8 Best Customer Service Tools for Small Businesses (Expert Pick)
We’ve been running online companies for several years, and our customers frequently contact us for plugin troubleshooting help, sales questions, and more. As our businesses have continued to grow, we have seen how important it is to choose the right customer service tools.
After a lot of trial and error, we have picked Groove for our help desk, Nextiva for our phone systems, and WPForms for contact form inquiries. But we know that businesses have different needs, so we also took a thorough look at the other customer service tools on the market.
In this article, we will explain everything we learned from testing these options and share our list of the best customer service tools for your small business.
If you are in a hurry, then you can take a look at our top picks to quickly choose the right customer service tool.
How We Test And Review Customer Service Tools
When testing different customer service tools on our WordPress websites, these were the factors that we kept in mind:
- We use these tools on our websites: We have only included customer service tools that we have tested and used ourselves. We also went through customer reviews to find options that are recommended by many users.
- Ease of use: We specifically looked for tools that are easy to use for beginners. A user-friendly interface, technical documentation, and easy onboarding processes were top priorities when choosing these tools.
- Different use cases: No all-in-one customer service tool will be ideal for all kinds of websites and online businesses. That is why we reviewed tools for different use cases, such as VOIP phone service, contact forms, ticketing systems, documentation, live chat, and more.
Having said that, let’s take a look at the best customer service tools for your small business.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we are a dedicated team of experts with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, design, and online marketing. Our team reviewed each tool in this list extensively and thoroughly tested them on real websites.
To learn more, see our complete editorial process.
1. Groove (Complete Customer Support System)
Groove is the best customer service software on the market. It allows you to provide support to your users using email, social media, and live chat.
Plus, it comes with a shared inbox to organize and resolve customer requests easily. The software even comes with a Groove widget that you can embed on your WordPress site to add a contact form, live chat prompt, or knowledge base.
Groove also offers 50+ automation templates for auto-replies, conversation routing, conversation classification, or SLA management.
When we were testing the software, we found that it could even track agent performance and customer satisfaction, making it an ideal customer service tool.
Pros
- The software includes an artificial intelligence feature that turns specific customer responses into reusable instant replies in one click. It also generates summaries of lengthy conversations for easy reference.
- The Groove inbox features conversation assignments, internal notes, @mentions, notifications, and collision detection to prevent duplicate replies.
- It can integrate with third-party platforms like Instagram, Stripe, Slack, Facebook, HubSpot, and Zapier.
- The tool allows you to create a knowledge base for your products or services.
Cons
- Groove does not offer any free plan.
- It does not come with a dedicated WordPress plugin. However, you can add a Groove widget to your WordPress website.
Why we recommend Groove: It is the best customer service tool on the market because it offers email, live chat, forms, and knowledge base support to customers easily.
Groove is a great choice because it offers powerful features, a user-friendly interface, automation templates, and integration with third-party tools.
For more information, see our Groove review.
Alternative: Help Scout and Heroic Inbox
2. Nextiva (Phone and Video Support)
Nextiva is the best VOIP phone service on the market that allows you to offer customer support with emails, SMS messaging, live chat, phone calls, or a knowledge base.
It also offers an internal chat feature for all the agents working on different tickets for better collaboration. Plus, the tool has its own CRM where you can store all your customer data.
Other than that, Nextiva can also be used as a cloud phone system for remote teams to set up an auto attendant phone system, call forwarding, call routing, custom greetings, and more.
Pros
- The tool offers a call pop feature that shows all the important caller details when a customer calls your business phone number.
- It is the best SMS marketing tool and lets you segment your contact list and send targeted SMS messages to different groups.
- When we were testing the tool, we realized that it allows you to create automated workflows for emails, SMS messages, and live chat prompts.
- The tool offers the NextivaOne plugin to manage all your support requests from the WordPress dashboard.
- It allows you to create, manage, and assign tickets yourself.
Cons
- Nextiva has no free plan, but the connecting plugin is free.
- It can be overwhelming for beginners because it offers a lot of features.
Why we recommend Nextiva: Overall, Nextiva is a super powerful customer service tool that connects you with your customers using phone calls, video conferencing, emails, and SMS messages.
It is an all-in-one communication tool that can help you take customer service to the next level. If you have a small business website, then Nextiva is the perfect solution for you.
Alternative: RingCentral and Ooma
3. WPForms (Contact Forms)
WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin that comes with a drag-and-drop builder, 1800+ premade templates, and complete spam protection.
You can use it to create a simple contact form for users to submit support requests on your website. You can then view and manage all the form submissions right on your WordPress dashboard, making it easy to organize your support requests.
The plugin also offers conditional logic and geotargeting to display specific form fields to users based on their choices or location.
Pros
- You can style your WordPress forms.
- WPForms sends you an email notification every time a form is submitted on your website. Upon testing, we found out that you can also send a confirmation email to users.
- It has a user journey addon that lets you see what your visitors did on your site before submitting a request. This can help you resolve their issue faster and see where they got confused.
- The plugin can integrate with various tools like Constant Contact, AWeber, Stripe, and more. It can also connect with Uncanny Automator to help you build automated workflows.
Cons
- Some of the features in WPForms are locked in the free plan.
- It does not offer any dedicated customer support features.
Why we recommend WPForms: If you want to add a form on your website so that customers can reach out to you, then WPForms is the best tool for you.
For more information, you can see our WPForms review.
Alternative: Formidable Forms and Google Forms
4. Loom (Video Recordings)
Loom is a powerful communication tool that records videos and screencasts to be watched by your team members. You can also include webcam footage along with the screen video to add a personal touch.
Your support team can use this tool to collaborate or if they want to send a video to customers to walk them through the process of resolving an issue.
Loom also allows you to record your system audio, narrate your recording, and capture sound effects from your computer.
Pros
- The tool allows you to remove unwanted parts from the video. You can also add drawings, arrows, and text to highlight content.
- Loom creates a shareable link once you have created a video.
- It allows you to capture videos on your mobile device and add custom branding and captions.
- You can add an extra layer of security by setting passwords and expiration dates for the videos.
- Loom can integrate with Gmail, Slack, and Zendesk.
Cons
- Loom has a free plan but most of the features are unavailable in it.
- The recordings might have limitations on video quality, especially on the free plan.
Why we recommend Loom: If you are looking for a tool that lets you connect with your customers and teammates using video recordings, then Loom is the best customer service tool for you.
Alternative: Droplr
5. Heroic KB (Knowledge Base)
Heroic KB is the best WordPress knowledge base plugin that allows you to create beginner-friendly documentation for your products and services.
It is super easy to use, allows you to organize your knowledge base articles into categories, and even comes with an AJAX search feature to help users find relevant content quickly.
Additionally, you can add a PDF or other downloadable files to your articles for reference. For more details, see our tutorial on how to add documentation in WordPress.
Pros
- When we were testing the tool, we found out that it allows users to add ratings and comments on your knowledge base articles. You can use this to collect customer insights.
- It has an AI assistant that adds a custom chatbot to your website.
- You can choose to display your knowledge base publicly or restrict access for internal use within your organization.
- Heroic KB can integrate with Heroic Inbox to create a powerful customer support system.
Cons
- Heroic KB doesn’t have a free plan.
- It does not allow you to send email or SMS messages to customers.
Why we recommend Heroic KB: If you want to add a knowledge base or documentation for your products, then Heroic KB is the perfect customer service tool for you.
Alternative: Groove
6. LiveChat (Chat Support)
LiveChat is the best live chat software on the market. It allows you to send messages to your users in real time to resolve issues.
The tool comes with its free LiveChat plugin that easily adds a live chat prompt to your WordPress blog. You can also use canned responses, which are pre-written messages that can be inserted into customer chats.
LiveChat can integrate with top email marketing services, allows you to customize your chatbox according to your brand colors, and offers reports and analytics features.
For details, you can see our tutorial on how to add free live chat in WordPress.
Pros
- You can create an automated chatbot with the software.
- We like that you can add a survey form before and after a live chat session. This can help you see how your support staff is performing.
- LiveChat allows file sharing, chat transcripts, chat routing, and visitor tracking.
- The live chat prompt on your website also shows an indicator when a customer agent is available for chat.
Cons
- LiveChat software has no free plan. However, the connecting plugin is free.
- You can use a live chat prompt for quick questions and troubleshooting, but complex issues might be better addressed through phone calls or emails.
Why we recommend LiveChat: If you want to add a feature for instant communication with your customers, then LiveChat is the best customer service tool for you.
It allows custom branding for the live chat popup, loads quickly, and also helps create a chatbot when an agent is not available, making it a great choice.
Alternative: Groove and HubSpot
7. Brevo (Email Marketing)
Brevo is a popular CRM, SMS marketing, and email marketing service. It allows you to add a live chat popup to your website for real-time communication.
Plus, you can add basic chatbots to answer simple customer queries, qualify leads, and schedule appointments, freeing your support staff for more complex issues.
Brevo also comes with a customer data platform to manage all your customer data from different places in a single platform. You can import user data from databases, data warehouses, FTP servers, and APIs.
Brevo will then create customer profiles and allow you to segment the audience based on different criteria.
Pros
- Brevo can customize sales pipelines to track purchase deals. It can also automate these tasks and receive notifications.
- When we were testing the software, we came across a recording tool to capture your videos and audio meetings.
- Brevo can integrate with WP Mail SMTP to ensure high email deliverability.
- The tool comes with email templates, and you can create complex email and SMS marketing campaigns with it.
Cons
- Brevo’s free plan has limited features.
- Its automation features are a bit basic.
Why we recommend Brevo: If you are looking for a tool that lets you create email and SMS marketing campaigns to bring back customers, then Brevo is a great solution.
It also lets you communicate with users in real time through its live chat prompt, has a CRM, and can create landing pages, making it a wonderful tool for customer service.
Alternative: Constant Contact and ActiveCampaign
8. SproutSocial (Social Media)
SproutSocial is a social media management platform that can help you improve the customer experience by boosting your presence on social media websites.
It comes with a collaborative calendar to schedule your social media posts and automatically publish pre-approved content. It also comes with multimedia publishing.
You can use all these features to boost your social media following and keep users updated about your WordPress site, which is essential for customer service.
Pros
- You can edit images directly within the SproutSocial interface before publishing them on a platform.
- SproutSocial comes with an algorithm that lets you schedule posts for optimal engagement based on historical data.
- It comes with custom URL tracking, campaign tagging, and post-level reporting and analytics.
- It also shows a Twitter trends report so you can optimize your social media strategy.
Cons
- SproutSocial has no free plan.
- It does not allow you to create SMS, emails, or live chat popups to connect with customers.
Why we recommend SproutSocial: If you want to use social media platforms to boost customer service, increase followers, and bring traffic to your site, then SproutSocial is a great choice.
Alternative: AgoraPulse
Which Is the Best Customer Service Tool?
In our expert opinion, Groove is the best customer service tool on the market because it allows you to provide support using email, social media, and live chat popups.
It also lets you create contact forms and a knowledge base and has an AI feature to turn specific customer responses into reusable instant replies, making it an all-in-one solution.
However, if you want to connect with your customers using phone calls or video conferencing, then we recommend Nextiva.
On the other hand, if you have a small business, then you can add a simple contact form for users to reach out to you using WPForms.
If you just want to add documentation for your products or services, then you can opt for Heroic KB. Similarly, you can add a chatbot and a live chat prompt with LiveChat.
Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Service
Here are some questions that are frequently asked by our readers about customer service and its tools:
What are the 5 most important things in customer service?
When offering customer service to users, these are the 5 factors that you should keep in mind and follow:
- Empathy: It is important to show genuine concern for a user’s issue. You should try to understand their situation and make them feel comfortable.
- Communication: You must actively listen to the customer’s needs, ask clarifying questions, and ensure they understand the information you provide.
- Problem-Solving: Users usually contact customer service when they need assistance setting up the product or have run into an issue. You must work collaboratively to find solutions, explain the process, and direct users to important resources.
- Efficiency: Your response time has to be fast, and you must not keep your customers waiting. You should aim to provide solutions quickly.
- Personalization: You should personalize conversation with the customer using their name or purchase history and tailor your approach to their specific needs.
What benefits do customer service tools offer?
Customer service tools offer multiple benefits, including:
- Improved efficiency in handling customer queries due to a ticketing system
- Improved resolution times for customer issues
- Real-time communication with customers using live chat prompts
- Valuable data and analytics to identify customer trends
- More time for agents to focus on complex issues due to automated workflows
What are the advantages of using help desk software?
Help desk software helps businesses manage their support team and respond to customers’ requests. It comes with a built-in ticketing system, knowledge base, and live chat features to manage customer interactions from a single platform. This can improve customer experience and boost your conversions.
For more information, you can see our top picks for the best help desk software.
Related Guides to Customer Service Tools
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