Help Scout is a shared inbox tool to help customer service teams. It will be a massive step up from a Gmail inbox or similar tool not designed for customer service. Its pricing is cheaper than many alternatives so will be great for smaller brands that don't need all of the features of a more advanced tool like Gorgias or ZenDesk. It isn’t specifically designed for eCommerce but has a solid list of eCommerce clients including Hero Cosmetics, Curology, Tuft & Needle, and Native. It's best for small teams but these large brands show that it is possible to scale with Help Scout. It lacks the features and integrations of other tools, but its price is hard to beat.
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Best for: Small ($1-10M), Medium ($10-50M revenue) size companies.
Help Scout is a customer service platform that gives customer support teams a shared inbox to respond to customer service inquiries. It’s frill free and priced well for small and medium sized teams.
Help Scout was founded in 2011 by Nick Francis and two co-founders who had been working together for years doing web consulting and side projects. After one of their side projects took off and attracted over 250,000 users, they struggled to find the right customer support software and decided to build their own "shared inbox" platform that would allow a personalized customer experience while enabling internal team collaboration and scale. Wanting to solve their own problem and build a company focused on providing an excellent customer experience, the three co-founders took six months off their consulting work to launch Help Scout as a customer support platform tailored for online small businesses.
Help Scout provides a solid help desk solution focused specifically on customer support, with an intuitive interface and reasonable pricing. However, it does lack in some areas like advanced features, customizations, and integrations compared to some competitors, which may make it less ideal for larger or more complex needs. But for small to medium businesses wanting dedicated help desk software, Help Scout offers a good overall value.
Help Scout pricing is based on the number of seats that you need for your support team. It has three pricing plans: Standard, Plus, and Pro. The Standard plan is $25 per month ($20 per month when billed annually) and includes 2 seats. The Plus plan is $50 per month ($40 when billed annually) and supports 5 seats. The Pro plan is only available on an annual contract basis and costs $65 per month and supports 25 seats.
What does Help Scout do?
Help Scout is a customer service platform that gives customer support teams a shared inbox to respond to customer service inquiries.
Is Help Scout legit?
Yes, Help Scout is very legit. It will be great for small to medium sized teams that are looking for an upgrade from Gmail or similar non customer service focused email inbox.
Is Help Scout HIPAA compliant?
Yes, Help Scout is HIPAA compliant, however, it is only available on the most advanced Pro plan.
Is Help Scout SOC II compliant?
Yes, Help Scout is SOC2 Type 2 Certified.
Is Help Scout PCI compliant?
Yes, Help Scout is PCI Level III compliant.
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