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Online Proctoring Services – Making the Process of Conducting Online Examination Secure and Reliable

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The Best Practice Management Software

A good practice management software can turn an inefficient medical practice into a great one.

After all, your focus is to help patients feel better, enhance their quality of life, and improve their health. But to do that, you need to also track appointments, stay on top of billing, stay in contact with patients, and manage all your employees.

Luckily, the best practice management software helps you do all that—while saving time and effort.

Compare Quotes From The Best Practice Management Software

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Why you need a practice management software

You need to present a professional appearance to the patients at your medical practice. Management software does this by enhancing your ability to manage your practice’s day-to-day operations. Some of the key components of this software include:

• Scheduling of appointments
• Generating bills
• Creating insurance claims
• Generating financial reports for the practice
• Generating financial reports for individual patients

If your practice cannot generate accurate bills or cannot book appointments without making errors, patients will begin to lose trust in the medical practice. They may wonder whether the practice can care for their health properly if employees cannot even file insurance claims properly.

The 10 Best Practice Management Software Solutions

When you want to create a professional appearance for your medical office, using any of the 10 best practice management software solutions on our list will help.

But if the management software for your medical practice is difficult to use, any timesaving benefits disappear. To save the sanity of employees and to allow your practice to run at the best possible efficiency, consider one of our best practice management software recommendations.

AdvancedMD

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• Excellent feature set
• Simplifies scheduling
• Clean interface
• Verification system
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For those who already own the AdvancedMD EMR software, its compatibility with AdvancedMD’s practice management software is seamless, creating a powerful combination.

But even if you use a different EMR software, you still can use AdvancedMD as your best practice management software, as it has compatibility with many EMR systems.

AdvancedMD’s interface is clean and well-organized, but some users will find it time consuming to figure out all of the various features, especially the advanced features.

Pros

• Has an excellent feature set
• Software’s verification system catches simple coding errors on insurance claims
• Clean interface that simplifies scheduling
• Strong interaction with same brand’s EMR

Cons

• Does take quite a bit of time to learn all of the features
• Overall cost is above average

Advanced Data Systems MedicsPremier

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• Reasonable prices
• Easily customizable
• Helps you reduce errors
• Extensive training services
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For the right medical practice, MedicsPremier will be an excellent choice. But this is a software package that you must choose carefully, because it doesn’t work for everyone.

It will especially help a medical practice that needs customization options at a reasonable price. It also has strong insurance claim generation features. However, training is expensive, and some users will find the navigation features difficult to understand.

Pros

• Easily customizable for your particular practice
• Tracking insurance claims progress is easy
• Able to help you reduce errors in insurance claim coding
• Extensive training services that are helpful

Cons

• Training is extremely expensive
• Interface is dated and really needs a refresh to make it easier to use

AthenaHealth

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• Streamline billing & claims
• Patient portal feature
• Detailed reports
• Great customer service
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If your practice struggles when it comes to billing, the creators of athenahealth had you in mind. This software streamlines your billing processes, as well as submission of insurance claims. It even generates highly detailed reports that show areas where your practice’s billing results are lagging behind others in the industry.

We also rank athenahealth highly in terms of the training it provides to its customers, getting them up to speed faster than some other software packages.

Pros

• Excels in billing and insurance claim generation
• Good customer service
• Has a strong patient portal feature
• If you like generating detailed reports, this software excels in this area

Cons

• Doesn’t work as well for practices that fully outsource medical billing
• Takes some time to figure out the advanced features

CareCloud

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• Easy to use
• Well designed patient portal
• Extremely detailed reports
• Verification to reduce errors
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When you want ease of use above everything else in your practice management software, CareCloud delivers. It has a well-organized interface, making all of the key features easily accessible.

We really like CareCloud’s patient portal, which patients will find easy to use. This encourages them to spend more time entering their own data, saving your employees time in the long run.

CareCloud also offers a strong EMR system, so you can mesh the two easily, if you’re in the market for an EMR system too.

Pros

• Generates extremely detailed reports to help your practice
• Patient portal is well-designed and easy for patients to use
• Calendar feature allows for generation of many kinds of reports
• Has verification features to reduce insurance claim filing errors

Cons

• High initial investment required
• Some key insurance monitoring features require an add-on fee service

DrChrono

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• Very versatile software
• Minimal upfront costs
• Highly efficient patient portal
• Streamlined scheduling
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With DrChrono, you’ll receive a versatile type of software that can handle the needs of small and large medical practices, offering an efficient interface that will save your employees time. It also has the ability to match any specialty needs that you may have, giving you customization options.

Its cost is below other management software solutions, especially the startup costs.

Pros

• Versatile software for all office sizes
• Includes a highly efficient patient portal
• Upfront costs are minimal
• Streamlined scheduling of patients and employees

Cons

• Customer service responsiveness is hit and miss
• Report generation isn’t as detailed as some others

eClinicalWorks

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• Best for smaller practices
• Easy to use patient portal
• Helpful onsite training
• Reasonably priced
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When you want a reasonably priced best practice management software that also provides high end billing services, eClinicalWorks is well worth considering. It fits nicely with practices that need extra help with verifying insurance claim codes before submission, which should reduce the number of rejected claims.

If you’d like a software package that can grow with you as your medical practice expands and needs extra services, the multiple customization features in this software give you that option.

Pros

• Nice patient portal that is highly efficient
• Especially strong in billing services and insurance claims
• Reasonably priced, especially for smaller practices
• Delivers helpful onsite training for new customers

Cons

• Has some extra costs for those who need more features
• Customer service responsiveness could be better

Greenway Health Intergy

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• Multiple customization options
• Versatile interface
• Compatible with Excel
• No hidden fees
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For a medical practice where you’ll have multiple people entering data and using the interface, the Greenway Health Intergy software is helpful.

It allows people to enter data and perform tasks in several different ways, so they can work in the manner that makes the most sense to them. This will confuse some people, but it’s perfect for practices where employees like to learn to use software by jumping in and exploring on their own.

Pros

• Versatile interface that allows for creativity in solving problems
• Multiple customization options
• Reporting feature is compatible with Microsoft Excel
• Doesn’t have hidden fees

Cons

• Training is long and involved
• Interface could use a design update

Kareo

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• Easy to learn to use
• No long term contracts
• Great reporting
• Very reasonably priced
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When a smaller practice is looking for practice management software that isn’t going to break the bank or require a long subscription commitment, Kareo is an excellent choice. The interface is easy to use, but the design is a little older than some others.

For those who need full billing services, Kareo has an EMR that works seamlessly with its practice management software.

Pros

• Very reasonably priced
• Easy to learn to use, so you’ll be up and running quickly
• Reporting feature outperforms some other low priced options
• Good billing generation features, but they do cost extra

Cons

• Interface is a little dated
• Starter package is basic, so it may not fit those with complex needs

NextGen Healthcare

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• Great for smaller practices
• Easy to setup and use
• Competitively priced
• Very good customer service
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Small practices that need multiple services will appreciate NextGen Healthcare. Its customer service is better than what you typically find for smaller practices, especially considering this software’s low price point.

If you also need EMR software, NextGen Healthcare’s EMR will mesh well with the brand’s practice management software.

Pros

• Very good customer service
• Works nicely for smaller practices
• Handles all of the basic features that you need in practice management software
• Competitively priced

Cons

• May not be complex enough for larger practices
• Report generation features lag behind other options

SimplePractice

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• Best for specialty practices
• Wide range of features
• Simple interface
• Strong brand loyalty
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For specialty practices, SimplePractice has features that will help them manage their specific and unique needs versus general practitioners. This is a popular software package among its customers, generating quite a bit of brand loyalty.

It has a competitive price for the small practice, and it has plenty of features to help you stay in contact with patients.

Pros

• Good management features for patient interactions
• Simple interface that still lets you get a lot done
• Has a decent insurance claim generation feature
• Easy to ignore parts of the software that don’t fit your needs

Cons

• Extremely basic, so it may not meet the needs of large offices.
• Customer service responsiveness is below average.

How to Choose The Best Practice Management Software For You

What you’ll quickly learn with practice management software is one product does not fit all clients. With so many choices on the market for helping you manage your medical practice, it’s important to focus in on the features that will help your practice deal with its particular needs.

Calculating Payments

With the billing and patient management information all in one location with practice management software, you have the ability to calculate the out-of-pocket cost for a procedure before it happens. A patient will be able to make smarter financial choices about when and how he or she would like to have a procedure done.

Additionally, when the patient knows exactly what he or she will have to pay out of pocket before coming to the appointment, the medical practice will have a far better chance of being able to collect payment at the time of service, reducing paperwork.

When patients feel as though they have more control over their healthcare decisions and costs, their experience is more satisfying.

Coordination of Scheduling

One of the key components to running a medical practice efficiently is proper scheduling. Double bookings of patients or not having enough nurses in the office introduce hiccups in the office’s workflow.

Medical practice management software keeps the office running smoothly, allowing the proper scheduling that matches the number of planned patients with the personnel required to handle them.

Generating Claims

One of the most frustrating aspects of medical care for patients is the timeliness of billing statements and insurance claims. No patient wants to receive a bill a few months after an appointment because the medical practice failed to anticipate an insurance claim denial, delaying the entire process.

Through practice management software, you can generate reports that show which types of insurance claims often generate rejections on the first attempt, allowing the office to change  how it submits those claims.

You also can generate reports that show any bottlenecks occurring in the processing of patient billing statements, ensuring that patients receive their charges in a timely manner.

Improving Efficiency

Employees at your medical practice often must handle a variety of tasks, especially at a small practice. Your practice management software interface should not be a hindrance to what you’re trying to accomplish. The interface must be easy to understand and use, allowing one employee to handle scheduling or to generate a report on his or her own.

If the software’s features take a long time to learn or add unnecessary steps to performing simple tasks, employees will balk at having to use it.

A complex software package may generate impressive statistics about how your practice is running. But if entering the data takes employees so long that they look for shortcuts or skip entering the data entirely, the data in the generated reports will be worthless.

Self-Managing for Patients

Many practice management software solutions have a patient portal. This system creates a number of benefits, including:

• Patients may set up and manage their own appointments remotely.
• New patients can enter personal data before coming to the office, saving time.
• Existing patients can update insurance provider information or drug lists before an appointment.
• Patients can choose how they would like to receive appointment reminders, which reduces the number of patient no-shows

This automation reduces the number of phone calls into your practice and shortens the length of those phone calls. This allows front desk personnel to handle other tasks, including focusing attention on face-to-face interactions with patients.

Specialty Needs

If your medical practice handles one or more specialty areas, it’s important that the practice management software can handle that specialty. If the software is too general in nature or doesn’t allow customization, it may not work well for your practice.

Figuring out whether a particular piece of software can handle the specific needs for your specialty areas can be tricky. This is one area where you may want to speak to practices who have a similar situation to yours and who are already using the software you’re considering. The vendor should be able to put you in contact with some of its other customers for questions.

Studying Cash Flow

Ultimately, you want your medical practice to succeed. The right practice management software can help by generating reports that show your cash flow and your level of profitability.

Some software will be able to create more detailed reports than others. A basic system’s reports  will show you which types of appointments or physicians are generating the most revenue.

More complex reporting software may be able to drill down to show you the demographics of your patients, allowing you to generate efficient advertising or helping you figure out what equipment purchases you will need to make in the future to match the needs of the client base as it ages.

System Integration

Many medical practices have other types of software already in use. The practice management software you select needs to be able to mesh smoothly with these other types of software.

For example, if you have an EMR solution already in place, some of the information inside the two systems could overlap. Rather than having employees waste time by entering data into two different systems, the two systems need to share data, so employees only need to enter it once.

Practice management software should be able to share data with software running billing systems, as well as EMR and EHR software. (Because of the occasional overlap, if you are wondering whether you need both EMR/EHR and practice management software solutions, understand that EMR/EHR software contains medical information about patients, while practice management software gears itself toward the clerical operation of the practice.)

Summary: Delivering Efficiency With Best Practice Management Software

When patients visit your medical practice, they want to feel better as quickly as possible. They don’t really care all that much about the day-to-day work that your employees must do behind the scenes to make that happen in an efficient manner.

But you have to care. Making your medical office run efficiently often means having the best practice management software in hand. With the right software, your employees spend less time on mundane office tasks and more time meeting the needs of patients.

Keeping your patients happy and healthy is far easier with the right practice management software, and it will help employees feel happier too.

Compare Quotes From The Best Practice Management Software

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Best Customer Service Software

Customer service software makes sure your customers are happy and satisfied with your business.

After all, your customers make or break your success.

Happy customers keep coming back and spending more money, while unsatisfied customers will cause significant damage to your reputation. In fact, an unhappy customer may tell up to 15 people about their poor experience. Negative interactions spread twice as fast as positive ones.

91% of customers who experienced poor service will never do business with you again.

On the flip side, eight out of ten consumers are more likely to buy from businesses again after a positive customer service experience. A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by up to 125%.

The numbers speak for themselves. Customer service must be a priority for every business.

Fortunately, the right customer service software can make this possible. Customer service solutions help ensure fast response times, positive interactions, and happy customers.

The 8 Best Customer Service Software of 2020

It’s tough to find a good customer service software. There’s many options available on the market. But some of these tools are significantly better than others.

After researching and testing dozens of customer service solutions, I’ve narrowed down the top eight for you to consider.

• Zoho Desk — Best customer service software for ticketing.
• HubSpot — Best free customer service software and product bundles.
• LiveAgent — Best customer service software for live chat support.
• Freshdesk — Best customer service software if you’re switching from another platform.
• Zendesk — Best customer service software with support suite options available.
• Salesforce Service Cloud — Best customer service software for field service agents.
• Groove — Best customer service software for small teams and growth startups.
• Help Scout — Best customer service software for nonprofits.

As we continue you through this guide, I’ll give you an in-depth review of each one below. You’ll learn about the top features, benefits, use cases, pricing, and more.

Best Customer Service Software Reviews

Zoho Desk (Best for ticketing)

Visit Zoho Desk

• Free forever plan
• Upgrade starting at $12/mo
• Email ticketing & help center
• Mobile app access
• Try for Free

Zoho is one of the most popular names in the world of business software and CRM. The company has tools for sales, marketing, email, collaboration, finance, accounting, human resources, and business intelligence.

But one of the best solutions that they offer is Zoho Desk—IT and help desk software.

Zoho Desk has solutions for customer service agents, managers, and customers. But above all, it’s arguably the best customer service software for managing and closing tickets.

Let’s take a closer look at the plans and price points for Zoho Desk:

Free — $0

• Up to three agents
• Email ticketing
• Help center
• Private knowledge base
• Predefined SLAs
• Mobile app
• Multilingual help desk

Standard — $12 per month per agent

• Social and community channels
• Product-based ticket management
• Public knowledge base
• Escalations
• Workflow and assignment rules
• Supervise rules
• Customer happiness ratings

Professional — $20 per month per agent

• Multi-department ticketing
• Team management
• Telephony
• Automated time tracking
• Ticket templates
• Ticket sharing
• Mobile SDK

Enterprise — $35 per month per agent

• Live chat
• AI
• Customize help center
• Advanced process management
• Scheduled reports
• Validation rules
• Role-based data sharing

No matter how big, small, or complex your business is, Zoho Desk has a plan for you.

HubSpot (Best free customer service software)

Visit HubSpot

• 100% free forever plan
• Advanced features start at $40/mo
• Wide range of solutions
• Free software for customer service
• Try for Free

HubSpot is one of the most well-recognized CRMs in the industry. They have a wide range of software and solution suites for managing relationships with customers.

These offerings are segmented into three main categories—sales, marketing, and service.

The HubSpot Service Hub is what we’ll be focusing on here today. It’s an exceptional solution for managing customer issues through service tickets.

I like HubSpot because they offer free CRM solutions, including free software for customer service. Free features include ticketing, live chat, chatbots, team email, and a conversations inbox. You’ll also benefit from free email templates, closed ticket reports, and time-to-close reports.

HubSpot is proof that you don’t need to spend a ton of money on improving your customer service with software. This won’t cost you a thing.

For those of you who want access to advanced features and benefits, here’s an overview o the paid plans:

Starter — $40 per month

• Includes two paid users
• Canned snippets
• Meeting scheduling
• Agent productivity reports
• Calling

Professional — $320 per month

• Includes five paid users
• Ticket status, routing, automation, and pipelines
• Knowledge base
• 1:1 video creation
• Custom reporting
• Surveys for NPS, experience, and support

Enterprise — $1,200 per month

• Includes ten paid users
• Playbooks and goals
• Hierarchical teams
• User roles
• Single sign-on
• Integrates with Slack

All rates are based on an annual contract. You can get the HubSpot Service Hub month-to-month for 20% more.

HubSpot also offers exceptional product bundles for all CRM categories in a single solution. So if you want to get software for service, sales, and marketing from a single provider, HubSpot is the best option for you. Bundles start at $112.50 per month.

LiveAgent (Best for live chat support)

Visit LiveAgent

• 100% free forever plan
• Upgrades starting at $15/mo
• All-in-one solution
• Simple and flexible tools
• Try for Free

LiveAgent is a customer service solution that helps you manage all customer requests from multiple channels in a single platform.

No matter where your customers are, you can merge all communication and support to one place. LiveAgent saves you time, simplifies the process, and allows you to increase the profitability of your support team.

LiveAgent has tools for:

• Email ticketing
• Live chat
• Voice and video calls
• Social media integration

Here’s a closer look at the plans and prices for customer service software form LiveAgent:

Free — $0 forever

• 7 day ticket history
• 1 email address for ticketing
• 1 live chat button
• 1 phone number for call center support

Ticket — $15 per month per agent

• Unlimited ticket history
• Unlimited email ticketing
• Load data from your CRM
• Multi-brand support

Ticket + Chat — $29 per month per agent

• Unlimited live chat
• Real-time visitor monitor
• Chat invitations
• Chat satisfaction surveys

All-inclusive — $39 per month per agent

• Unlimited call center support
• Video calling
• Gamification
• Unlimited call storage

For all of the paid plans, LiveAgent has add-on pricing for features like social media integration, time tracking, audit logs, and more.

Overall, it’s a simple and flexible tool for managing live customers with ticketing and live chat.

Freshdesk (Best for switching platforms)

Visit Freshdesk

• Free 21-day trial
• Plans start at $15/mo
• Extensive list of features
• Trusted by 150,000+ businesses
• Try for Free

Freshdesk is another one of the most popular help desk solutions on the market today. Above all, it’s simple. That’s why it’s trusted by 150,000+ businesses, including American Express, HP, and Panasonic.

With Freshdesk, you’ll have access to an extensive list of features across a wide range of customer support categories:

• Ticketing
• Collaboration
• Field Service
• Automation
• Customer self-service
• Reporting
• Multi-channel support

It’s an excellent solution to streamline all of your customer connections in a single location. Freshdesk makes team collaboration and automation a breeze.

If you’re currently using another help desk solution and you’re unhappy with it, Freshdesk makes it easy for you to switch to its software.

Here’s an overview of the plans and pricing. All rates are based on an annual plan. The prices are a bit higher if you go month-to-month.

Sprout — Free

• Unlimited agents
• Email ticketing
• Team collaboration
• Knowledge base
• Ticket trend reports
• Social ticketing

Blossom — $15 per month per agent

• Automations
• Collision detection
• Marketplace apps
• Helpdesk
• SLA management
• Business hours

Garden — $29 per month per agent

• Time tracking
• CSAT survey
• Session replay
• Performance report
• Knowledge base with multi-lingual support

Estate — $49 per month per agent

• Automated ticket assignment
• Custom agent roles
• Custom portal
• Enterprise reporting
• Multiple time zones and SLAs

Forest — $109 per month per agent

• Ticket assignment based on skills
• Create a testing environment without affecting agents or customers
• IP Whitelisting
• HIPAA compliant
• Extendable API rate limit

Freshdesk has omnichannel add-ons and features for field service management for an additional fee. Try it free with a 21-day trial.

Zendesk (Best with support suite options)

Visit Zendesk

• Free trial available
• Starts at $89/mo
• Flexible customized solutions
• Used by 150,000+ businesses
• Try for Free

Zendesk is one of the best overall customer service software solutions on the market today. It’s used by 150,000+ businesses, including big brands like Uber, Venmo, Shopify, and Slack.

The Zendesk support suite has everything you need to manage customer service communication across multiple channels. You can provide customer support via email, live chat, voice, Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, WhatsApp, and more.

The software makes it possible to connect all of your data sources to a single location. So when a customer contacts you for support, the right information will automatically be on display.

Zendesk is flexible, so it can support the needs of any business. You can get a customized solution that fits with your existing support environment.

Here’s a quick overview of the plans, features, and pricing for the Zendesk support suite:

Professional Support Suite — $89 per agent per month

• Omnichannel support
• Social messaging add-on
• Self-service knowledge base
• Dashboards and reporting for all channels
• Talk partner edition
• Multiple ticket forms

Enterprise Support Suite — $149 per agent per month

• Roles and permissions with skilled base routing
• Multi-brand support
• Chat widget and web SDK
• Content cues to identify knowledge gaps
• 24/7 live chat and phone support

The full-service support suite from Zendesk has it all. But not every business needs something this comprehensive. If you’re looking for something a little bit more basic, Zendesk offers more affordable options for smaller businesses.

• Essential — $5 per month per agent
• Team — $19 per month per agent
• Professional — $49 per month per agent
• Enterprise — $99 per month per agent
• Elite — $199 per month per agent

You can try any Zendesk software or support suite with a free trial. If you’re looking for a customized solution, contact the Zendesk sales team.

Salesforce Service Cloud (Best for field service agents)

Visit Salesforce

• Starts at $25/month
• Resolve cases quicker
• Streamline your on-site support
• Trusted by 150,000+ companies
• Get Started Now

Salesforce is an industry leader in sales CRM software. But they also offer tools and solutions for customer service. It’s trusted by 150,000+ companies across the world.

The Salesforce Service Cloud makes it easy for any business to build customer relationships while saving time and improving customer satisfaction. Brands like Yeti and Adidas are just a couple of well-known names that use this software.

Your customer service representatives will be able to resolve cases quicker with the insights and tools offered by Salesforce. The platform has a shared view of every customer interaction.

Set up self-service portals so your customers can access account information, view tutorials, and view knowledge base articles.

The Salesforce Service Cloud has capabilities to streamline your on-site support. Field service works, dispatchers, and on-site technicians can use these tools to resolve problems during the first visit.

Salesforce uses AI to predict recommendations and provide support with an intuitive chatbot service.

Let’s take a look at the plans and pricing for Salesforce Service Cloud:

Essentials — $25 per user per month

• Case management
• Service console apps
• Knowledge tools
• Telephony integration (CTI)

Professional — $75 per user per month

• All Essentials features
• Service contracts

Enterprise — $150 per user per month

• All Professional features
• Web services API

Unlimited — $300 per user per month

• All Enterprise features
• 24/7 support and configuration

All plans come with tools for collaboration, productivity, personalization, real-time insights, cross-sell and upsell tools, app integration, and solutions to automate processes.

Salesforce offers add-ons for things like field service workers, digital engagement, and location-based intelligence.

Groove (Best for small teams and growth startups)

Visit Groove

• Plans start at $9/month
• Team collaboration tools
• Customizable knowledge base
• Exceptional automation tools
• Get Started Now

Groove isn’t as popular and well-known as some of the other options on our list. But it’s still used by more than 10,000 businesses across 140+ countries.

If your company has outgrown email for customer support and you’re getting inquiries on multiple channels, Groove will be a top choice for you to consider.

This solution stands out from the crowd with its team collaboration tools. You can add internal private notes to discussions, quickly mention teammates to bring them in the loop, and assign specific tasks to members of the team.

Groove has exceptional automations to streamline your customer support. Set rules, tagging, canned replies, and custom folders with your preferences to eliminate busywork.

Another standout feature from Groove is the ability to customize your knowledge base. This is crucial for businesses that want to offer customer self-service tools.

The knowledge base themes are fully customizable, beautifully designed, and mobile responsive. Plans and pricing for Groove customer support software are as follows:

Starter — $9 per month per user

• One mailbox
• Knowledge base
• Live chat
• Web widget
• Assignments and mentions

Plus — $19 per month per user

• 5 mailboxes
• Full history of reports
• Rules
• API access
• 40+ integrations

Pro — $29 per month per user

• 25 mailboxes
• Teams
• WhatsApp and SMS
• Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Jira

Company — Custom pricing

• Unlimited mailboxes
• Priority support
• Dedicated customer support manager
• SSO/SAML
• Enterprise-level security

I’d recommend Groove for small teams and startups. In fact, they have a special startup rate for businesses with less than ten employees. Eligible businesses can get a 93% discount off of the Pro plan.

Help Scout (Best for nonprofits)

Visit Help Scout

• Plans start at $20/month
• Certified B corporation
• High-quality software
• Used by 10,000+ businesses
• Try for Free

Help Scout is another lesser-known solution on our list. But with that said, it’s still a high-quality software for customer service. It’s used by 10,000+ businesses worldwide.

Help Scout is unique because it’s a Certified B corporation. They strive to make a positive impact on the environment and communities. So they go the extra mile to support organizations that share the same values.

If you have a nonprofit that supports human rights, environmental sustainability, or underrepresentation in tech, Help Scout will provide a significant discount on your customer service software.

Some of you might even be eligible for discounts of up to 100%. That’s right—free.

Even if you don’t fall into one of those categories, Help Scout is still a top solution for customer service. Here’s a closer look at the plans and prices:

Standard — $20 per month per user

• Three mail boxes
• Beacon with live chat
• Messages for up to 10,000 customers
• Reports
• Automated workflows
• 50+ integrations

Plus — $35 per month per user

• 10 mailboxes
• Custom fields and teams
• Salesforce, HubSpot, and Jira apps
• HIPAA compliance
• SSO/SAML authentication

Company — Custom pricing

• Unlimited mailboxes and docs sites
• Flexible users
• Concierge onboarding
• Dedicated account manager
• Enterprise-grade security

The rates above are based on an annual contract. Month-to-month plans are available for an additional fee. You can try Help Scout for free with a 15-day trial.

How to Choose the Best Customer Service Software For Your Business

What’s the best customer service software for your business? There are certain features and considerations to keep in mind as you’re evaluating different options.

This is the methodology that we use and recommend here at Quick Sprout.

Number of Agents

How big is your customer service team? Companies with five service reps won’t need the same software as a business with 50 agents.

Larger teams need features for things like collaboration and role-based ticketing, but that won’t be necessary for a smaller business.

Customer Communication Method

How are customers currently reaching out to your service team? How do you want them to do so moving forward?

There’s a software for everything. Whether it’s email, live chat, chatbots, or support tickets, you can find a solution to meet your needs. There are even tools for social media integration so all of your messages, including DMs and comments, can be managed from a single dashboard.

Feature Bundles

Every customer service software on our list does an exceptional job of marketing its top features. But with that said, you should only focus on the features you need the most.

For example, are you looking for customer service software specifically for live chat? LiveAgent will be a top choice for you. If you want a solution for your field service agents, use Salesforce Service Cloud. There are even tools for customer service, sales, and marketing CRM built into single product bundles.

My suggestion is this. Identify the features you definitely need. Then look for the right plan that has all of those features.

Price

The price for customer service software varies on a wide range of factors. Lots of solutions charge you based on the number of customer service agents on your team.

Available features in your package will also have a significant impact on what you pay.

Customer service is definitely not something you should skimp on. It’s ok to spend money. But with that said, not all of you need to go overboard. Small businesses, startups, and nonprofits with smaller teams can use free customer service software without compromising quality.

Conclusion

Every business must prioritize customer service. These are the top eight customer service software solutions on the market today:

• Zoho Desk — Best customer service software for ticketing.
• HubSpot — Best free customer service software and product bundles.
• LiveAgent — Best customer service software for live chat support.
• Freshdesk — Best customer service software if you’re switching from another platform.
• Zendesk — Best customer service software with support suite options available.
• Salesforce Service Cloud — Best customer service software for field service agents.
• Groove — Best customer service software for small teams and growth startups.
• Help Scout — Best customer service software for nonprofits.

Use this guide to help you find the best solution for your business. I made sure to include something for everyone on my list.

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