40 Customer Service Tools You've Never Heard Of (But Should Be Using)

40 Customer Service Tools You’ve Never Heard Of (But Should Be Using in Your Business)

We’ve spent the past few weeks digging deep into Reddit and Product Hunt to discover then test out some of the lesser known customer service software solutions. Here’s our shortlist of the most innovative customer service tools that range all categories from AI assistants to industry-specific tools.

Cody Duval

Last updated: March 26, 2025

20 mins read

Most businesses are already familiar with the industry giants like Zendesk and Intercom.

But what about the niche customer service tools that solve real problems for support teams, yet don’t have the marketing budgets or brand recognition to get their fair share of the limelight?

That’s why we dug deeper to find lesser-known customer service tools recommended by Reddit, Product Hunt, and real communities of customer service specialists who know better than marketing speak.

The tools in our list provide fresh approaches to common challenges that plague support teams, or specialized functionality.

Ready to discover the little-known customer service tools that have the potential to reinvent how you serve your customers?

There’s something for every support team in this list.

(Want to jump ahead? Click here to dive straight into the recommendations.)

The importance of selecting the right tools for customer service

The right customer service tools can transform your entire support operation, boosting satisfaction for customers, employees and investors.

For your customers: 72% of customers say they’ll only stay loyal to companies providing the fastest service. Faster issues resolutions, more personalized interactions, and 24/7 support options.

For your support team: Customer service tools can eliminate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and increase retention by decreasing burnout and boosting job satisfaction.

For your bottom line: Organizations that implement the right toolset report increased customer retention rates, with just a 5% boost in retention potentially increasing revenue by up to 95%.

How we created this list of customer service software tools

Finding customer tools that have true utility requires going beyond the typical listicles, directories and software review sites.

To create this list, we took a much more hands-on approach to research.

Our methodology included:

  • Analyzing dozens of Reddit threads from communities like r/CustomerSuccess, r/SaaS, and r/sysadmin
  • Investigating customer service tools that launched on Product Hunt in the past two years (including these)
  • Signing up for free trials and testing out the various tools
  • Excluding outdated or now obsolete tools (many mentioned are now out of business)
  • Reading customer testimonials in detail
  • Prioritizing solutions that solve specific pain points or had repeated mentions across platforms and niche communities

We excluded the usual suspects from our list because business owners are already fully aware of them. Some of these lesser-known tools provide more specialized functionality at a fraction of the cost, plus offer more responsive support and greater flexibility to accommodate your specific needs.

What resulted was this list of tools, each with a unique approach to support or a niche set of features.

Let’s explore category by category.

40 customer service tools at a glance

The best customer service communication tools

These lesser known customer care tools have the potential to transform different areas of your business by allowing your support team to provide seamless communication regardless of the customer’s preferred channel.

1. Keeping – A help desk built right on top of Gmail

Keeping – The Best Simple Help Desk for Gmail Users

Our tool Keeping transforms your Gmail inbox into a powerful help desk.

No new software or tab switching needed. Your team gets access to an added set of robust collaboration features right within the familiar interface you already know and love. Shared notes, collision detection, assignments, prioritization, automation – it’s all there.

Your support team can use the built-in features to track emails, reuse saved replies, set up custom rules, and streamline other ongoing processes so your business.

Training and adoption time for agents is virtually non-existent.

Keeping can help your business run like a much larger operation (but without the added headcount).

Ideal for: Teams who want sophisticated help desk functionality right within the Google ecosystem

2. OpenPhone – A shared phone system for customer service

OpenPhone - A shared phone system for customer service

OpenPhone is a phone system that puts all your business phone number’s calls, texts and contacts together in one easy-to-manage app interface that works across all devices.

Inside, your team members can collaborate in a number of ways by adding comments, transferring calls between team members internally, and helping streamline the entire phone support process.

Ideal for: Growing remote teams needing a professional business phone presence

3. Clerk – A text messaging integration with Slack

Clerk - A SMS tool for Slack with text messaging integration

Clerk connects your team’s SMS inbox with Slack.

Throughout the day, agents can then respond to clients directly via the platform they’re already using for team communication. It’s a brand new channel in Slack, clearly organized by phone number.

They even offer AI agents that can help confirm appointments, send review requests, and send quick support responses via templates.

Ideal for: Teams on Slack aiming to streamline or add SMS processes

4. Chatwith – An AI chatbot trained on your content

Chatwith - An AI chatbot trained on your content

Your team can use Chatwith to train AI support agents on your content, processes, knowledge bases and backend data in minutes. This can help automate a number of sales and support processes, reducing the number of inquiries that land in your team’s inbox.

The more info you feed it, the more detailed the responses tend to be. Your agent can answer specific questions about inventory, generate documents, explain product details, help sell your product, and more – all while keeping things personalized.

Ideal for: Complex products or service companies wanting to automate first-line support

5. Letterbird – A free, simplified contact form solution

Letterbird - A free, simplified contact form solution

Letterbird is a free web-based contact form that elimates the need for a company email address. The beauty of the tool is in its simplicity – it does this one thing and focuses on doing it right. Plus it does a great job at eliminating the annoying spam messages that tend to find their way into your inbox.

Ideal for: Freelancers, solopreneurs and growing businesses wanting a simple but professional contact system

6. Boei – A cross-channel contact widget

Boei - A multi-channel contact widget

Boei’s a fully customizable widget that brings together all your customer’s communication channels, plus adds features that help you capture more leads.

Customize it to meet your team’s needs, embed few lines of code anywhere on your site, then start seeing improvements in terms of customer interactions almost immediately.

Email, chat, phone, and social media – it integrates everything seamlessly.

Ideal for: Businesses looking to serve more customers and capure more leads via their website

7. Warmly – An automated, personalized engagement tool

Warmly - A Zoom meeting context provider

Warmly is a tool that helps you identify warm leads who visit your website, then create personalized follow-up workflows across their preferred channels.

While not strictly a tool for customer support, it can be used to help serve and convert customers who have buying questions.

Ideal for: Sales and marketing teams looking to conduct personalized warm outreach

The best AI-powered customer service tools

Artificial intelligence has changed the game when it comes to automation, instant customer assistance, and personalization.

Next up are the best niche AI tools for customer support.

8. Siit – An AI assistant for knowledge management

Siit - An AI assistant for employee support

Siit is an AI assistant that gives employees and customers personalized answers to their questions. You feed it your internal knowledge bases, documentation, swipe files and other resources, and it does its thing.

Integrate it directly with Slack and Microsoft Teams, then give your team access to instant knowledge without leaving the platforms.

While other tools sound overly robotic, we find Siit especially good at giving human-like responses. Plus it continously learns from conversations and improves itself with each new interaction.

Ideal for: Distributed teams looking to reduce their number of support tickets or improve internal knowledge sharing

9. Command AI – An AI user assistance platform

Command AI - An AI user assistance platform

Command AI is a user assistance platform that lives inside your product, helping users navigate your software with contextual guidance and support. It understands user needs and can take actions to help them accomplish tasks more efficiently.

The platform combines intelligent search, guided workflows, and autonomous actions to provide a seamless self-service experience. It analyzes user behavior to identify common pain points and proactively offer assistance before frustration leads to support tickets.

Ideal for: SaaS companies wanting to improve user adoption and decrease support volume

10. ResolveAI – A completely autonomous support agent solution

ResolveAI - A completely autonomous support agent solution

ResolveAI is an AI platform that automatically resolves customer support tickets by taking action on behalf of customers. Unlike basic chatbots, it can understand complex queries and access your backend systems to implement solutions.

The platform handles repetitive support tasks like password resets, subscription changes, and order status updates without human intervention. It integrates with your existing CRM and help desk tools to augment your current workflow rather than replace it.

Ideal for: Customer service teams with high volumes of support requests

11. GPTBots.ai – An enterprise AI agent platform

GPTBots.ai - An enterprise AI agent platform

GPTBots.ai delivers end-to-end AI solutions for enterprises across customer service, knowledge search, and data analysis functions. It stands out with its enterprise-grade security measures and compliance features designed for regulated industries.

The platform includes specialized training capabilities that allow it to learn from your top-performing support agents, continuously improving its responses based on real interactions. Its secure implementation meets strict data protection standards while maintaining conversational flexibility.

Ideal for: Enterprise organizations in regulated industries who need AI agent support

12. My AskAI – An AI support assistant for SaaS companies

My AskAI - An AI support assistant for SaaS companies

My AskAI is purpose-built for SaaS businesses, focusing on the unique support needs of software companies. It automatically generates insights from user conversations while offering seamless handover to human agents when needed.

The platform’s standout feature is its analytics engine that identifies patterns in support requests, highlighting common issues and suggesting potential product improvements. This creates a valuable feedback loop between customer support and product development teams, helping to address root causes of support tickets.

Ideal for: SaaS companies looking to reduce support volume and gain valuable analytics

13. DocsBot AI – A custom ChatGPT for businesses

DocsBot AI - A custom ChatGPT for businesses

DocsBot AI creates tailored ChatGPT experiences trained directly on your business content and documentation. It builds an AI assistant that understands your specific products, services, and policies without requiring constant retraining.

The platform delivers consistent support across websites, apps, and internal tools through powerful APIs and embeddable widgets. Its quick implementation process gets most businesses up and running within days rather than weeks or months.

Ideal for: Companies with complex products requiring an AI solution to answer technical product questions

14. Help.center – An AI-first customer self-service solution

Help.center - An AI-first customer self-service solution

Help.center uses ChatGPT to automatically learn from your knowledge base articles and generate instant answers for customers. It creates a dedicated yourcompany.help.center domain that integrates seamlessly with your brand identity.

The platform improves continuously based on user feedback and identifies knowledge gaps by tracking questions the AI couldn’t answer confidently. This gives your team insights into what documentation needs to be created or improved.

Ideal for: Companies wanting to reduce support tickets through high quality AI-powered self-service

15. Zowie – An AI-powered conversational automation tool

Zowie - An AI-powered conversational automation tool

Zowie automates up to 70% of customer service inquiries across multiple channels using advanced machine learning that continuously improves its understanding of your products and common questions.

The platform converts your internal knowledge resources into a comprehensive self-service database automatically, then leverages this information to provide accurate, contextual responses. Its multilingual capabilities support global operations without proportionally increasing team size.

Ideal for: Growing companies with international customers

The best support team collaboration software tools

These collaboration tools can help your support team work together seamlessly to respond to customers faster and more effectively. Whether it’s breaking down information silos, preventing duplicate responses, or quality assurance across your support team, you’ll find something here that can help get your support operation to the next level.

16. ThriveDesk – A simple help desk for startups

ThriveDesk - A simple help desk for startups

ThriveDesk delivers an affordable help desk solution built specifically for small businesses and startups. It focuses on essential features without the complexity of enterprise solutions, creating a cleaner, more intuitive experience.

The platform’s team-centric design helps members collaborate effectively with minimal training. It integrates with popular tools like Slack and Shopify while maintaining a familiar interface that requires almost no learning curve.

Ideal for: Small businesses and startups needing help desk functionality

17. ClearFeed – A Slack channel inbox

ClearFeed - A Slack channel inbox

ClearFeed transforms your existing Slack channels into a full-featured support inbox. This innovative approach lets teams manage customer queries directly within Slack without switching to another platform.

The tool organizes support requests into a manageable queue with SLA tracking, ticket creation, and priority management features. It maintains comprehensive interaction records while eliminating the need to constantly switch between applications.

Ideal for: Slack teams wanting to streamline their support processes without adding new platforms

18. Brevy Beta – A visual website feedback layer

Brevy Beta – A visual website feedback layer

Brevy creates a collaborative layer on top of your website where team members can leave feedback or report issues directly on the page. This Google Docs-style commenting system provides precise visual context for website problems.

The platform integrates with tools like Slack and Jira to automatically create and assign work items in your existing project management system. This streamlines the process of documenting and fixing customer-reported website issues.

Ideal for: Teams needing to quickly identify and resolve customer-reported website issues

The best knowledge management tools for customer service

The following tools can make it easier for your customer service team to organize, store, and share the critical info that helps serve customers effectively.

19. HelpKit – A Notion-powered knowledge base documentation platform

HelpKit – A Notion-powered knowledge base documentation platform

HelpKit transforms your Notion documents into a professional knowledge base or documentation site without requiring you to learn a new content management system.

The platform creates both embeddable help widgets and full documentation layouts directly from your existing Notion content. This allows support teams to update documentation in real-time without technical assistance or additional content migrations.

Ideal for: Teams already using Notion creating customer-facing documentation

20. Document360 – A comprehensive knowledge base software

Document360 - A comprehensive knowledge base software

Document360 provides a complete system for creating, organizing, and maintaining both internal and customer-facing documentation. It’s designed to scale alongside your product and company.

The platform’s standout features include its category manager, version control system, and built-in analytics that help identify knowledge gaps. These tools maintain documentation integrity even with multiple contributors.

Ideal for: Growing companies needing sophisticated documentation management

21. Stonly – An interactive guide platform for customers and support agents

Stonly - An interactive guide platform for customers and support agents

Stonly creates dynamic, conversational help experiences through step-by-step guides, decision trees, and interactive knowledge bases. Unlike static documentation, it adapts to users’ specific needs as they navigate through solutions.

The platform delivers contextual assistance exactly when and where people need it, including in-app walkthroughs, embedded knowledge bases, and troubleshooting guides. Its interactive format makes self-service intuitive enough that customers often prefer it to contacting support.

Ideal for: Companies looking to reduce support tickets by creating engaging self-service options

22. Guidde – An AI video documentation tool

Guidde - An AI video documentation tool

Guidde uses AI to instantly create professional video documentation with automatic annotations, step indicators, and searchable transcripts. It transforms complex processes into clear visual instructions without requiring video editing skills.

Support teams can quickly respond to “how do I” questions with personalized video walkthroughs rather than lengthy text explanations. The platform makes professional support content creation accessible to anyone on your team.

Ideal for: Visual-oriented support teams

23. Helpjuice – A data-driven knowledge base platform

Helpjuice - A data-driven knowledge base platform

Helpjuice helps businesses build beautiful, searchable, and SEO-optimized knowledge bases that significantly reduce support costs. Its analytics capabilities identify knowledge gaps and measure content effectiveness in real-time.

The platform tracks which articles are most viewed, which search terms yield no results, and where customers abandon their self-service journey. This data-driven approach enables continuous improvement of your documentation.

Ideal for: Companies seeking to increase self-service usage

The best tools for customer feedback & insights

The following set of tools can help you continually improve your service and offering by giving insights into customers’ real needs and feedback.

Collect actionable data, identify areas for improvement, then measure the impact of your changes.

24. Feedspace – An organic growth and video testimonial tool

Feedspace - An organic growth and video testimonial tool

Feedspace captures audio and video feedback from customers across multiple channels, creating richer, more authentic testimonials than traditional text-based tools. It conveys the emotion and context behind customer experiences.

The platform consolidates feedback into a shareable “Wall of Love” that functions as both an internal feedback system and an external marketing asset. This multimedia approach makes feedback collection more engaging for customers.

Ideal for: Businesses wanting to build authentic social proof

25. FeedBear – A customer feedback management platform

FeedBear - A customer feedback management platform

FeedBear simplifies collecting and managing customer feedback with a transparent approach to the product development lifecycle. It shows customers when their suggestions enter your roadmap and automatically notifies them when requested features launch.

The platform focuses exclusively on creating a complete feedback loop from collection to implementation. This transparency transforms the feedback process into a retention tool by demonstrating that you’re actively listening.

Ideal for: Product teams wanting to build customer loyalty by creating engaging feedback processes

26. Olvy – An automated user feedback loop

Olvy - An automated user feedback loop

Olvy helps companies identify patterns in user feedback, align teams on action plans, and announce improvements through an integrated hub. Rather than treating feedback as isolated data points, it creates a continuous improvement loop.

The platform connects customer input directly to development priorities and ensures insights don’t get lost between teams. Its collaboration tools help identify critical improvement opportunities that might not be obvious from individual support tickets.

Ideal for: Cross-functional teams coordinating customer feedback collection and product development

27. Viable – An AI-powered feedback analysis platform

Viable - An AI-powered feedback analysis platform

Viable uses advanced AI models to automatically analyze customer feedback from multiple sources without manual tagging. It surfaces urgent topics and sentiment trends that might be missed by human analysis alone.

The platform combines data from support tickets, NPS responses, reviews, and chat logs to identify patterns across channels. Rather than just aggregating data, it provides specific, actionable recommendations your team can implement.

Ideal for: Data-driven companies wanting to collect actionable insights from customers

28. ProductMix – A data-driven product decision tool

ProductMix - A data-driven product decision tool

ProductMix helps product teams capture insights from customers, competitors, and team members to make data-driven development decisions. It connects feedback directly to roadmap planning with AI-powered analysis tools.

The platform creates a clear line from identified customer needs to implemented solutions, replacing subjective prioritization with data-informed decision making. Its structured approach helps identify hidden patterns that might otherwise be missed.

Ideal for: Product teams seeking to eliminate subjective decision-making

The best automation tools for customer service

These tools can help your support teams eliminate repetitive tasks, create automated processes, and open up more bandwidth to scale. Your support agents can evolve from doing tedious manual work, to higher level issues requiring human judgment and empathy.

29. Typedesk – An AI text expander for boosted productivity

Typedesk - An AI text expander for boosted productivity

Typedesk creates intelligent text shortcuts that work across applications for repetitive content, eliminating manual copy-paste and reducing typing time. Its AI suggests improvements and adapts responses to different contexts.

Support agents can build libraries of responses, troubleshooting steps, and product explanations that can be inserted anywhere with a few keystrokes. The system helps personalize standardized responses while saving hours of repetitive typing.

Ideal for: Support teams handling high volumes of repetitive inquiries

30. OneSchema – A CSV data import solution

OneSchema - A CSV data import solution

OneSchema provides a spreadsheet interface for detecting and correcting errors in CSV data, making customer data imports up to 10x faster. It actively identifies and fixes problems before they impact your systems.

The platform dramatically reduces the back-and-forth typically required when customer uploads contain format issues or inconsistencies. Its error detection capabilities make data migration processes smoother for both customers and support teams.

Ideal for: Companies who help customers migrate data or upload information wanting to eliminate technical formatting bottlenecks

31. WotNot – A no-code AI agent builder

WotNot - A no-code AI agent builder

WotNot lets non-technical teams build sophisticated AI agents and chatbots through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. The platform supports deployment across websites, WhatsApp, SMS, and other channels from a single configuration.

The system includes advanced analytics to continuously improve automation performance and identify where human intervention might still be needed. Its multi-channel approach ensures consistent automated support regardless of how customers reach out.

Ideal for: Support teams without development resources wanting to automate repetitive inquiries

32. Landbot.io – A conversational experience builder

Landbot.io - A conversational experience builder

Landbot.io enables businesses to create guided conversational experiences that feel natural while collecting information or providing support. Its visual flow builder makes creating complex conversation paths accessible to non-technical users.

The platform integrates with CRMs, help desks, and payment processors to handle complete customer journeys without human intervention. It qualifies and routes inquiries, ensuring human agents only engage when truly needed.

Ideal for: Companies wanting to automate initial customer interactions using conversational flows

33. Botisfy – A multi-channel chat automation tool

Botisfy - A multi-channel chat automation tool

Botisfy lets businesses build zero-code chatbots for websites, Facebook pages, and messaging apps. It combines lead generation, qualification, and support functions in one automation platform.

The system automates initial customer interactions, collects relevant information, and either resolves simple issues or routes complex ones to the right department. Its contextual understanding provides more personalized automated responses than standard decision-tree bots.

Ideal for: Small businesses looking to automate initial customer interactions while keeping things personalized

The best industry-specific solutions for customer service

This final list of specialized customer service tools help check off boxes for companies with unique support requirements across different niches and sectors.

34. AppFollow – A mobile app support platform

AppFollow - A mobile app support platform

AppFollow helps mobile app developers monitor, analyze, and respond to app store reviews across multiple platforms. It transforms scattered feedback into actionable tickets within your support workflow.

The platform bridges the gap between customer feedback and development priorities by consolidating app store reviews into one manageable interface. This helps teams quickly identify and address issues affecting app store ratings.

Ideal for: Mobile app developers and companies needing to manage their app store presence

35. Ioni – A regulatory compliance assistant

Ioni - A regulatory compliance assistant

Ioni transforms compliance management with AI agents that automate tasks like gap analysis, research, policy drafting, and contract creation. It’s specifically designed for customer service teams in regulated industries.

The platform continuously updates its knowledge base with changing regulations, ensuring support agents always have access to the latest compliance information. This reduces risks in customer communications while maintaining accurate responses.

Ideal for: Organizations that need to provide compliant customer support in heavily regulated sectors

36. LegalNow – An AI legal assistant

LegalNow - An AI legal assistant

LegalNow simplifies contract creation, review, and management for small businesses through its specialized AI assistant. It makes legal processes accessible to non-specialists while maintaining professional standards.

Support teams in contract-heavy industries use it to quickly answer customer questions about terms and obligations without legal department escalation. The platform can also generate customized agreements based on specific customer requirements.

Ideal for: Businesses that regularly handle contracts and legal documents

37. Ditto Insurance – An insurance support platform

Ditto Insurance - An insurance support platform

Ditto Insurance offers specialized support for insurance companies through a purpose-built platform that makes complex insurance concepts understandable to customers. It ensures compliance with insurance regulations while simplifying customer communications.

Support agents can easily access policy details, coverage explanations, and comparison tools during customer interactions. The platform combines technical accuracy with customer-friendly communication about complex insurance topics.

Ideal for: Insurance providers needing to streamline complex policies and option explanations to customers

The best self-service customer support tools

Self-service tools empower customers to find answers and solve problems without contacting support. These solutions are essential because they satisfy the 67% of customers who prefer self-service over speaking with an agent, while significantly reducing support costs and allowing teams to focus on complex issues that truly require human assistance.

38. Supporthero – An in-app knowledge base

Supporthero - An in-app knowledge base

Supporthero embeds your knowledge base directly within your application, showing relevant help articles based on which screen or feature a user is currently viewing. This proactive approach helps users find solutions before contacting support.

The platform reduces support tickets by up to 50% by making relevant documentation immediately available at the moment of confusion. Its contextual awareness creates a more intuitive self-service experience than traditional help centers.

Ideal for: SaaS companies looking to reduce support requests with context-aware help functionality directly within their interface

39. Chatwoot – An open-source live chat solution

Chatwoot - An open-source live chat solution

Chatwoot is an elegant open-source live chat solution that gives businesses complete control over their customer communication data and infrastructure. Teams can modify the platform to meet their exact requirements without licensing restrictions.

The tool includes features typically found only in premium solutions, including chat automation, canned responses, and extensive integration capabilities. Its open-source nature makes it highly customizable while maintaining professional capabilities.

Ideal for: Technical teams wanting complete control over messaging

40. osTicket – An open-source ticketing system

osTicket - An open-source ticketing system

osTicket is an open-source support ticket system that can be self-hosted, offering unlimited agent seats with a one-time implementation cost. It provides core help desk functionality without ongoing per-user licensing fees.

The platform includes ticket routing, automation rules, and knowledge base integration while allowing technical teams to modify any aspect of the system. Its customization potential makes it adaptable to unique support workflows.

Ideal for: Budget-conscious organizations with technical resources who need a customizable ticketing system without recurring per-agent costs.

Real-world customer support tool success stories

Marketing-speak can only tell you so much about how a tool works.

Here are four examples of companies that have utilized niche tools for customer support to improve specific outcomes for their businesses.

Goal Grass ↔ Keeping (Scaled customer support)

Goal Grass is small product company that was juggling Google Groups and Gmail labels to respond to 40 to 50 customer inquiries each day.

They switched to Keeping to streamline their support workflows within Gmail, their preferred platform.

Outcomes:

  • ✔️ Reduced response times for tickets
  • ✔️ Boosted overall efficiency while handling increasing support volume
  • ✔️ Simplified team collaboration by bringing in staff from other departments when needed
  • ✔️ Eliminated duplicate responses through new features (collision detection, assignment)

Beerwulf ↔ Zowie (Automated AI chatbot)

Beerwulf doubled their ROI on customer service by using Zowie’s AI chatbot functionality to engage customers browsing their website.

Zowie enabled the Beerwulf team to support customers across ten different European markets without needing to expand their support team.

Outcomes:

  • ✔️ Doubled ROI on customer service investment
  • ✔️ Added multilingual support across different markets
  • ✔️ Maintained service quality despite reduced human agent input

Virgin Mobile ↔ Helpjuice (Boosted self-service)

Virgin Mobile set out to reduce their number of customer support inquiries by offering self-service options.

They implemented a knowledge base via Helpjuice to create a data-driven, SEO-friendly solution that made it easy for customers to solve their own problems.

Outcomes:

  • ✔️ 40% increase in overall self-service adoption
  • ✔️ 9x improvement in self-service click-through rate (from 5% to 45%)
  • ✔️ Reduced ticket volume and support costs overall
  • ✔️ Improved customer satisfaction and faster ticket resolution times

How to choose the right customer service tools for your business

Selecting the right customer service tools from the countless options available can be overwhelming. Here’s a practical framework to guide your decision-making process:

Key factors to consider when making your selection

Factor

What to Evaluate

Why It Matters

Team Size & Structure

Current headcount and projected growth

Ensures scalability without overpaying

Channel Coverage

Which communication channels your customers prefer

Meets customers where they are

Integration Needs

Compatibility with your existing tech stack

Prevents data silos and workflow disruptions

Budget Constraints

Total cost of ownership, not just subscription fees

Avoids unexpected costs and ensures ROI

Implementation Effort

Training requirements and setup complexity

Impacts time to value and team adoption

Customization Options

Ability to adapt to your specific processes

Supports your unique customer journey

Security & Compliance

Data handling and regulatory requirements

Protects sensitive information and prevents legal issues

Essential questions to ask

  • What are our biggest pain points when it comes to current support processes?
  • Which time-consuming tasks could we automate with software tools?
  • What features would make the biggest impact on our daily workflows?
  • How complex would integration be?

Potential red flags

See any of these red flags pop up as you’re evaluating options? It might be worth considering a simpler solution.

Keep an eye out for:

  • ⚠️ Highly complex interfaces
  • ⚠️ Excessive features your team will never use
  • ⚠️ Hidden costs or enterprise-level prices (especially for non-necessary features)
  • ⚠️ Multiple overlapping solutions all addressing the same problems
  • ⚠️ The need for ongoing training
  • ⚠️ Excessive management time requirements
  • ⚠️ Envisioned resistance from team members or other friction

The best choice of tool is the one that solves your team’s current problems without creating new ones or adding new layers of complexity.

Frequently asked questions about customer service tools

What is the best customer service tool for Gmail users?

Keeping is the best customer service tool for Gmail users. It transforms your existing Gmail inbox into a powerful help desk without the need to train your staff on new software or switch between tabs and platforms. Teams already using Google Workspace get added support features using the same familiar interface and workflows they’re used to.

What tools of customer service do top businesses use?

Top-performing customer service teams may use a combination of tools including help desk systems, knowledge bases, multi-channel support tools and analytics software. The most successful teams typically have a tech stack that works together to minimize bottlenecks and automate repetitive tasks while preserving the human touch that builds authentic relationships.

How do I choose the right tools for customer support?

You can choose the right tools for customer support by first identifying your team’s specific pain points. You’ll then need to evaluate channels, integrations, budget and your support volume requirements. Look for specialized tools with unique features that solve your specific issues over complex all-in-one platforms.

Designing your unique support ecosystem

Reddit and Product Hunt are great resources for finding hidden gem solutions for customer support and other elements of our businesses.

Our research showed that bloated all-in-one platforms are being recommended less by growing companies. Instead, customer service specialists are increasingly recommending innovative niche tools that handle one aspect of support exceptionally well. These specialized solutions tackle specific pain points the industry giants haven’t addressed yet.

The takeaway? There’s no need to brute force your workflows to fit a single platform’s vision.

The ideal support setup is a customized ecosystem of tools that work together to fill gaps, solve problems, and ease your team’s manual input.

Cody Duval

Cody is the Founder and CEO of Keeping. He's a self-professed nerd about processes and operations and loves helping others grow and build their businesses.

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