CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a set of strategies and tools aimed at understanding interactions about a business and its clients. Moreover, its aim is to analyze productivity of your team, enable better marketing strategy and decision-making. And there is a large market of CRM software out there to help you do just that.
Choosing a CRM system is quite a dedication, since it defines the training and workflow of your support team but also the kinds of information you can access about your customers for further analysis. At SupportYourApp, we use the majority of popular CRM systems. Since every business has its own tasks, metrics and processes to keep in mind, in order to choose a suitable CRM, you should think of what features you would like to have in the software.
Therefore, in this article we have decided to make a handy comparison of a few widely used CRM systems and analyze them based on their feature sets. Specifically, we are examining general customer service attributes, AI, integration options and design features.
General customer support features
These are the features that relate to providing customer support specifically. Things such as types of support, handling tickets and collecting feedback.
| Zendesk | Freshdesk | Intercom | QCRM | |
| Multichannel support | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Ticket management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Live chat | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Webphone | ✔ | ✔ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Flexible case management | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Message tagging | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Analytics and dashboard | ❌ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Feedback collection | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Templates | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Escalation | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SLA management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ❌ |
| Knowledge base | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ❌ |
| Unlimited number of users | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ * |
*Phone and email
AI and machine learning features
AI features of CRM systems are often a good-to-have, not must have. Though, they enhance the work of agents or teams and expand the range of possibilities with the software.
| Zendesk | Freshdesk | Intercom | QCRM | |
| Text analysis | ✔ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Emotion detection | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Intention detection | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Template suggestion | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Native phone call transcription | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
Native integration options
Native integration refers to the types of services available within the software without having to purchase an additional application or extension.
| Zendesk | Freshdesk | Intercom | QCRM | |
| Integration with other CRM systems | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Billing system integration | ✔ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Social media integration | ✔ | ❌ | ✔ | ❌ |
| Telegram, Viber integration | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| WhatsApp integration | ✔ | ✔ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Google Form integration | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
Design features
Ability to customize the software visually.
| Zendesk | Freshdesk | Intercom | QCRM | |
| Dark mode | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
| Theme support | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |
Indeed, choosing a CRM system can be tricky. It is important for so many features and departments central to any successful business. Except from assisting in managing successful customer support, its data can be used to generate customer support KPIs, marketing and audience reports, even help in finding bugs or in understanding which product features need improvement.
In our previous article on QCRM, we have discussed why we had to develop our own user-friendly CRM system. Much of the CRM software we use have interface designs so complicated they require special training classes (for instance, Zendesk) or the analytics they provided (if at all) aren’t particularly useful to drive meaningful changes in decision-making. Many have hidden fees. For instance, it is common to limit a number of functions available for basic-tier subscriptions. Another common thing for CRMs is to support certain integrations but only through other pricey extensions.
For us, the solution was obvious, so we created our own omnichannel QCRM system. It is easy to use, flexible and customizable to fit the specific requirements and workflows of businesses it serves.CRM trends are changing. Software becomes continuously more mobile and more automated. However, essential customer support needs remain stable – fast, friendly and reliable service.