Zendesk: Reviews and Pricing

With so many CRM systems out there, how do you know which one is right for your business? Read our expert review on Zendesk to find out if this software is right for your biz…

Zendesk’s flexible and dynamic CRM system offers solutions for sales and customer service teams to streamline their processes. 

Zendesk splits its offerings into a selling platform and a services platform. Each is focused on providing a robust, feature-filled platform to seamlessly integrate selling and customer support. Its focus on providing straightforward solutions has led to the development of easy-to-use features and a simple interface. 

We’ve carried out extensive research to find out all about the features, benefits, pricing, and drawbacks of Zendesk, so you can figure out whether or not this is the right system for your business. We have over ten years of experience in the CRM industry, so we know what we’re talking about. Read on for our exploration of Zendesk…

What are Zendesk’s Features and Benefits?

✓ Customized Answer Bots 

Zendesk offers customizable answer bots that provide a flexible way to engage with customers. You can customize your answer bots without any coding, making it a user friendly system that doesn’t need a dedicated tech team. 

Your customer service team will only need to jump in when necessary, as the answer bot can identify when an agent is needed. This opens up room for your team to increase productivity and efficiency. And when an agent is called for, the answer bot will pass along all relevant information so they can deal with the customer more efficiently.

The answer bot will also be online even when your customer service team isn’t – this way, your customers can always have support on hand. 

Answer bots can be created within minutes: you simply need to answer a few questions, and you’re good to go. The answer bot can be placed in various locations, including messaging platforms, emails, Slack, and more. This ensures your customers have adequate support on hand without having to look too far. 

✓ Integrated Sales Tools 

Zendesk Sell provides integrated sales tools so your sales team can easily view a customer’s account and the status of a sale. Sales teams often find clunky and complex CRM systems a pain to use. Zendesk has taken this into account, and cut down all the fluff to create a simple platform. 

Zendesk automatically captures data, and shows both your sales and customer service teams this same data. This means customers will always be able to speak to someone who knows what’s happening with them at any given moment. 

Your sales team can deal with everything in one place, including sending emails, scheduling meetings, and making calls. Zendesk Sell allows deals to be closed and logged on the mobile app – even when you’re offline. 

Plus, the platform allows you to create customized reports for accurate data and insights. Pre-built dashboards are available, but you can also customize your own using click-and-point tools. 

✓ Empowered Customers

A unique feature of this system is that it offers a way for you to empower your customers. Instead of clogging up your customer service teams, you can create a knowledge base so your customers can help themselves. 

You have complete flexibility and control over the way it looks and what information and knowledge you put out there. You can even create more than one help centre in order to organize and direct customers to the relevant sections, so they can find their answers easier and quicker. 

This system allows you to offer this content in 40+ languages, making it accessible to more customers. Your help centre will also provide helpful analytics so you can understand the information your customers are seeking out, and discover where there may be some info gaps.

How Much Does Zendesk Cost?

Zendesk for sales 

Zendesk for service 

The Suite plans are a comprehensive platform which make up several Zendesk products. 

Zendesk offers clear pricing, and doesn’t hide behind consultations and sales forms like some CRM systems. This gives you the clarity and insight you need to make an informed financial decision for your business. All of Zendesk’s packages are billed annually, which can be limiting for smaller budgets. 

Zendesk’s lower prices are typical for a system like this, and the more affordable plans are suitable for new and small businesses. These tiers are more basic, but they do offer the features and solutions that a small business is likely to need. The higher plans are well-equipped, but definitely pricier, so you’ll need to consider them heavily before investing.

Luckily, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial of Zendesk Suite, where you’ll have access to all the features Suite Professional offers. You can also trial out any of the other packages, although you’ll need to contact Zendesk directly to organize it. 

The trial takes seconds to set up and doesn’t require any payment details, so you can be sure you won’t be charged for testing it out. If you do want to pay for a plan during the trial period, you can set this up and all your data and customizations will stay in place.

Is Zendesk Right for My Business?

“I have a new business”

Zendesk offers an easy to use, simple CRM system that may be suitable for your new business, depending on a couple of factors including finances and tech experience.  

One of the biggest issues with implementing CRM software into your business is getting your team on board. It can be hard to use a brand new system, especially when it’s complicated or needs a lot of learning. 

Zendesk has set out to deal with this, and has designed a platform that’s easy to both customize and use. There are several tutorials online that help with the implementation process, making it easier for your team to learn about the system. 

A drawback to Zendesk, though, is its customer support, which many users have complained about. Despite offering support in the form of live chat, email, voice, and SMS, many users have found the support they get to be lacking. If you think you might be in need of regular support from the Zendesk team, you could find yourself waiting a long time, or not receiving the help you need.

If your business is a little cash-strapped, you might find Zendesk’s annual billing inflexible and a big commitment. The free trial may persuade you enough, although this depends on how quickly your business gets to grips with everything. 

“I want to increase customer satisfaction”

Zendesk offers several solutions for increasing customer satisfaction, including the customizable answers bots and robust self-help centres we’ve already mentioned, plus the ability to view your customer service teams’ productivity and efficiency. 

An important aspect of providing great customer support is having an efficient customer service team. Zendesk provides tools that allow you to view agents’ satisfaction ratings, time spent answering emails and calls, and more. This snapshot view of any weaknesses and strengths in the team helps to show where extra training and support is needed.

Some Zendesk customers have reported that they find it easy to deal with ticket systems, and can easily move tickets between different teams. Others have reported drawbacks, such as clunky user visibility, but the overall rating appears to be positive for many of the features available. 

What Do Zendesk’s Customer Reviews Say?

Here are trusted reviews from real-life users of Zendesk to give you further insight into this CRM system:

Expert Verdict

Zendesk offers a robust, feature-filled platform to streamline customer service and sales processes. The platform is designed to be simple, easy to use, and customizable, to help your teams engage with customers more effectively. Zendesk makes it easy to create answer bots and self-help centres, and view your customer service team and monitor productivity all from one platform. 

Your sales team can access customer information and close deals on the go using the Zendesk Sell mobile app. They can also monitor and track emails and receive real-time notifications when a prospect clicks on or reads an email. By staying on top of the sales funnel, your sales team has the relevant information at their fingertips to make the right decisions. 

If you’re looking to increase your customer engagement and satisfaction, this software provides features to do this. That said, you may run into some issues when it comes to seeking support from Zendesk. If you have a new or small business, you might struggle with this lack of support, although some users have found the customer support to be satisfactory. 

Small businesses may struggle with committing to Zendesk’s annual billing, although its two-week trial could help with the decision process. Some users have reported that it’s been difficult to opt out of some packages and pricing, so keep this in mind. 

Although many features are customizable, there are some limits to this and you can’t extensively customize the features and system. If your business is in need of further customization in order to serve the needs of your business, you might be better off with a more comprehensive CRM system, such as Salesforce.

What Other CRM Systems Could I Consider?

If you’re still looking for the right CRM system for your business, take a look at our other reviews below: