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In this Zendesk review, I’ll explore one of the best CRMs for small businesses, noting its USPs, who it’s best for, and where it falls short compared to others I’ve tested. You’ll want to read this Zendesk Sell review to make an informed decision on whether it’s best for your business.
What Is Zendesk?
It stands out for its helpdesk and ticketing system, which helps businesses to manage customer inquiries via email, chat, and social media, track support requests, and resolve issues efficiently while keeping a paper trail of communications.
You can save significant time by setting up automations such as routing tickets to the appropriate departments or triggering responses to the most commonly asked questions, allowing customers to quickly solve their queries.
Zendesk’s self-service options, like knowledge bases and AI-driven bots, also empower customers to find answers on their own, reducing the workload for your agents.
By using Zendesk over time, you’ll understand your agents’ performance by tracking metrics such as response time and customer satisfaction, which will help you identify areas of improvement.
Zendesk Sell Pricing
Zendesk Sell starts at just $19, and this includes customizable sales pipelines and call tracking and recording. The higher-tier plans are well-priced, too, here’s a quick overview of your options:
| Sell Team | Sell Growth | Sell Professional | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $19/user/month | $55/user/month | $115/user/month | Custom |
| User Limit | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free Trial Period | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
| Collaboration | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Lead Management | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Opportunities Management | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Lead Scoring | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Automation | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Team Collaboration | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integrations | 300+ | 300+ | 300+ | 300+ |
| Support | Live chat, email, help desk | Live chat, email, help desk | Live chat, email, help desk | Live chat, email, help desk |
Zendesk CRM Key Features
When reviewing Zendesk, from automations to sales engagement tools, I found that it has a host of great features for small and growing sales teams. Here’s a closer look at the best ones.
Trigger-Based Automations
Automation can boost efficiency by 10-15%. As you’d expect, you can create custom trigger-based automations with the Zendesk CRM.
Your team can set up notifications to stay on top of communications and workflows and automate the dullest tasks in their workday. Overall, these will help you optimize your sales processes.
You can also use them to highlight promising deals or to help quickly and efficiently move deals from one stage to the next. We especially liked how quick and easy it was to set up triggers.
I found it just as simple to customize them — add names, set priorities (e.g. urgent), and select conditions in seconds. As cool as this feature is, though, it’s not super unique.
You can find trigger-based automations with other sales CRM providers, like Monday. However, there’s a distinct difference in the style — test drive both to see which works best for you.
Smart Lists and Templates
With Zendesk’s Smart Lists and Templates, you can segment and filter your deals, contacts, and leads for easy review. You can also save views of your data using Smart Lists.
This means you don’t have to come back and customize your view with new filters and qualifications every time. It’s easy to access Smart Lists the next time you need them, too.
They’re listed in the Working Center — which you can find in the sidebar. I appreciated how straightforward it was to edit and duplicate lists. However, users with a lot of data may find reviewing rows and rows of Smart Lists overwhelming.
Power Dialer
With this, you no longer need to manually enter and dial numbers. You can create custom lists that automatically dial leads and customers. This is superb for saving time when chasing contacts.
We liked the flexibility of this feature, too. It gives you the option of setting countdown timers for when your calls are placed (e.g. in 10 seconds) or to “Call now” if you want to start a call immediately.
You can also record the outcome of each call via a content box and make notes that could be helpful in the future, such as any key reservations a lead mentioned.
Sales Engagement Tools
This is one of the best features I tested during myZendesk Sell review. You can use it to enrich existing contacts and leads in your database, update out-of-date information, and build a full contact profile.
However, to use this, you need enrichment credits, which require a minimum amount of data. You’ll need one credit for every company or person you want to enrich.
You’ll also need to know a contact’s email address or the company name and website. That said, I like how easy it is to use, with each profile providing spaces for key information.
This includes name/company name, parent company, email address, work number, address, and industry. You can even bulk-enrich 1,000 contacts or leads.
AI Agents
Your human customer support agents can breathe a sigh of relief since Zendesk has joined the trend of generative AI customer service bots. As of its latest August 2024 update, Zendesk’s AI agents can be programmed in thirty different languages, including Chinese, Arabic, and German.
AI agents can relieve your customer service team of some of their workload by generating replies to customer queries and retrieving relevant help articles. You can also program the bot’s persona to be aligned with your brand so there is no unsettling robotic tone of voice.
It also helps to improve your knowledge base over time by reporting frequently asked but unanswered questions so that you can provide this missing information on your website and save customers from having to get in touch.
Zendesk Integrations
Zendesk CRM offers 1,700+ integrations, including Harvest, Google Play Reviews, Mailchimp, and PagerDuty. I found it super easy to integrate the platform with the apps I needed.
However, it can be slightly time-consuming to integrate a large number of apps with the software. Compared to other tools on the market, the number of integrations is also comparatively low.
Salesforce, for example, offers over 2,000 integrations. While Pipedrive, another top sales CRM, offers over 400. Some online reviewers also highlighted the lack of Sales Navigator integration.
This may put some limits on what B2B organizations can do with the software.
Zendesk vs Top Competitors
Zendesk is one of the best CRMs for small and growing sales teams, but it may not be the best fit for your business. To help you decide, here’s a quick overview showing how it compares to the best Zendesk alternatives:
| Zendesk | Monday CRM | Salesforce | Pipedrive | HubSpot | Act! CRM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best For | Sales teams of any size | Easy to use, budget CRM | Larger companies | Sales teams looking for customization and automation for less | Businesses that need an all-in-one CRM | Small businesses |
| Starting Price | $19/user/month | $12/user/month | $25/user/month | $14/user/month | $15/user/month | $30/user/month |
| Free Version | 14 days | ❌ | 30 days | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
| Compatibility | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows |
| Top 3 Features | Smart Lists, Call Automations, Sales engagement tools | Custom dashboards, no-code automations, automated sales cycle content | Custom reports, generative AI, 2,000+ integrations | Smart Docs, AI Sales Assistant, automated workflows | Automated data capture, personalized email sequences, chatbots | Visual dashboard, integrated text messaging, custom tables |
Zendesk vs Salesforce
As I covered above, Zendesk is a super usable platform that needs minimal training. It’s an out-of-the-box solution that’s intuitive to use. That said, Salesforce has a steeper learning curve.
It’s more complicated to set up and use, requiring IT support to get teams up and running. Salesforce supports over 3,000 integrations, compared to Zendesk’s still generous, 1,700+.
This makes Salesforce a good Zendesk alternative if you want maximum integration options. That said, Salesforce requires a bigger budget. The basic plan is $25, while their top-tier plan is $500.
Compare this to Zendesk’s basic plan, which is $19, and their Enterprise plan, which is $150.
Zendesk vs HubSpot
Both these CRMs are designed to help sales teams manage contacts and leads and close deals more efficiently, and both offer a number of impressive automation and pipeline management features.
Both also win points for usability and great customer service. However, HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM designed to help support other departments, including Operations and Marketing.
As such, when it comes to sales features, Zendesk takes the edge — providing features like lead scoring and forecasts at a more affordable price point for smaller sales teams.
One big difference? Free plans. While Zendesk’s Team plan starts at a modest $19 per month, its free plan is limited to a 14-day trial. HubSpot, on the other hand, offers a generous free CRM for up to five users, which can be ideal for small businesses who want a CRM without financial investment.
Zendesk vs Freshdesk
Both Zendesk and Freshdesk are popular CRMs designed to help you manage your sales cycles, but if you’re looking for actionable lead and customer insights, then Zendesk is the best option.
Zendesk offers advanced reporting and analytics with point-and-click configurable reports and custom metrics. Freshdesk delivers 80+ ready-to-go reports, while Zendesk offers 250+.
Freshdesk is slightly more affordable, too, costing just $15, in comparison to Zendesk’s $19 basic plan. While Zendesk’s Enterprise plan costs just $115, Freshdesk is even more affordable at $79.
Zendesk Customer Reviews
For myZendesk review, I examined online Zendesk CRM reviews. It’s rated 7.6/10 on Trustradius, with several users praising how intuitive the interface is and that it requires little training to use.
Reviewers also liked how customizable the platform is and how easy it is to add or modify different fields based on their needs. Zendesk support and training is another bonus I found in the reviews.
However, some mentioned that the pipelines were limited.
In the Zendesk reviews, some noted that it’s expensive. Some also say they had some issues integrating Zendesk Sell with their other apps — which caused errors when interacting with clients.
In addition, in their Zendesk Sell reviews, some reviewers also mentioned a lack of integration options in comparison to some other CRM providers, as I’ve noted in my Zendesk review.
What is Zendesk CRM Good for?
Zendesk CRM is great for sales teams looking for pipeline management and customizations, automation features, and an intuitive interface. It’s a great small business CRM.
It boasts plans to suit every team’s needs. However, if you want a CRM that goes beyond sales — take a look at some of the best all-in-one CRM software solutions like HubSpot.
Looking for customer support software with the same provider? Check out Zendesk Suite.
We base our recommendations on first-hand testing. All the CRM Software products we feature, have been tested based on the following criteria:How We Review And Test CRM Software
How to Choose the Best CRM Solution
From price to features, when choosing the best CRM app for your company, there are several factors you need to consider before you buy, including:
Check your budget and see whether the plan you can afford will meet your needs. While Zendesk is a great CRM, several options are slightly more affordable. Take the Monday CRM, for example, which begins at just $12.
Which features do you need to help support your day-to-day work? More affordable plans typically have more basic options — take Zendesk, you won’t find advanced reporting and customization features until you purchase the higher-level plans.
Luckily, Zendesk excels when it comes to offering great plans for growing teams, but this is a good factor to keep in mind when deciding. Changing CRMs can be time-consuming and challenging, so be sure to consider this.
Usability is a big one when it comes to choosing a CRM. You want a platform that requires minimal onboarding and training, so your teams can be up and running as soon as possible.
To find out how usable a tool is, be sure to read reviews like this one that include an overview of the customer reviews and take advantage of any free trials, plans, or money-back guarantees.
Factor in what integrations you use and ensure they can be easily integrated. While Zendesk offers hundreds of integrations, it doesn’t offer the most choice. For example, Salesforce offers 2,000+ integrations. Some integrations can also be limited to certain plans.
Support is a big one. What are the support options and hours available? And is your chosen provider well-ranked when it comes to delivering supportive, timely customer support?
FAQs
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References
- Automation Can Boost Efficiency by 10-15% (McKinsey)
- What Are CRMs? (Indeed)
