Help.com vs. Khoros Service vs. Ruby Virtual Receptionist Services

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Help.com
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Help.com is a cloud-base live chat solution. The vendor says its in-depth reporting gives businesses an inside look at what is driving their customer experience. This solution includes custom on-boarding and training as well as a custom built chat box widget that is designed around the user’s brand.
$80
per simultaneous active user
Khoros Service
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Khoros Service offers omnichannel engagement on publicly available channels like social, digital, chat, and voice, as well as owned online communities like Khoros Communities. The solution offers 1-to-1 and 1-to-many engagement with customers and consumers, bringing together automation through bots and human agents. Customer inquiries and support-related conversations can be routed and prioritized based on a variety of parameters, and the robust agent desktop solution…N/A
Ruby
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Ruby, or Ruby Receptionists headquartered in Portland, boasts supporting more than 10,000 businesses with live virtual receptionists and 24/7 available chat services. Users set their preferences to have Ruby answer the phone part-time, full-time, or after hours, and Ruby deploys personalized company greetings to custom call handling instructions.
$129
per month
Pricing
Help.comKhoros ServiceRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Editions & Modules
Help.com Chat
$80 per month
per simultaneous active user
No answers on this topic
Chat Ruby 10
$129
monthly
Chat Ruby 30
$299
monthly
Call Ruby 100
$319
monthly
Chat Ruby 50
$469
monthly
Call Ruby 200
$599
monthly
Call Ruby 350
$999
monthly
Call Ruby 500
$1,399
monthly
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Help.comKhoros ServiceRuby
Free Trial
YesNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsHelp.com Chat comes with unlimited logins and scales with your business.Pricing is variable based on the needs of the customer.Bundled Chat Ruby 10 Your Call Ruby Plan + Up to 10 Chats for $99 Bundled Chat Ruby 30 Your Call Ruby Plan + Up to 30 Chats for $249 Bundled Chat Ruby 50 Your Call Ruby Plan + Up to 50 Chats for $399
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Help.comKhoros ServiceRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Best Alternatives
Help.comKhoros ServiceRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Small Businesses
Gist
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Smith.ai
Smith.ai
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 9.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 9.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Help.comKhoros ServiceRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(113 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(79 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.1
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(71 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(78 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Help.comKhoros ServiceRuby Virtual Receptionist Services
Likelihood to Recommend
Help.com
Help.com is well suited for companies with sales and support departments who have the employee size to manage and respond to visitors chatting. I think a less appropriate scenario would be a company that does not have the employee size to manage the inbound chats as it makes it less valuable if you cannot interact quickly.
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Less Appropriate Scenarios- A fintech company has highly specialized or industry-specific workflows that are not easily accommodated within the standard capabilities of Khoros Care. In such cases, the platform may be less appropriate for businesses with extremely unique processes that require a high degree of customization. Well suited- financial institutions face a high volume of customer inquiries related to account management, transactions, and security concerns. Khoros Care's security features, automation capabilities, and integration with banking systems make it suitable for managing customer interactions in the financial services sector.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
Ruby Virtual Receptionist Services is well suited for a business that needs call screening and message-taking services. The service is expensive but if the user is willing to put a lot of time and effort into planning and scriptwriting, as well as call handling instructions, it may work well. Also, if there is not much information that must be captured by the receptionist, I feel this may be a better fit.
Read full review
Pros
Help.com
  • User interface is clean and easy to navigate
  • Helpful support
  • Accurately captures information from the person you are chatting with
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
  • Tagging system - it's possible to add a wide variety of labels and categories
  • Search feature - being able to find users by conversation number, username, or keywords makes it easier to navigate old conversations
  • Easy system for assigning conversations to other users
  • When you claim a conversation, it gets removed from the queue. This is much more visually explicit than Khoros Marketing's queue, for example, where all content remains visible in the queue and a bookmark gets moved around to distinguish the point where other users left off
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
  • Call-out request "personal assistant services."
  • Ruby Receptionist app.
Read full review
Cons
Help.com
  • Download chat transcripts easier
  • More pre-set responses
  • Canned responses
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
  • I would like to be able to see deleted comments/tweets so we can look into the issues.
  • I would like to be able to better customize dashboards for our exact metrics. Some things previously available in Spredfast are no longer available in Care.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
  • Clarity in billing.
  • Shortened hold times.
  • Less transfer time from call to receptionist (between English and Spanish).
  • Better training of receptionists to prevent certain things from being said to clients - decreases client confidence.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Simply, there isn't anything on the market that is quite as personable as Khoros Care. After using a few different client messaging systems, this program gave the closest feel to in-person interaction that we could get during the COVID-19 epidemic and is an important part of our agency still to this day in 2023.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Usability
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
The ability to auto tag, manually tag, make notes, and "snooze" posts is extremely helpful. The efficiency of the work flow for agents is also a huge plus. It keeps agents moving quickly and prioritizing responses for the cases that need it most.
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
No issues.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Performance
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
No issues.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Help.com
Help.com is easy to use, easy to train new employees to use, very helpful to clients and prospects, helps us generate revenue, resolve customer issues, and maintain a happy customer base. Being available at the convenience of your clients and prospects is necessary and Help.com helps make this possible without a struggle.
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Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Khoros Support has always very responsive and helpful when it comes to getting my issue/inquiry addressed. Their ticket portal is great for tracking any open tickets and they can be updated via the portal or by responding to the email thread. Support reps are always extremely knowledgeable and care about getting you taken care of
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
The team received training (from the same executive team member who has been supporting us) over the web and this was of very high quality.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Implementing the platform was not a big hassle for our client, it was seamless and easy we just had to follow a few steps and it was done. Just scaling was a bit of an issue but it got resolved with time and a bit of effort at both ends
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Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Help.com

Help.com stacks up against competitors with their pricing, interface, features and support. I have used similar products in the past but Help.com is by far the best solution. I highly encourage you to use Help.com for your business and see for yourself why they are the best option for you.

Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Khoros is more than just a platform for social publishing. No other competitor provides the in-depth moderation and social listening services that they do. If you're looking for a one-stop-shop of a platform for all things social, this is the tool to be using. Others are better in usability and innovative functionality.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
We switched over from Answer First to Ruby Receptionist because we wanted a more full-service answering service. We wanted to be able to call out using our business number as well as text in and out. We also really liked the "call-out request" feature as it freed up our time and allowed Ruby to handle minor client communications, etc.
Read full review
Scalability
Help.com
No answers on this topic
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
Of course as the company grows owing to its growing customer base, they need to think of out-of-the-box solutions to offer its clients and customer satisfaction is one of them. Retention is very much needed in competitive environment like today and hence it becomes imperative for companies to find different ways to reach their client basis and fix their issues
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Help.com
  • Positive with inbound sales prospects
  • Positive with current client sales
  • Positive with customer support SLA
Read full review
Khoros (Formerly Spredfast + Lithium)
  • We have seen a positive shift of customers from reaching out to the Call Centre to the Social Care Team.
  • Monthly and Annual Reporting to keep track of performance and stats related to the team has been much easier to highlight areas for improvement (month2month and anually)
  • CSAT/NPS Survey results have increased via Khoros Care in comparison to the Call Centre.
Read full review
Ruby Receptionists, Inc
  • Increased efficiency.
  • NEGATIVE ROI.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Help.com Screenshots

Screenshot of Agent InterfaceScreenshot of Reporting DashboardScreenshot of Real-Time Monitoring

Khoros Service Screenshots

Screenshot of a customer conversation in Agent view. Access past customer conversations and interactions in a single pane of glass.Screenshot of the analytic dashboard used to monitor key metrics across a service organization, such as available agents, time to first response, and agent handle time.Screenshot of Khoros Agent Assist. This feature provides agents with real-time recommendations, reducing the time needed to handle customer inquiries, deliver accurate resolutions, and train new agents.Screenshot of Work Queues under Rules and Routing. This allows admins to build rules around tagging to ensure timely and effective follow-up from agents.