The Best Omnichannel Customer Service

Today’s customers expect to connect with companies in the same way that they connect with their friends and family – using whichever digital channel happens to be the most convenient in that moment. This makes it vital for brands to allow their customers to reach out on a variety of digital channels – whether that be live chat, email, social media or even SMS.

To deliver this support efficiently and successfully, omnichannel customer service is vital. These platforms connect every channel together into one agent console so no matter what channel a customer reaches out on, the incoming query will be funnelled into a unified inbox.

When selecting the best omnichannel customer service platform for your organization, it’s important to consider each vendor’s specific offering. To make the decision process easier, we’ve compiled a list of the 4 best omnichannel customer service platforms, listed here in alphabetical order:

Comm100
Drift
Genesys
Intercom

To help you find the best omnichannel customer support software, we’ve broken down our criteria into the following categories:

Product Features & Capability

Even the best omnichannel customer support software vary widely in features and capabilities. In this category, we’ve listed the features that separate each vendor from the competition.

Reporting and insights

Omnichannel customer service platforms are excellent at capturing customer insights and understanding how your agents and campaigns are performing. In this category, we’ll look at the different analytical tools provided by each omnichannel platform.

Security and compliance

Security is a major concern in every industry, and even more so in regulated industries. In this category we look at the major security compliances (like HIPAA, PCI DSS & GDPR) supported by the best omnichannel customer support software.

Integrations

The power of omnichannel customer service platforms lies in the ability to leverage data, but this can only be achieved with integrations. In this category, we’ll look at some of the most important integrations available for each omnichannel provider.

Customer support

When you’re adding to your own support capabilities, you shouldn’t overlook the support of your own vendors. Here, we’ll look at the customer support options available from the 4 best omnichannel customer service platforms.

Pricing

Pricing options for each omnichannel software vendor can be difficult to compare. In this category we stack up the cost of each solution so that you can determine which offer the best value for your team.

www.comm100.com

Headquartered
Vancouver, Canada

Founded
2009

Deliver excellent digital customer experiences through configurable, value-driven live chat, secure messaging, AI powered bots and automation within one integrated console.

Best for
Education, government and commercial organizations of all sizes that want a complete digital engagement solution without sacrificing value, customization, or security.

Product features & capability

Live chat
Full phone and voice system integration
Knowledge base
Task bot
AI chatbot
Ticketing
SMS
36 months data storage
Integrations with CRM, CMS, eCommerce, and social platforms
Pre/Post-chat surveys
Audio and video chat
Screen Sharing
Advanced routing rules
Website real-time visitor tracking
Detailed reporting
Multi-language chat and auto-translation
Multiple and dynamic campaigns

Integrations

Comm100 supports a variety of CRM, CMS, eCommerce, and social platform integrations, including:

Salesforce CRM
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM
Twitter
Facebook
Facebook Messenger
Instagram
WeChat
WhatsApp
Telegram
Line
SMS
Zapier
Zendesk
WordPress
Drupal
Shopify Plus
Magento
Cisco UCCX/UCCE

Reporting and insights

Comm100’s detailed reporting includes:

Chat Source and Chat Volume Reports
Queue Length and Wait times
Visitor Segmentation
Rating Report
Efficiency Report
Resolved & Unresolved Bot Chats & Conversions Report
High Confidence Answers Report
Usage Report
Tickets and messaging reports
Chat Transfer Report
Agent availability report
Agent performance

Security and compliance

Data level: All network communication is TLS encrypted, , data obfuscation, no storing of payment information

Application level: IP restriction, complex agent password policy enforcement, CAPTCHA verification, audit logs, SSO and LDAP available, credit card masking in platform.

Compliances: ISO 27001, PCI DSS, SOC 2 Type II, TRUSTe® Privacy Certified, HIPAA, GDPR, PIPEDA compliant

Customer support

Comm100 offers 24/7 live chat support, plus phone support, SMS and WhatsApp during business hours. It is reported that they are quick to respond, provide reliable support, and will work to meet custom needs. On-premise customers tend to wait longer to resolve technical issues.

Pricing

Comm100 has quote-based pricing across three plan tiers:

Omnichannel Plus
Omnichannel Ultra
Custom (configured to your specific needs)

Compared to Omnichannel Plus, Ultra package includes AI chatbot and more advanced integration, including support for all ticketing & messaging channels.

Pros

Implementation is quick and easy, platform is easy-to-use with an intuitive UI
Robust integrations including Salesforce and telephony
Feature-rich live chat software

Cons

Product is heavily weighted towards live chat versus other channels
Lack of customization options for agent console
Smaller company compared to other vendors

www.drift.com

Headquartered
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Founded
2015

Drift’s Conversation Cloud helps your marketing, sales, and customer teams easily connect with customers through conversations that build trust and grow revenue.

Best for
Drift is best for businesses that want to connect with customers more effectively for marketing, sales, and service.

Product features & capability

Live chat
Custom and AI-powered chatbots
Proactive messaging
Automated booking
Email fallback
Saved Replies
Data enrichment
Custom branding
CRM routing
Email Signatures
Calendar integration
Visitor insights
Drift for Salesforce App
Integrations with CRM and ticketing platforms
Lead form automation
Visitor routing
Advanced lead routing
Multiple languages
Custom role-based access controls

Integrations

Drift includes support for a number of integrations out of the box and supports Zapier for others. Depending on omnichannel needs, Zapier plans may incur additional costs on top of Drift pricing. Drift’s featured integrations include:

Salesforce
Salesloft
Marketo
6Sense
Clearbit
Databox
DataGrail
Demandbase
Drip
Front
Google Marketing Platform
Lift AI
Oracle Eloqua
Piesync
Poptin
Privy
RollWorks
MadKudu
Outreach
HubSpot
Microsoft Dynamics
Office 365
Slack
Zapier
Zendesk
Zoom

Reporting and insights

Drift’s reporting capabilities are largely focused on marketing and sales, including:

Revenue reports
Pipeline report
Closed won
Sales cycle
Meetings report
Playbook report
Conversations reports

Security and compliance

Data level: Data encryption in transit and at rest. At end of life, AWS destroys disks per NIST 800-88 standards.

Application level: Regular application tests and scans, password management policies and password controls

Compliances: SOC 2 Type II, Privacy Shield Certified, CSA, ISO 27001, ISO 27002, NIST, Cybersecurity Framework, CIS Controls

Customer support

Drift offers chat support during business hours via live chat and email. Their Help Center provides a variety of resource materials for all products offered. It is reported they have poor response times and customers do not usually know when new features or updates are rolled out until after the fact.

Pricing

Drift has a free plan with unnamed features, along with quote-based pricing across three plan tiers that add additional features:

Premium
Advanced
Enterprise

Pros

Dedicated app marketplace with almost any integration you can think of. They can also do custom integrations if needed
Very easy to use and set-up
Able to automate reports through email

Cons

Reported to have technical difficulties or “glitches” from time to time
Not as secure as other vendors, lacking transactional security measures such as PCI compliance
Functionality is limited, does not have co-browsing, agent wrap-ups, spellcheck, etc.

www.genesys.com

Headquartered
Daly City, California, United States

Founded
1990

Delight your customers, inspire your team, offer personalization on every channel, anywhere, anytime.

Best for
Organizations looking to deliver better customer service and introduce increased efficiencies

Product features & capability

Live chat
Speech-enabled IVR
Voicebots
Chatbots
Chat and email routing
Co-browse and screenshare
SMS
Messaging apps
Inbound voice routing
Voicemail
Callback
Voice outbound campaigns
Digital outbound campaigns
Inbound / outbound blending
Unified communications
Interaction recording
Screen recording
Quality management and compliance
Workforce management
Employee performance & engagement
Speech and text analytics
Platform APIs

Integrations

Genesys supports a variety of CRM and collaboration applications, with more available via third-party integration through their AppFoundry Marketplace. Available integrations supported natively include:

Microsoft Dynamics 365
Salesforce
Zendesk
Oracle
ServiceNow
Microsoft Teams
Zoom Meetings
Zoom Phone

Reporting and insights

Genesis supports real-time and historical views of the following:

Personal views
Queue and agent
Interactions
DNIS, skills, wrap-up views
Flows – performance, destination, outcomes
Outbound campaigns
Scheduled callbacks
Quality admin and evaluator dashboards
Survey views
Agent activity
Intraday monitoring and schedule adherence views

Security and compliance

Data level: All data stored in AWS, uses AWS security protocols like TLS/SSL Encryption

Application level: Logical isolation to enforce strict control of data requests and access permissions

Compliances: PCI-DSS, SOC 1 and SOC 2, ISCO 27001, HIPAA, HITRUST, FedRAMP, C5, GDPR, California Consumer Privacy Act certification, US-EU and US-Swiss Safe Harbor.

Customer support

Genesys offers a resource centre available for self-support for free. They also offer 24/7 phone and web portal support based on a paid license.

Pricing

Genesys offers a variety of plan options with either monthly or hourly paid rates, these include (in USD):

Genesys Cloud CX1

$75 monthly or $0.68 Hourly

Genesys Cloud CX2

$110 monthly or $0.99 Hourly

Genesys Cloud CX3

$150 monthly or $1.35 Hourly

Genesys Choice

Price billed annually based on quote

Genesys DX

Additional quote-based options

Pros

Flexible API, offers a host of integrations in their marketplace to fit seamlessly into any tech stack
Easy to set-up and personalize, UI is well designed and easy to navigate
Able to centralize KB articles, chats, and emails into one simple platform

Cons

Reporting is not detailed or intuitive, cannot see data segmented by individual agents or departments
They do not offer real-time, 24/7 support
Issues with features like search functionality, managing user filters, and not being able to use proactive chat invitations unless you have both the “Message” and “Inbox” packages

www.intercom.com

Headquartered
San Francisco, California, United States

Founded
2011

Achieve your goals by creating better customer interactions at every step of the customer journey.

Best for
Sales and marketing teams looking for an omnichannel platform to track the entire customer lifecycle

Product features & capability

Live chat
Team inboxes
Ticketing Workflows
SLA rules
Workload management
Role-based permissions
Outcome reporting
Help articles
Conversational bots
Resolution bot
Targeted messaging
Product Tours
Outbound email and in-product messaging
Push messages & notifications
Custom bots
Mobile carousels
Banner messages
Multi-channel campaigns
A/B testing & control groups
Message versioning
Custom events and customer segments
Smart lead qualification
Automatic meeting booking
Conversation routing rules
Account-based assignments
Revenue and performance reporting

Integrations

Through Intercom’s app store, a variety of integrations with CRM, CMS, eCommerce, and social platforms are possible. Since some integrations have been built by third parties, additional fees may apply. Popular integrations include:

Instagram
Salesforce
Slack
Stripe
WhatsApp
Google Analytics
HubSpot
Google Calendar
Facebook
Calendly
Mailchimp Subscribe
Zapier
Twitter
Segment
Freshdesk

Reporting and insights

Reports are available for lead generation, customer engagement, and customer support. These include:

Overview report
Leads report
Sales report
Custom Bots report
Customer Engagement report
Conversations report
Team performance report
Customer satisfaction report
Effectiveness report
Conversation tags report
SLAs report
Articles report
Resolution Bot report

Security and compliance

Data level: All data encrypted in transit using 256-bit encryption. API and application endpoints are TLS/SSL only. Data encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption.

Application level: Password and credentials are stored using a PBKDF function (bcrypt), 2FA and SSO options available,

Compliances: SOC 2, HIPAA, CSA, ISO 27001, EU-US Privacy Shield

Customer support

Intercom offers support hours 24/7 via messenger or email. In the event of service outage, response times are given based on response priority ranging from 3 days for non-critical issues to 2 hours for service critical matters.

Pricing

Intercom starts with a small business plan with optional add-ons for Surveys, WhatsApp, and Product Tours, and scales with quote-based plans that offer more options:

Starter

$74 / month USD

Support

Quote-based pricing

Engage

Quote-based pricing

Convert

Quote-based pricing

Pros

Complete mobile messaging program including in-app service, SMS, etc.
Integrates with contact center IVR, allows deflection of customers from IVR hold to a chat
Diverse functionality including co-browsing and multiple campaigns

Cons

Does not offer on-premise deployment
Reporting is limited, unable to create custom reports and dashboards, must manually export reports
Customer information does not appear on the same window as the chat

Wrap up

To learn more about Comm100 and see how its omnichannel customer engagement platform can help your organization achieve digital CX excellence, book a demo to see Comm100 in action.

Best Omnichannel Customer Service

Wrap up

Share This