Customer service chatbots

Customers demand fast, 24/7 service, personalized conversations, proactive support, and self-service options. With the right chatbot software, support teams can not only meet but exceed these expectations. However, not all bots are equal—customers are well aware of the shortcomings of traditional chatbots, which can easily lead to frustration. That’s why more businesses are turning to AI agents specifically designed for CX, capable of resolving even the most complex issues independently.

This guide will help you explore how these tools enhance customer interactions and what they cost.

More in this guide:

• What is a customer service chatbot?
• Benefits of using AI customer service chatbots
• Features customer service chatbots should have
• Chatbots for customer service comparison chart
• The 10 best customer service chatbots
• Examples of companies using customer service chatbots
• How to choose the right customer service chatbot
• Frequently asked questions
• Try a chatbot for customer service

A chatbot is an AI-powered tool that simulates human conversation, providing instant, 24/7 support across websites, mobile apps, and popular social messaging platforms.

Today’s chatbots go beyond just serving help center articles. With the power of generative AI, they are evolving into autonomous AI agents capable of understanding complex conversations and responding just like human agents. These AI agents can also connect to your backend systems, delivering personalized assistance. Depending on your business’s automation needs, they can resolve over 80 percent of customer issues independently and seamlessly escalate to a human agent when necessary.

As AI technology expands, so do the benefits of using chatbots. Here are some of the current benefits of using AI bots for customer service.

Gives customers instant answers 24/7

Chatbots enable businesses to provide customer service around the clock, meaning that consumers always have access to the answers and resources they need regardless of hours of operation, holidays, and time zones. Unlike human agents who may have limited availability or require time to research information, chatbots can respond immediately, reducing customer wait times and enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Reduces costs and scales support

Support teams can handle greater interaction volumes while lowering costs by letting chatbots answer frequent questions, act as extra support reps, and triage support requests. Customer service chatbots can protect support teams from spikes in inbound support tickets, freeing agents to work on high-value tasks. Salon chain HelloSugar automates 66 percent of customer queries using AI agents and saves $14k per month, allowing it to double the number of locations without the headcount.

Increases agent efficiency

Chatbots boost agent efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and assisting with customer support activities, saving time and streamlining operations. In addition to resolving requests all on their own, bots can also collect key information for agents and route issues to the right service rep for the task.

Cosmetics brand Lush used its AI agent to handle common inquiries, giving human agents more time to work on complex cases that require their skills. What’s more, its AI agent requests customer information upfront and adds tags and labels to incoming tickets, giving agents the context they need to solve issues faster. These efficiency gains save Lush roughly 5 minutes per ticket and 360 agent hours each month.

Enhances personalization with customer context

AI chatbots can significantly enhance personalization by connecting to backend systems and pulling relevant data during customer interactions. This allows them to access and utilize information, such as purchase history, preferences, and account details, tailoring their responses and recommendations to each customer. For example, an AI agent could suggest products based on a customer's previous purchases or offer personalized assistance with troubleshooting issues.

Improves CX

Chatbots' ability to communicate in multiple languages allows them to serve a diverse customer base, ensuring timely, multilingual support worldwide. AI agents go even further, delivering fast, personalized responses tailored to each customer. This immediate, customized assistance significantly enhances the overall customer experience.

Allows you to offer omnichannel support

Customer service chatbots enable businesses to provide omnichannel support by offering consistent and seamless interactions across channels. Bots can engage with customers through their preferred methods, such as live chat, messaging apps, or social media, allowing customers to get help where they already are.

To achieve the above benefits, chatbots must have the following core features:

• Quality assurance (QA) tools: These tools monitor and evaluate chatbot interactions to ensure consistent and accurate responses. They help maintain high service standards and identify areas for improvement.
• AI-powered insights: AI agents can provide valuable insights into which support resolutions to automate next, helping streamline your service operations even further. Additionally, it’s essential to choose a bot solution that tracks its impact on your overall service performance, monitoring key metrics such as response times, cost to serve, and customer retention across all channels.
• Multilingual: Supports multiple languages, allowing the chatbot to interact with users in their preferred language, making it accessible to a global audience.
• APIs and integrations: These connect the chatbot with other software systems (like CRM, ERP, or e-commerce platforms) through application programming interfaces (APIs) to streamline workflows, access data to personalize interactions, and perform tasks across different systems.
• Omnichannel support: Your bot should be able to provide service across your website, mobile app, social messaging platforms, and any other channel your customers need, ensuring consistent service delivery across all customer touchpoints.
• Safety and security certifications: This ensures the chatbot complies with industry standards and regulations related to customer data protection and cybersecurity, safeguarding user information, and maintaining trust.

Now, let’s look at some common chatbots for customer service.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk AI agents are the most autonomous customer service bots, pre-trained on over 18 billion real interactions to handle complex requests and grasp the nuances of CX from day one—no technical resources required. With Zendesk, you can provide 24/7 multilingual support across all preferred channels and even customize a bot persona to seamlessly align with your brand.

AI agents scale effortlessly to meet your automation needs, now and in the future. Setting up is simple: connect them to your knowledge base, and in minutes, your bot is ready. For more control, use the intuitive, no-code builder to create rich, interactive, and personalized conversation flows. Zendesk AI agents also integrate with your business systems, enabling them to tackle complex queries and enhance customer loyalty through personalized support.

Zendesk's AI-powered analytics and QA tools offer critical insights to optimize your AI agents. They automatically analyze conversation data, generating actionable reports with clear guidance on what to automate or refine next. Automated issue detection ensures high service quality, while sentiment analysis fine-tunes conversation flows for a better customer experience.

Beyond bots, Zendesk integrates AI throughout its platform. AI agents work alongside human agents, routing requests to the right team members and sharing key data with AI-powered copilots that guide human agents through customer interactions.

Pricing: As low as $1.00 per automated resolution. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot provides tools for marketing, sales, content management, operations, and customer support. Its AI chatbot builder enables users to automate live chat conversations. The builder includes chat flow templates and a visual editor to customize the chatbot to match the business’s brand.

However, HubSpot specifies that its “chat builder software doesn’t quite fall under the ‘AI chatbot’ category of ‘AI chatbot’ because it uses a rule-based system.” Instead, it uses code snippets to tap into the AI capabilities of third-party bots.

HubSpot’s chatbot primarily allows:

• Sales teams to qualify leads and book meetings
• Service teams to deflect FAQs
• Marketing teams to scale one-to-one conversations

It’s also worth noting that HubSpot’s more advanced chatbot features are only available in its Professional and Enterprise plans. In the free and Starter plans, the chatbot can only create tickets, qualify leads, and book meetings without custom branching logic (custom paths based on user responses and possible scenarios).

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per month for two paid users. A free plan is available with limited tools.

Recommended reading: Learn how HubSpot integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. HubSpot compare.

3. Zoho SalesIQ

Zoho SalesIQ users can create a hybrid chatbot using Zobot, the Zoho chatbot builder. It provides a drag-and-drop interface to create pre-defined responses and build chatbot flows. It can translate a single chatbot flow into up to 30 languages, adapting to incoming chats.

The Answer Bot connects with a business’s knowledge base to pull answers, articles, and information on company policies. Users can add responses to the bot’s vocabulary to differentiate conversations and create a library of terms used by visitors so it can understand more inquiries.

Zoho also offers Zia, a virtual assistant for customers and agents. Agents can use Zia to write replies, surface information about customer accounts, and recommend tags for notes. The chatbot also offers support alternatives by replying to frequently asked questions and providing shopping recommendations.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $7 per month, billed annually. A free plan for three operators and a 15-day free trial are available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zoho integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Zoho compare.

4. Netomi

The Netomi chatbot fully integrates with existing backend customer service systems, like Zendesk, so businesses can keep using the software they’re familiar with.

For instance, the platform can access customer and order information within a CRM system to determine and communicate the status of a customer’s order.

The chatbot’s omnichannel support allows businesses to deploy the chatbot across various platforms, such as email, social media, live chat, and messaging apps. This capability lets customers receive support on whichever channel they use. It can maintain the context of conversations across different platforms for customers who might switch between channels during their interaction.

Moreover, Netomi chatbot software is equipped with analytics and reporting tools. These tools provide insights into customer interactions, helping customers understand trends, measure performance, and identify areas for improvement. The analytics feature also includes quality assurance capabilities, enabling businesses to monitor the chatbot's performance and ensure it meets service standards.

Pricing: Contact Netomi for pricing.

5. Intercom Fin

Intercom created the Fin chatbot using OpenAI to complement its customer service platform. In addition to automating routine tasks, Fin can understand complex questions, follow up with clarifying questions, and break down hard-to-understand topics. Businesses can integrate Fin with other Intercom features, such as messaging, help center, and live chat.

Fin also pulls information exclusively from your business’s existing knowledge base. This chatbot can also collect information and hand off more complex requests to trained staff members.

Additionally, Fin offers analytics and reporting capabilities, providing businesses with insights into customer interactions. These analytics help companies track the chatbot's performance, monitor customer satisfaction, and identify areas for improvement. By analyzing data from interactions, businesses can refine their support strategies and change Fin's responses.

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per seat/month, billed annually, and $0.99 per resolution. A 14-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Intercom integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Intercom compare.

6. Ada

Ada is an automated chatbot powered by AI and NLP, allowing it to understand and conversationally respond to natural language. Its capabilities extend to voice channels, letting it field phone calls and answer common questions. It deflects repetitive tickets with a self-serve solution that lets customers change their information, upgrade their accounts, schedule appointments, and make payments.

Ada’s automation platform responds to a customer’s information, intent, and interests with tailored answers, proactive discounts, and recommendations in over 100 languages. Businesses can build their bots in a no-code interface, creating custom conversation workflows.

Once the bot is live, you can continue to refine its performance regarding its tone and the proper procedures it should follow. Businesses can also set up variants of the same bot to test how the differences impact performance. Additionally, built-in QA tools read customer transcripts to identify areas of opportunity.

Pricing: Contact Ada for pricing. A 14-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Ada integrates with Zendesk.

7. Certainly

Certainly is a bot-building platform made especially to help e-commerce teams automate and personalize customer service conversations. It can connect to the business’s e-commerce platform and integrate with other systems, such as a CRM, to access and share customer data.

The Certainly AI assistant can recommend products, upsell, guide users through checkout, and resolve customer queries related to complaints, product returns, refunds, and order tracking. It also gathers zero-party data—information deliberately provided by customers—from conversations with visitors, which agents can use to customize shopping experiences and increase customer lifetime value.

The platform offers analytics tools that track customer interactions, allowing businesses to gain insights into customer behavior and chatbot performance. These insights can continually refine the chatbot's responses and workflows. Plus, it has multiple APIs and webhook (automated communication between two apps) options for reporting, data sharing, and more.

Pricing: Plans start at €2,000 per month. A 14-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Certainly integrates with Zendesk.

8. Dixa

The Dixa chatbot, known as Mim, is powered by OpenAI and supports efforts in the retail, financial services, SaaS, travel, and telecommunications industries. Businesses can use the intelligent routing system, which directs customer inquiries to the most appropriate resource, whether that’s self-service or a human agent.

The chatbot can handle a range of tasks, from answering FAQs to processing simple requests, and when necessary, it can escalate more complex issues to a human agent. Mim pulls answers from the company knowledge base, so its responses are as up-to-date as your articles. Additionally, it will display links to the source article so customers can get more information.

The tool is also context-aware, meaning it can handle personalized support requests and offer a multilingual service experience. To use the Dixa chatbot, you will need to purchase a plan and opt into the chatbot plan for $0.50 per conversation. Additionally, Dixa has a seven-seat minimum.

Pricing: Plans start at $39 per agent/month, billed annually. A free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Solvemate integrates with Zendesk.

9. Zowie

Zowie is a self-learning AI that uses data to understand how to respond to customer questions, meaning it leverages machine learning to improve its responses over time. This solution is prevalent among e-commerce companies that offer consumer goods that fall under categories like cosmetics, apparel, appliances, and electronics.

The customer service chatbot learns to address customer issues based on AI-powered learning rather than keywords. Zowie pulls information from several data points, such as historical conversations, knowledge bases, FAQ pages, and ongoing conversations. Additionally, it connects with e-commerce platforms, CRMs, and other systems to share information.

Zowie offers analytics and reporting features that provide businesses with insights into chatbot performance, customer satisfaction, and areas for improvement. These insights use generative AI to highlight generated revenue, identify shoppers' interests, and update a live dashboard.

Pricing: Contact Zowie for pricing. There is no free trial available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zowie integrates with Zendesk.

10. Meya

Meya bills itself as an automation platform consisting of three components: Grid, Orb, and Console. The Grid is Meya’s backend, where you can code conversational workflows in several languages. The Orb is essentially the pre-built chatbot that businesses can customize and embed on their app, platform, or website. Finally, your team can design, create, and execute conversational experiences in the Console.

Meya enables businesses to build and host complex bots that connect to their back-end services. Meya provides a web IDE—an online integrated development environment—that makes bot-building easy.

Your bot will listen to all incoming messages connected to your CRM and respond when it knows the answer. You can set the bot to pause when a customer gets assigned to an agent and unpause when unassigned.

Pricing: Plans start at $99 per month. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore how real businesses use Zendesk AI agents to provide support that impresses customers.

Photobucket: 24/7 support

Photobucket, a Colorado-based media hosting website, uses Zendesk AI agents to provide round-the-clock support to subscribers. This ensures that there is never a lapse in service, even if their human agents aren’t available. The addition of this technology led to 94 percent of common questions getting answered immediately and 10 percent of conversations being resolved independently.

“The Zendesk AI agent is perfect for our users [who] need help when our agents are offline. They can interact with the AI agent to get answers quickly. Instead of sending us an email and waiting until the next day to hear from us, they can get answers to their questions right away.”

—Trishia Mercado, director of member engagement team at Photobucket

Grove Collaborative: AI-powered self-service

Grove leverages Zendesk AI agents to streamline their customer support process. The AI agent presents relevant help center articles to customers while they wait for a human representative. This self-service option empowers customers to find answers to common inquiries, such as return labels or order status updates, without requiring direct agent interaction.

“Having that ability to present those self-service options has increased customer engagement with our help center and given us a much better idea of what people are searching for and what types of information are actually needed there.”

—Aashley Malsbury, community happiness systems manager at Grove Collaborative

Hello Sugar: Cost savings

Hello Sugar has successfully implemented a hybrid AI solution from Zendesk that merges generative AI with conversation design, resulting in a remarkable 66 percent automation rate. This innovative approach has yielded significant benefits, including saving $14,000 in monthly operational costs and helping more customers with a leaner service team.

Hello Sugar now addresses customer inquiries within seconds, and the AI-powered responses are infused with empathy and a consistent, brand-aligned tone, fostering enhanced customer satisfaction.

"We currently have 81 salons and are going to grow to 160 this year – without growing our reception staff. And with automation, we’re able to do that while offering way better CX and getting higher reviews."

—Austin Towns, chief technology officer at Hello Sugar

Here are a few things to think about before selecting customer service chatbot software.

Consider your business goals

When selecting a customer service chatbot, it's crucial to align its capabilities with your specific business goals to ensure it meets your needs effectively. Understanding what you will use the chatbot for—such as increasing self-service ratios or improving first reply times—helps you select a solution that fits your operational requirements. AI agents, like those provided by Zendesk, can execute all of these tasks and more, delivering better flexibility and scalability to your unique automation needs.

Ensure it integrates with your key systems

Your chatbot should integrate seamlessly with your CRM, customer service software, e-commerce tools, and any other tools your business uses to access data to deliver hyper-personalized experiences. Pre-built integrations offer a great advantage since they keep costs low and avoid the involvement of developers.

Confirm it’s easy to set up and purpose-built

A customer service chatbot that is quick to deploy and purpose-built for CX offers major business advantages. Opt for a bot pre-trained on real service data to handle complex queries and understand nuanced issues right from day one. This delivers immediate value without requiring technical expertise, saving time and resources typically spent on training.

Assess the channels it can deploy on

You should deploy a customer service chatbot on any channel where customers communicate digitally with your business. Channels will vary depending on your business and customer demographics.

However, it’s possible to deploy chatbots on:

• Custom-coded, Shopify websites
• Apple Messages for Business
• Messenger for Business
• Instagram
• X (Twitter) for Business
• WhatsApp Business