Help Scout Reviews

Pros

Help Scout does what it's supposed to do and it's very good at it. No doubt about that. It's the very main reason why many companies trust Help Scout for their customer support management. You can create automations, saved replies, a knowledgebase, and a chat widget (they call it Beacon). Everything works as it's supposed to and we never had any issues so far. It's really easy to set up automations and saved replies, no need to look into their help docs. You just need to use your common sense to navigate through the dashboard. I am using it daily for my client's e-commerce business for the past 6 years and I can say that it's a really solid product.

I also like their mobile app because it works really well. This is very important so you can attend to your customers even when you're not at your desk. Most customers want very quick responses and so the mobile app will be very handy when you don't have access to a computer.

There's no issue with deliverability as all our emails and replies went straight to customers' inboxes, which is very critical for this kind of app.

Cons

I found another software that has more features than this app and the pricing is also good. I wish Help Scout will have a feature where you can snooze or schedule an email or reply, and the ability to create embeddable forms. Also, I wish you can connect your social media accounts so you will be able to easily monitor your social media audiences when they message you or when they comment on your posts. These are available on the other software I found and it is a great alternative to this software.

Pros

Helpscout is our principal platform, as the vast majority of our customers require either a knowledge base or live chat help for their enterprises. Therefore, we provided them with a Helpscout-based knowledge library and made live chat available to them.

Cons

The platform's interface, especially the inbox UI, has a lot of room for improvement, and there is now just one knowledgebase template/design available, which is disappointing.

Pros

Ease of use
Knowledgebase was easy to implement
Ticket system works as it should

Cons

Our business needed customer management and HelpScout was not a good solution for that.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Help Scout

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Help Scout

Pros

Help Scout has been a great help desk platform for our business. Outside managing customer queries, we've utilized their workflow and saved reply features to semi-automate and fully automate several key areas. This has saved a lot of time and allowed us to focus on the customer. We've also been able to build our customer query management process around Help Scout and use this across multiple teams. It's a straightforward and easy-to-use platform that is intuitive in some aspects.

Cons

While their workflow functionality is good, some areas are missing that would benefit this function. It would also be great if Help Scout had an internal SLA feature which was broad enough to cover various SLA scenarios.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Help Scout

Pros

Their entire philosophy is centered around customer satisfaction and success. This mirrors our own approach and it's great seeing that in action. They are also great at handling questions and service requests, and I love all the support and information resources they offer.

Cons

I wish the reporting functions were better and more detailed. Sometimes when something wasn't functioning in a way that worked for it, their response was suggesting a work around that would require a service plan upgrade when I figured out a work around that could work at our current level, but that is a very minor gripe.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Help Scout

Pros

I really like how Help Scout simplifies the process of reporting, sorting, and monitoring issues for our staff. All of our staff members are comfortable with Help Scout, which is why we've adopted it for internal and external help. The integrated nature of the Docs sites is another perk; I appreciate being able to rapidly link articles and check statistics about which sections of our help libraries are most popular.

Cons

For our rather modestly sized support staff, I can think of no significant drawbacks to using Help Scout. I'd like to see a couple additional features in Help Scout, but for our current level of assistance, it's perfect.

Pros

It makes managing incoming cases feel good - I've tried and seen other tools used primarily for customer support, and none of them were comparable to Help Scout for me.

In Help Scout the entire UI puts the focus on serving the customer right, being light on unnecessary noise. Might sound cheesy, but somehow lets you connect better with the person on the other side of the screen.

Cons

That I had to stop using it recently :( Other than that I didn't really find anything that I disliked there.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Help Scout

Pros

Help Scout is purpose-built for Support teams which is fantastic. The features, UI, and reporting align closely with how we run our support team which makes things a lot easier.

We're big on automation and building on top of our tools and have been very impressed both with the workflow capabilities as well as the API endpoints and integrations that are possible.

The team behind Help Scout does a terrific job of supporting us, they have been extremely responsive, down to earth, and accurate in their replies.

Cons

To deliver a really good and consistent experience, the support channels of email, chat, and phone are very discrete and can't be blended as easily together as say a tool like Intercom (where we were coming from).

While a short-term pain for us, I think delivering better in each of the channels ultimately made us a more mature team in the end.

Pros

Love that you can set up multiple mailboxes and have multiple emails routing in to one space. The ability to see when a customer has viewed an email is also particularly useful and the search option is perfect.

Cons

Keeps disconnecting from apps and support couldn't fix it. No desktop notifications which would be immensely helpful.

Pros

This software allows extremely easy and efficient collaboration between administrators. The ticketing and email system can be configured many different ways and you can even integrate single sign-on.

Cons

There weren't too many things I don't like about this software. The only issue I have is that its report generator does not allow you to create reports for tickets cleared for each individual admin during a time period.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Help Scout

Pros

I no longer get an email about an email that is about a forward of an email which was originally about an email that was about an email that was forwarded regarding an email that was sent.

Exactly..we have all had the pleasure of deciphering the shortened email snippet, forwards and the references to email threads that are broken but with Help Scout I now see it all..and see when..and where ..and who..Yep.. order to the choas of my many "conversations". And ohhhhh sooo much data hygine..i agree a terrible phrase but such a critical thing for any serious business. This includes a robust beyond belief search and filter feature. For those who appreciate effecient shortcuts and cross refereneced data points...yep tags..and filtering by tags as well. The bane of my existence is also the best feature which is the timeline transparancy that Help Scout brings. We all know who touched what when so we can not step on toes and if we try they put in the "traffic cop" feature to prevent unprofessional duplicate customer touches. Additionally, you can use Help Scout to assign voicemails to staff individual to deal with if your voicemail service offers emailed transcription forwards. Our staff also create conversation for intra office communications all the time to document timelines and details for reference later if needed. HS has helped us track everything from maintenance service logs to customer complaints and staff schedules.

Cons

This is only a tough question and one I would suggest come first when reviewing since after listing all the things i love and enjoy it helps me block out the uglier bits and pieces.. Besides some of the android app glitches that are more annoying than crisis creating I am still hard pressed to find many cons about using HS this past 2 years. has had a "negative" impact on my work communications besides the timeline busting myself for something

Pros

* You can setup online ticket support system for your clients very easy and cheaply
* Your support engineers will have everything they need to support your clients effectively
* No bloated unnecessary features, only those that you need

Cons

* Online mobile version leaves much to be desired
* No way to merge several tickets at once
* You can't make a note/reply and keep the ticket open, you have to re-open it.

Pros

Help Scout is a focused, straightforward support mailbox product, and we've been using it to great effect since we switched over (from a shared inbox for support) a couple of years ago. We were happy with the pricing, and we use the custom sidebar add-ons to great effect. We've written our own sidebar app that gives our support team access to a ton of useful customer information and error logging without ever leaving the mailbox. When we've dealt with Help Scout support, they've also been great. Help Scout does exactly what we want.

Cons

Help Scout is a relatively slim and focused offering (although they are indeed adding new features all the time) this was actually a *selling point* for us, as we didn't want a super-complex tool for this but I am sure that for some users this could be problematic.

Pros

They are super responsive. They are pretty rad and transparent: if something goes wrong on their end they are not afraid of admitting fault. Which leads me to trusting them because I can believe them. I know that tells you very little of the product, but as leadership that's something that I really need. Other environments—blameshifting—I cannot stand and can't trust, believe, or hope that they'll hold true to their promise. We're leaving another vendor for that reason.

Their system is very responsive, quick, simple, and easy to learn. There aren't too many bells and whistles which simplifies my life when onboarding new teammates. Their docs are well written and engaging.

Cons

The vendor is great!

I'd say a better or more thorough live chat & phone integration would be great. We communicate with customers via email, phone, live chat, and Twitter. It's hard when all these are fairly decentralized. Help Scout *does* have a live chat integration (which we use) and we can forward VMs to Help Scout (which is great). But if you're looking for tracking call length, live chat length, or some of the other nifty metrics in one central place, you'll need to use Excel or a Google Sheet. Or use everyone's API to feed into your own system.

Pros

The most important feature about helpscout is the tags feature which allow you track tickets better. As well as saved replies and the super friendly user interface

Cons

Helpscout does know allow to add multiple email signatures within the same user and it forces the addition of multiple users.

Pros

Help Scout allows customers to send requests to a centralized email address, rather than to an individual, helping ensure that someone on the customer service end will be able to reply promptly. On my team, I handle most customer service requests. However, if I happen to be out sick, on vacation, or in any way unavailable, I can rest assured that another qualified person on my team has access to--and is monitoring--Help Scout to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Otherwise, a request might sit unanswered in my personal email inbox until I return. I also like that it's easy to store--and pull up-- information about the customer to see their history of past inquiries.

Cons

Automatic workflows are somewhat complicated to set up. I've found them unnecessary for the most part, but I'm sure they could be more useful for higher customer volumes.

Pros

Easy to manage accounts, great for keeping records of a clients request, real-time request, great reports, easy to use and adapt. Honestly, I would recommend Help Scout, is a great ticking tool that has helped me reach-out to clients and keep communication rolling with them efficiently.

Cons

I like the software when used on a computer, but the app for a mobile device does lack functionality. I would like to have the same options as I have on the computer. I don't want to be completely demanding so I won't request the high-end gadgets, but the option to see whos working on a ticket on the app will help a lot.

Pros

The customer support is phenomenal! The Help Scout team is personal, friendly, and fun- a pleasure to interact with any time I get the chance. But because the software is so seamless on its own, a rarely have to reach out for support. I most appreciate the reporting features that show conversation rates and customer happiness.

Cons

I would like to be able to export a list of customers I have spoke with over a set time period, so I would be able to automate outreach and followup. As of now, there is no established way to export lists or data.

Pros

This software is very easy to use and houses all customer emails for our agency. It's organized, has solid workflows, and is a great tool to keep all of our customer information in one centralized location. The integration we have set up with Slack is perfect!

Cons

There are quite a few features with Help Scout that we have not yet explored, so there are not many dislikes about this software with the email management portion that we do use. It's a great inexpensive product that will be great for scalability as our agency continues to grow with number of clients and users responsible for handling chat functionality and email responses.

Pros

The email newsletter.

Cons

How sometimes emails end up being responded to by multiple agents because they aren't automatically closed out.

Pros

Help Scout is so user friendly! In the past, we tried several ticketing systems but they didn't seem to fit in with our flow and organization. We heard about Help Scout, tried it, and simply fell in love! Help Scout is so easy to use and work together as a team.

Cons

The one thing I would really like to see in Help Scout is a Round Robin auto-assignment feature. You can do quite a bit with workflows but I wish there was a simple way to Round Robin auto-assign our incoming tickets.

Pros

I absolutely love the templates, and tagging features. Also the knowledge base was super easy to set up.

Cons

I would love to be able to create templates for subject lines!

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Help Scout

Pros

This product is great for a small business or startup who needs to set up a knowledge base. It is simple to deploy, and there is a free plan. The biggest advantage is that it is easy to use and low cost.
Plus, they are very Startup friendly company.

Cons

There is no chat feature in mobile app so you can't send and receive real-time messages when you are on phone.

Pros

It's very easy to utilize with multiple members using at the same time. You can always see where other users are and leave comments to each other on specific messages.

Cons

When copying in a new email to an existing chain (or when the HelpScout email is adding to an existing chain), attachments are usually lost and have to be reattached.