Zendesk Chatbot: Pricing, Features, Alternatives [2024]

Over 100,000 different businesses turn to Zendesk as their customer service software of choice, with web and support solutions such as chatbots, knowledge bases, and customer support ticket systems. Uber, Instacart, and Zoom are among the high-profile corporations that use Zendesk.

Zendesk does use AI to help companies resolve customer troubles, but you likely could be considering other competitors as well. If you’re unsure if Zendesk is right for your company, we can show you everything there is to know about this company before you make a decision.

What is a Zendesk chatbot?

A Zendesk chatbot is an automated app you can install on your website. Like any chatbot, Zendesk’s works to help resolve most issues with customers quickly without getting a human specialist involved.

Zendesk chatbots aren’t available as standalone products, but rather bundled with other products in bundles. Here are the price plans for Zendesk at the moment — all of which include the Zendesk chatbot:

Zendesk also offers a “Zendesk for Startups” plan, which offers a free 6-month membership for entrepreneurs looking to start off on the right track.

How do chatbots work within Zendesk? 

The chatbots use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to extract utterances or intentions sent by the user. From there, the chatbot interprets the text and works to reply to the user and/or handle a request.

‍In addition, the chatbot can handle repetitive tasks on behalf of you and your staff such as create and remove support tickets, reset passwords, and handle employee onboarding and offboarding.

What are the key features of Zendesk chatbots?

Zendesk Chatbot is highly integrated with other Zendesk products you could also use. This includes the help center, ticketing system, and product listings. This means you won’t need to do much work to educate your chatbot on your business.

The dialog for a Zendesk chatbot is set up with a drag-and-drop editor, in which you can create your own scripts and give your customers the option to make decisions using menu buttons, a text box, or both. 

Zendesk also touts omnichannel support so you can automate messages on social media channels and text messenger platforms such as Facebook, X, and WhatsApp. 

How can I set up a chatbot in Zendesk? 

When you sign up for a Zendesk subscription, the chatbot won’t automatically become available, as it must be manually created. Here’s how Zendesk bots are set up:

1. Log into your Zendesk account.
2. Go to the Admin Center.
3. Click the Channels button on the sidebar.
4. Click on “Bots and automations”, then “Bots”.
5. Click on the “Create bot” button.
6. Enter the name of your bot.
7. If necessary, you can also choose branding options and a custom avatar for your bot.
8. Click the “Next” button.
9. Choose the language you want your chatbot to speak.
10. Click the “Next” button.
11. Click “Turn on generative AI features”.
12. Click the “Create bot” button.

After your chatbot is created, you can pre-write messages and responses to refine how it reacts to user input. The chatbot will be in draft mode and must be published for it to go online.

How can chatbots improve customer engagement? 

While Zendesk’s chatbots have a lot to offer for businesses, that isn’t to say they can’t make mistakes or leave room for costly errors. Here’s what you need to do to make the most of a chatbot from Zendesk:

• Create dialogue based on your customer’s needs: Effective chatbots are designed to focus on the user’s expectations for your chatbot.
• Get opinions from employees: While the chatbot is still in draft mode, have different members of your staff try using the chatbot. Not only would you like the chatbot to handle requests and answer questions, but every message should sound natural and on-brand with your company.

How can I personalize chatbot interactions with customers using Zendesk?

Like Voiceflow, Zendesk uses a visual flowchart for users to build dialog trees. A Zendesk chatbot can contain up to 500 responses and 2,000 steps. This is how you provide a chatbot with button menus, generative AI responses, and triggers to allow the chatbot to perform other tasks.

Though if you find Zendesk’s chatbot features to be limited, you can build your very own chatbot with Voiceflow. If all you need is a competent chatbot and not a whole suite of products you likely don’t need, Voiceflow can help you build a fully-functioning chatbot in minutes and deploy it with Voiceflow functions and API blocks. You can also use a Voiceflow along with Zendesk as a chatbot upgrade.

Sign up with Voiceflow today for a risk-free 2-week trial on a Pro plan including 2 million AI tokens.