5 Best Customer Service Tools for 2024 (Features and Prices)

The evolution of customer service

Customer service has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past few decades. Initially, it was all about direct human interaction, with in-person and phone-based support dominating the landscape.

The advent of the internet introduced email and live chat, expanding the ways in which customers could seek assistance. Today, the evolution continues at an accelerated pace, fueled by advancements in technology and heightened customer expectations.

This journey from traditional to modern customer service tools is marked by a few key milestones:

• The shift from voice-only support to omnichannel communication.
• The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, enabling smarter, more personalized customer interactions.
• An increasing emphasis on self-service options, allowing customers to find solutions independently.

These developments have set the stage for a new era of customer service tools—ones that are not only efficient but also capable of delivering personalized and proactive support. As businesses strive to keep up with these changes, the choice of tools becomes vital for staying competitive and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Top 5 customer service tools and software for different budgets and organization sizes

Thena

If you’re a B2B company, be it small or large, Thena is an ideal customer service tool for you. 

Designed primarily for Slack, it also integrates email and web channels, offering a comprehensive omnichannel support experience. 

The platform uses artificial intelligence to manage customer interactions on Slack, streamlining communication and cutting down on manual tasks.

What sets Thena apart is its ability to automatically detect customer requests among thousands of Slack messages. This capability allows for efficient handling of requests— assigning, closing, converting, and reviewing them seamlessly. It provides deep customer service insights into customer interactions and enables responses from any platform, ensuring that no request is overlooked.

Key features:

• AI-powered Slack workflows: Thena boosts team productivity by incorporating sophisticated AI tools into Slack.
• Unified customer request dashboard: Ability to consolidate customer request tracking and management in one central location within Slack.
• Advanced intelligent alerts and SLAs: You can guarantee prompt responses to customer inquiries for maximum satisfaction.
• AI-powered knowledge base: Thena makes it easy to utilize historical data to automatically craft responses to customer queries.

• Bi-directional email ticketing tool integration: You can easily connect Thena with popular email ticketing systems like Intercom, HubSpot, and Zendesk to offer customer service via customers’ (and agents’) preferred channels.
• One-click integrations with business tools: Thena integrates with tools like Jira, Linear, Shortcut, and Salesforce to enhance real-time collaboration and updates.

Pricing structure:

Thena offers a free 14-day trial. After that, it's $5 per month for each customer channel.

Best for:

Thena is perfect for B2B companies of any size that use the Slack Connect feature to provide customer service.

What users think about the tool:

From G2 reviews, it's clear that users appreciate Thena's effectiveness in streamlining customer communications within Slack. It excels in managing large volumes of customer requests, simplifying the tracking and handling process.

Users particularly value its capabilities for assigning requests, facilitating internal collaboration, and using tag management to identify customer trends. The analytics feature, which provides insights into message volumes and response times, is also highly regarded for its role in enhancing support strategies.

G2 Score: 

4.9/5

Intercom

Intercom is a customer service tool focused on customer communication through a blend of AI chatbots, a help desk, and proactive support interactions. Its value proposition lies in its ability to streamline customer support, sales, and marketing processes, making it easier for businesses to engage with customers effectively and efficiently.

Key features:

• Helpdesk feature with smart inbox: Streamlines customer queries for efficient management and response.
• Intercom Messenger: Complements existing support tools, offering both self-serve and live support options for customers.
• Help center integration: Enables customers to independently access information and solutions.
• Omnichannel support: Covers a range of channels from live chat and email to WhatsApp and phone for a seamless communication experience.
• Real-time dashboards: Provide insights and reporting for continuous monitoring and improvement of customer service.

Pricing structure:

The Essential, Advanced, and Expert plans are priced at $39, $99, and $139 per seat per month, respectively, catering to different sizes and needs of support teams.

Best for:

Intercom is ideal for e-commerce, SaaS, and digital services businesses, offering live customer support, automated query responses, and user feedback collection.

What users think about the tool:

Users on the G2 review website highly appreciate Intercom for its multifaceted functionality, which integrates chat, email support, and AI, making customer service efficient and user-friendly. Key features like ticket management, intuitive reports, automatic tagging, and overall ease of collaboration are particularly praised. 

However, they express concerns about the cost, especially when adding advanced features, and note limitations in the mobile app.

G2 Score: 

4.5/5

Talkdesk

Talkdesk emerges as a standout in the 2024 customer service tool space, particularly for businesses seeking a cloud-based call center solution. Renowned for its reliability and comprehensive features, Talkdesk offers a seamless experience for both customers and service agents.

Key features:

• Talkdesk Dialer: This feature automates the dialing process, improving agent efficiency by filtering out unproductive calls, and thereby optimizing call handling time.
• Advanced call routing: Talkdesk boasts advanced call routing capabilities, including an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), a multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, call forwarding, and forward-to-phone options, ensuring that calls are efficiently managed and directed.
• Customer experience analytics: The platform provides comprehensive analytics, offering deep insights into customer interactions. This data is invaluable for understanding customer needs and preferences.
• Integration with popular business tools: Talkdesk seamlessly integrates with leading platforms such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and ServiceNow, enhancing its functionality and ease of use.

Pricing structure:

Talkdesk provides three pricing tiers: CX Cloud Essentials at $75 a month for basic capabilities, CX Cloud Elevate at $95, and the premium CX Cloud Elite at $125.

Best for:

Perfect for teams that serve customers primarily over the phone.

What users think about the tool:

Users appreciate Talkdesk for its simplicity and functionality, particularly highlighting its efficient call tracking, flexible usage on different devices, and features like voicemail assignment and transcription. They also value the punctuality and precision of maintenance notifications.

On the downside, users express dissatisfaction with the complexity of initial implementation and limited advanced routing features.

G2 Score: 

4.4/5

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is another customer service tool that secures a position in the list of top five solutions. It’s a comprehensive customer support software offering a multi-channel toolset with over 130 ticketing features and 200+ integrations, enabling connections with customers across various platforms​​.

LiveAgent includes a live chat feature, touted as the fastest on the market, which facilitates efficient communication with website visitors. Additionally, LiveAgent's ticketing system is a key component, efficiently organizing communications from all channels in one place, which can lead to significant savings in time, money, and resources​​.

Key features:

• Agent collision detection: Agents manage and respond to all queries in the help desk, with features to prevent multiple agents from working on the same ticket, ensuring efficient resolution of customer issues​​.
• Automated ticket distribution and business hours configuration: The system automatically creates optimal workloads for agents and configures Service Level Agreement (SLA) levels to take action only during specified business hours​​.
• Universal Inbox: This feature acts as a smarter version of an email inbox, consolidating emails, chats, and other forms of communication in one place​​.
• Inbound call center and automatic callbacks: LiveAgent's inbound call center can handle a large volume of incoming calls, with an option for customers to request automatic callbacks.

Pricing structure:

LiveAgent's plans include Small Business at $9/agent yearly ($15 monthly), Medium at $29/agent yearly ($35 monthly), Large Business at $49/agent yearly ($59 monthly), and Enterprise at $69/agent yearly ($85 monthly).

Best for:

Suitable for different types of businesses looking for an affordable customer service tool that works across multiple channels, including email, live chat, phone, and social media.

What users think about the tool:

Users find LiveAgent valuable for its straightforward installation and setup, as well as its effectiveness in cutting down email traffic by embedding support systems directly into websites. The Knowledge Base feature is praised for its effectiveness, and the user interface is recognized for its simplicity and efficiency in task organization.

On the other side, users note the platform's somewhat outdated user experience and limitations in support ticket functionality.

G2 Score: 

4.5/5

HappyFox

HappyFox is help desk management software featuring a robust support ticket system, a self-service knowledge base, and community forums. What makes the tool stand out is its ability to convert email, phone, chat, and web requests into tickets and keep them organized.

Key features:

• Robust ticketing system with a ticket queue, categorized tickets, and real-time ticket status tracking.
• Canned responses for efficient handling of common queries.
• Help desk reports for monitoring, analysis, and customer service improvement.
• Knowledge base for enabling self-service solutions.

Pricing structure:

HappyFox Helpdesk offers pricing plans starting at $39 per agent per month for the Mighty plan, followed by the Fantastic plan at $59, the popular Enterprise option at $79, and the highest-tier Enterprise Plus plan at $99.

Best for:

Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses in the education, travel, leisure, energy, retail, computer, and software industries seeking a robust help desk solution.

What users think about the tool:

HappyFox Help Desk is praised for its ease of use, quick setup, user-friendly interface, and efficient customization options. Its robust ticketing system and responsive customer support are also highly regarded. That said, users note occasional technical issues, such as problems with CCs in tickets, and limitations in basic smart rules and reporting functionality.

G2 Score: 

4.5/5

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How to choose the best customer service tool for your business

Choosing the right customer service tool for your business in 2024 involves comparing the distinct features and strengths of each option. Thena.ai, Intercom, Talkdesk, LiveAgent, and HappyFox each bring unique capabilities to the table, tailored to different business needs.

• Thena.ai is ideal for businesses looking for AI-driven, automated solutions, especially in handling routine inquiries and providing personalized customer experiences within Slack.
• Intercom excels in personalized, scalable communication, making it suitable for businesses that prioritize engaging customer interactions across various messaging platforms.
• Talkdesk is a perfect match for companies seeking a reliable cloud-based call center with sophisticated call routing and analytics capabilities.
• LiveAgent is well-suited for businesses that require an all-in-one help desk solution with a strong focus on multi-channel support and a customizable interface.
• HappyFox stands out for companies that need versatile, user-friendly support software with strong ticketing and workflow automation features.

In choosing between these tools, consider factors like the size of your business, the primary channels through which you interact with customers, and specific features that are crucial to your customer service strategy. The pricing models of these tools also vary, catering to a range of budgets and business scales.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the best customer service software for your business in 2024 will be the one that aligns closely with your operational needs and customer service goals.

If you’re a B2B company that uses Slack for customer service, you want to check out Thena. Renowned companies like Mixpanel, WorkRamp, Incident, and Etsy trust Thena for its innovative approach to customer service. Try Thena at no cost and see it for yourself!