Do you battle to maintain observe of buyer considerations by means of an ordinary mailbox like Gmail? It’s really easy for a single vital e-mail to get buried beneath lots of of basic inquiries.
Or maybe your staff is losing useful time by switching endlessly between totally different assist channels. There’s a scarcity of consistency in your responses as a result of nothing is unified. Your corporation can’t successfully collaborate and assist clients this fashion.
If you wish to transition to a brand new, extra sturdy platform, you’ll be glad to know there are many choices on the market. Let’s speak about what Zendesk vs Gmail supply for customer support, and check out a 3rd alternative you won’t have thought-about!
What You Want From Your Buyer Help Shopper
Options and pricing matter, and we’ll speak about these quickly. However when you’re helming a small enterprise, our first tip is to prioritize instruments which might be simple to make use of.
Who needs to be firefighting buyer considerations and attempting to make use of a sophisticated assist platform on the identical time? Who even has the time to do each?
The transition away from Gmail may be troublesome. That’s why a whole lot of companies stick with it longer than they should. Alternate options like Zendesk can appear obscure, time-intensive to customise, and expensive.
Earlier than deciding between Zendesk vs Gmail, it’s time to cease and assume: What does your staff want out of a assist consumer?
That reply can be totally different for every enterprise. However there are some widespread elements. I’ll undergo a pair I’ve thought-about completely important throughout my time on the frontlines as a buyer assist agent.
Omnichannel Help
No questions requested – the power to offer your clients with a unified expertise is important to progress. Previously, I’ve labored with corporations that struggled to reply in a well timed method to Fb messages or wall posts.
These assist channels weren’t built-in, and needed to be dealt with independently. Responses diverse a lot throughout platforms as a result of there was no consistency.
Our staff needed to change between Fb, Instagram, and Gmail. Stuff bought uncared for. If a buyer didn’t e-mail us instantly, it wasn’t considered as a precedence.
Our customer satisfaction scores tanked due to it. And it confirmed in evaluations and buyer suggestions. It wasn’t till we transitioned over to a assist desk and away from e-mail that we had been capable of proper the ship.
The purpose of omnichannel support is to offer clients with a seamless expertise no matter the place they attain out to you. A number of ‘channels’ like social media and stay chat are built-in inside a single system. Often, that is solely attainable with a assist desk designed particularly for assist.
And this doesn’t simply profit patrons. Your customer support staff will get to avoid wasting time, simplify their workflows, and keep away from the trouble of switching forwards and backwards between platforms.
Automation Options
When most individuals consider ‘automation’, they in all probability consider AI. And to some companies, AI is still a naughty word.
It’s thought-about a lesser tier of service, to not point out a possible menace to human jobs. They condemn it, and regularly level out how a lot their clients hate ineffectual chatbots.
All of that has benefit. However automation doesn’t should imply handing issues over to AI. As an alternative, it will possibly praise human service, and make duties a lot simpler on your staff.
Ticket monitoring, round-robin assignment, information assortment — all of those and extra may be automated. That means, your staff can focus solely on offering the most effective buyer assist attainable.
Self-Service Assets
Self-service is one other useful resource sorely missing from conventional e-mail. Wouldn’t it’s good in case your clients might resolve not less than a few of their issues on their very own?
It will actually minimize down on emails. Personally, I really like the liberty of downside fixing independently. I do know a whole lot of my colleagues, buddies, and household really feel the identical. If we’re capable of kind out an issue with a services or products with out the necessity to problem a assist agent, many would reasonably take that method.
Most profitable companies leverage self-service in quite a lot of methods. An excellent assist device ought to allow this. For instance, it would mean you can create a knowledge base for your customers.
A self-service database that gives articles, video tutorials, and in-depth guides on key options helps clients take advantage of your product. It’s the proper praise to white-glove onboarding. Most significantly, it cuts down on assist tickets.
Zendesk vs Gmail vs Groove: A Characteristic Comparability
Now, let’s see how a couple of totally different choices for buyer assist stack up towards one another. Most groups will already be aware of Gmail, or seeking to transition away from it, so we’ll use that as a baseline.
You’ll must rigorously consider your wants towards the strengths and weaknesses of every device. Most small companies don’t want a ton of superior integrations, however seemingly need one thing extra substantial than Gmail. Search for:
- Choices for organizing or prioritizing emails → Labels, filters, folders, classes, and so on.
- Clear person interface (UI) → Clear and straightforward to navigate, not over-complicated
- Buyer information monitoring → Reporting options so you understand how your staff is performing and the way happy your clients are
- Hacking productiveness with automation → Computerized e-mail routing and assignments, and different methods to avoid wasting time on rote duties
- Integration with different workflow instruments → Take into account what different platforms your online business makes use of for assist; ideally all the things will play properly collectively
Zendesk
Zendesk is a very fashionable assist platform, and for good cause. It has loads to supply, particularly its wealthy customization and automation options.
First, let’s briefly clarify what a help desk is. A assist desk is purpose-built for buyer assist. A standard e-mail platform like Gmail, as compared, has a really broad demographic. It isn’t constructed for customer support; it’s constructed for use by tens of millions of individuals worldwide for on a regular basis duties.
So whereas it is attainable to depend on Gmail for buyer assist, it should by no means be optimum when in comparison with any assist desk. Assist desks supply a whole lot of options that aren’t current in Gmail. These can embody omnichannel assist, AI help, stay chat, self-service data base instruments, and workflow integration with software program like Asana, Trello, and Slack.
Again to Zendesk. It’s undoubtedly a feature-rich device. I can’t consider a customization choice the platform lacks. So in case your SMB is keen to pay extra for the power to fully customise each side of assist, Zendesk might very properly be the device for you.
For instance, Zendesk is nice at managing omnichannel assist. When a person posts to your Fb wall, a ticket is created inside Zendesk. Feedback added to that put up can be added to the pre-existing ticket, though you’ll be able to alter this in your settings to generate a brand new ticket for each put up as an alternative.
Different core options Zendesk presents (vs Gmail) embody:
- AI-powered bots to routinely resolve buyer points throughout all channels
- Generative AI for brokers to develop, summarize, or change the tone of their responses, in addition to pull from self-service databases
- Social media integration and omnichannel assist for channels like Fb
- Stay chat by way of internet or in-app widget
- Custom-made views of buyer information, with detailed reporting
- Extremely customizable workflows based mostly round automations and triggers
- Superior ticket routing to brokers based mostly on standards like workload balancing
So what’s the draw back? Most significantly, Zendesk takes time to study, navigate, and optimize. Tech-literate IT workers or internet builders can have no downside adapting, however a small buyer assist staff may battle to get probably the most worth out of the software program.
On account of its complexity, it’s additionally not as fast and straightforward to make use of on a day-to-day foundation as Gmail. It may be a stark transition. It additionally has a reasonably excessive worth level so far as assist desks are involved – and as your staff grows, these prices add up.
Gmail
It may be obvious by now that Gmail simply isn’t ultimate for high quality assist. That’s to not downplay the utility of Gmail, nonetheless, as a result of it’s nonetheless a useful gizmo for budding solopreneurs.
In case you’re a staff of 1, Gmail could also be completely adequate on your wants. Gmail has a couple of options that make it ultimate for freelancers with a small variety of shoppers they impart one-on-one with.
As an example, Gmail enables you to create a ‘activity’ to remind your self of a excessive precedence e-mail that requires additional follow-up. Let’s say you’re employed as an actual property agent. You might want to attain out to a property supervisor earlier than getting again to your consumer.
It might take a couple of days to listen to again, so it is advisable to set a reminder to comply with up if wanted. You may create a activity from an e-mail or inside your calendar:
Gmail additionally makes use of guidelines to filter your emails routinely, whereas labels set up messages into totally different classes.
Again to the true property instance – this time, it is advisable to group and set up all of your emails associated to a selected closing with a high-priority consumer. Inside your inbox, you’ll be able to filter messages to ship them a selected label you’ve created, similar to “excessive precedence”:
Sadly, Gmail can’t do it all. If you need an answer that may reduce workload, whereas enabling proactive assist throughout social media, you’ll must look into the alternate options like Zendesk and Groove.
Elevated demand from clients can rapidly outpace a small assist staff as your online business grows. So it’s possible you’ll wish to contemplate alternate options that supply scalable options. Gmail isn’t able to supporting self-service, superior reporting, or a centralized inbox.
Groove
Lastly, let’s check out Groove!
Groove is our own support solution, and we’re fairly pleased with it. It’s a assist desk not dissimilar to Zendesk, however constructed particularly for small on-line companies.
Our purpose with Groove has at all times been to strike a stability between depth of options, ease of use, and affordability. It’s very simple to make use of when you’re not accustomed to assist desks. The UI is intuitive sufficient to select up with out complete onboarding – when you’ve used Gmail (or an analogous platform like Outlook) it ought to really feel immediately acquainted.
Integration can also be defined contextually, so that you don’t should learn hours value of documentation to arrange key options. For instance, let’s check out how simple it’s to set up a live chat widget.
You don’t want any coding expertise to get issues operating. Merely head over to the Settings in your dashboard. Click on on Widgets within the left-hand menu, after which choose “Create a brand new widget”:
In the fitting hand column, you’ll see how the modifications you make to the widget impression it in actual time.
Every part is defined clearly, so if you allow a function like “knowledge base search”, you already know precisely what it should do. On this case, it crawls your data base to offer solutions to questions that you just’ve already created articles about:
That’s only one instance. Let’s check out a couple of of the opposite methods Groove helps your customer support staff.
Guidelines and Folders: Leveraging Automation To Set up Your Inbox
Most e-mail platforms permit for fundamental inbox sorting by filtering emails round labels (Gmail) or sending them into particular folders (Outlook).
Groove expands on that with automation and workflow options you’ll be able to customise to match your most popular workflow. That features smart folders, tags, rules, and ‘instant replies’, which automate responses to incessantly requested questions:
These choices allow you to organize and prioritize your inbox, in addition to combine your most popular workflows. On the identical time, they’re constructed to be as streamlined and user-friendly as attainable.
We’ve rigorously curated these options to present you what you want, with out pointless bells and whistles that simply make your dashboard tougher to navigate.
CSAT Scores: Observe Buyer Satisfaction with Surveys
You’ll want a option to measure the standard of your buyer assist. How else will you already know what wants to enhance?
Customer feedback is a crucial element of progress. Gmail doesn’t mean you can ship out surveys routinely. You’ll must pay for different providers like SurveyMonkey or Mailchimp.
Inside Groove, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) surveys may be routinely embedded on the finish of conversations:
The outcomes are tracked within your Reports dashboard, so you’ll be able to at all times see how your staff is performing:
In case you’d wish to take your survey to the subsequent stage, Groove simply integrates with tools like Delighted and Typeform.
We’ll cease there, however Groove has much more to supply! For all the main points, check out our quick start guide, and get some hands-on experience with our free 7-day trial.
Which Buyer Help Platform Is Proper for Your Enterprise?
Whether or not or not you go for our assist desk, you’ll nonetheless want an e-mail platform to funnel all these inquiries. We usually suggest Gmail, particularly when you don’t want superior safety features like end-to-end encryption. Gmail seamlessly integrates with Groove, and it’s an amazing start line.
As for Zendesk, it’s an superior platform for enterprise companies with hefty assist wants. It’s additionally nice for corporations with very particular necessities, and that wish to spend time customizing each side of their customer support platforms.
If your online business isn’t fairly there but, nonetheless, Zendesk may truly gradual your staff down. A number of the superior customization choices on supply overcomplicate day-to-day work. And also you’re paying additional for these options, whether or not you employ them or not.
Groove presents the simplicity and familiarity of Gmail. On the identical time, it’s designed for offering top-quality buyer assist. To try this, it supplies a rigorously chosen set of options that streamline and enhance your staff’s core duties – the work that issues to preserving clients completely satisfied.
In different phrases, within the battle of Zendesk vs Gmail, Groove is a center floor that provides the most effective of each worlds.
In case you’re in search of software program your staff can soar into straight away, sign up for a free 7-day trial of Groove! Test it out for your self, and expertise the most effective in inexpensive, scalable assist software program.
