Today’s customer support professionals have a lot on their plates – from interacting directly with customers and managing a steady stream of support tickets, to creating and updating libraries of self-service content. All this, while under pressure to keep customer satisfaction high and resolution time low. Indeed, customer service is a joint effort – it is a combination of people, tools and processes to work in tandem to deliver first-rate customer experiences across many touchpoints.
This is why access to the right tools and resources can make a difference.
Customer service tools enable support teams to answer key questions such as:
- How can the entire customer journey be seen from one single view, for customer service that is driven by context?
- How can they work better as a team, to deliver effortless and immediate support across multiple channels?
- With growing demands for personalization and rising support tickets, how can smaller teams do more, faster?
In a quest to help customer support teams explore new capabilities for their support operations, the Netomi team has done some research, from previous lists detailing the best live chat software, help desk software, customer experience tools and knowledge base software. Now, we present our selection of the 8 best customer service tools.
The Best Customer Service Tools in 2022
1. Netomi
Best customer service tool for mid-sized to enterprise brands
What makes Netomi one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
An omnichannel AI platform for customer service, Netomi helps companies resolve over 80% of support tickets via email, chat, messaging, and voice. This helps agents focus on more complex tickets.
Netomi’s key features
- A Clustering Engine that uses unsupervised learning to sift through and cluster historic support tickets, pinpointing repeatable scenarios that may be automated
- Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to understand the underlying intent of customer inquiries, with the highest overall accuracy (85.17%) of any conversational AI platform, and the highest out-of-scope accuracy at 92.45%
- An intuitive analytics dashboard that displays real-time performance data on key customer service metrics such as AI resolution rate and accuracy
- A fully customizable chat widget that has many U/X tools like embedded customer forms, the ability to upload files and more
- Native integration with all major agent desks such as Gladly, Zoho, Freshworks, Salesforce and Zendesk
2.Aircall
Best customer service tool for call center support
What makes Aircall one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
The “phone system for modern business,” Aircall’s inbound call center software is ideal for businesses both small and large, and is used by sales, IT & operations, and customer support teams. The result? A clear view of call activity and issues that are resolved as a team, for smarter customer conversations, and smoother support.
Aircall’s key features
- Parallel calls, enabling agents to put current conversations on hold and simultaneously start a separate call with another customer
- Custom filters to search and sort through categorized calls to find a certain conversation
- Call Center Analytics, allowing teams to keep track of key call center metrics – such as wait time, missed call rate, and call volume – all in one place
- Insight Cards, allowing agents to see more context behind each inbound call by pulling related data from other apps into view
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| Essentials | $30/user per month | Unlimited calls within US & Canada* 100+ Integrations and API access Send and receive SMS** Essential telephony features including IVR, call recording and click-to-dial Unlimited simultaneous outbound calls |
| Professional | $50/user per month | Salesforce integration Mandatory call tagging Advanced analytics and call monitoring Advanced support features including queue call back Advanced sales features including Power Dialer |
| Custom | Call for details | Unlimited calls worldwide* Custom analytics Custom onboarding Access to API developer support Service-level agreement (SLA) |
3. Gorgias
Best customer service tool for eCommerce stores
What makes Gorgias one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
A customer service platform built for eCommerce, Gorgias allows support teams to centralize all of their tickets in one place, to get the full customer picture, and offer faster support. The platform’s powerful integration with Shopify and Shopify Plus means that agents can view order details for a customer, and refund, cancel, and duplicate orders, all without leaving the helpdesk app.
Gorgias’ key features
- Intents and sentiment detection that leverage customer intents, allowing teams to automate their workflows with precision, with sentiments that automatically detect how customers are feeling (are they angry, or in a rush)?
- A customer sidebar that displays rich customer data right next to tickets, allowing support teams to choose the data they want to see, and pull in data from 65+ third-party apps
- A self-service feature that allows teams to manage routine requests such as returns, cancellations or damaged items, to increase their efficiency, and provide customers with instant answers and full resolutions
- Integration with Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento, and BigCommerce, enabling teams to scale their support across stores, so they can manage every customer question, for all of their brands, in a single helpdesk
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| Starter | $10 per month | 50 billable tickets/month $0.40 / extra ticket 3 user seats 2 social media channels Limited active integrations Support reporting Starter customer services |
| Basic | $60 per month | 300 billable tickets/month $40 / 100 extra tickets Unlimited user seats 2 social media channels 150 active integrations Support reporting Basic customer services |
| Pro | $360 per month | 2,000 billable tickets/month $36 / 100 extra tickets Unlimited user seats 2 social media channels 150 active integrations Support & revenue reporting Pro customer services |
| Advanced | $900 per month | 5,000 billable tickets/month $36 / 100 extra tickets Unlimited user seats 3 social media channels 150 active integrations Support & revenue reporting Advanced customer services |
| Enterprise | Contact for details | Custom billable tickets/month custom price for extra tickets Unlimited user seats 3 social media channels 150 active integrations Support & revenue reporting Enterprise customer services |
4. Kayako
Best customer service tool for SMBs looking for a fully integrated cloud-hosted help desk to immediately start supporting customers
What makes Kayako one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
Paving the way for “better conversations, a better customer experience,” Kayako’s helpdesk software comes equipped with powerful out-of-the-box functionality that makes it easy for customer service teams to manage requests and conversations that come through any channel. More than 131,000 customer agents use Kayako for customer support, ticketing software, eCommerce support, a shared inbox and internal help desk.
Kayako’s key features
- Live chat software (included as a tool in Kayako’s help desk software), that is quick and easy to customize, and can be integrated into a business’ website, iOS and Android apps
- A shared inbox that collects all support conversations in one place and makes it easy to collaborate with teammates
- SingleView, which captures a customer’s entire journey, allowing teams to view customer activity at a glance, such as site visits, purchases, shipping history, previous customer service inquiries, and self-help searches
- A self-service portal, to provide customers with the resources they need to help themselves, and Help Center Analytics to identify gaps and optimize portal content to meet customer needs
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| 5 agents | $625 per month | Advanced workflow customization Internal help center and knowledge base Custom forms for help center Customer access to every ticket from their organization Custom security policies Custom roles and permissions Salesforce integration Custom performance reports Help center advanced layout and design options |
| 25 agents | $3125 per month | Same as above |
| 50 agents | $6250 per month | Same as above |
5. Nicereply
What makes Nicereply one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
How satisfied are your customers? Nicereply makes it simple for support teams to measure customer satisfaction with easy-to-deploy surveys, customizable with multiple scales (such as stars, smiley faces, or 5 or 10 rating points), and one-click responses. The platform also allows teams to measure Customer Effort Scores to receive instant feedback, identify any friction points, and deliver an effortless experience. Moreover, the two metrics can be combined to get even more feedback. Additionally, Net Promoter Score measures customer loyalty, judging by a customer’s likelihood to recommend a product to others.
Nicereply’s key features
- In-signature surveys, allowing agents to ask customers for feedback at the bottom of every email
- Instant ratings that record customers’ answers as soon as they click the survey
- Customer sync that automatically adds customer names based on the ticket ID, as customers often don’t share their names in feedback forms
- Trend charts to Identify trends in CSAT, NPS and CES performance, as well as response volumes
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| Mini | $39 per month | 3 agents 100 responses/month Customer support surveys Unlimited number of surveys Powerful integrations Simple setup |
| Start | $79 per month | 10 agents 250 responses/month Customer support surveys Unlimited number of surveys Powerful integrations Simple setup |
| Grow | $159 per month | 25 agents 1000 responses/month Customer support surveys Unlimited number of surveys Powerful integrations Simple setup |
| Business | $239 per month | 50 agents 2500 responses/month Customer support surveys Unlimited number of surveys Powerful integrations Simple setup |
Best customer service tool for measuring CSAT 
6. Podium
Best customer service tool for local businesses seeking an all-in-one customer communication and payments platform
What makes Podium one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
An all-in-one, and multi-product platform that is “modernizing the way local business gets done,” Podium combines web chat, online review generation, SMS (text) marketing and payment processing, all in one easy-to-use inbox.
Podium’s key features
- Website chat to capture website leads, immediately taking the conversation to text so that customers can remain connected, on their terms
- One inbox that is optimized for efficiency, allowing agents to bring every conversation and touchpoint – from chat to reviews to voicemail – into a single thread, and respond instantly over text
- Podium Reviews, which makes it easy for customers to leave business reviews by sending them a direct link via text
- Video chat, allowing agents to quickly move from text to video, all within a simple and familiar interface
- Podium Text-To-Pay, a convenient way for customers to pay, and for businesses to collect payments via text
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| Essentials | $289 per month | 1000 contacts Up to 3 team members Capture online reviews instantly Text-based website chat Easy-to-use text-marketing 100s of app integrations Secure & simple payment process |
| Standard | $449 per month | All benefits of Essentials package Unlimited contacts Unlimited team members Personalized setup & onboarding Website reporting & customizations Automated review invitations Customized branding |
| Professional | $649 per month | All benefits of Standard package Unlimited contacts Unlimited team members Automations that streamline tasks Round-robin lead routig Personalized automated FAQs Multimedia marketing messages |
7. TeamSupport
Best customer service tool for B2B technology-enabled companies
What makes TeamSupport one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
Offering much more than effective ticket management, TeamSupport provides an omnichannel experience that facilitates internal team collaboration and streamlines customer support issues. Rather than a focus on each individual contact or ticket, emphasis is placed on streamlined collaboration among teams and built around the entire B2B customer.
TeamSupport’s key features
- Phone-to-ticket integration with RingCentral, so when a customer calls a RingCentral-enabled support line for help, TeamSupport automatically surfaces the customer’s ticket history, service agreements and happiness index
- Customer self-service software, offering a fully customizable customer hub that can be embedded in a website or stand alone with a custom URL
- A help desk ticket management system, complete with ticket automation and workflows, ticket collision prevention, and and a powerful global search tool
- Visual customer support such as VideoView, which allows agents make video recordings using their webcams to show customers features of technical products, or the steps to take to resolve an issue
- Customer distress index that shows potentially at-risk customers
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| Essential Support | $49 /agent/month | Customer Management Advanced Ticket Management Customer Self-Service, Ticket Deflection Knowledge Base (Single Product) Collaboration Features Within Tickets Customer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT) Customer Distress Index (CDI) scoring Basic Reporting & Prebuilt Dashboard |
| Enterprise Support | $69 /agent/month | Customer Management Advanced Ticket Management Customer Self-Service, Ticket Deflection Knowledge Base (Multiple Products) Collaboration Features Within Tickets Customer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT) Customer Distress Index (CDI) scoring Custom Reporting & Dashboards Asset Management SLA Management (Up to 3) Sandbox Ticket Page Full Customization Customer Hubs (Up to 3) Multiple Brand/Product Lines Integrations (1 included) |
| Complete Customer Support Suite | $119 /agent/month | All benefits of Enterprise Support package Enterprise live chat Business intelligence reporting and dashboards SLA Management (Unlimited) Sandbox (Up to 3) Customer Hubs (Up to 5) Integrations (Unlimited) API Calls (Up to 20,000) |
8. Vivantio
Best customer service tool for small and medium-sized growing B2B businesses seeking service optimization across all disciplines
What makes Vivantio one of the best customer service tools of 2022?
Empowering teams, enabling operations and elevating the customer experience are the main highlights of this highly configurable service management system. Vivantio’s CRM brings all customer information into one centralized location, providing a 360 ° view of a business’ customer service operations, and making it simple to retrieve vital customer information.
Vivantio’s key features
- A self-service portal, on which support teams can publish knowledge base articles, tutorials, manuals, and more. Customers can also log into the portal to track the progress of their tickets or service requests
- A workflow designer that automates recurring processes within a business, removing the need for manual resources, such as scheduling backups, to the onboarding of new employees
- FLEX Insights that provides first line support teams with help and advice on dealing with issues while they’re listening to the customer, supplying them with information regarding known outages, similar issues, knowledge base articles, guides, and support
- Configuration Management Database (CMDB) that records the software, hardware, and services delivered to each customer
Pricing
| Package | Price | Features |
| Value | $42 /user/month | Simple, easy configuration Intuitive interface Simple SLAs Offer enhanced services offering Brand self-service portals Keep all your tickets in one place Mobile edition Organize with Queues and Tabs |
| Vital | $52 /user/month | Manage multiple tickets Support for ITIL processes Multiple SLAs Track and monitor KPIs Codeless setup List, Kanban and Calendar view types Custom forms and fields Surveys Home screens and watch lists Highlighting rules Links to knowledge and help Create routing rules Custom Dashboards |
| Velocity | $82 /user/month | Create unlimited ticket types Full control over ticket configuration Per customer SLAs Realtime statistics and data analysis Full business rules engine Advanced interactive searching Roles and Permissions Automate Reporting and KPIs Multiple Branded Portals Create reporting wallboards Insights to detect conflicts End user and tech to tech chat Create dynamic assignments Centralize all KPI monitoring Automate complex workflows |
| Visionary | $142 /user /month | Visibility of all service operations Unify your corporate approach Continued promotion of core services Data Warehousing Bespoke managed customer service Bring together global service teams |
Delivering exceptional customer service is no easy feat – it involves multiple moving parts. And today, the onus is on businesses to double down on their CX efforts – a recent study from TELUS International found that nearly 60% of consumers said they would rather sit in a traffic jam than have a poor customer experience. Customer service tools can play a principal role in this practice, in a multitude of ways, and it is important for businesses to select the tool or suite of tools that can deliver the greatest impact to their support teams, and ultimately, their customers.