Customer service tools you should use in 2024
Customer service tools improve the quality of service provided by your agents. If you are wondering which ones are worth considering for your implementation, here you will find a list of the best customer service tools for 2024.
Using tools that improve everyday life can quicken the speed of completing tasks and save a lot of time. Since we like to use applications so often on a daily basis, why do many people resist tools that can help to make their work more efficient?
Customer service tools in 2024 should be used as often as possible. Why? Because they can raise the quality of the service provided, and that helps with keeping customers content. The competition never sleeps, and you need to take care of clients as much as you can.
Did you know that even ⅓ of customers admit that only one incident of poor customer service may be a reason to switch companies? It is proof that customer service has a huge impact on a brand’s image, the user experience, and, in the long term, company performance.
Today, we’re going to shortlist a few useful tools and applications that could improve customer service in your company.
Why should you use customer service tools?
If you’ve been wondering why you should invest in customer service tools in 2024, then you’re reading the right article. As we mentioned earlier, tools make life easier, but there are also several other reasons why you should consider such an investment. Let’s dive in!
Saving time and providing quick responses
People are impatient by nature. That’s why customers demand the fastest possible service. And this is what customer service tools can guarantee. Thanks to them, your team can use ready-made email templates, for example. Imagine how much time can be saved and how many tools can quicken responses.
Did you know that as many as 88% of customers require an hour to reply to emails? Moreover, 30% expect a response in 15 minutes or less.
Many call center tools offer a client profile (client ID) feature so that an agent knows who is calling and their shopping history, etc. Thanks to such facilities, the agent won’t have to look for information about the client when conversing, which would extend the call. Can you see how much time customer service tools can save?
Understand the 4 trends shaping customer support in 2024
Providing help around the clock
24/7 customer service open can be a difficult task in terms of logistics and staffing. How about self-service? It sounds odd, considering that clients contact customer service for help. But listen, customer service tools in 2024 can help a customer almost as well as an agent!
You can bet on a good old FAQ or Knowledge Base that customers can browse in case of problems. If they don’t find an answer to their questions, then the client will call or send an email after.
If you are a fan of chatbot technology, this is also a solution that will guarantee customer service during the day and night. However, if you want chatbots to do their jobs with flying colors then you have to program them well. For some people, this can be tricky stuff.
Keeping all customer information in one place
If you had to pick any of the things that would most irritate your customers, you would probably say being kept on hold. It’s quite understandable. One of the reasons why a customer has to stay on the line is either because an agent is looking for the relevant information or to switch to another agent. A 360-degree view helps to keep all customer information in one place, not only their name or last purchase but also all communication, notifications, or complaints.
A perfect solution is to integrate customer service tolls with your CRM. This will provide the entire company with a comprehensive client overview. It also facilitates work in the case of staff changes or the absence of an agent – everyone can access the client’s information in two clicks. And thanks to such a solution, the client will not have to wait until a given agent returns, e.g., from vacation.
The best customer service tools in 2024
Now let’s get down to business. It’s high time to provide you with some examples of the best customer service tools in 2024. Everyone can find something for themselves – no matter if their customer service relies mostly on social media or calls. Let’s dive in.
#1 CloudTalk
CloudTalk is a customer service tool that is dedicated to calling centers. It helps your agents handle dozens of calls and makes waiting a little more comfortable for your clients. This tool is one of the must-haves if your customer service is all about calls. It also helps with monitoring agents’ performance.
How can CloudTalk improve customer service?
This tool has many features, but one of the most useful is automatic outbound caller ID. What does this mean in practice? An agent can see all information about a client before saying “hello”. What else does CloudTalk offer? For example, personalized greetings or music make waiting for an agent a little more bearable, as previously mentioned.
Another feature that helps a lot is IVR, which stands for Interactive Voice Response. This means that a client goes through various options and receives guidelines to end up with the right agent and thus get the best possible help.
CloudTalk has many integrations, too. Thanks to API, integration with your CRM won’t be a problem at all. When it comes to pricing, there are three options to choose from and the possibility of customization. You can also select monthly or annual billing and choose your preferred currency (Euros or USD). In the case of monthly payments, there is a Starter Plan (€25), Essential Plan (€30), or Expert Plan (€50). With annual billing, they cost €20, €25, or €40 per month, respectively.
#2 EmailAnalytics
EmailAnalytics is a web app that visualizes your team’s email activity. It enables you to see crucial productivity metrics like how many emails your customer service team sends and receives every day, what hours of the day they have the most email traffic, and their average email response time.
How can EmailAnalytics improve customer service?
Response time is a critical KPI for customer service teams. But you can only improve what you can measure. Luckily, EmailAnalytics gives managers the ability to measure and report on email response time easily.
On average, people who use EmailAnalytics respond 42.5% faster than those who don’t. So, EmailAnalytics not only gives managers greater visibility and insights into their team’s productivity but also improves their team’s performance.
Pricing is simple. The first 14 days are free, and then it’s $15 per user per month.
#3 LiveWebinar
Webinars and customer service may seem unrelated, but it’s not true. The year 2020 showed us just how remote our lives can be. Most of the conversation has moved to the online world, and so should customer service. When an email or a phone call is not enough, an online meeting should do the trick. And that’s why you should get to know LiveWebinar.
How can LiveWebinar improve customer service?
A client can show and explain their problems in detail, and an agent can demonstrate a practical solution. Thanks to features like whiteboards, agents can draw and write to explain things in a more understandable way. Doesn’t it sound great?
Another good feature is that an agent can record a meeting and send it to the client. This can be a benchmark for the future. LiveWebinar integrates with many external tools and pieces of software, like MailChimp and Office 365. Everybody can get access to it from any browser, so it won’t be a problem to get in touch with a client. LiveWebinar would be a gem in your collection of customer service tools in 2024.
There is a Free Plan and two paid ones, Pro Plan and Business Plan. Both paid options have 14 days of a free trial. There is the possibility of customization too.
#4 Tidio Live Chat
Tidio Live Chat is an online business tool intended for eCommerce stores that want to address the customer’s number one need – an immediate query response. By adding Tidio Live Chat to your store, you empower your customers with the quickest and most effective form of contact – chat in real time.
How can Tidio Live Chat improve customer service?
By using Tidio Live Chat, you can effortlessly and in a natural way engage your customers. The tool will support you in nurturing leads, automating work, and cutting down on the time that it takes to communicate with your visitors.
Moreover –
With Tidio Live Chat, customer support operators can handle multiple queries simultaneously and thus serve more clients at the same time.
Tidio’s live chat works great with a number of CRM, eCommerce, and email marketing platforms. You can easily integrate the tool and widget with Shopify, Messenger, WordPress, and many more.
There is a forever-free plan with essential live chat, chatbots, and email marketing features.
If you want to unlock advanced live chat features, you will need to upgrade your plan to Communicator, Chatbots, or Mailing. Paid plans start at 18 EUR/mo.
#5 Harmonizely
Harmonizely is a tool that can be used to schedule all of your meetings. It helps with handling arrangements, both online and offline. Whether your customer service agents arrange online meetings or make offline appointments with clients, this tool can help manage them.
How can Harmonizely improve customer service?
Harmonizely works on all devices, so there will be no problem whether your agents prefer smartphones or laptops. It also provides email notifications to remind about upcoming meetings, so neither the agent nor the client will forget about an appointment. It integrates with almost all types of calendars, from iCloud to Zoho.
There are many types of meetings to choose from, like one-to-one, secret meetings, and more. The agent can also invite more participants, e.g., a specialist who can help the client even more.
Pricing seems reasonable here. There are three plans – Free, Pro, which costs $12 per month, and Enterprise, which is a customizable option. You can choose monthly or annual payments. There are also 14-day free trials available for each plan.
#6 LiveAgent
This software is a must-have if you offer omnichannel customer service. LiveAgent allows you to keep an eye on each commutation channel. It combines live chat, ticketing, and also customer service automation. Thanks to this combination, your agents can provide the highest quality service to all of your customers.
How can LiveAgent improve customer service?
It offers a universal inbox that collects all messages and notifications from various channels like Facebook, Twitter, and even emails all in one place. Thanks to such a feature, response times are shortened, and thus, customers will be happier. What can also be useful is the hybrid ticket stream, which means that you can follow a client across various channels but on the same ticket. In other words, you have all information from different channels in one place.
A bunch of integrations makes implementing LiveAgent a piece of cake. You can integrate it with Slack, Magenta, Twilio, Gmail, and many more.
You can also incorporate LiveAgent with CloudTalk, so calls with clients will be even more helpful. It automates agents’ work and saves their time, providing a comprehensive client overview and gathering information from all channels.
You can choose one of three paid plans, each of which has a free trial. There is also a free plan.
#7 Slack
Slack makes commutation seamless. You can choose it as an internal messenger for your team and/or as a method of commutation with clients. Dozens of features make chatting even more comfortable and quicker.
How can Slack improve customer service?
As mentioned before, you can decide whether you want to use Slack as a messenger within your company or to communicate with your clients. Nevertheless, a feature such as channels helps with keeping all conversations organized. It will help customer service teams with quick internal communication and discuss clients’ problems to improve the service in the future.
Slack allows chatting, making calls, and video calls. It can be integrated with Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Trello, and more. Thanks to a long list of integration, your team’s productivity, and thus the customer experience, may improve significantly,
One of the most useful integrations here is with CloudTalk. Thanks to this, you can improve the quality of call center services. Your agents can set up Slack to send a message after a missed call or a new SMS message to appear in CloudTalk.
It offers a free trial, and you can then choose one of three paid plans – Standard ($6.67), Plus ($12.40), or Enterprise Gold. There is also a free plan offered.
#8 Poptin
Poptin is a user-friendly and powerful conversion optimization toolkit that helps users convert more visitors into leads, subscribers, and customers. It has a drag-and-drop popup builder that allows you to create engaging pop-ups and forms in a matter of minutes. With the help of its innovative features, such as smart triggers, targeting rules, exit-intent technology, A/B testing, analytics, and more, you can achieve better business results in terms of customer engagement, sales, and brand loyalty.
How can Poptin improve customer service?
With the help of opt-ins, you can direct your visitors to your contact page, ask them to chat with you if there’s any concern, or encourage them to give their email addresses for updates on stocks, promotions, and more. Poptin also offers widgets that visitors can use to chat with the customer support team. Using behavioral triggers and accurate targeting, you can easily figure out the best way to help them with their browsing experience.
Moreover, Poptin provides easy-to-implement email autoresponders to make sure your visitors are engaged even when they exit from your page. Autoresponders can also make your visitors more confident about your brand when they receive payment confirmation or newsletter welcome emails.
#9 Zapier
Zapier automates workflow. With this tool, you can connect applications and define repetitive tasks. Such actions can improve the performance of your customer service team. In practice, you can integrate Slack and Google Drive, for example, or if someone sends you an image on Slack then it can be automatically added to Asana.
How can Zapier improve customer service?
Thanks to such chains between your apps, your customer service team can reduce response times and collect information about cases or clients more efficiently. Each agent can create their own links and tailor them to specific needs.
Zapier works with basically every app you can even think of. Slack, Google, Drive, Asana, and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and many more.
Integration with CloudTalk offers a lot! Agents can create their own call-connected Zaps. There is also the ability to make contact and call triggers to synchronize your contact list with 3rd party apps and have a 360-degree client overview.
There is a free option, and four paid plans, each of which has a two-week free trial. You can choose between GBP, USD, or EUR currencies.
#10 Nicereply
Nicereply allows you to obtain some feedback from customers. Thanks to this tool, you can measure how good or bad the customer experience was after service. You can also track brand awareness and loyalty.
How can Nicereply improve customer service?
Thanks to Nicereply, you can ask customers for feedback at the end of each email. The customer has to choose a score, and that’s basically it. You can select a scale and its custom design. There is also the option to choose the question you want to ask your customers and add extra ones. Nicereply helps with continuous customer service improvement.
If you are interested in pricing, four plans are available. They are Mini ($39), Start ($79), Grow ($159), and Business ($239). There is also a free trial available.
#11 Determ
Determ may be one of your must-have tools in 2024 if your customer service is based on social media. It really helps with organizing social media and monitoring traffic on various platforms.
How can Determ improve customer service?
Thanks to this tool, your customer service agents can react quickly every time new mentions or comments appear. It enables monitoring of social media like Facebook and Twitter, but also TripAdvisor, blogs, and forums. What’s important is that it can follow mentions in every language. You can add some filters to make the results more customized. All of these features allow you to provide faster agent reactions to each company-related action on social media.
There are three paid plans with free trials. The Pro Plan costs €99, Medium Plan €399, and Enterprise Plan €999. If you need more than 100 queries, the offer is customizable.
#12 Lessonly
Lessonly is not a typical customer service tool, but it can increase the quality of services provided. This one delivers knowledge and polishes agents’ skills. Thanks to Lessonly, you can arrange some training for your agents and thus help to improve your results in terms of service efficiency and quality.
How can Lessonly improve customer service?
You can create and customize lessons for whole teams or each agent individually. You know your employees, so you should also know who needs more training to write emails and who needs some call conversation lessons. Another good feature is some practice exercises to choose from. A big pro about Lessonly is the fact that agents can do these lessons either during work or at home and in the mobile app whenever they want.
If you want to check what the drill is with Lessonly, there is a Demo to try. There are two plans, Pro and Pro+Coaching, but to find out the prices, you would need to chat with the sales team.
#13 SendX
SendX is one of those customer service tools in 2024 that is without which no email should be sent. It helps with the automatization of your agents’ inboxes and, thus, with a more fluent commutation.
How can SendX improve customer service?
Thanks to SendX, your agents can use ready-to-send email templates and save some time. Another feature that helps with the daily responsibilities of customer service agents is the email list. You or your agents can build and customize a listing, design a form, integrate it with the website, and track its performance.
If you are interested in SendX there is a demo and a free trial available. There are five plans depending on the number of subscribers, and you can select whether you want to pay monthly or annually.
#14 Ricotta
Ricotta is based on OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results. This tool helps with organizing work and keeping everybody focused and productive. Sounds cool, but how does it work?
How can Ricotta improve customer service?
You can add Ricotta to Slack to keep your team focused. Once you implement it, you need to establish goals, and then you can follow a team’s results. Your agents may be more productive if they can track their own progress.
There are two plans, for $45 or $90, to choose from, both of which can be paid monthly or annually. There is also a free trial.
#15 Verifybee
This software helps with verifying customers’ email addresses and phone numbers.Verifybee is an advanced platform that provides the highest quality verification system, thanks to which all messages from your customer service agents will be heard.
How can Verifybee improve customer service?
Thanks to the verification of phone numbers and email addresses, your agents won’t waste time calling or writing emails to unreachable people. It can be integrated with MailChimp, Facebook, Trello, and many more apps.
The price range is broad, starting from $19 up to $1,099. You can choose a free trial too.
#16 Salesforce
Salesforce is a piece of software that connects companies and their customers. It helps with customer service, marketing, and many more. Without a doubt, it is one of the must-haves when it comes to customer service tools in 2024.
How can Salesforce improve customer service?
It provides a comprehensive, 360-degree overview of each client, so agents have all the necessary information in one place. It offers omnichannel routing, thanks to which each case will be sent to the most qualified agent to solve a problem.
There are four plans to choose from, starting from €25 up to €300. There is also a free trial for you to check whether it would be helpful for your teams.
#17 TMetric
TMetric is a time-tracking and productivity management tool designed to streamline workflow and enhance efficiency. It offers features such as time tracking, project management, team monitoring, and detailed reporting, making it a helpful resource for customer service teams.
How can TMetric improve customer service?
It can improve customer service in a few ways. First, by identifying areas where agents spend a lot of time, businesses can streamline processes or provide additional training to improve efficiency.
Second, TMetric’s reporting features can help managers track trends and identify which customer issues take the most time to resolve. This allows them to proactively address these issues and potentially improve the customer experience.
Finally, this tool can help ensure accurate billing for billable support hours.
It’s important to emphasize that TMetric supports 50+ integrations with various systems, including customer service tools. And, it comes with a free trial and a Free plan for up to 5 users. Advanced functionality requires a paid plan.
#18 Knowmax
Knowmax is an AI guided knowledge management platform that empowers your CX team to deliver mistake-proof customer service across channels with actionable knowledge.
With Knowmax you can simplify your SOPs into interactive decision trees or picture guides, to help your agents resolve queries efficiently.
Knowmax also enables agents to find the right answers instantly with AI search. This means your agents can focus more on resolving customer issues instead of searching for answers.
How can TMetric improve customer service?
Knowmax seamlessly integrates with your existing CX tools and communication channels like CRM, chat, telephone, and more to deliver omnichannel CX.
With its AI capabilities you can empower your agents with instant answers, knowledge authors with faster content creation, and admins with detailed insights to optimize knowledge content.
By integrating knowmax into your self-service portal, you can improve your ticket deflection by empowering customers to quickly resolve common queriers through chatbots, FAQs and how-to guides.
Over to you
The right choice of customer service tools in 2024 will undoubtedly improve customer service teams’ efficiency and productivity. They will also help agents with managing time and automatizing some aspects of their work.
In order to rock 2024, you can start by implementing some of these tools. Most of them offer a free plan, trial, or demo, so what’s stopping you? Feel free to make a to-do or, rather, a to-install list for 2024 and improve your customer service more than ever before!
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Understand the 4 trends shaping customer support in 2024