizable chatbots
Price
Freshchat offers a free plan with limited features, as well as paid plans starting at $15/month per user.
Pros
- Easy to set up and use
- Intuitive interface
- Robust automation capabilities
- Good value for the price
- Customization for chatbots
Cons
- Some users have reported issues with the chatbot's accuracy
- The free plan lacks some important features.
Drift (4.4/5 stars on G2)
Drift is a chatbot network that helps businesses have personal and relevant conversations with their customers at scale. Their tagline is "Drift helps businesses connect with people at the right time, in the right place, with the right conversation." Using their conversation cloud, you can engage with customers in the right way to efficiently answer their questions, solve their problems and close more deals.
Plus, with integrations on various channels like Salesforce, Databox, Fullstory, Google Analytics, HubSpot, and more, you can track customer conversations and quickly learn more about their needs.
Some notable features include:
- Chatbot automation
- Lead capture and qualification tools
- Meeting scheduling and calendar integration
Price
Drift offers a small business plan for $2,500/month which includes custom chatbots, intel, real-time notifications, and conversational landing pages. There is a free trial available.
Pros
- Great for conversational marketing
- High AI accuracy
- Deep integration with other platforms
Cons
- Poor analytics tools
- No multilingual support
- The mobile app needs improvement
Conclusion
When selecting customer support chatbots for your business, consider the features and price of each option to find one that best fits your budget and needs. By considering the pros and cons of each customer support chatbot software, you can make an informed decision and choose the best option for your business.
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