Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions such as Apptivo CRM and Zendesk can help businesses boost sales and increase customer satisfaction through effective customer management. 

Apptivo CRM is a software that allows organizations to handle different activities at a time, including marketing, invoicing, and business operations. Zendesk is a CRM designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel.

In this article, we’ll compare the features of Apptivo CRM and Zendesk to give you an idea of what each CRM software can contribute to your company. You can also use our Product Selection Tool if you want to explore more CRM software options and get a free list of trusted CRM software vendors.

Apptivo CRM vs. Zendesk: An overview

Apptivo CRM is a flexible customer management software that offers a wide variety of CRM features at affordable costs. This CRM software is best suited for small, starting, and medium-sized businesses. It has a free plan and inexpensive paid plans. Apptivo CRM comes with the following features:

  • contact management
  • lead and opportunity management
  • email marketing
  • collaboration
  • sales planning
  • customer service ticket management
  • invoicing
  • campaign management
  • reporting
  • project management
  • mobile access

Zendesk is a cloud-based, service-first CRM platform that provides sales and support functionalities. Zendesk can handle the needs of businesses of any size and is available at low-end prices. The following features are offered by this CRM:

  • reporting and dashboards
  • ticket and case management
  • workflow
  • response automation
  • collaboration
  • customer and contacts database
  • communication channels
  • customer portal
  • knowledge base

Apptivo CRM vs. Zendesk: Feature comparison

Apptivo CRM and Zendesk have features for communication, knowledge sharing, and mobile access.

Communication

Apptivo CRM has a messaging dashboard feature where users can receive instant notifications on incoming messages across the Apptivo system. This CRM solution also has a call conferencing functionality that allows users to connect with multiple persons at a time and make the conversation more collaborative and productive. The software comes with an automated call forwarding capability and voicemail service to ensure that no calls are left unanswered. Apptivo CRM has a chat support feature that facilitates instant communication.

Zendesk enables businesses to communicate with customers more effectively through its multiple communication channels. Like Apptivo CRM, Zendesk has a chat feature that lets users create new leads and pass every chat transcript over to a contact for future reference. This CRM software has an integrated auto-dialer that can contact people on a contact list. All calls in Zendesk are logged, recorded, and saved to a lead or contact. Users can send SMS from a lead or contact card and have it added to a communication feed which includes email and phone calls. 

Knowledge sharing

Apptivo CRM offers the Apptivo Answers App as a platform to teams and customers, where one can ask questions, learn, and share knowledge. Businesses can create a knowledge database about a product or service, offer readily available answers to the customers, edit answers anytime, and add images and hyperlinks to the site. Businesses and support teams can also create their own questions and answers, offering quality service. Apptivo CRM provides instant notifications to users so they never miss a customer question. Apptivo users will get notified instantly, through news feeds and email feeds, whenever a question or an answer gets created, modified, or deleted. Businesses can design the creation page how they would like.

To facilitate knowledge sharing, Zendesk provides organizations with a knowledge base to help customers find solutions to problems on their own. Businesses can create, organize, and share knowledge base articles and content easily with customer support agents, select customers, or the public. Zendesk provides businesses with a branded customer-facing support site, called Help Center. Help Center is where organizations can publish knowledge base content and where their customers can make support requests. Businesses can add logos and custom themes to the support site to match their brand. This feature has pre-made templates that can be utilized to maintain content structure.

Mobile access

Apptivo CRM has a native mobile application available for download from the App Store and Google Play Store. The Apptivo app brings everything the business needs from customer management and project management to invoicing into one customizable and integrated mobile solution. Users can manage their sales pipeline and track their projects from their mobile devices on-the-go. With the app, users can send invoices and manage payments. They can also send estimates to customers and close more deals. The Apptivo CRM mobile application enables users to attend to support tickets and resolves customer issues ASAP. With this feature, users can record their business expenses on-the-go.

Zendesk supports mobile CRM access through its mobile application, Zendesk Sell. Formerly called Base CRM, Zendesk Sell is an all-in-one solution that includes customer management, sales tracker, sales pipeline, automatic sales communication tracker, task manager, and calendar. With the app, users can qualify leads and organize the sales process into a streamlined sales pipeline. They can also set up meetings, send emails and text messages, and make calls all from within this mobile sales app. All the communication history is organized into a neat timeline in Zendesk Sell. This app works offline and can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play Store.

Integrations

Built-in integrations for Apptivo CRM include tools for productivity, collaboration, eCommerce, file sharing, and website creation:

  • Office 365 
  • Slack
  • PayPal  
  • Dropbox Business  
  • WordPress

Zendesk integrates readily with applications for visual collaboration, file syncing, sales automation, video conferencing, and project management:

  • Trello  
  • Dropbox Business  
  • Salesforce Sales Cloud 
  • Zoom  
  • Asana  

The better CRM between Apptivo CRM and Zendesk

Apptivo CRM and Zendesk are reputable CRM solutions, and each software has its own strengths. In order to choose the better CRM for your business, you should consider the specific needs of your business.

Apptivo CRM is a comprehensive software that provides a wide range of capabilities that can handle everything from sales management to customer service. This CRM also offers marketing tools. However,  Apptivo CRM doesn’t have a built-in telephony feature, which is typically offered by other CRM solutions. If you want a CRM software that can help you focus more on increasing sales, Apptivo CRM might just be what you need.

Zendesk is a CRM software that focuses more on helping organizations provide customer support. Though it has capabilities for sales marketing, most of Zendesk’s features are aimed at providing a great customer experience. If you need CRM software that can help you improve customer relationships and customer satisfaction through high levels of customer support, Zendesk won’t let you down.

If you’re still unconvinced, you can explore more CRM solutions by using a Product Selection Tool. You’ll get a free list of up to five recommended CRM solutions.