- Customer service platforms at a glance
- Eleven customer service tools to consider
- Your support inbox has a legal clock in it
- Ecommerce support or general help desk?
- Questions to ask a customer service vendor
- Signs your support setup is creaking
- My plain advice on choosing customer service software
- Frequently asked questions
The best customer service software puts every customer conversation in one place, answers simple questions automatically and gives your team the context to fix the rest: ecommerce brands usually want tools tied to orders, while software and service businesses want an AI agent backed by a full help desk. Eleven options follow in no particular order.
Customers don't care which channel their message landed in. They emailed, then chatted, then sent a message on social media, and they expect whoever replies to know the whole story.
Customer service software brings those conversations together, adds the customer's history and increasingly answers the easy questions with AI. The eleven tools below are listed alphabetically and in no particular order, and every description comes from the vendor's own site, read this week. If you're adding a bot for the first time, my guide to setting up an AI chatbot for customer service walks through it.
Customer service platforms at a glance
In the free plan column, Yes means the tool's own site names a free plan, a free version or a free profile. Trial only means a time-limited trial. Not stated means the pages I read named neither, even where there's a button inviting you to try it or book a demo.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deskpro | Help desk and ticketing | Teams wanting cloud or self-hosted | Not stated |
| Dixa | Customer service platform | Ecommerce brands with high volumes | Not stated |
| eDesk | Ecommerce customer support software | Amazon and eBay sellers | Not stated |
| Enchant | Customer service software | Small teams wanting simple set-up | Not stated |
| Gladly | Customer service and commerce platform | Retail brands selling through support | Not stated |
| Gorgias | Conversational AI for ecommerce | Shopify stores | Not stated |
| Hiver | Omnichannel customer service platform | Teams that live in Gmail | Not stated |
| Intercom | AI and human customer service | Software companies wanting an AI agent first | Trial only |
| Kayako | AI help desk and support platform | Long-standing teams modernising their help desk | Not stated |
| Kustomer | Customer service platform and CRM | Seeing full customer history in one view | Not stated |
| Re:amaze | Customer service and chat platform | Online businesses wanting chat plus help desk | Trial only |
Eleven customer service tools to consider
Deskpro
Best for: Support teams that want smarter ticketing with a human touch, and organisations that need the option to host it themselves.
Dixa
Best for: Ecommerce brands handling lots of conversations that want AI and human agents working from one customer service platform.
eDesk
Best for: Online sellers on marketplaces and webshops who want every customer message and order detail in one support inbox.
Enchant
Best for: Small support teams that want email, chat and a help centre in one simple tool they can set up quickly.
Gladly
Best for: Retail brands that want customers to buy, get served and get support in the same conversation with one agent.
Gorgias
Best for: Ecommerce stores, especially on Shopify, that want an AI agent and help desk built around orders and customers.
Hiver
Best for: Support teams that want omnichannel customer service with AI help, from a company that started inside Gmail.
Intercom
Best for: Software and online businesses that want an AI agent to answer first, with a full help desk for human follow-up.
Kayako
Best for: Established support teams that want a familiar help desk brought up to date with AI help for agents and customers.
Kustomer
Best for: Brands that want customer service run from a CRM-style timeline of every order and conversation with each customer.
Re:amaze
Best for: Online businesses that want live chat, a help desk and an AI agent in one place, with a free trial.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
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Your support inbox has a legal clock in it
The ICO says that when someone makes a subject access request you must respond without undue delay and within one month of receipt, and that in most circumstances you can't charge a fee to deal with it. You may extend the time limit in some cases, such as complex requests.
Customers often send these requests to the support inbox rather than a privacy address. Pick a tool where your team can tag them, route them to the right person and see how many days are left.
Ecommerce support or general help desk?
Ecommerce-focused tools pull in orders, deliveries and refunds next to each conversation, so an agent can answer where's my order without opening three systems. General help desks are more flexible and suit software, service and B2B businesses.
Both now offer AI agents. The useful question isn't whether a tool has AI, but how much of your real inbox it can resolve safely and how easily your team can step in.
Questions to ask a customer service vendor
- Which channels can you bring into one inbox?
- What customer and order details do agents see?
- How much of our inbox could your AI agent resolve?
- How do agents take over from the AI smoothly?
- Can we track deadlines for privacy requests?
- What reports show response and resolution times?
Signs your support setup is creaking
- Messages get answered twice. Or not at all.
- Agents switch between systems. Orders live in one place, chats in another.
- The same questions repeat all day. Nothing is automated.
- You can't see response times. Problems only show up in reviews.
Do you make customer service software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on choosing customer service software
Export a week of real customer messages and sort them by type before you look at any demo. That list shows you how many could be answered automatically and which tool features you'll use every day, and it makes every sales call far more useful.
Then trial your top two with real conversations, not test tickets, and ask your agents which one they'd rather use. Happy agents give better answers. For more ways to make support smoother, see my guide to streamlining online customer support.
Frequently asked questions
What is customer service software?
It's software that collects customer messages from email, chat, social media and other channels into one place, so a team can answer, track and report on them.
Is customer service software the same as a help desk?
A help desk is one kind of customer service software. Many platforms now add live chat, AI agents, knowledge bases and customer history on top.
Can AI answer customer service questions?
AI agents can resolve many simple, repetitive questions well. Most businesses still keep people on hand for complex or sensitive cases.
Which customer service software suits ecommerce?
Tools that connect to your store and show orders, deliveries and refunds next to each conversation usually suit online shops best.
What is a subject access request?
It's a request from a person for a copy of the personal data you hold about them. In the UK you usually have one month to respond.
How do I measure customer service?
Common measures include first response time, time to resolution, customer satisfaction and how many questions are solved without an agent.
