Calabrio ONE vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Calabrio ONE
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Calabrio One is a workforce optimization (WFO) platform for call centers, combining workforce management with call recording and analytics, from Calabrio headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.N/A
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
The Zendesk Support suite is a cloud-based customer support software built for better customer relationships. Designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel: text SMS, web, mobile app, phone, email, social media. The vendor states more than 200,000 companies such as Uber, Groupon, Box, Airbnb, and Slack are using Zendesk to lower their support costs, raise productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. Zendesk offers a full suite of products to meet customer…
$55
per month agent
Pricing
Calabrio ONEZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)
$19
per month agent
Suite Team
$55
per month agent
Support Professional
$55
per month agent
Suite Growth
$89
per month agent
Suite Professional
$115
per month agent
Support Enterprise
$115
per month agent
Suite Enterprise
$169
per month agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Calabrio ONEZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
Calabrio ONEZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Calabrio ONE
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
113 Ratings
4% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.5112 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.269 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.475 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.2113 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.8112 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Calabrio ONE
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.1
100 Ratings
4% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.096 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.289 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Calabrio ONE
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.1
111 Ratings
5% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings7.685 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.136 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.367 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.7109 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.679 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Calabrio ONEZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
8x8 Contact Center
8x8 Contact Center
Score 7.6 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Eleveo
Eleveo
Score 9.2 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Calabrio Teleopti WFM
Calabrio Teleopti WFM
Score 7.8 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Calabrio ONEZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(13 ratings)
8.3
(151 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(1 ratings)
7.7
(24 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Calabrio ONEZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Calabrio
Calabrio has been great for our education environment. We have the ability to access live calls, recorded calls and evaluate based on the duration of calls. I would like to see the Reporting tab transformed and allow for more customizable reports. Overall, we have had success with Calabrio and we look forward to our partnership.
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Zendesk
Inbound messaging it is top notch, it does it well and couldn't imagine anyone's program doing it better. Like I said before been using ZenDesk for over 7 years and absolutely love it. We use the talk feature with the phone very limited so Zen works fine for us, but if I was running an inbound or outbound call center I don't believe Zen has all the functions I would want as a manager. For limited phone use and mostly email, text, and even web chat, ZenDesk works great. Having the iOS App is so great and flexibility with notifications allows my team to be "on call" anytime without unnecessary interruptions
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Pros
Calabrio
  • Quality Management (call recordings, evaluations of said calls) is an area where Calabrio has done a particularly good job. It is a solid product and they continue to refine it.
  • Customer Service - since we purchased the product, customer service has always been spot on for Calabrio - they have worked hard to ensure their existing customers remain happy while continuing to evolve and bring on new customers.
  • Innovation - with their ear to the ground, so to speak, Calabrio forges ahead and does a great job of implementing features per customer requests and makes every effort to ensure the needs are taken care of either via API or upgrade feature.
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Zendesk
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Ease of Agent Training and Use
  • Able to add multiple brands with related custom reports and dashboards
  • Adding a new brand and basic help center is easy to do without the need of an expert or web team
  • Ability of agents and supervisors to see customer history across multiple channels
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Cons
Calabrio
  • Calabrio's scheduling module has room for improvement. I recommend adding options that will allow you to quickly add or delete multiple exceptions for a group or an individual.
  • Calabrio should add an option the will automatically optimize existing breaks and lunches based on the schedule rules and updates to schedules since they were initially published.
  • I'd like to have a feature in Calabrio that will automatically approve or deny employees requests for vacation based on the staffing number and other staff rules that are set.
  • For shift bidding, I'd like to have the option to create several schedule types and have Calabrio create the best coverage based on the available staff and the existing forecast.
  • In my practice, I have found that some reports have stats that should be weighed but are presented as a standard average (arithmetic mean) instead.
  • I'd like to have granular reporting on staff shrinkage that has occurred in the past so that I can use that data for future staff planning.
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Zendesk
  • I think the Graphical User Interface could use a facelift. It not the most aesthetically pleasing platform in my experience.
  • Particular things like where the default is when you click on each and every dropdown menu.
  • The macro integration could be a little more simplified.
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Likelihood to Renew
Calabrio
Because I think they're ready for a multi-skilled contact center support or OMNI
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Zendesk
Zendesk is super easy to use and navigate. I really enjoy the sleek layout, the ability to tailor tickets, the macro option, and the quick key guide they have to make your use of time even more effective. My whole team loves working with Zendesk and rarely ever has problems.
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Usability
Calabrio
It would've been a higher rating if they're able to partner up with other platforms like Liveperson chat support and have a better sense of urgency when it comes to resolving issues
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Zendesk
As an agent it's very simple to use. As an admin it's also easy to use, but sometimes lacks some functionality that would be nice to have such as expanded native 2 way sync functionality for many major apps that are commonly used today like HubSpot and Salesforce. The ability to add followers to tickets to they get updates and are in the know without the customer seeing this agent cc'd is a nice touch. This ensures additional visibility and easily following the communication without having to appear as a CC to the customer, who could accidentally remove that person in a response, thus breaking the visibility
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Reliability and Availability
Calabrio
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
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Performance
Calabrio
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
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Support Rating
Calabrio
Because, it took them time to coordinate back some updates for us when we had to report a few major issues. ie Volume data feed for our Email support/channel. I like the webinars, however to keep the community alive. I hope they improve the training modules too and how they training new WFM guys as part of their package
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Zendesk
Every time I contacted them they were not only very responsive and knowledgable, but always seemed to have a positive upbeat attitude. It probably helps that we did not have significant service outages or sev 1 level issues, but even my lower severity issues were quickly answered. And the positive and upbeat attitude really made things feel comfortable.
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Online Training
Calabrio
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
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Implementation Rating
Calabrio
No I don't have as I wasn't part of the implementation
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Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
Calabrio
It was better and more reliable/resilient then both of the products stated above. It is in-house though while the competition was cloud-based. Both of the platforms mentioned above had more problems and more failed screens then Calabrio.
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Zendesk
If spoken honestly Intercom is a level-par with any nearest competitor, Tools like Zendesk has to catchup with them in speed. However, there is an advantage to Zendesk with its simple and easy-to-get software which falls in every mid and small-size business pocket wherein Intercom is way too expensive and needs a tech admin to customize the product. The kick-starting feature with negligible configuration made Zendesk the ideal choice of our organization + the budget fell under our expenses.
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Return on Investment
Calabrio
  • Negative: I've had to create more workarounds and scheduling seems to be more time consuming. However, it has had a positive effect in that some processes have been improved because of the workarounds.
  • Positive: Our former WFM software was not upgraded regularly. We have planned upgrade(s) for Calabrio. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements made with the newer version.
  • Positive: Calabrio's customer service has been a plus. I believe they listen to what their customers are saying, even when it may be painful, and seem to always be striving to improve their product, and maintain good customer service.
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Zendesk
  • The positives weigh more than the negatives here, as it gives us a one-stop portal where we can tend to customer needs using one web app
  • It has also helped us identify areas of improvement based on the reporting feature
  • The value it provides outweighs any missing or lacking features that I'm sure will be available in the future
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ScreenShots

Calabrio ONE Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations