Customer service automation software provides high value for e-commerce businesses by improving efficiency, customer satisfaction, and driving cost savings. With many different customer service automation tools available, it can be challenging to decide which one is best for your business. Here’s an overview of the top software tools currently available.
Why every e-commerce business needs high-quality customer service automation
The e-commerce market is growing rapidly, making automation crucial for operations. Giants like Amazon and AliExpress offer competitive prices, fast shipping, and decent customer support.
While it's hard to compete on price, improving customer experience through AI and automation can give you an edge. Did you know that 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience? By using the right software, you can enhance customer experience, cut costs, and improve efficiency simultaneously.
Categories of e-commerce customer support automation software
There are multiple ways to implement customer service automation. Support automation software can be categorized based on specific tasks they automate. Here are the different types:
- Chatbots and virtual assistants: Handle customer inquiries, provide responses, and guide customers through issues.
- Help desks and ticketing: Manage support tickets and customer questions, ensuring issues are tracked, prioritized, and resolved.
- AI-powered tools: Use AI to provide support teams with information, answer suggestions, translations, and sentiment analysis.
- Omnichannel support: Automate campaigns, customer messages, and follow-ups focused on engagement and support.
The best 12 customer support automation software tools for e-commerce businesses
Evaluating software can be difficult, and making the wrong decisions can be an expensive mistake. No worries, this article is here to help you choose the best tools for your business. Here are the top tools evaluated based on their capabilities, user reviews, and implementation of AI.
1. Neople
Neople, yes, that’s us, and it’s the name of our AI co-workers for e-commerce support teams. A Neople is a unique AI co-worker that automates repetitive support tasks.
Neople is a premium choice for customer support automation, as it guarantees quality replies by being trained on your company information and employee feedback.
A Neople formulates answers in the right tone while adding a human touch. It becomes smarter with each interaction, thanks to an automated feedback system. Neople Studio allows your senior team members to train it, providing the best answers quickly and delivering quality support year-round.
Neople integrates with company data and workflows to deliver efficient, 24/7 support, improving first response times, increasing customer satisfaction, and reducing the time spent per ticket.
Website: Neople
Category: AI-powered tools
Key features:
- AI-powered answer suggestions
- Can summarize and retrieve order information
- Feedback systems to learn and improve with every interaction
- Customizable interactions as it gets trained on company information
- Multilingual support in the right tone of voice
- A wide range of integrations from support centers to WMS systems and Slack
- Can be trained to provide customer support autonomously with Neople Studio
- Proactive insights by simplifying complex data into actionable advice
- Multichannel support
- Analytics on AI performance and edited suggestions
2. Zendesk
Zendesk is a tool that helps companies manage customer support. It brings all customer interactions such as emails, chats, and social media messages into one place, making it easier to respond quickly and effectively.
Zendesk uses AI to automate responses, sort customer questions and predict what customers need to speed up support and make it more personalized.
Website: Zendesk
Category: Help desk and ticketing software
Key features:
- Unified interface for all customer interactions
- AI automation for answers and sorting
- Omnichannel support via email, phone, chat, and social media
- Self-service knowledge base
- Custom workflows to tailor processes
- Analytics and insights in customer service performance
- Integrates with CRM tools, e-commerce platforms, communication tools, marketing automation and more
3. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a product of Freshworks. It’s cloud-based customer support software that helps businesses manage their customer service operations. Freshdesk organizes all customer questions from multiple channels in one place, helping support teams respond quickly and effectively.
Freshdesk uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate responses, prioritize customer tickets, and provide suggested solutions, making customer support faster and more efficient.
Website: Freshdesk
Category: Help desk and ticketing software
Key features:
- Ticketing system for multiple channels
- Automation of repetitive tasks such as ticket alignment
- Collaboration tools for support teams
- Self-service knowledge base and forums
- Analytics and reporting on support performance and productivity
- AI and machine learning to suggest responses and automate workflows
4. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is customer support software designed to help businesses manage all their customer interactions. It offers tools for live chat, ticketing, call centers, and social media support. The software aims to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction by organizing communications and providing various support channels.
LiveAgent offers a few AI-features to improve the overall level of support.
Website: LiveAgent
Category: Help desk and ticketing software
Key features:
- Ticketing system for multiple channels
- Live chat with AI
- Built-in system for managing customer calls
- Support communication through social media channels
- Self-service knowledge base
- Automation and rules for streamlined workflows
- Reporting and insights into performance metrics
- AI answer assistant
5. Help Scout
Help Scout is a customer service platform designed to help businesses manage customer communications effectively. It offers a range of tools, including a shared inbox, knowledge base, and live chat, to facilitate seamless customer support. The platform supports personalized customer interactions and efficient team collaboration.
Help Scout uses AI to provide suggestions and automate routine responses, improving the efficiency of customer support operations.
Website: Help Scout
Category: Help desk and ticketing software
Key features:
- Shared inbox for emails
- Email creation with AI drafts
- AI assistant for improving messages
- Self-service knowledge base
- Live chat
- AI-powered summaries of messages
- Proactive messaging with targeted messages to customers
- Detailed reports and analytics on customer interactions and team performance
6. Tidio
Tidio is a customer service platform that provides live chat, chatbots, and a help desk solution designed to improve customer communication and support. It's suitable for businesses looking to engage with their customers in real-time and streamline their support processes.
Tidio includes AI-powered tools such as the Lyro AI Chatbot.
Website: Tidio
Category: Chatbots and virtual assistants
Key features:
- AI chatbot
- Live chat with shared inbox
- Multichannel helpdesk and ticketing
- No-code automation flows for lead generation
- Analytics to track performance insights
7. eDesk
eDesk is a customer service platform tailored for e-commerce businesses. It centralizes customer support messages from various sales channels into one inbox, making it easier for teams to manage and respond to inquiries. eDesk also includes tools for automating repetitive tasks and improving productivity with AI-powered features.
eDesk integrates with multiple e-commerce platforms, enabling businesses to provide efficient, high-quality customer support while streamlining their workflow.
Website: eDesk
Category: Help desk and ticketing
Key features:
- Unified inbox for multiple sales channels
- Personalized responses with customer, product, and order information
- AI automations for responses and repetitive tasks
- Collaboration tools to improve team coordination on issues
- Detailed insights into performance metrics
- Feedback module to send selective review requests
8. Intercom
Intercom is a customer service platform designed to facilitate communication between businesses and their customers. It provides tools for live chat, messaging, and customer support management, focusing on real-time engagement and personalized interactions.
The Intercom platform is powered by AI, using an AI agent to get answers and provide insights to support leaders.
Website: Intercom
Category: Omnichannel support
Key features:
- Live chat and messaging
- Self-service knowledge base
- Unified inbox to manage customer messages
- Workflows and automations for routine tasks and responses
- Reporting and analytics on customer interactions and team performance
- AI agent to provide answers
- AI copilot for real-time suggestions
9. Trengo
Trengo is a customer engagement platform designed to streamline communication by combining all customer interactions in one place. It supports multiple channels like email, social media, WhatsApp, and live chat, making it easy to manage and respond to inquiries efficiently.
Trengo uses AI to offer a bot that functions as a digital teammate, handling repetitive conversations and driving sales.
Website: Trengo
Category: Omnichannel support
Key features:
- Multichannel inbox to combine messages from multiple platforms
- No-code chatbots and automated workflows for repetitive tasks
- Team collaboration for faster and more effective responses
- Analytics and insights into customer interactions and team performance
- AI HelpMate bot to answer common questions and assisting customers
10. Gladly
Gladly is a customer service platform that focuses on providing personalized support. It unifies all communication channels, such as voice, email, SMS, and live chat, into a single conversation view. This approach helps create frictionless and efficient customer interactions.
Gladly combines human interaction with AI to improve customer service for leading consumer brands.
Website: Gladly
Category: Omnichannel support
Key features:
- Unified conversations in one thread
- Multichannel support via voice, email, SMS, live chat, and social media
- AI tools for automation, routing, answer suggestions, and insights
- Detailed customer profiles for personalized support
- Insights into customer service performance and efficiency
11. Ultimate
Ultimate, now a Zendesk company, is a customer support automation platform designed to streamline and automate customer service processes. It integrates with various digital channels like chat, email, and messaging to provide efficient support solutions and automation.
Support teams use Ultimate to increase efficiency through task automation, integration with multiple channels and improved customer experience with personalized responses.
Website: Ultimate
Category: AI-powered tools
Key features:
- Chat automation
- Ticket automation to manage and resolve support tickets
- Connects with backend systems for personalized responses
- Provides insights to optimize support processes and improve support quality
- Generates AI-powered responses and automated FAQs
12. Ada
Ada is a customer service automation platform that leverages AI to streamline customer interactions. By offering an AI agent that automatically resolves inquiries, Ada ensures instant and efficient support. The platform integrates with multiple digital and voice channels, improving the overall support experience.
Ada helps to speed up resolution times, improve response accuracy and reduce manual intervention.
Website: Ada
Category: AI-powered tools
Key features:
- Chat automation
- Voice and email automation
- Custom integrations to connect business systems for personalized support
- Insights to improve customer service
- Reasoning engine to deliver accurate and relevant responses
- AI coaching for performance improvement
- Multi-language support
The biggest benefits of customer service automation software
77% of consumers consider the difficulty of reaching an agent. It’s one of the biggest issues with customer service today. We can state it’s worth investing in resolving it. Automating customer service allows you to stay competitive, meet rising customer expectations, and efficiently handle the growing volume of online orders and inquiries.
Still not sure if software can generate a positive ROI? Stop doubting, here are the key benefits of using customer service automation tools:
- Improved efficiency and speed
- Reduced labor costs
- Decreased handle times and response times
- Scalability without increasing headcount
- Consistent and personalized customer service
- Increased productivity
- More insights into data
- It becomes easier to deal with seasonality
- Reduced human errors and increased accuracy of answers
- Customer retention and loyalty
- Happier and more loyal support teams
How to select customer automation software for your online store?
Now that you know which tools are popular in the market, it’s up to you to decide which solution suits your business best. Use these selection criteria to guide your choice:
- Integrations: Review the software's integrations to ensure compatibility with your existing e-commerce platforms and other tools. The more information you can connect, the better the automation quality.
- Automation features: Identify must-have versus nice-to-have features. If you offer a chatbot, ensure the software supports it. Determine where new software can provide the most improvement.
- AI capabilities: Look for advanced AI features. Properly trained AI can positively impact your brand, so choose a solution that allows for effective training.
- User interface: Evaluate how user-friendly the software is for your team.
- Scalability: Ensure the software is a long-term investment that can grow with your business.
- Analytics and reporting: Assess the software's analytics capabilities to monitor team performance and understand the ROI.
- Customer support and onboarding: Consider the level of support and onboarding provided. Better support ensures the software works effectively for your team from the start.
These criteria can help you shortlist tools that best fit your business needs. To avoid making the wrong decision, request demos for 1-3 tools that seem promising. Demos allow you to see the software in action and ask important questions related to your business operations.
Automate and improve e-commerce customer service with Neople
Want to automate customer service and benefit from premium AI solutions? Neople is here for you.
With Neople, you can increase customer satisfaction, employee happiness, and decrease response and handle times for your e-commerce business. Thanks to Neople's unique character and integration possibilities, you can maintain quality in your support department.
82% of U.S. and 74% of non-U.S. consumers want more human interaction. With Neople you combine powerful AI with human knowledge and interactions. Leading to consistent, high-quality support across all communication channels. Your digital AI coworker helps you do more in less time, improving the overall customer experience.
Embrace AI that understands your work and communication style. The results are clear: reduce first response time by 42% and time spent per ticket by 35%. Automation is beneficial, but it shouldn't compromise quality. That’s why our customers see a 10% increase in CSAT scores.
Curious to meet your own Neople and discover how it works? Book a free demo, and we'll show you how Max, Emily, or Bob can help you automate and improve your e-commerce customer service.
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