Businesses are focusing on customer delight. They no longer stop at merely satisfying customers, rather, the goal is to delight customers, as loyal customers drive revenue. Customer support software helps companies manage relationships with customers by collecting crucial data that can provide insights on how to improve service and workflow processes. In this guide, we present a comparison of Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud.
By comparing the core features of each software, including pricing, ease of use, and integrations, our aim is to help you make a decision on which software fits the specific requirements of your business. As a significant investment, choosing a platform for customer service requires thorough research and evaluation of the capabilities of each solution.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Comparison Table of Contents
When it comes to resolving customer queries, businesses are focusing on quality over quantity. Although 46% of companies in 2021 have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) policy to resolve customer service tickets in less than six hours, 41% agree that the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is the most important customer service KPI.
To be able to reach quality customer service, however, it is important for companies to acknowledge that customer support teams need support to thrive. In 2022, 80% of customer service teams intend to conduct regular internal reviews to ensure that the right support systems are in place to empower agents on the frontline.
Source: Hiver Customer Service Benchmark Report
Great customer support can have a huge impact on your bottom line. This guide compares two widely used customer support software solutions, Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud. If you want to know more about the difference between Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud, and compare its specific features and functionalities, read on and we will help you decide which software solution can empower and provide support to your team.
Overview of Zendesk and Salesforce
Zendesk
Zendesk is a customer service software solutions provider that offers integrated ticketing across email, chat, and social media channels. It is easy to deploy and navigate and offers perfect core functionality for ticketing. Zendesk also integrates easily with social media platforms.
Zendesk is the perfect customer service tool for small companies and startups. It can be integrated with other platforms and apps, such as CRM systems. The platform has a simple user interface and is easy to set up with features that make collaboration easier among agents and subject matter experts. Moreover, Zendesk personalizes every customer interaction through the use of AI-powered bots and automation of workflows.
Zendesk
Try out Zendesk with their free trial
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer service platform with features that automate and streamline workflows. The platform provides a 360-degree view of the customer with an AppExchange marketplace of over 3,000 apps. Though the pricing tiers are higher compared to Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud users are provided sales support and marketing tools as well.
Salesforce Service Cloud provides enterprise-level customer service functionalities and advanced CRM features, including multi-channel case management and mapping telephony integration. The customer management feature of Salesforce Service Cloud is AI-powered, thus providing seamless automation and deep analytics. The unlimited scalability and world-class data centers of Salesforce Service Cloud make it the ideal customer service platform for large enterprises and fast-growing companies.
Comparison of Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud
Core Features
Unified Inbox
The unified or shared inbox lets you gather customer inquiries from emails, chat, voice, web widgets, and social apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. Both Zendesk and Salesforce have a unified inbox that lets agents manage their customer relationships from a single platform. While both have similar features that enable agents to manage the entire case or ticket lifecycle from a single dashboard, the Salesforce Inbox is fully integrated with their CRM platform.
Meanwhile, the Agent Workspace of Zendesk enables agents to respond to customers in real-time across email, chat, phone, and messaging. Among the features are a single set of tools and processes that help agents respond to customer messages from one platform using a variety of channels.
Agent Collision Detection
The Agent Collision feature helps in the management of customers by avoiding sending multiple replies to the same customer email. The shared inbox automatically detects this and notifies the agent of the detected duplication. Both Zendesk and Salesforce include agent collision detection mechanisms.
With Salesforce, the AI ensures that no duplication will occur in addressing cases while with Zendesk there are dashboard indicators that show the status of tickets. For Zendesk, however, there are potential agent collision scenarios that can be triggered when an agent loses connection, or when an agent manually opens a ticket. In such cases, the agent may refer to the Zendesk support page for instructions on how to address the agent collision.
The Zendesk unified inbox.
Ticket Management
Basically, an effective ticketing system should be able to create, manage, and maintain a list of customer issues and problems. When it comes to ticket management, the main difference between Salesforce and Zendesk is in assigning tickets to agents.
With Zendesk, ticket-workflow management involves the use of various email templates and scheduling features, but the assigning of tickets to agents is done manually. Agents click on available tickets and it will be assigned to them. With Salesforce Service Cloud, the tickets which are referred to as “cases,” are assigned by the AI-powered routing Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant to the agents that are best qualified to handle the cases.
The Zendesk ticket management system provides agents with a comprehensive view of the entire customer journey. It also has a centralized hub that makes it easy for managers to track performance metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and service-level agreements (SLAs) across the customer experience.
From a single system, Salesforce Service Cloud manages the entire customer lifecycle with automated routing for calls and messages for faster case resolution. The online help desk ticketing system that can be accessed from any device is capable of consolidating cases from any channel that customers use to reach your company.
Aside from the above-mentioned, ticket or case creation for both products is also automated. When a customer sends an email to ask a question or request support, the Zendesk Answer Bot steps in to help. After scanning the email, the Answer Bot sends the most relevant article to the customer while waiting for the human agent. In cases where the customer gets the answer from the articles suggested by the Answer Bot, the ticket is solved. Otherwise, the ticket is routed back to an agent.
The Salesforce Service Cloud ticketing system supports agents by providing the next best action based on the specifics of the issue. As the system guides the ticket toward resolution, the Salesforce ticketing system presents standard steps to address the needs of customers. Completion of each step is required to ensure that agents cover every base of complete customer service.
Both Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud offer automated ticket management that comes with service console apps. While both products have automated ticket management, the Salesforce Service Cloud platform provides more layers of data about the customer.
The Salesforce Service Cloud key metrics dashboard.
Self-Service Portal
Both Zendesk and Salesforce allow users to set up a customer self-service portal. For this feature, there is not much difference between the two products except that with Salesforce, the service portal is a standard feature across all pricing tiers except for the Professional Plan. Zendesk, on the other hand, offers the self-service portal feature as part of the Zendesk Suite.
With Zendesk Guide, agents can create an intelligent knowledge base and help centers in multiple languages. For the Professional and Enterprise plans, branded customer support and the creation of communities are additional features that customers can use to provide a more enhanced customer experience.
The Lightning Community Builder of the Salesforce Service Cloud allows the building of a community and branded self-service portal. Aside from the customized portal, it also has a help forum, a support site, HR centers, and chatter integrations. A knowledge base can also be made accessible to customers on the service website.
The Zendesk Community is part of the customer self-service portal of Zendesk.
Communication System
At the core of customer relationship management is communication, thus it is crucial to know the features of Zendesk and Salesforce that will facilitate constant communication with customers.
Internal Communication System
On the level of internal communication, both Zendesk and Salesforce provide collaboration tools that enable agents to deliver engaging customer experiences. The Zendesk Unified Agent Workspace is where customer conversations and information can be accessed by all agents. In this platform, they can get the full context of every conversation, as well as switch channels, and even add or eliminate bots as needed.
Agents can collaborate on tickets within the Zendesk Agent Workspace. Using Side Conversations, agents can ask other team members about specific concerns while speaking to a customer, and that conversation will also be captured in the ticket. With Zendesk, collaboration among functional teams is made easier by linking and creating Zendesk tickets through platforms such as monday.com, Trello, Jira, and Asana.
The collaboration tools of Salesforce are very similar to project management workflows, which makes it more agile than Zendesk. This internal communication system facilitates the faster resolution of customer requests and inquiries. The cloud-based knowledge base is embedded right into the Salesforce console and allows agents to easily find, access, and provide the right answers to customers. Agents can also contribute to the knowledge base so the whole team can access the best and most updated answers to customer queries.
The agent workspace of Zendesk.
Customer-Facing Communication Options
The computer-telephony integration of Salesforce Service Cloud improves customer satisfaction and lowers the average handle times of agents. With Salesforce, agents can call customers with just one click, control calls without leaving the platform, and log calls automatically.
With Zendesk, you can add messaging and live chat to your website or mobile app to deliver instant support. Customers stay connected through the web, mobile, and social channels. With its Zoom integration, agents can launch meetings with their customers from the Zendesk platform. Meeting recordings are posted as private comments on the ticket.
Live chat is included in the Essential Plan of Salesforce with limited functionality. With Zendesk, live chat support over the phone or web is offered under the Suite Team Plan.
Multi-Channel Support
For multi-channel support, both Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud can create tickets from Facebook wall posts, Tweets, and emails. Both Salesforce and Zendesk allow agents to deliver support via digital channels. These channels include chat, email, phone, and social media. Mobile apps are also available to both iOS and Android devices. Customer requests can be managed from one place via the workflow management tool.
Salesforce Service Cloud can connect with customers and create cases from social channels. Real-time messaging conversations on Facebook is included in the Salesforce Essentials Plan with limited functionality, but a standard feature in both the Enterprise and Unlimited Plans. With Zendesk, this feature is standard across all pricing tiers.
Customer Management
If we are to compare Zendesk and Salesforce in the area of customer management, both products allow agents to customize workflows around the needs of each customer. The Case Management feature of Salesforce Service Cloud assigns cases to agents using AI. Every customer interaction is presented to agents in a chronological timeline, encompassing all channels. The flexible newsfeed updates customer records in real-time.
The customer management feature of Salesforce allows agents to manage cases, track customer history, and view dashboards without clicking on multiple tabs. The Service Cloud is web-based, which means that agents can address customer concerns anytime and anywhere, from any device.
Zendesk Agent Workspace provides agents with all the tools they need to collaborate, and deliver fast and personalized responses to customers on any channel from a single platform. Agent Workspace as a customer service software makes use of live chat, knowledge base, tracking and reporting, a self-service portal, and community forums.
Customer details and interaction history is a standard feature across all Zendesk plans, except for customer satisfaction survey and service level agreement, which are included only in the Support Professional and Enterprise plans. Case management, which includes all functions that focus on customer management, comes as a standard feature in all Salesforce Service Cloud pricing plans.
Salesforce has a drag-and-drop feature that lets agents customize customer information.
Reporting and Analytics
In the area of reporting and analytics, the built-in CRM features included in Salesforce Cloud Service deliver significant advantages, especially for large enterprises that need to organize large amounts of customer data. The reporting and analytics tool of Salesforce is embedded in the Agent Workspace to help agents make informed decisions. The pre-built dashboards automatically populate CRM data, which provides real-time updates on case volumes, agent and mobile worker activity, chatbot performance, and backlog analysis.
The data analysis tool of Zendesk, which works across all Zendesk apps is Zendesk Explore. The customized charts and dashboards facilitate reporting and analytics from customer data. You can also build your own metrics, charts, and dashboards. Zendesk reporting integrates data from every channel, enabling your team to get real-time data on customer interactions.
The customizable reports and dashboards are standard features for both Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud. Advanced reporting is included in the Enterprise and Unlimited Plans of Salesforce Service Cloud. With Zendesk, only the Suite Professional, which is the highest pricing tier for Zendesk Suite, allows for the creation of custom reports. The rest are pre-built.
The key metrics dashboard of Salesforce.
Both Zendesk and Salesforce monitor agent performance through a single dashboard with specific metrics. However, with Salesforce, the supervisor is able to deep dive into the details of each agent-customer interaction. The AI-powered workflow automation of Salesforce provides managers with a bird’s eye view of contact center activity.
The custom reports and dashboards deliver real-time monitoring of agent performance. With Zendesk, the Agent Workspace also gives real-time monitoring of all interactions with customers. The real-time chat metrics of Zendesk include queue size, customer wait times, and chat satisfaction from a single dashboard.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Core Features Takeaways:
- The core functionalities of both Zendesk and Salesforce Cloud Service offer robust systems that cater to company-specific requirements.
- Both Zendesk and Salesforce Cloud Service offer features that provide customers with easy access to services that improve relationships and boost loyalty.
Integrations
While Zendesk easily integrates with over 1,000 third-party apps and business systems, Salesforce Cloud Service integrates well with more than 4,000 apps. Thus, for a company that has worked with Salesforce prior to adopting Zendesk as a customer service system, the company might find Zendesk very limited in terms of integration.
Salesforce Cloud Service not just offers customer service solutions, but an ecosystem of CRM, marketing, sales, business intelligence, and more. But there are third-party apps that can be integrated with Zendesk to achieve the same functionalities offered by Salesforce such as monday.com, Trello, Jira, and Asana.
Using a centralized administration panel, Salesforce service Cloud users may also expand the platform’s features by purchasing additional services and functions. Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Shopify, Freshbooks, and Slack are among the apps that easily integrate with both Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud.
The Zendesk Apps Marketplace webpage.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Integrations Takeaways:
- Salesforce Service Cloud offers more integrations than Zendesk.
- Zendesk can be integrated with third-party apps to add more functionalities and services.
Pricing
While both pricing for Zendesk and Salesforce can be a bit expensive per user, once you look closer there are important customer service tools that are integrated with the pricing tiers. ROI is a crucial component of investing in a customer service platform. Carefully evaluate what your business requires in a platform and choose the pricing plan that can cover all your requirements.
Zendesk currently offers Zendesk for Sales, Zendesk Suite, and Zendesk Support. Each has three pricing tiers. The lowest tier for Support and Sales starts at $19 per user per month, while the Suite Team starts at $49. Salesforce pricing is simpler at four tiers—Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited. The Essentials plan starts at $25 per user per month.
Pricing plans for Salesforce Service Cloud.
The Support team Plan of Zendesk may look less expensive at $19 per user compared to the lowest tier of Salesforce Service Cloud Essentials at $25 per user, but it only includes baseline features such as integrated ticketing, business rules, customer details, and interaction history, pre-built reporting and analytics, and pre-built integrations. Setting up a self-service support site, which is crucial to customer support, is part of the Salesforce Essentials Plan but is only offered in the Zendesk Suite Team, starting at $49 per user per month.
The pricing plans for Zendesk Support.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Pricing Takeaways:
- The lowest tier pricing of Zendesk Sales and Support at $19 per user per month offers complete service ticketing tools and is the ideal customer service platform for small businesses.
- Salesforce Service Cloud starting at $25 per user per month at the lowest tier offers more than essential functionalities, which is ideal for growing businesses.
Ease of Use
The interface of Zendesk is clean and easy to set up requiring minimum customizations. For new team members, using Zendesk for the first time requires little effort. With Zendesk, you can quickly scale operations and train new agents even in a highly complex environment. Both Zendesk and Salesforce allow users to log in from multiple devices, which makes it easy to connect with customers and provides a seamless experience.
Since Salesforce offers more features and functionalities, it can be a bit overwhelming for first-time users. However, the system is designed to provide the first-time user with a series of tasks to get to know the system. Salesforce is intuitive and straightforward. Though it takes some time for agents to adapt to the Salesforce platform, once it is up and running this software can handle the most complex customer management processes.
The Salesforce Service Cloud agent console.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Ease of Use Takeaways:
- Zendesk has a clean interface and requires minimal onboarding time.
- Salesforce Service Cloud interface can be a bit overwhelming at first but includes a prompt that facilitates a series of tasks to guide the first-time user.
Getting Started
One major difference between Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud is the speed of deployment. With Zendesk, you can launch all essential customer management functions in one day while deploying Salesforce Service Cloud would require customization, including the need for a developer or third-party partner to act as a consultant to make it into a fully functioning platform.
With Zendesk, you can get the software up and running in a day while with Salesforce you must be ready to spend time and effort customizing the platform based on your team workflow. However, once you have completed the customization process, your agents will be provided with a 360-degree view of the customer, which will significantly boost customer management.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Setup Takeaways:
- Zendesk can be deployed in one day while Salesforce requires customization.
- While both solutions are support-focused, Salesforce ,with its unlimited customization is designed to provide enterprise-level support.
Use Cases
While often associated with small and mid-sized companies, Zendesk is designed to fit the needs of businesses of any size. The omnichannel support solution of Zendesk helps startups to be present wherever their customers are. For SMBs, Zendesk helps increase efficiency through its powerful tools that are easy to set up and can be customized to further streamline operations.
Zendesk enables customers to work faster and scale operations from a centralized workspace. For large enterprises that have multiple agents with unique skill sets, Zendesk provides a level of flexibility that empowers agents to customize tools such as advanced workflow capabilities.
Salesforce Service Cloud, on the other hand, is often identified as the software for large companies. While it is true that Salesforce offers a robust platform to help fast-growing companies to become more customer-focused, this software also caters to startups and small companies to help them accelerate their operations and time to market.
Salesforce Essentials is designed to manage customer relationships, sales, and service. It helps small teams work faster and gives them the ability to respond quickly to customer requests and keep them engaged even from afar. The advanced account and contact management of Salesforce Service Cloud, including the simple point and click customization options, makes it a very flexible tool that continually promotes efficiency.
Powered by Zendesk, Homebridge attributes its unprecedented growth to customer satisfaction.
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Use Case Takeaways:
- Both Zendesk and Salesforce Cloud Service cater to all business types and sizes
- Depending on the specific requirements of businesses, they can choose between the customer service platforms offered by Zendesk and Salesforce with its specific core capabilities
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Comparison Table
|
Zendesk |
Salesforce Service Cloud |
|
| Ideal for |
|
|
| Use cases |
|
|
|
Core Features |
||
| Unified Inbox |
✓ |
✓ |
| Self-Service Portal |
✓ |
✓ |
| Communication Systems |
✓ |
✓ |
| Customer Management |
✓ |
✓ |
| Reporting and Analytics |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Key Integrations |
||
| Slack |
✓ |
✓ |
| Zoho CRM |
✓ |
✓ |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 |
✓ |
✓ |
| Shopify |
✓ |
✓ |
| Freshbooks |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Pricing |
||
| Starts from | $19 per user/month | $25 per user/month |
| No. of plans |
3 |
4 |
Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud — Which Is Better?
Is Zendesk better than Salesforce Service Cloud, or is it the other way around? Both Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud have their own set of pros and cons depending on the context of your business. While Service Cloud connects with other Salesforce products for sales and marketing, Zendesk is a ticket management tool that can be upgraded to add more features. Each of the core features of Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud offers unique advantages to customers.
Both Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud have tools that track important customer data that can help your business grow. However, go for the tool that tracks customer data that you really need for your support team to keep things simple and manageable. You can make a simple Zendesk vs Salesforce comparison chart that includes your specific support team requirements to have a clear assessment of each feature.
In comparing Zendesk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud, we have identified that each software can provide the right tools for businesses to grow and become more customer-centric. The level of sophistication differs for each functionality, and teams have to carefully match their requirements against the functionalities to ensure that investments in customer service platforms will be able to yield superior returns. It also pays to consider customer support statistics when making a decision.
Between Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud, the specific customer requirements will eventually determine which is a better fit for each operating environment. Choose Zendesk if you need a platform that is easy to set up, with a ticketing system that provides seamless customer management. Choose Salesforce if you are planning to quickly accelerate and operate at scale, so your platform could keep up with your growth. Either way, you can be assured that both solutions offer superior customer support tools that will keep you and your customers connected at all times.
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