Intercom vs Salesforce Service Cloud

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Our analysts compared Intercom vs Salesforce Service Cloud based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Help Desk Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Intercom is a conversational platform that personalizes messaging throughout the customer journey using customer, company and behavioral data. It offers chatbots, marketing campaigns, self-service functions, proactive tours and more. Collaborative inboxes, reporting and automated workflows help users interact with customers across all channels.

It integrates with out-of-the-box modules to automate actions and sync data and allows users to build their setups based on business needs. Businesses can see who uses their products and communicate with customers via targeted, behavior-driven emails and in-app messages.
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Salesforce Service Cloud, a help desk software from Salesforce.com, streamlines customer service operations for businesses of all sizes. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing customer inquiries, tracking cases, and providing personalized support across multiple channels.

Salesforce Service Cloud is particularly suited for organizations looking to enhance customer engagement, improve efficiency, and gain a 360-degree view of customer interactions. Its key benefits include automated case management, self-service portals, knowledge base management, and real-time reporting.

The software's user experience is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their specific needs. It seamlessly integrates with other Salesforce products and third-party applications, providing a unified platform for customer relationship management.

Pricing for Salesforce Service Cloud varies based on the number of users, support level, and additional features required. Businesses can choose from a range of subscription plans, with monthly or annual payment options available.

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$39/Seat, Monthly
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$25/User, Monthly
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Customize Bots: Build code-free bots that automatically triage conversations, initiate contact using advanced targeting and engage high-intent leads. 
  • Reply Faster: Apply macros or pre-written responses to maintain a consistent support experience even when live agents are unavailable. Automate repetitive actions, like tagging, assigning and updating tickets, across multiple conversations at once. 
  • Market Effectively: Engage potential leads with personalized messages to support the sales process and improve branding in real time. 
  • Enhance Support: Use the Conversational Support Starter Kit to learn how to combine proactive self-serve, AI-powered and human support to resolve customer issues at scale. 
  • Integrate Easily: Connect with tools like Marketo, Shopify and Stripe to enhance data interoperability and automate workflows. 
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  • Accelerated Issue Resolution: Salesforce Service Cloud streamlines communication and automates workflows, enabling teams to respond to customer inquiries swiftly and effectively.
  • Personalized Customer Experiences: The platform captures customer data and preferences, allowing agents to tailor interactions and provide personalized support.
  • Improved Agent Productivity: Automated tasks, such as case routing and knowledge management, free up agents' time, enabling them to focus on complex customer issues.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Service Cloud facilitates seamless collaboration between agents, allowing them to share knowledge, escalate cases, and provide real-time support to customers.
  • Increased Customer Satisfaction: By resolving issues promptly and efficiently, Service Cloud enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to improved brand reputation.
  • Actionable Insights: The platform provides comprehensive reporting and analytics, enabling managers to identify trends, measure performance, and make data-driven decisions to improve customer support operations.
  • Seamless Integration: Service Cloud integrates with other Salesforce applications, such as Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud, providing a unified view of the customer journey.
  • Mobile Accessibility: The mobile app allows agents to access customer data and provide support on the go, ensuring uninterrupted service.
  • Scalability and Flexibility: The platform can be customized and scaled to meet the unique needs of businesses, accommodating growth and changing requirements.
  • Cost Savings: By automating processes and improving efficiency, Service Cloud helps businesses reduce operational costs associated with customer support.
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  • Mobile Carousels: Manage communication with a customizable, code-free interface on a single or multiple screens. Request device permissions, add deep links, send dynamic carousel messages, open URLs, start conversations in the messenger and give users the option to chat with support. 
  • Team Messaging: Organize and respond to conversations on web, mobile and email and social channels from a central location. Create separate inboxes for support and sales, set permissions and use notes to collaborate on difficult questions.  
  • Product Tours: Create customizable interactive guides to orient new customers and explain products.  
  • Series Visual Campaign Builder: Use a drag-and-drop visual campaign builder to create behavior-based customer messaging campaigns. Send in-app and in-product messages and make feature announcements. Adjust paths for wait time, message type and unique tags. 
  • Conversational Support: Manage, route and prioritize conversations. Automate answers to common questions with the Resolution Bot. Customize user experience with intelligent chatbots based on customer behavior. 
  • Customer Data: Track unique business and customer data, like business type, location, pricing plan, product type and spend. Integrate data from a tech stack to personalize interactions and keep information up to date.
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  • Lightning Console: Boost agent productivity and optimize team workflows with easy access to information, including knowledge base, customer profiles and subject matter experts via responsive and dynamic dashboards. 
  • Case Management: Help agents resolve cases faster by keeping them connected to answers, activities and intel while assigning issues to the most appropriate sales representative with an AI-powered routing system. 
  • Service Cloud Voice: Equip agents with better insights and tools through Einstein Intelligence for delivering world-class customer support. Simplify setup, purchasing and rollout of contact center telephony with Amazon Connect and Service Cloud Voice integration. Solve customer issues quickly with tools such as IVR, intelligent cloud telephony, CRM data and call routing and storage. 
  • Knowledge Base: Allow customers and agents to get answers through a suite of readily available knowledge bases and articles. Ensure the accuracy of content with robust incident management solutions and KCSv5 verified knowledge management. 
  • Service Process and Automation: Eliminate repetitive and manual chores by automating internal procedures and processes. Design a point-and-click interface to update and create call logs and records, send emails and launch workflows. 
  • Omnichannel Routing: Engage with customers through various support channels such as web, phone, email, mobile Live Agent chats, social media, community sites and video chats. Route cases from different channels to appropriate agents based on priority, complexity and the agent’s availability, capability and capacity.  
  • Telephony Integration: Lower handle times and boost customer satisfaction rates by knowing the history before receiving the call. Automatically log the notes taken during the chat and associate them with related details such as customer records. 
  • Social Customer Service: Manage customer responses and problems from social media platforms through Salesforce Social Studio and service cloud integration. Route social cases to the appropriate agents by using classifiers, language detection and keywords. 
  • Service Analytics: Help agents make informed decisions and offer personalized support to customers by accessing service cloud data and the latest trends and patterns discovered by Einstein. Stay ahead of business issues and concerns by identifying customer and product issues and churning risks with predictive insights. 
  • Visual Remote Assistant: Troubleshoot setbacks and user queries from anywhere through video call assistance along with screen sharing capabilities. Leverage AI-powered character recognition and stay connected even with low bandwidth and offline. 
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Product Ranking

#6

among all
Help Desk Software

#43

among all
Help Desk Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

83
80
58
75
76
60
100
67
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Dashboards and Reporting
Email Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Platform Capabilities
Mobile Capabilities
Platform Security
Team Collaboration
Live Chat Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Intercom
Salesforce Service Cloud
+ Add Product + Add Product
Agent Productivity Call Center Management Dashboards And Reporting Email Management Live Chat Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Team Collaboration Ticket Management 58 76 100 98 81 80 85 80 70 75 60 67 76 89 100 77 94 79 0 25 50 75 100
50%
0%
50%
67%
0%
33%
50%
0%
50%
0%
100%
0%
100%
0%
0%
33%
50%
17%
100%
0%
0%
57%
29%
14%
73%
0%
27%
82%
0%
18%
80%
0%
20%
100%
0%
0%
83%
0%
17%
63%
21%
16%
50%
17%
33%
83%
0%
17%
71%
0%
29%
76%
0%
24%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

89%
0%
11%
74%
0%
26%
78%
0%
22%
89%
11%
0%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 3224 reviews
Great User Sentiment 2232 reviews
89%
of users recommend this product

Intercom has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 3224 user reviews from 6 recognized software review sites.

83%
of users recommend this product

Salesforce Service Cloud has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 83% when considering 2232 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (19)
5.0 (12)
4.4 (1333)
4.1 (1537)
4.52 (859)
n/a
4.5 (754)
4.4 (509)
4.4 (147)
4.5 (43)
4.2 (112)
3.9 (131)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Intercom and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Dashboards and Reporting.

Dashboards and Reporting Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Salesforce Service Cloud and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Mobile Capabilities.

Mobile Capabilities Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Usability: The platform is easy to use, straightforward and intuitive, according to 94% of users who commented on this aspect.
Customer Support: According to 74% of users who mentioned this, support reps are knowledgeable and helpful.
Training: Of the total users who commented on this feature, 90% liked the onboarding resources, training guides and simplicity of navigation.
Communication: 90% of users who commented on this appreciated being able to answer a high volume of questions, customize bots, automate responses and organize conversations.
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Intuitive User Interface: Salesforce Service Cloud's user-friendly interface makes it easy for support agents to quickly find the information they need to resolve customer issues.
Comprehensive Case Management: The platform provides robust case management capabilities, allowing agents to track and manage customer cases efficiently, ensuring timely resolution.
Seamless Integration with Salesforce Ecosystem: As part of the Salesforce ecosystem, Service Cloud seamlessly integrates with other Salesforce products, such as Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Analytics Cloud, providing a unified view of customer interactions.
Robust Reporting and Analytics: Service Cloud offers advanced reporting and analytics capabilities, enabling businesses to gain insights into customer behavior, identify trends, and measure agent performance.
Customization and Flexibility: The platform's customizable features allow businesses to tailor the solution to their specific needs, creating a personalized experience for both agents and customers.
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Value for Money: The pricing is hard to understand and skews expensive, according to 100% of users who mentioned this.
Reporting: According to 67% of users who reviewed this feature, internal reports are limited and inaccurate.
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Complexity: Salesforce Service Cloud is a comprehensive tool, but its complexity can be overwhelming for some users. The learning curve can be steep, and the user interface can be difficult to navigate.
Customization: While Salesforce Service Cloud is customizable, the process can be time-consuming and complex. Users may need to hire a consultant or developer to help them customize the software to meet their specific needs.
Cost: Salesforce Service Cloud is a paid software, and the cost can be a barrier for some businesses. The cost of the software depends on the number of users and the features that are needed.
Reporting: Salesforce Service Cloud provides a variety of reporting options, but some users find the reports to be difficult to understand. The reports can also be slow to generate, which can be frustrating for users who need to access information quickly.
Integration: Salesforce Service Cloud can be integrated with other software, but the process can be complex. Users may need to hire a consultant or developer to help them integrate the software with their other systems.
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Intercom offers a comprehensive platform to manage communications and increase engagement, via chatbots, product tours, email campaigns, automated answers and more. Based on user reviews, the product offers an intuitive interface, excellent customer support and useful onboarding resources. Users appreciated that they can customize automated tasks and in-app messages. Many reviewers also liked that they can assign conversations, use add-ons, send emails, send attachments and handle all customer outreach from a single platform. However, some users mentioned that the product is expensive and has limited reporting capabilities. All things considered, Intercom is a great solution for businesses in need of a complete communications platform.

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Salesforce Service Cloud is widely praised for its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Salesforce products, which enables businesses to manage all customer interactions in one place. However, some users have reported occasional performance issues and limitations in customizing certain features, which can hinder the software's ability to fully adapt to specific business needs. Compared to similar products, Salesforce Service Cloud is often regarded as a more comprehensive solution, offering a wider range of features and functionalities. Its strengths lie in its robust reporting and analytics capabilities, which provide valuable insights into customer behavior and agent performance. Additionally, its mobile app allows for remote access and real-time updates, enhancing the flexibility of customer support operations. Salesforce Service Cloud is best suited for medium to large-sized businesses that require a comprehensive and scalable help desk solution. Its robust feature set, ease of use, and integration capabilities make it an ideal choice for organizations seeking to improve customer satisfaction and streamline their support processes.

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