Intercom reviews

Pluspunten

Using Intercom has been an amazing experience. It is well thought out, full featured and continues to improve all the time. It has become an essential tool to communicate with our leads/clients. What is great is we can reach them (and they reach us) wherever they are: our website, in our web app, our mobile apps, email, etc.

Minpunten

While it starts off cheap depending on the features you choose to use and your volume it can start to get expensive quick. I'm not saying the product still doesn't provide value (it absolutely does) just if I had to pick what I liked least I would say cost.

Pluspunten

The ability to converse with our customers quickly and seamlessly between email and the messenger app is great. They've thought through this feature set very well and it brings us very close to our customers and we are able to convert leads very well through this service too.

Other similar apps function the same, but their UI/UX is lacking compared to Intercom. The actual feel of the app is clean and friendly and dare I say...even fun to use.

Customer success at Intercom is also excellent, they've got our backs and I appreciate it (although getting paired with someone in a vastly different time zone can hold up ticket times on our end).

Minpunten

There are some gaps in the help center and email features. It would be ideal to create/edit documents in a manner closer to Microsoft Word or Google doc, as those are the standard for editing documents these days. Little things like not being able to create a list inside of a document the way I would in other apps can be frustrating, but there is usually a workaround of some sort that will suffice (I'm just picky).

It would also be nice to only be paired with their team members in our time zone. Working in the US and then being helped by a team member from Australia means our ticket times take much longer and conversation is hard to do in real time.

Pluspunten

From both the administrative and user perspective, the ease of use and just overall depth of what you can create with the product is very impressive. It allows a great amount of customer support to be automated and simplify it's delivery via articles and a knowledge base that'll continually grow.

Although it's not the biggest feature, as a user, I love that it's focused on getting you an answer/resolution the quickest way possible given the same entry method. Type "adding users" in an application with Intercom support will quickly both deliver you articles that can potentially solve your problem or will also quickly deploy a CSM to you to answer it directly in case it was a bit more complex.

Best part though is the feedback cycle, you're typing exactly what you want to know into the application and if no articles return: New Content Topic.

Minpunten

Theres really not much. I've run into situations where it was wrongly applied within other organizations and not properly resourced, giving a less than average experience. But that's not as much specific to Intercom themselves.

Given they are the industry leader, it can come at a premium for a larger organizations.

Pluspunten

Intercom allows for various quasi-queries, integrations, and outound messasges to your users. This is very helpful and is not available in all of the other customer support platforms that I have used. You can find out information about your customer population. You can send messages to only CERTAIN "segments" of your customer population. You can also integrate with a WIDE variety of other softwares to really up your customer support game.

Minpunten

Intercom does not show all of the user messages together unless you open their profile OR they send their message as a response. So, for example, if a customer sends you a message, then 10 minutes later they create a new chat and send a new message, those messages are not linked togather unless you open their profile. I have had the experience of different agents answering the two messages or of answering one message only to see that the same user had sent a correction to their message. This is very frustrating.

It can also be difficult for users to locate the knowledge base which leads to more inbound messages. Intercom is trying to solve this by bot responses, but this is something you may have to pay for.

Pluspunten

-Capturing emails and names
-Integrating to Hubspot and other software for easy lead closure
-Creating chat flows allows us to communicate to customers faster and saves us time

Minpunten

-Would like to combine actions on Intercom
-Hubspot Integration is not perfect; would like to have specific field matching
-Chat flow capabilities are limited

Pluspunten

What I like most about Intercom is how easy it is to jump in and begin assisting users with their questions and requests. It's been an invaluable tool for communicating with our users (both clients and developers) on Codeable and we've been relying on it 365 days a year for 5+ years straight. There are so many new features they keep releasing which are often things we didn't realize we need until we tried them and discovered we can't live with them.

Minpunten

For the size of our support team and number of messages we send, Intercom is one of the more expensive SaaS products we use. There are other services that may manage a support center better, but those don't provide the same quality of live chat, self-serving help center, or messenger bots that Intercom provides. While cost is a consideration for all companies, we feel Intercom is still the best value for the money and are happy paying the price for all the value it brings us.

Pluspunten

The in-app chat feature (with its cross-platform support for React Native and Ionic) is absolutely the biggest differentiator for Intercom. It is a critical part of our day-to-day operations & every client that has gone the route of implementing it with us has been hugely surprised by the large amount of value it adds to end users.

Minpunten

We are facing ongoing complications differentiating identified and unidentified users. The experimental API available for Android seemed to be heading in the right direction to solve this, but we haven't seen updates on the stub implementation for iOS in over a year (https://github.com/intercom/intercom-ios/blob/master/Intercom.framework/Headers/Intercom%2BExperimental.h).

Pluspunten

Intercom is really easy to set up and importing users into the software is really simple. It's nice to be able to create an online library of help articles and have it available for our users to find. The chat feature is what we use most and our users definitely enjoy how easy it is to reach out to us.

Minpunten

Our customers have a difficult time closing out of conversations or seeing actions on our screen that need to be taken on the right hand of the screen. The chat box will often times cause them to become more frustrated as they need to open and close the chat as we give instructions. The close button is in a circle under the chat, which is a spot that most people don't usually look for.

There are a few customizable things that we'd like to see. Like the ability to create custom out of office messages or include holiday messages to let our users know we're either out of office or responding slowly.

Pluspunten

Intercom is the lease in the industry and that’s because is the best in Livechat and support software. I’ve tried a lot of services before, cheap and expensive and I can say intercom worth every penny and it’s the option that has given to me the best results.

Minpunten

Nothing found until now. It’s really complete and well done solution.

Pluspunten

Ease of use is really great. We have hundrets of conversations with our clients every day using this tool.

Minpunten

Their pricing. Not only is it expensive, they have changed their pricing plan about 4x in 2 years. Furthermore it's very complex to understand.

Pluspunten

We used the chat system for our support team and Intercom made is super easy to get going. The chats were like personalized messages and we could set up introductory or absence messages for a duration set up. Automation is great.

Minpunten

No reporting at all. They have reports within the system which is not editable and if you want to download and run your own reports, it is not possible. Makes it difficult to audit.

Pluspunten

It is great to have the ability to do so many things within one app: chat with our customers, write help articles, link help articles to our customers, send out messages to groups of people, easily find previous conversations, and create reports to monitor our progress. Intercom has really made our support workflow simple and much less confusing than other software tools we have used. They also integrate with a number of different tools (GitHub, ZenDesk, Upscope co-browsing, etc.) so anything that Intercom can't directly do, we can find a way to do through an integration.

Minpunten

The Customer Support response times from Intercom are a bit long, but the team is always helpful and resolves any questions we have. I also wish the Articles were a little more built out - they just have some simple feature there, and it would be nice to have a more robust help center with the flexibility to format our articles the way we want and organize the collections differently.

Pluspunten

A powerful platform that allows to view your customers session and meta data, instantly send targeted messages and set up email/in-app messaging campaigns, create help desk articles for self-service, automate workflows with bots and rules, onboard your application

Minpunten

The increase of features and modules have brought the complexity of the software up. It's easy to get up and running (require 1 line of code), but the road to fully adopting the suite of tools is long.

Pluspunten

Using Intercom as our ECOM site's chat service has been very helpful! On the customer service team, we are immediately given the contact information needed to properly help a customer. Using Intercom alongside Zendesk has also been a huge improvement over our old chat/ticketing software as they work very well together. Our team also utilizes custom and team macro responses to give fast, accurate answers and assistance. Also, giphy integration!

Minpunten

The default setting on Intercom has keyboard shortcuts turned on. It seems like most of them immediately close the chat. This can be easily solved by turning them off, but it is not made obvious on how to do so. Once they're off, it's smooth sailing!

We have two customer service teams, and we often have agents going back and forth between the two. We use Intercom for both. The other downside is that it is impossible to be available on one and away/reassign on the other. You can keep it open in two tabs, but that's more of a workaround than a solution.

Pluspunten

It's a tool that gives you what you need and it does it well.
They are ahead of the game in all ways.
It makes customer success seamless and proactive.
It's a multi-tool.
It's changed the way people perceive customer support because it makes it fast, effective and fun.
They write their own books (Awesome!) and they host seminars to help use the tools better.

Minpunten

They take a while to release new features, this is no surprise as companies will need different things.
It does not have a merging tool to link conversations to the person already in the system. Sometimes you get duplicate leads/users.
They can take a while to respond to support inquiries.
They changed their pricing structure which, when it was priced per lead and not per agent, made intercom stand out

Pluspunten

The ability to send email campaigns, set up notification/chat campaigns and live chat with customers.

Minpunten

The one MAJOR negative aspect to this product is that once someone qualifies for a campaign, even if the campaign is deactivated, the person will continue to get the contents of the campaign until it is finished, or the campaign is deleted. *Note, if the campaign is deleted, all reporting and data tied to it will be deleted as well.

Pluspunten

- The interface is very straightforward, You get messages from users and you reply.
- It allows you to snooze messages so you can focus on messages that are your priority.
-There are a lot of customizable options so you can make Intercom more like your company and less like Intercom.

Minpunten

-While metrics are simple and easy to follow, there should be more in-depth information like real response time. They use a "median response time" metric which to be honest is very confusing.
-There should be a limit on how many conversations a user can open. If a user wants, they can open unlimited conversations which can be a pain for your support team.
-There should be an option to delete messages in bulk.

Pluspunten

I love intercom, I think its fab it works as a CRM, customer support centre, integrates with our payment gateways keeping refunds and payment queries in one place. I'm very impressed they've launched product tours think that its going to be a huge feature for them.

Minpunten

I would like intercom to do more in terms of partnerships and working with companies to grow. I recommend intercom to all of our enterprise clients some with 10,000+ users but there is no referral incentive scheme. I have enquired about this a few times and applied for the partnership program but I haven't had a response

Pluspunten

Wе must sау thаt Intеrсоm саn rеаllу bоаst оf thеіr mеаns fоr соmmunісаtіng wіth vіsіtоrs: thеу аrе vаrіеd аnd еquаllу sресіаlіzеd аnd еаsу аt thе sаmе tіmе. In аddіtіоn tо thеsе mеаns, Intеrсоm рrоvіdеs us wіth tооls fоr аnаlуzіng сustоmеr іntеrасtіоn wіth а wеbsіtе оr а sеrvісе. Fоr еxаmрlе, wе саn usе thіs dаtа tо sеgmеnt thе dаtаbаsе оf е-mаіl subsсrіbеrs. Brоаdlу sреаkіng, Intеrсоm fосusеs оn suсh аn аsресt аs реrsоnаlіzіng thе соmmunісаtіоn bеtwееn thе sеllеr аnd thе сustоmеr. Wе lіkе thаt thіs sеrvісе sаvеs thе mеssаgе hіstоrу wіth аnу сustоmеr, аnd duе tо thіs, іt іs еаsу tо соntіnuе thе соnvеrsаtіоn frоm thе mоmеnt whеrе іt stорреd аt thе рrеvіоus соmmunісаtіоn sеssіоn.

Minpunten

Tо bе hоnеst, іt іs а humаn nаturе tо gеt mоrе thаn thеу асhіеvе. And wе thіnk Intеrсоm іs suсh а саsе. Wе mеаn thаt еvеn thоugh Intеrсоm’s funсtіоnіng іs bеуоnd thе рrаіsеs, thеrе іs а fееlіng tо gеt mоrе аnd mоrе аdvаnсеd funсtіоnаlіtу bесаusе thе сurrеnt оnе dоеsn’t sееm tо bе thе оnlу lіmіt fоr thе vеndоr, nаmеlу thеіr skу оf орроrtunіtіеs. Fоr іnstаnсе, wе wоuld lіkе tо hаvе bеttеr іntеgrаtіоn сараbіlіtіеs. Bеsіdеs, іt wоuld bе bеttеr tо hаvе mоrе suрроrt аnd іmрrоvеmеnts bеіng mаdе uроn thе sеrvісе’s mаrkеtіng funсtіоns.

Pluspunten

The chatbot is a world class. Highly customizable to make sure that you can let the bot handle up to 50% of conversations. Product tours are also the best I have seen

Minpunten

The inbox is quite poor to use for email conversations only. The articles lack for customization options, too.

Pluspunten

This software is easy to use and navigate. The support has been quick to respond and very helpful. They utilize all the tools and resources available to you and really embrace their own technology.

Intercom has helped to create more of a conversational-based outlook for our success team.

Minpunten

This software's statistic-tracking is severely lacking. I'd give this a 0 for any crucial numbers you are looking for, time to resolution (you can't track ongoing conversations), tags are conversation based and pull the entire thread, not the moment the tag happened, and countless others. You will spend more time compiling your stats if you use Intercom's system and need to track valid numbers.

Pluspunten

This software is easy to use and the customer support is very friendly and will help walk through how to solve for an issue end to end - even if there is no developed solution, which can be difficult.

I really like the "note" functionality.

Minpunten

Images in emails sometimes (and often) all turn into attachments. It becomes a pain to click through every image when a customer of ours sends in a screenshot when they have thumbnails in their email signature. It would be great if pictures came through a bit more naturally as it would via email.

I've also sent in a bit of feedback here and there on how to improve reporting capabilities. It would be nice if adding people to conversations worked a bit better for our need being able to tie in our account team (they are not "agents") would be helpful rather than typing their whole email.

Reporting on our reply time within our office hours would be huge as well (i.e. if we get a message at 5:01 and we leave on a Friday it won't knock us the entire weekend).

Pluspunten

Great support team, constant improvements, easy communication with users and tracking over time, nice segmentation of customer base, great integrations for software teams

Minpunten

Hard to understand the differentiation between their product lines

Pluspunten

I love the main chat interface, and how it keeps everything clean, neat and organized. You can snooze chats for later, and create preset replies, which save a TON of time, when answering the same types of questions.

Minpunten

For some customers, if they are on a different page than the one they were on before, when chatting, Intercom sometimes makes another, new chat. In rare instances, I will have 4 or 5 chats from the same person. I don't know why this is, though it could be how it simply interacts with our website, specifically. Also, the chat sound will sometimes beep randomly, where there isn't a chat there to attend. Minor annoyances, in the grand scheme of things.

Pluspunten

Intercom is super fast to set up and integrate. We rolled it out on 2 custom platforms and a wordpress site without issue.
Their support team is amazing and responsive to user feedback. (I use their conversations with me as an example to our support team sometimes)
Love their introduction methods for new and beta features.
The integration of each IC product with our custom software cut an incredible amount of time out of our workflow.

Minpunten

The reporting is probably the least prolific part of the software.

When using messages to email customers or sales leads, as of 11/14/2018 there isn't an option to check for duplicate emails while sending messages out if your user/lead records have UUIDs imported from custom software. The only lack of feature that I felt was big enough to bring up in a review as the team is generally very receptive to our input.