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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Help Scout

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AHelp Scout is help desk software. The vendor’s value proposition is that that their solution reduces time spent on training users because Help Scout is simple to use and set up and scales like any enterprise product. This solution includes multiple mailboxes to support as many email addresses as needed in order to work collaboratively across teams, and manage several products or brands from one account. Reports on conversation trends, team performance, productivity, and customer happiness are…

    $30

    per month starts with 100 contacts

    Salesforce Starter

    Score9 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    Salesforce Starter (formerly Salesforce Essentials) is a small business CRM that replaces the former SalesforceIQ product. It is priced at $35 per user, on a monthly basis, or at $25 per month for if billed annually ($300) and can be tried free for 14 days on a trial.

    $35

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $30
    per month starts with 100 contacts
    Plus
    $90
    per month starts with 200 contacts
    Company
    Contact sales team
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Considered Both Products
    Help Scout
    No answer on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    80%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    80%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
    Features
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    8.7
    23 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Salesforce Starter
    -
    Ratings
    Organize and prioritize service tickets9.123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications8.113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket response9.522 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    8.5
    21 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Salesforce Starter
    -
    Ratings
    External knowledge base8.720 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base8.219 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    8.5
    23 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Salesforce Starter
    -
    Ratings
    Email support9.623 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration7.415 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sales Force Automation
    Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    8.7
    7 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings7.37 Ratings
    Territory management00 Ratings7.57 Ratings
    Opportunity management00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings9.46 Ratings
    Quote & order management00 Ratings9.55 Ratings
    Interaction tracking00 Ratings8.56 Ratings
    Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings9.75 Ratings
    Marketing Automation
    Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    7.2
    6 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Lead management00 Ratings7.26 Ratings
    CRM Project Management
    Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    8.2
    5 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Task management00 Ratings9.65 Ratings
    Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings6.35 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings8.65 Ratings
    CRM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    9.0
    5 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Forecasting00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Pipeline visualization00 Ratings8.85 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings9.25 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    6.7
    6 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Custom fields00 Ratings7.06 Ratings
    Custom objects00 Ratings7.05 Ratings
    Scripting environment00 Ratings5.75 Ratings
    API for custom integration00 Ratings7.35 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    8.6
    6 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.66 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.66 Ratings
    Social CRM
    Comparison of Social CRM features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    8.6
    5 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Social engagement00 Ratings8.65 Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-party Software
    Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    8.2
    5 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Marketing automation00 Ratings8.35 Ratings
    Compensation management00 Ratings8.15 Ratings
    Platform
    Comparison of Platform features of Help Scout and Salesforce Starter
    Feature
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Starter
    8.3
    6 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Mobile access00 Ratings8.36 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Small Businesses
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Salesflare
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Kintone
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Oracle Sales
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.6
    (23 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (6 ratings)
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Help ScoutSalesforce Starter
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Help Scout
    Small businesses that want a conversational type of customer support experience. Nothing wrong with support tickets, but it does make you feel like a number. Also, we needed to get up and running quickly so the "inbox" feel of the dashboard was already familiar with the team so they could adopt the new software quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    If you own a business that has complex selling processes or requires integrations with 3rd party tools/systems, you should look at Professional, Enterprise, or Unlimited editions. Salesforce operates very well across pretty much every industry, but not all sales, marketing, and operational processes are created equal. If your marketing process requires a long list of sendable contacts then I would recommend adding on Pardot or Hubspot. Always start small and scale up, to avoid boxing yourself in down the road.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Help Scout
    • Extremely simple to use and understand as a user - treats communications like human beings and provides a much more personal feel to communication (as opposed to making people feel like numbers).
    • The email newsletter.
    • They are super responsive. They are pretty rad and transparent: if something goes wrong on their end they are not afraid of admitting fault. Which leads me to trust them because I can believe them. I know that tells you very little about the product, but as leadership, that's something that I really need
    • Help Scout does exactly what it needs to (facilitate organized, efficient conversations between customers and support people) without getting in the way.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Tracking phone calls is extremely easy when using the app on the iphone. After a phone call is complete it prompts the user to enter in call details.
    • SalesforceIQ also automatically logs emails for us. This has saved us time from entering in information manually.
    • SalesforceIQ was easy to set up and allowed us customization for fields that were relevant to our business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Help Scout
    • Trying to group tickets is a bit unflexible. You can create folders which can be part of a workflow (automatic trigger) but you can't create a folder based on tags. This needs to be improved because there's a need to create smarter segments and mix them.
    • Metrics are useful but there needs to be more details about them. You can drill down in some but others are still not very actionable or visible (ok, that number went down, but what was the cause? what's the criteria with what you measure that?)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Table views can be sorted by column. Filters can be applied, but only to one column. Multi-column filtering like Excel allows would be extremely useful and a big improvement.
    • The ability to quick copy data in a table view would also be helpful, like (ctrl ') in excel.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Help Scout
    We are receiving feedback from the organizational level that they may want us to transition to a different solution to provide consistency across the company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Help Scout
    Help Scout is a great solution for support teams. There are many articles and webinars to help you learn how to use Help Scout. There are also many features to help make your workflows easier and more efficient. I would readily recommend Help Scout to any small or medium-growing support teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    The system is very user-friendly on a desktop but lacks mobile friendliness. The Customer relationship manager disappears after the deal is signed. We struggled to get the system in a usable format, which was not cost-effective. The CRM system on desktop was great but way more complicated than it should be.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Help Scout
    Only have minimal experience with G-Suite for a much smaller company. This worked well for that organization but did not have similar specialization functions that suite our larger organization very well. Help Scout's pricing makes sense, and continues to service our needs well. Minimal usage of other programs, but have no need to explore alternatives at this time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    more expensive but as an industry leader and go, the learning curve pays for itself in ROI in lost time in onboarding
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Help Scout
    • We are able to retain our customer base due to the outstanding customer service our Customer Experience department provides. Without an organized tool like Help Scout, this would not be possible. We pride ourselves in quick response times to customers and are able to do so by effectively routing tickets to the right agents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • It made the job more efficient for staff so they can spend time doing other tasks rather than configuring and maintaining Salesforce Starter.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Help Scout Screenshots

    Screenshot of Build better relationships with your customers, and work together better as a teamScreenshot of Tools designed specifically for team collaboration on customer supportScreenshot of Docs Knowledge Base provides self-service that sets your customers up for successScreenshot of The conversation report can change the conversation with your customers from problems to praise by pinpointing what they write in about and when.Screenshot of Productivity Reports track your team's customer-helping velocity and identify sticking points to push through with even greater momentum.Screenshot of Happiness Reports are the closest you can get to your customer's true feelings without hiring a telepath.

    Salesforce Starter Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot