What Is Zoho Desk?
Zoho Desk is a customer service and support software that helps businesses manage and track their customer interactions and inquiries. It made ranked number one in our list of the best help desk software and gives businesses a range of features to handle customer inquiries through various channels, including email, phone and social media—often at the same time (known as “omnichannel support”). Zoho Desk also provides tools for managing and organizing customer information as well as for tracking and analyzing customer interactions to improve support processes.
Pros
- Improved efficiency: Helps streamline and improve customer support processes.
- Central database: Provides a central location for managing and tracking customer interactions.
- Improved response time: Makes it easier to respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner.
- Improved customer understanding: Provides analytics and reporting tools to identify trends and patterns in customer interactions, allowing businesses to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences.
- Customization: Highly customizable platform to fit specific business needs and requirements.
- Try before you buy: For 15 days, you can test drive Zoho Desk thanks to its free trial.
- Multiple support channels: Handle customer inquiries through various channels, including email, phone and social media.
- Collaboration tools: Tools for collaboration and team communication, which can help businesses to manage customer interactions and support inquiries more effectively.
- Automation and self-service options: Offers tools for automating and streamlining certain customer support tasks as well as a self-service portal where customers can find answers to common questions and resolve issues on their own.
- Custom fields and tags: Create custom fields and tags to better organize and track customer information.
- Knowledge management: A knowledge base allows businesses to create and share knowledge articles with customers and support staff.
Cons
- No desktop version: Per Zoho Desk, the company doesn’t plan to offer a desktop version. Being restricted to browser access may be limiting to some teams.
- Canned messages don’t work: When using the app via a mobile device, canned messages don’t work in instant messaging.
- It’s expensive: To take advantage of features such as live chat or guided conversations, you need an enterprise-level plan.
Featured Partners
1
Freshdesk
$0
14 days
AI-powered automations and workflows, customized self-service
2
Salesforce
$25 per user per month
14 days
Yes
3
Zendesk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Zoho Desk Core Features
Zoho Desk offers a ton of features for businesses of all sizes, such as automation, collaboration and process management. However, it excels at ticket management, reporting and omnichannel support.
Ticket Management
Zoho Desk’s ticket management system allows businesses to track and manage customer support inquiries and requests. When a customer submits a support request, it is converted into a “ticket” that can be tracked and managed through the ticket management system. This can help businesses to ensure that customer inquiries are being handled efficiently and effectively.
There are several reasons why businesses might appreciate Zoho Desk’s ticket management system. First, it provides a central location for tracking and managing customer inquiries, which can make it easier to respond to and resolve customer issues. Additionally, the system allows businesses to assign tickets to specific team members or departments, ensuring that the appropriate person is handling each inquiry. This can help to improve response times and reduce the risk of inquiries falling through the cracks.
Finally, the ticket management system includes tools for tracking the status of tickets and for analyzing customer inquiries, which can help businesses to identify trends and patterns and to improve their support processes over time.
Customer Support Channels
Zoho Desk includes email channels, a help center, a feedback widget, advanced web forms and social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, businesses can use instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat and Line to communicate with customers in real time. Live chat and guided conversations are also available as options for providing immediate assistance to customers.
Telephony is another customer support channel offered by Zoho Desk. This refers to the use of a cloud call center, including features such as call forwarding, call routing and voicemail. Telephony can be a helpful way for businesses to provide support to customers over the phone. Overall, these various channels can help businesses communicate with their customers and provide efficient and effective support.
Dashboards and Reporting
Zoho Desk offers a comprehensive range of reporting and analytics tools to help businesses track and analyze their customer service efforts. These tools include custom dashboards, agent dashboards, ticket overviews, prepopulated reports and more that can be exported in a variety of formats.
These features provide an array of data and insights to help companies understand how well their customers are being served and areas for improvement. With Zoho Desk’s reporting and analytics tools, businesses can better monitor their customer support operations better for greater success.
Zoho Desk Pricing & Plans
Zoho Desk offers five different plans to suit tiny operations up to enterprise-level organizations. These all come with a variety of features for all stages of growth.
Free
Best for: Small businesses or startups that are just starting to establish their customer support efforts and need a basic set of tools to communicate with their customers and organize their customer support efforts.
Cost: Free
The free plan offered by Zoho Desk is ideal for small businesses or startups that are just starting to establish their customer support efforts. With the free plan, businesses can have up to three agents handling customer inquiries and issues and they can use up to 10 tags per ticket to organize and categorize their tickets. The free plan also includes one email channel, which allows businesses to communicate with their customers via email.
In addition to these features, the free plan also includes a feedback widget, which allows customers to provide feedback and suggestions to the business. An advanced web form is also included, which can be used to create custom forms for customers to fill out to request assistance or provide information. You’ll also receive access to its help center, which is a self-service resource that allows customers to find answers to common questions and troubleshoot problems on their own. Default templates and an agent dashboard also come with the free plan.
Zoho Desk Express
Best for: Small businesses or startups that are looking to expand their customer support efforts and improve their efficiency.
Cost: $7 per user, per month (annually) or $9 per user, per month (monthly)
The Express plan offered by Zoho Desk is ideal for small businesses or startups that are looking to expand their customer support efforts and improve their efficiency. Businesses can have up to five agents handling customer inquiries and issues and they can use up to 10 tags per ticket to organize and categorize their tickets. The Express plan includes all of the features of the free plan, plus a number of additional features designed to improve productivity and streamline the customer support process.
These features include suggested articles, the ability to merge, split, and clone tickets, a ticket timeline, advanced search functionality, table view, keyboard shortcuts and social media integration for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. In addition to these features, the Express plan includes two email channels, which allows businesses to communicate with their customers via email from two different email addresses.
Standard
Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) seeking to increase their customer support operations and maximize their efficiency.
Price: $14 per user, per month (annually) or $20 per user, per month (monthly)
With the Standard plan, businesses can have up to five agents handling customer inquiries and issues and they can use up to 20 tags per ticket to organize and categorize their tickets. It includes all of the features of the Express plan, plus a number of additional features designed to further improve productivity and streamline the customer support process, such as its cloud call center.
Other features include the ability to create and use up to five advanced web forms, a feedback widget and help center, as well as support for Facebook and Twitter as customer support channels. There are also integrations with instant messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat and Line.
The Standard plan also includes macros, which are prewritten responses that can be inserted into customer communications quickly and workflow rules, which can automate certain actions based on specific triggers. Time-based rules and direct assignment to agents and teams are also included, which can help businesses better manage their customer support efforts.
Professional
Best for: Medium-sized businesses that want to streamline their customer support operations and enhance their productivity.
Price: $23 per user, per month (annually) or $35 per user, per month (monthly)
With the Professional plan, businesses can have an unlimited number of agents handling customer inquiries and issues and they can use up to 30 tags per ticket to organize and categorize their tickets. The Professional plan includes a number of features designed to improve productivity and streamline the customer support process, such as gamescope for agents, agent collision detection, custom workflows, direct assignment to agents and teams and advanced process management (blueprints) functionality.
With this plan, you’ll also get chat support, which isn’t offered in the Standard, Express or Free plan. You’ll also have macros and workflow rules, which can automate certain actions based on specific triggers, and direct assignment to agents and teams, which can help businesses better manage their customer support efforts.
Enterprise
Best for: Large businesses or organizations that are looking to fully optimize their customer support efforts fully and improve their efficiency.
Price: $40 per user, per month (annually) or $50 per user, per month (monthly)
With the Enterprise plan, businesses can have an unlimited number of agents handling customer inquiries and issues and they can use up to 50 tags per ticket to organize and categorize their tickets. You’ll get everything in the Professional plan, plus a number of additional features designed to further improve productivity and streamline the customer support process. These features include the ability to create and use up to 20 advanced web forms per department, support for two brands for social media, live chat and guided conversations.
The Enterprise plan also includes advanced process management (blueprints) and service-level agreement (SLA) functionality, which can help businesses better manage their customer support efforts and ensure that they are meeting the needs of their customers.
Zoho Desk Ease Of Use
Zoho Desk is easy to use for businesses of all sizes. The platform includes a range of intuitive tools and features that make it easy for businesses to manage their customer support efforts and communicate with their customers. The user interface (UI) is straightforward and easy to navigate, with all the tools and features clearly organized and easy to access.
Zoho Desk includes extensive documentation and support resources, including a knowledge base, video tutorials and community forum, which can help businesses get up to speed quickly and easily. The platform is flexible and customizable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their specific needs and preferences. Overall, Zoho Desk’s easy-to-use design makes it a solid choice for businesses looking for a simple, powerful customer support platform.
Zoho Desk Security
Zoho Desk emphasizes data security and privacy and has implemented various security protocols to guarantee maximum protection of customer data. Field-level security permits businesses to decide who can edit certain fields in their customers’ records, while customizable privileges and access rights are available for agents based on the roles they assume in the organization.
Data-sharing permissions can be applied to control which information is shared for each module in the help desk as well as setting up distinct roles with limited access to sensitive customer information. All these protocols are employed by Zoho Desk to assist businesses in safeguarding their customer data and assuring the stability of their customers’ data.
Zoho Desk Alternatives & How They Compare
| Zoho Desk | Freshdesk | Jira Service Management | Zendesk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Offers a Free Plan
|
Yes, limit of three agents
|
Yes, 10-agent limit
|
Yes, limit of three agents
|
No, but startups get six months free
|
|
Mobile App
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
|
Remote Control
|
With Zoho Assist
|
No
|
With a plugin
|
With a paid integration
|
|
Learn More
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There are many Zoho Desk alternatives, each with its own host of features and benefits. Most offer the same set of basics, but the real differences lie in the value-added services, such as remote control and integrations.
Zoho Desk vs. Freshdesk
Both Zoho Desk and Freshdesk offer free plans. However, Freshdesk allows up to 10 agents whereas you can only have three with Zoho Desk. Neither offers a desktop app, though both have a mobile app. Paid plans for Zoho Desk start at $7 per user, per month, when billed annually, and Freshdesk plans start at $15 per agent, per month, when billed annually.
Visit Freshdesk’s website for more.
Zoho Desk vs. Jira Service Management
The most glaring difference between Jira and Zoho Desk is ease of use. Zoho Desk is intuitive with an attractive user interface (UI). Jira is notoriously more difficult to use and comes with a bare-bones UI. However, Jira is backed by Atlassian, meaning you’ve got more robust options ideal for larger organizations.
Zoho Desk vs. Zendesk for Service
Zendesk doesn’t offer a free plan unless you’re a startup, then you can get six months free. Zoho Desk has a completely free plan, provided you’re okay with limited features and only up to three agents. Both allow for remote control, but Zendesk requires you to use an integration for this, such as Teamviewer, for an additional cost.
Featured Partners
1
Freshdesk
$0
14 days
AI-powered automations and workflows, customized self-service
2
Salesforce
$25 per user per month
14 days
Yes
3
Zendesk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Is Zoho Desk Right for Your Business?
Zoho Desk is a customer service and support software that aims to help businesses manage their customer interactions and support requests. It offers a range of features, such as a ticketing system, customer portal, automated rule engine and integrations with other Zoho and third-party applications.
Whether Zoho Desk is right for you or your business depends on a number of factors, including the size of your business, the nature of your customer interactions and your budget. Here are a few questions to consider when evaluating whether Zoho Desk is a good fit for you:
- Does your business need customer service and support software? If you have a large volume of customer interactions and support requests, a dedicated customer service and support software, such as Zoho Desk may be helpful in managing and organizing these interactions.
- Do you use other Zoho applications? Zoho Desk is part of the Zoho suite of business applications and it integrates with other Zoho apps, such as customer relationship management (CRM), sales and marketing. If you’re already using other Zoho applications, Zoho Desk may be a good fit because it can integrate with your existing workflow seamlessly.
- Do you have the budget for a paid customer service and support software? Zoho Desk is a paid software, with pricing plans starting at $7 per user, per month. If you’re on a tight budget, you may want to consider a free or low-cost alternative. Alternatively, if your organization is small enough―fewer than three agents―you can use its free plan.
Ultimately, the decision of whether Zoho Desk is right for you or your business will depend on your specific needs and circumstances. It may be helpful to try out the free trial of Zoho Desk to get a feel for the software and see if it meets your needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Zoho Desk?
Zoho Desk is a customer service and support software that helps businesses manage and organize their customer interactions and support requests. It offers a range of features, such as a ticketing system, customer portal, automated rule engine and integrations with other Zoho and third-party applications.
How much does Zoho Desk cost?
Zoho Desk offers a free option, although its features are limited and you can only have three agents. Paid plans start at $7 per user, per month, when paid annually. The cost of Zoho Desk will depend on the plan you choose and the number of users you need.
Can I customize Zoho Desk to fit my business needs?
Yes, Zoho Desk offers a range of customization options to fit the specific needs of your business. You can customize the ticketing system, customer portal and automated rule engine to suit your workflow and business processes. You can also integrate Zoho Desk with other Zoho and third-party applications to extend its functionality.
What are some common features of help desk software?
Common features of help desk software include ticketing, knowledge base management, live chat and reporting. Some solutions also offer features, such as asset management and project management.
