Help Scout vs. ServiceNow Customer Service Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Help Scout
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Help 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…
$20
per user/per month
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Built on the Now Platform, ServiceNow offers their Customer Service Management solution through the Standard and Professional Customer Service Management bundles. Both include agent workspace, knowledge management, survey and assessment module, and the community module, oriented in this edition to support customers rather than internal employees. The Professional bundle also includes performance analytics, predictive intelligence, and related tools to support customer support agents improvement…N/A
Pricing
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
Editions & Modules
Standard
$20
per user/per month
Plus
$35
per user/per month
Company
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Help Scout
9.8
18 Ratings
21% above category average
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
7.0
6 Ratings
12% below category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.018 Ratings7.66 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications10.010 Ratings7.15 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission10.017 Ratings9.16 Ratings
Ticket response10.018 Ratings6.06 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.95 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings4.55 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Help Scout
8.5
16 Ratings
9% above category average
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
4.8
5 Ratings
47% below category average
External knowledge base9.015 Ratings4.44 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.014 Ratings5.15 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Help Scout
7.8
18 Ratings
2% above category average
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
6.3
6 Ratings
20% below category average
Email support9.018 Ratings7.45 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration6.510 Ratings8.25 Ratings
Customer portal00 Ratings7.24 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings5.34 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings3.54 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(18 ratings)
7.4
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Help ScoutServiceNow Customer Service Management
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.
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ServiceNow
It is well suited for medium to large companies that manage different teams and need to communicate constantly and track progress in a timely manner. It is less suited for small enterprises as it will overwhelm users with the features and functionalities embedded.
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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.
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ServiceNow
  • Allows for clear communication between help desk and end users.
  • Provides a clean inventory option for both hardware items and software licenses.
  • Navigation is very intuitive and user friendly.
  • Many reporting features for all levels of the company.
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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?)
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ServiceNow
  • Adding in additional chat features would be nice
  • Viewing where you stand in priority
  • Having a way to automate more of the processes
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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.
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ServiceNow
No answers on this topic
Usability
Help Scout
It is simple and intuitive. I haven't run into difficulty using any of the features that I have wanted to use. Additional help in the form of documentation or support is available as needed, and their response times are pretty good :)
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ServiceNow
Bottom line is that it does what you need it to do. We've been using Service Now as a ticket managing tool for a few years now. There's really not much it can't do when it comes to recording interactions. It has been nice using inventory tracking for software licenses and hardware as well.
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Support Rating
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
ServiceNow
Support has been very good. Any time there has been a real issue, the team has responded very quickly and identified the issue without a lot of repetitive questions that I've seen from other services. There is a great external community and internal knowledge base that covers pretty much anything you need.
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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.
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ServiceNow
Connectwise targets small to medium enterprises and kept things simple for cross-organizational communications. On the other hand, ServiceNow with users with more than 500 at least, tends to create lag and tension when all are using the app at the same time, especially getting reports in a timely manner.
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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.
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ServiceNow
  • The negative impact for my team is the delay in team completing tickets but not a system issue.
  • A positive impact for my team is we can easily view the status of tickets and the follow-up emails are beneficial to maintain records of tickets.
  • Negative impact is that there is no user job aid or helpful tools for new users.
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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.