OutboundEngine vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
OutboundEngine
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
OutboundEngine provides a hands-off way for small business owners to market and grow their business. The product aims to provide small businesses with what big companies have achieved with marketing automation. The service aims to help users keep in touch with clients and prospects with professionally designed, branded campaigns. Benefits include: driving engagement, surfacing warm leads from current contacts, generating referrals and repeat business from their existing contacts, social…
$199
per user
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk is a customer support solution with built-in ticketing, conversational messaging, and live chat, designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries deliver personalized service at scale. Zendesk's AI agents are trained in CX to help Service teams resolve customer issues faster and more accurately while still providing a human-centered experience. Zendesk ultimately aims to help businesses improve time to value, reduce effort per ticket, and keep costs low.
$69
per month per agent
Pricing
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Essential
$199
per user
Value
$299
per user
Premium
$499
per user
Suite Team
$69
per month per agent
Suite Growth
$115
per month per agent
Suite Professional
$149
per month per agent
Suite Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup Fee$99 per userOptional
Additional DetailsMore information is available on the vendor's website.20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Features
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
OutboundEngine
5.9
50 Ratings
19% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Mobile optimization8.643 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting3.150 Ratings00 Ratings
List management6.044 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
OutboundEngine
6.2
38 Ratings
4% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks6.238 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
OutboundEngine
10.0
48 Ratings
42% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns10.048 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
OutboundEngine
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
179 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.4178 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.0122 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.7125 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.1126 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.5178 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.2177 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
OutboundEngine
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
161 Ratings
2% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.2155 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.3148 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
OutboundEngine
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
174 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.2142 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.273 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.2115 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.9132 Ratings
Best Alternatives
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
LocaliQ
LocaliQ
Score 8.7 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
LocaliQ
LocaliQ
Score 8.7 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(61 ratings)
9.2
(208 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
7.4
(7 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(27 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(24 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
OutboundEngineZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Elm Street Technology
OutboundEngine does a referral campaign and I've been able to close a couple of deals based on getting in touch with people who engage with this campaign and state they could use my services in the next 6 months. This is a great follow up tool for those you may or may not know are going to be needing your services.
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Zendesk
Being a customer support agent, I found it very good when it comes to send an email or call or chat- with the user. I can do all that from the one single platform which is so easy and time saving for you. It does not take much time to use this, We can chat- with the user and at the same time we can send an email to them as well.
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Pros
Elm Street Technology
  • The content that they generate to send to our clients is relevant and the clients want to engage with us. It makes us appear more professional and consistent, even though we are a smaller company.
  • It helps us stay in touch with clients and helps us stay top of mind. We are able to generate more new business leads if we are in consistent contact with current, former, and potential clients.
  • Their customer service and support is outstanding. All my questions were answered and I went into the program feeling confident and knowledgeable.
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Zendesk
  • UI/UX; mature macros and automations, slick and well thought out UI.
  • Reporting, reporting, reporting. With user, org, and ticket level tags, we can track every aspect of our ticket flow.
  • Extensibility; the app marketplace is a great resource for expanding functionality from the baseline offering.
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Cons
Elm Street Technology
  • I do not like the use of drawings to attract new customers, and they have ignored my requests to eliminate that for my personal emails.
  • I do not like it when a competitor in my immediate market has the same posts. It cheapens the service or makes it appear that I am simply sharing another's post.
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Zendesk
  • Is there a way for AEs and CSMs to be informed in a weekly summary of all their accounts and any tickets? Example: Disney submitted a ticket on XYZ. Google has an urgent issue on X still unresolved.
  • Is there a way for CSMs or AEs to have a Dashboard that's specific to their accounts instead of seeing all the tickets in the queue that are not relevant to them?
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Likelihood to Renew
Elm Street Technology
The biggest issue is poor ROI. The second biggest issue is rigid customer service process, lack of a sense of urgency, and inability to reach out to upper management with issues.
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Zendesk
Zendesk is an amazing tool for communicating with your customers easily. The communication tickets from sellers to us or from us to sellers are stored, and there are statuses used to make communication easy. We have internal conversations between departments, linked with useful software such as Zingtree, Talkdesk, and Webs.
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Usability
Elm Street Technology
Overall, OutboundEngine is very user friendly. It is simple to set up and explore, and if there are any issues or questions, the customer service team and account managers are always available to help. They are very knowledgeable and were able to explain everything in detail to me. The program is easy to navigate and helps me stay organized, and an uncomplicated and straightforward solution was exactly what I was looking for
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Zendesk
Pros: The agent interface is sleek, contemporary, and relatively easy to learn compared to many other enterprise tools. For common tasks, admins are given point-and-click options- adding fields, modifying workflows, constructing macros. The knowledge base (Guide) editor is easy to use for non-developers. Drawbacks: Once you move past the initial things - complex automations, reporting/analytics in Explore, and/or customizations integrating the API, it requires much more advanced training to use successfully. Navigating between the different modules (Support, Explore, Chat, Guide) can feel very disconnected; often you are reminded that it really is a "suite" of products brought together -not really one unified platform. If you're using multiple brands managing simultaneous support tickets, or heavily customizing workflows to meet your brand, you may run into a bit of struggle with usability. So: it's a lot more user friendly than the palaces (Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow), but is not used as quickly or with as much streamlined flow as a product made for a small shop. So if you are looking for a great balance, this is a good option if you are a net new organization or an organization on their way to scaling from 15 - 50 employee. Expect some elbow grease from the admin team once learning, adapting, and working efficiently once you move past the basics with your support tickets and initial customizations.
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Reliability and Availability
Elm Street Technology
I haven't had to contact Outbound Engine because I haven't had any application errors or unplanned outages. I basically have had such a trouble free experience with them that I haven't had to call. Everything is automated and I get a notice to review every isse. I suppose if I personalized the newsletter a bit more and added some of my own articles, I would need to contact them, (which I should really start to do) but so far things have been so on point, I haven't felt the need.
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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
Elm Street Technology
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.
Read full review
Support Rating
Elm Street Technology
The customer service was excellent! Everyone I spoke to was kind and knowledgeable. My account manager was easily reachable. Setup of the OutboundEngine program was explained really thoroughly, and we knew how we could best use the product to meet the needs of our clients and get our online and social media presence off the ground.
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Zendesk
We rarely need to contact their support team, but when we do they are responsive. However there have been notable times when communication between myself and the support rep was challenging despite me providing clear explanation of the issue, screenshots, and a thorough explanation of the goal we hope to achieve. It took several back and forth attempt, on a few occasions, to get resolution on an otherwise simple request
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Online Training
Elm Street Technology
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
Elm Street Technology
No answers on this topic
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
Elm Street Technology
I selected it for the ability to have an automated system do 3 things all at once, social media posts, emails and the instant communication with the chat box. I have never seen a chat come through that lead to a helpful client touchpoint. I have never used another product but have since begun to weigh some of the less expensive options.
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Zendesk
The customisable reporting every time. Our leadership reply on me to run my team and want to know what customers are telling us so they can elevate our products. We have extensive custom reports that tie up all aspects of our product and customer journeys. I've not found another product that allows me as much freedom as Zendesk Suite explore does, so far.
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Scalability
Elm Street Technology
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
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Return on Investment
Elm Street Technology
  • One client identified how one article I sent that he read saved him from having to replace his entire AC system.
  • One client actually thought I was sending this to him personally because I valued him
  • One of the above transacted with me twice for over $3M in sales
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Zendesk
  • Integrating other AI solutions for an organization with high volumes can cost about USD5000 monthly. With Zendesk AI and by building onto the same with AI powered apps built for Zendesk Suite we save a projected USD4000 monthly.
  • Robust Zendesk APIs have enabled us to integrate our internal system with a customized app saving us hundreds of hours every quarter spent loading customer profiles that are not loaded instantly from the app.
  • Plug and play apps like Round robin save us weeks of sprint delay timelines as they do not require additional coding or developer support to install and start using.
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ScreenShots

OutboundEngine Screenshots

Screenshot of Automated Social Media MarketingScreenshot of A personalized snapshot of your account activity and warmest leads.Screenshot of Personally designed, tested, and automated emails

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of the 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