Top 10 alternatives to Intercom as a customer engagement platform for small business owners
In this article we discuss the top 10 alternatives to Intercom as a customer engagement platform. We explain what a customer engagement platform is, why it matters to you as a small business owner and what alternatives to Intercom there are.
What is a customer engagement platform?
First, let’s start with what a customer engagement platform is. Tools like Intercom are called a customer engagement platform because it helps you manage customer interactions in an efficient manner. Basically, it’s an inbox where customer inquiries are managed. Often such an inbox allows to connect with multiple channels like live chat on a website, email and social messaging channels like Instagram DM, WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook Messenger. Easy automation with a chatbot can be applied to save time and increase customer satisfaction rates.
Why a customer engagement platform matters to you as a small business owner
A customer engagement platform like Intercom matters to you as a small business owner because such a tool helps you to service your customers in an efficient manner. It brings different communication channels into one place so you can easily reply to customer inquiries.
Such a customer engagement platform helps you to build true omnichannel experiences. It doesn’t matter whether a customer reaches out to your business via email, live chat or through a social messaging app like Facebook Messenger. You can be where your customers are.
Customer engagement platform solutions like Intercom also saves you time. Often these types of solutions provide chatbots and Conversational AI for your first line support. Basically, this means that a chatbots answers first, but when a chatbot can’t help the conversation is handed over to a human being. Easy questions like “Where is my package?” or “Are you open on Sunday?” can be automated.
Customer engagement platforms also often integrate with other systems to make handling customer inquiries easier. Things like Shopify or WooCommerce for eCommerce or Salesforce or HubSpot for CRM. This allows a customer engagement platform like Intercom to pull information like an order status or push information about a conversation with a customer.
A customer engagement platform like Intercom also helps you as a small business owner to build up customer profiles. It helps you to get to know your customers better so you can create and manage long lasting, profitable relationships with them.
Finally, more advanced customer engagement platforms can also be used to reach out to customers pro-actively, e.g., to drive more sales or sign ups. Imagine that somebody on your website is struggling to sign up. The live chat can then pop-up and actively ask whether support is needed. Or for example when somebody is looking at a product in your ecommerce store but not buying. Such a proactive approach helps to drive conversion and to drive sales.
Customer engagement platform: a comparison
Let’s move into the comparison. We compare and rank different customer engagement platform providers like Intercom, LivePerson, Kustomer, Manychat, Gorgias, Tidio, Olark, Trengo, Drift, Messagebird and Table Duck.
We compare and rank customer engagement platform providers based on features, price, whether the offer a free plan or not and market segment. Let’s list them.
Intercom
Intercom is complete customer communications platform with bots, apps, product tours, email, messages, and a help center.
- Features: Live chat, chatbots, shared inbox, product tours
- Price: Unknown
- Free plan available: Unknown
- Market segment: Mid-sized to enterprise businesses
LivePerson
LivePerson offers a complete solution to create, manage & optimize Conversational AI. Message with consumers on the most popular digital channels
- Features: Conversation Builder, Intent Manager, Analytics
- Price: Unknown
- Free plan available: Unknown
- Market segment: Enterprise businesses
Drift
Brings your go-to-market teams together to deliver personalized customer experiences in real time.
- Features: Live chat, chatbots, Conversational Marketing
- Price: Unknown
- Free plan available: Unknown
- Market segment: Mid-sized to enterprise businesses
Kustomer
Kustomer is an omnichannel CX platform with everything you need to engage seamlessly with customers in a single timeline
- Features: Customer service, self-service, CRM
- Price: Unknown
- Free plan available: Unknown
- Market segment: Mid-sized to enterprise businesses
Manychat
ManyChat is a Facebook Messenger chatbot that automates getting and keeping customers happy.
- Features: Chatbot, social messaging
- Price: Starting from $ 15 per month
- Free plan available: Yes
- Market segment: Small to mid-sized businesses
Gorgias
The all-in-one helpdesk + live chat, designed for ecommerce stores
- Features: Shared inbox, self-service
- Price: Starting from $ 60 per month
- Free plan available: no
- Market segment: Mid-sized businesses
Tidio
Tidio combines live chat and chatbot tools to help you provide superb customer service and generate more sales.
- Features: Live chat, chatbots, shared inbox
- Price: Starting from $ 39 per month
- Free plan available: Yes
- Market segment: Small to mid-sized businesses
Olark
One app to manage all your customer service channels: live chat, email, social media,
- Features: Live chat, chatbots, shared inbox
- Price: Starting from $ 29 per month
- Free plan available: No
- Market segment: Small to mid-sized businesses
Trengo
Collaborate with your team. Automate conversations. Create amazing customer experiences.
- Features: Team collaboration, live chat, shared inbox
- Price: Starting from $ 15 per month
- Free plan available: No
- Market segment: Small to mid-sized businesses
Messagebird
A communications platform, where talking with a business is as easy and natural as talking to a human being.
- Features: Live chat, shared inbox, flow builder
- Price: Starting from $ 45 per month
- Free plan available: Yes
- Market segment: Small to mid-sized businesses
Table Duck
Table Duck is an omnichannel communication platform to manage and automate all your customer conversations in one place.
- Features: Live chat, shared inbox, chatbots
- Price: Starting from $ 19 per month
- Free plan available: Yes
- Market segment: Small to mid-sized businesses
To sum it up…
Choosing the right customer engagement platform really depends on the needs of your business. Some tools like Intercom focus mid-sized companies and larger enterprises, whereas Table Duck services especially small business owners.
