ThriveDesk: Support Desk, Live Chat, and Community
Welcome to the detailed review of ThriveDesk, a new entrant in the customer support software arena. Dave shares his insights, breaking down the features, benefits, and areas for improvement of ThriveDesk, comparing it with established players like Helpscout, Intercom, and Zendesk. These show notes highlight the key points discussed in the video for those looking for an in-depth analysis of ThriveDesk and its potential fit for your business needs.
Get ThriveDesk and support our content.
Parvez Akther
Introduction
- Overview: Dave introduces ThriveDesk, clarifying that it has no affiliation with Thrive Cart or Thrive Themes despite the shared name.
- Competitors: Compares ThriveDesk with Helpscout, Intercom, and Zendesk, suggesting it isn't quite on par yet.
ThriveDesk Features Review
ThriveDesk offers an array of features aimed at enhancing customer support capabilities for businesses. Dave divides his review into several segments, focusing on the main features of ThriveDesk.
1. Shared Inbox
- Functionality: A shared inbox allows collaborative handling of customer emails, streamlining support and sales communication.
- Benefits: Easy setup, high deliverability with DKIM and DMark validation, assignment of messages to team members, notifications, canned replies, internal notes, and auto replies.
- Limitations: Lack of native integrations with platforms outside the WordPress ecosystem, no social media or SMS integration, absence of a mobile app, and some minor design flaws.
2. Live Chat
- Functionality: Enables real-time interaction with website visitors through a chat bubble.
- Setup: Involves creating an "assistant" to direct chats to specific inboxes and turns into a contact form when agents are offline.
- Potential: Hints at future chatbot functionalities and knowledge base integration.
- Feedback: Generally positive, with a professional appearance and customization options. However, lacks inline form integration for direct submissions.
3. Online Community
- Concept: A platform for hosting customer communities, similar to Facebook groups, but without requiring social media.
- Implementation: Easy setup with customizable discussion topics and branding, public or private settings, and custom domain usage.
- Critiques: Limited functionality, no integration with the help desk for ticket submission, lack of moderation features, concerns about scalability, and some usability issues.
Viewer Questions and Closing Thoughts
Dave addresses specific questions from the community, covering aspects like time registration for billing, integrations and automations, and concerns about ad blocker compatibility and the promised chatbot feature.
Final Assessment
- Recommendation: While ThriveDesk's shared inbox and live chat features are robust and user-friendly, the community feature feels underdeveloped and disconnected from the core functionalities.
- Advice: ThriveDesk is best suited for businesses primarily focused on email support. Those needing a unified inbox for social media interactions might need to look elsewhere. The community aspect requires further development to fully integrate with the help desk and knowledge base features.
Conclusion
Dave concludes that ThriveDesk, despite its promising start, has areas that need refinement. The lack of certain integrations and the nascent state of its community feature might limit its appeal to some businesses. However, its strong shared inbox and live chat capabilities make it a contender worth considering for specific customer support needs.
For more insights and updates, Dave encourages following him on social media and signing up for his newsletter.
Get ThriveDesk and support our content.
Parvez Akther
