Freshdesk Review: A Fresh Take on AI Customer Service

Freshdesk

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Without automation, you can not think of offering a smooth and optimized customer experience to your customers. This is where Freshdesk comes into the scene, as it saves 54 hours/agent every year with automation.

Freshdesk is a powerful customer support software with a suite of features such as intelligent ticketing, self-service portals, and insightful analytics. But, is it the right solution for your industry and company in regard to size and scalability? Let’s find out as I discuss its features and other benefits in my unbiased Freshdesk review.

Features

• Multichannel helpdesk with ticket routing and knowledge base.
• Tools to measure and support agent performance.
• Workflow automation with templates and customization options.
• Supports customer queries in multiple languages.
• Wide range of analytics and reporting templates.

Pros

• Built-in Freddy AI.
• 14-day free trial.
• Option to select data center location.

Cons

• Free plan supports only two users.
• Steep learning curve for reporting and workflow automation.

What Is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is a renowned AI-driven customer support software. A part of Freshworks, it started its journey in October 2010 and is now based in California. This cloud-based platform helps you reduce 75% of the time in ticket resolution, so that you can manage customer support more smoothly across different channels. 

Freshdesk works with a wide range of industries — from e-commerce and tech to healthcare, education, travel, and finance. Regardless of the business size, the platform offers scalable and flexible solutions that can be tailored to fit unique needs.

Top 7 Freshdesk Features

Want to know what you will get by using Freshdesk? Here are the major features of Freshdesk software.

1. Ticketing System

Freshdesk ticketing management feature makes customer support a lot smoother with its smart, easy-to-use tools. It’s shared inbox brings all conversations into one place for effortless collaboration among the agents. For quick issue resolution, Freshdesk’s helpdesk tools, like internal notes and auto-assignment features, come in handy.

Want to bring in a teammate without confusing the customer? Freshdesk offers internal threads and tasks for behind-the-scenes discussions for agent collaboration. Using the customer portal, your users can log tickets, browse helpful resources, and find answers on their own without having to reach out to human agents.

Besides multilingual conversation support, which I will discuss below, it lets you bring in external collaborators with limited access when you need insights from outside your team.

2. Multichannel Support

You can rely on Freshdesk’s multichannel support to make life easier for both your customers and your support team. Its unified dashboard brings together customer conversations from email, phone, live chat, Facebook, and even your website using tools like feedback forms and customizable help widgets. Moreover, you can integrate e-commerce platforms to avoid overlooking any interaction.

Since everything is in a single interface, your team doesn’t have to juggle multiple tabs or tools to manage all customer inquiries. It really speeds things up and reduces the risk of missing important messages. For email support, Freshdesk offers you unlimited mailboxes plus smart automation for prioritizing, categorizing, and assigning tickets. Its other collaboration tools, like private notes and agent collision detection, help your team stay on the same page.

The Freshcaller app from Freshdesk offers your support team a fully functional cloud call center. It’s call recording, IVR, and global call forwarding help them stay connected from wherever they are. Using Freshchat, you can have real-time conversations on your website, support portal, or even inside your app. Freshdesk feedback and help widgets embedded on your site let customers submit queries or search your knowledge base on their own.

Facebook integration is the perfect approach to handle posts and direct messages from customers without leaving your helpdesk. It automatically turns interactions into tickets to streamline social support. Finally, its self-service portal gives your customers a branded, customizable hub to find answers themselves through knowledge base articles or community forums, offering a consistent experience across all touchpoints.

3. Knowledge Base

Freshdesk’s Knowledge Base feature functions like a KB software that allows customers to help themselves. As a business, you can use it to build a well-organized library of helpful articles from which customers can quickly find answers to their queries. You can customize the support portal to match your brand, and even create a community forum where customers can connect and help each other out.

Managing your knowledge base at the backend is also a painless process. You can handle article versions, set up approval workflows, create custom fields, use ticket templates, and build a flexible content structure suitable for your team to ensure a better experience for everyone involved.

4. Freddy AI

Many customer support teams consider Freddy AI a game-changer in this field. Your agents can work faster with assistance from its features like real-time conversation summaries, smart suggestions, and tone adjustments to ensure professionalism. If you think from the customers’ point of view, they get quick, reliable answers around the clock from Freddy’s always-on chatbots.

But it doesn’t stop there — Freddy also digs into support data to spot trends, recommend improvements, and automate repetitive tasks. That means your teams can focus on what really matters, while overall efficiency goes up and support tickets go down. Additional tools like omnichannel support, advanced ticketing, and a unified workspace allow you to have a smart and user-friendly setup.

5. Workflow Automation

Workflow Automation in Freshdesk is all about minimizing errors and enhancing the speed and quality of your service operations. It lets you create using smart, customizable rules based on time or events with an aim to take repetitive tasks such as assigning tickets, sending follow-ups, and managing escalations off your team’s plate. Hence, your agents have more time solving important customer issues.

You can also fine-tune the ticket routing process to ensure the right tickets land with the right agents with features like multiple SLA policies, round-robin assignment, and skill-based ticket matching. On top of that, workflow management tools like ticket templates and advanced custom fields help your team offer more personalized support by capturing key customer details and creating tickets faster.

6. Multilingual Support

In my opinion, Freshdesk’s multilingual customer support is the highlighted feature of this software. This feature makes it easier for your support teams to connect with customers in their own languages. It also enables you to build stronger relationships with them through smoother conversations.

Using this feature, you can set up a multilingual knowledge base that helps your customers quickly find answers on their own in their preferred language. It not only offers a more personalized experience, leading to boosted customer satisfaction, but also supports a diverse customer base while keeping things efficient.

7. Integrations

Freshdesk makes it easy to connect with over 1,000 popular apps right from the Freshworks Marketplace. It means there is no need to waste time jumping between different platforms, resulting in focused customer assistance and faster issue resolution.

In case you need more customization, Freshdesk offers ready-to-use connectors, templates, flexible APIs, and a low-code interface for you. Using these, you can build the integrations you need that are also secure and scalable. Setting up those connections is even faster with generative AI tools like Freddy AI Copilot. Whether you’re using low-code or no-code, you can get your workflow done without the usual technical headaches.

Freshdesk Pricing

Freshdesk’s per-agent pricing starts at $15/month. Here is a breakdown of Freshdesk pricing plans along with their highlights feature offerings.

Features	Growth	Pro	Pro + AI Copilot	Enterprise
Ticketing	✅	✅	✅	✅
Multilingual communication	❌	✅	✅	✅
Custom real-time dashboard	❌	✅	✅	✅
Customer portal customization	❌	✅	✅	✅
Approval workflow	❌	✅	✅	✅
Multiple SLA policies	❌	✅	✅	✅
Ticket routing	✅	✅	✅	✅
Audit logs	❌	❌	❌	✅
Freddy AI	❌	✅	✅	✅
Starting price (agent/month)	$15	$49	$78	$79

Can I use Freshdesk for Free?

Yes, you can use Freshdesk for free using its Free plan for up to two agents. Useful for small teams, it offers all the basic features, such as ticketing, knowledge base, and pre-built reports.

Larger teams can use Freshdesk for free by signing up for its 14-day free trial. This will give you access to all the features of the Enterprise plan. To continue using it after the trial period, you need to pay for one of its plans. 

Freshdesk Competitors

Take a look at where Freshdesk stands compared to its alternatives in terms of pricing, rating, AI capability, and shared inbox.

What is Freshdesk Omni?

Freshdesk Omni is an AI-powered, omnichannel customer service software. It delivers fast and personalized service across messaging apps, social media, phone, and email. Using it, you can deploy AI agents quickly without coding experience, offer 24/7 support to your customers in multiple languages, and escalate issues to human agents when necessary. Freshdesk Omni equips your agents with Freddy AI Copilot and a unified workspace for a comprehensive view of customer engagement.

What is the Difference Between Freshdesk and Freshservice?

Freshdesk and Freshservice are both solutions by Freshworks. Freshdesk is a customer support helpdesk, designed to manage external customer inquiries. It offers features such as ticketing tools, multi-channel communication, automation, and a knowledge base to help customers.   

On the other hand, Freshservice is an IT service management (ITSM) helpdesk, built to manage internal IT-related requests and issues within an organization. It comes with features such as incident management, asset management, change management, and employee service catalog.

Freshdesk Customer Feedback

Freshdesk received rave reviews on popular software review websites. On G2, it received 4.4 out of 5, based on 3,500+ reviews, while on Capterra, it got 4.5 out of 5, based on 3,300+ reviews. 

On these websites, users commend Freshdesk’s seamless ticketing system, workflow automation, and easy-to-use and intuitive interface. On the other hand, people also showed their dissatisfaction over poor support, sudden account suspension, and a steep learning curve for setting up rules.

Who is Freshdesk Best For?

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs): As a user-friendly and scalable software, Freshdesk is an excellent choice for SMBs that need a robust yet easy-to-manage customer support solution. Its pricing plans accommodate the varying needs and budgets of growing businesses.

Companies looking for an AI-powered support solution: Freshdesk offers AI-powered features like Freddy AI Agent and Freddy AI Copilot. These features come in handy for automation, agent assistance, and insightful data generation. If your company needs a helpdesk AI, go for it.

Organizations requiring a customizable and integrated helpdesk: Freshdesk offers extensive customization and integration options for support workflows, agent portals, and customer portals. Thus, it is an ideal choice for companies that need to create a connected integration ecosystem for their operations.

Who Shouldn’t Use Freshdesk?

Very small companies with minimal budget who only need a shared inbox: If your primary need is to have a shared inbox and your budget is extremely tight, you need a simpler solution, which is potentially free. Since Freshdesk offers a lot more than just a basic shared inbox, it might be unnecessary and costly in this scenario.

Companies needing ticketing and live chat support with a limited budget: If your business has budget constraints, Help Scout is a better alternative. It offers a free plan for unlimited users and 50 contacts per month.

Teams that need to manage developer work with sprints: Freshdesk is not suitable for managing software development projects with sprint planning and tracking. For such teams, Jira is a more appropriate tool.

Freshdesk Verdict

Freshdesk is a user-friendly and flexible helpdesk platform whose strength lies in easy ticket management, strong multi-channel support, scalability, and excellent integration with third-party tools. Freshdesk receives the Geekflare Value Award.

However, its weaknesses include features like advanced reporting and approval workflows being locked behind higher-priced plans. So, if you are an SMB or an enterprise that needs an AI-powered support software, go for Freshdesk.