Smith.ai Chatbot vs. Zoho Desk

Compare features and see how your business can better capture leads and serve clients with the fully automated Smith.ai Chatbot.

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The Smith.ai Advantage

Capture leads 24/7
No staff
needed
Free & unlimited chats

Smith.ai: The best alternative to Zoho Desk

Smith.ai
Zoho Desk
INCLUDED FOR FREE
Unlimited chat conversations
100% bot-answered chats, 24/7
Captures email on every conversation
Captures phone number if desired
Automated lead qualification
Smart Q&A database
Custom AI bot
Pre-chat disclaimer
Mobile-friendly
Custom branding
Public API
Email support
Activity Dashboard
BOOSTED SERVICE
Seats for your staff
0
No seats needed
3 on free plan, unlimited with paid plans
Add professional live-chat agents
From $140/mo
Totally optional
X – you have to provide your own staff
Unlimited Q&A and knowledge base
$50/month
$16/agent, per month
Unlimited conversation playbooks
$50/month
X
CRM integrations
$0.50/chat
$16/agent, per month
Zapier integration
$0.50/chat
Included with free plan
White-glove setup option
$150 one-time fee
Totally optional
X
Custom programming
$200/hr
Totally optional
Available by custom quote
Read our reviews
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Automated Chatbots vs. Live Chat Software

Automated Chatbot
Live Chat Software
Answers messages w/o extra staff
Yes
No
Quick one-time setup
Yes
No
Responds immediately 24/7
Yes
No
Automates lead qualification & intake
Yes
Sometimes
Triages chats automatically
Yes
No
100% consistency
Yes
No
Screens spam & sales
Yes
No

Smith.ai Chatbot is a lead capture solution that’s fully automated. Zoho Desk has Zia, but an intelligent assistant might not be enough.

AI and automation are on the top of the to-do list for brands today. However, embracing those elements is never an easy task. There are so many tools out there for AI chatbot services that you might think are opening you up to a world of opportunity — and they are. 

However, it’s also opening you up to a world where you have to compare your choices, side by side, to find the best solutions. With the Smith.ai Chatbot, you get a fully-automated lead capture tool that is managed from day one by machine learning and AI. With Zoho Desk, you’ll have access to their intelligent support assistant, Zia, but the customization features and options are limited.

Zia is great at analytics and adapting to the needs of a business. Its skill builder helps it learn your business and there’s even a Knowledge Base available that can be accessed to assist with ticket responses. Plus, there are self-service solutions, including a community and the option for an online self-service portal (and considering that 90% of today’s consumers expect some kind of online service portal, that’s an important feature.) 

Of course, we then come back to what’s missing—Zoho Desk will give your business all the tools to build their own chatbot. That might sound promising, but you have to read beyond the words: they’re giving you the tools. Smith.ai, on the other hand, empowers you by providing the tools and a smart AI Chatbot that learns as it goes so that you can literally set it and forget it and trust that your customers are taken care of. 

In fact, as many as 25% of your customer service queries come in after-hours. Do you really want to risk missing out or paying someone serious overtime to stay late to answer the phones? While Zoho Desk does good to offer automated around-the-clock availability, Smith.ai wins this one for its AI-powered chatbot that can be tailored to the exact needs of your brand for unlimited website chat 24/7/365.

THE BASICS!

Live chat agents on duty 24/7
Real-time lead qualification & intake with CRM integration for complete workflows
Appointment & call-back scheduling with calendar integration
AI technology powers automatic responses, real-time English-Spanish translation, and more.
Payment collection with online billing and invoice links
Instant chat transcripts via email. Contacts and chat conversations logged in your CRM.

What our customers are saying

“Great customer care and functionality. I love using Smith.ai. They do such a great job in following instructions on how I'd like my cases handled. I especially love the fact that I get email transcripts of all chats. I have never had incorrect information obtained (contact info) from any potential clients by Smith.ai. They are very detail oriented!”
"Smith allows us to converse with website visitors and turn them into potential clients. They've made it easier for us to be there at all times, even when we're not. We've worked with other vendors in the past and have found Smith.ai among the easiest to use. They're very responsive, they communicate well, and serve as our front lines for client communications."
Scott Peterson
“Simple way to start a great client experience. There are a lot of Chat options available, but this was a no brainer for us because of our great experience with Smith.ai as a company. Everything they do is focused on simplicity. Stuff just works. They make everything easy and have focused on hiring great people, which is evident by the way they treat us as a customer and the people that they chat with on our behalf.”
Brian Waller
“Love Smith.ai Chat! There is no way that I could staff a feature like that in house with my small business. Smith.ai makes the chat feature available around the clock. I am a lawyer and this feature is great for clients who are nervous or shy about making that initial phone call, or who are up thinking about the problem that they need help with outside of business hours. The Smith.ai Website Chat also integrates perfectly with my CRM/case management software. It has really been a boost to my business. I have tried other companies. Smith.ai is the best!”
Nicole G.

Unlimited chats answered 24/7/365

FREE AI
CHATBOT

$0
Per Month
Unlimited
chat conversations
includes
4 q&A and 1 playbook

ADD-on
Pricing

Unlimited playbooks - $50/mo
Unlimited Q&A - $50/mo
CRM Integrations - $0.50/chat
White-glove installation - $150

We integrate with your software

Contacts and chat transcripts are instantly logged in your systems
Clio
Clio Grow
Salesforce
HubSpot
Zapier
PracticePanther
Capsule CRM
Lawmatics
Lead Docket
Wealthbox

Small businesses trust Smith.ai Chatbot to capture more leads