Among the many options in Help Desk; there are two names we constantly hear: Freshdesk Help Desk and Zendesk. With similar characteristics and widely accepted in the ITSM market; both have proven their worth and customers around the world widely recommend them.
Now, why are them among the first choices? Why Freshdesk Help Desk and Zendesk have earned the best reviews and analysis among IT specialists? And more specifically, which of them is the best choice for your company?
Let’s deepen into the way they manage tickets; deployment; prices; self-service module; communication channels; reports and compliance to have comprehensive vision on their pros & cons. With this analysis, you’ll get the whole picture before choosing the best Help Desk service to build better relationships with your customers.
Freshdesk Help Desk vs Zendesk: The Best in Help Desk Services
Freshdesk
In the first place, Freshdesk HelpDesk first brought to market in 2010. Between its most prominent clients we count Cisco, Honda, Sony Pictures and 3M, among others. Freshdesk Help Desk has 5 different versions that determine price.
It also offers a free version (Sprout) which grants three agents for the basic functions of email, telephone and knowledge base.
Zendesk
Second, Zendesk was released in 2007 and it has kept pace with the market’s needs. Box.com, Shopify and oversight are some of its most outstanding customers. It also offers a basic edition that does not include phone support.
Ticket Management
First and foremost, ticket management is the core of modern Help Desk tools. For this reason, it’s critical that they count on robust software to properly manage work flow automation; and reasonable delivery tickets to the right department and staff.
Freshdesk Help Desk
On the one hand, Freskdesk’s ticket system starts in a single inbox that processes requests; and are the agents who process and distribute tickets to the correct instance.
Then, Customer Service and Tech Support members are enabled to add notes and comments to each ticket; and customize notifications and requests. It also has pre-loaded answers to solve the most frequent incidents.
Follow, Freshdesk Managers set SLA Policies (Service Level Agreement) to prioritize entries. They also set time for ticket tracking and incident solving.
However, the most remarkable feature in FreshDesk Help Desk regarding ticketing; is its reward-based system created to reward managers and internal users (Freshdesk Arcade). This application imitates a game that awards points to encourage productivity. It has a good reception among managers, supervisors and other members of the department.
Zendesk Help Desk
On the other hand, Zendesk has a different approach that opts for ticket management through different channel requests. For example, requests for tech support are made by mail and this action automatically creates a ticket that finally establishes a fixed channel between the parties to the solution.
Regarding to the operating characteristics; Zendesk is very similar to Freshdesk for rule automation; triggers; macros (or pre-set responses); ticket collision detection to avoid redundancy; and customized SLAs.
Channel Customer Support
Both, Freshdesk Help Desk and Zendesk offer a wide range of channels that allow customers to make requests.
Freshdesk
According to the product edition, Freshdesk Help Desk covers telephone support; email; social networking and live chat.
The telephone channel guarantees access to the cloud. Includes IVR (interactive voice response); transfers; and integration of mobile devices.
Also, it features Live Chat Module through which you can access from the website or social networks (Facebook and Twitter).
Same, it has customizable self-service portal integrated to the Knowledge Base; and forums organized by topics and areas of interest to offer alternative solutions to tickets and incidents.
Zendesk
As Freshdesk Help Desk, Zendesk includes email, online Help Center, web add-ons, Twitter, Facebook, telephon integration and chat.
Regarding to the chat (Zopim), the service is not included in the standard packages. In other words, you have to pay an extra fee to enable Zopim in your help desk service.
By the same token, Twilio provides Zendesk telephonic service, and it bills in minutes. In the same fashion as Freshdesk, telephone service allows calls through the existing hardware; and provides transcription and call forwarding.
Reports and analyzes
On the other hand, reports for management analysis is a powerful tool that provides information on the staff’s performance; customer satisfaction; full insight for common complaints and requests; rush hours; and similar metrics.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk offers embedded surveys to measure and collect information at the moment of the ticket resolution. Like this, the service quality on spot determines whether the staff is quickly and effectively solving incidents. And of course, these metrics autommatically connect to Freshdesk Arcade to give compensation and boost productivity.
Also, Freshdesk Help Desk provides reports ranging from the simplest to give a glimpse of important parameters -such as response time or SLA violations; to summary reports that have deeper immersion in each ticket handled by each agent over a period of time set.
Same, it provides performance metrics operators according to meeting KPI goals; or according to channel type.
Zendesk
Zendesk contains a module that analyzes data from the ticket; performance; channels and customer satisfaction. With them, it produces dynamic reports with filters and frame responses useful to make new discoveries.
Also, it allows comparisons between Customer Service and Tech Service Teams in global scale. Same, it provides surveys (via SurveyMonkey) to measure customer satisfaction.
ITIL compliance
Beyond SLAs, ITIL standards are important rules that help us maintain uniformity in processes. In this regard, we would expect both tools to comply with ITIL standards. However, this is not so. In such regard, Zendesk explains and justifies:
We take great pride in not claiming any kind of ITIL compliance. We’re ITIL natives and couldnt dream of building a help desk without speaking ITIL.
According to Zendesk, there is an important difference between being ITIL native and meeting ITIL standards. Delving into interpretations, we even have more differences and nuances regarding ITIL compliance: ITIL Verified and ITIL Ready.
Beyond the operational aspects, semantics and subtleties; the truth is that Zendesk is not a tool that complies with ITIL standards. This detail has costed big deals with big fishes to our friends of Zendesk. And this is a major factor you need to consider when deciding what’s best choice for managing your Help Desk services.
Then, what’s the best choice for your company?
Undoubtedly, these two titans in help desk services have earned their places. They both share the same functions, they are both affordable and easy to use.
Each of them has their own particularities: Freshdesk Help Desk counts on Arcade, its application to boost productivity system through playfulness; while Zendesk presents its reference tool to compare team performance withing global companies.
However, there is one issue where Freshdesk Help Desk stands and highlights: It’s an ITIL-based tool. Notable, ITIL standards have proven much value as common framework to maintains uniformity and guaranteeing maximum operating levels services.
In such regard, this apparently thorny topic for Zendesk has been determinant in high-profiled companies who have ended up by opting for ITIL-Compliant options as Freshdesk to manage their Help Desk services.
Make the most of the advantages offered by Freshdesk Help Desk to build better relationships with your customers.
