Intercom

Overview

Intercom is a customer messaging platform that enables businesses to communicate with their customers across the user lifecycle. Established in 2011, the platform combines live chat, in-app messaging, and email campaign capabilities to support customer support, sales, and marketing functions. Its primary application is to facilitate direct, personalized interactions with users, whether they are prospects, new users, or existing customers needing support.

The platform is designed for companies seeking to automate and scale their customer communication strategies. For development teams, Intercom offers various SDKs for integration into mobile and web applications, including JavaScript, iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter. This allows developers to embed chat widgets, trigger in-app messages, and track user behavior directly within their applications, creating a cohesive user experience. The Intercom API reference provides endpoints for managing users, conversations, and custom data, enabling deeper integration and automation of workflows, such as syncing user data from an internal CRM or triggering messages based on specific user actions within an application.

Intercom shines in scenarios requiring proactive customer engagement and personalized support. For example, a mobile application might use Intercom's Product Tours to guide new users through key features upon their first launch, or deploy targeted in-app messages to announce new features to specific user segments. Its bot capabilities can automate responses to common support inquiries, freeing up human agents for more complex issues. Furthermore, Intercom's Help Center functionality allows businesses to create self-service knowledge bases, reducing the volume of direct support requests. The platform's focus on user data and segmentation allows for highly targeted communication, aiming to improve user retention, conversion rates, and overall customer satisfaction.

While Intercom provides extensive tools for customer engagement, it is important for businesses to consider their specific needs. For instance, companies primarily focused on large-scale email marketing might find more specialized email service providers better suited, whereas those needing advanced CRM functionalities might integrate Intercom with a dedicated CRM system like Salesforce Service Cloud. Intercom's strength lies in its unified approach to conversational customer engagement, making it a suitable choice for businesses looking to centralize their in-app and web communication channels.

Key features

• Live Chat: Provides real-time messaging capabilities for customer support and sales directly within websites and applications.
• Bots: Automates responses to common customer questions and routes complex inquiries to human agents, improving response times.
• Proactive Support: Enables businesses to send targeted messages to users based on their behavior or stage in the customer journey, such as offering help during checkout or suggesting relevant articles.
• Help Center: Facilitates the creation and management of self-service knowledge bases, allowing users to find answers independently.
• Product Tours: Guides new users through key features and workflows within an application, aiding in user onboarding and feature adoption.
• Email Campaigns: Supports sending targeted email messages to specific user segments for marketing, re-engagement, or informational purposes.
• In-App Messaging: Delivers contextual messages directly within mobile and web applications, such as announcements, feature updates, or personalized offers.
• Audience Segmentation: Allows for grouping users based on attributes and behavior, enabling highly targeted communication strategies.
• Integrations: Offers integrations with various third-party tools, including CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and analytics services, to create a unified customer data view.
• Reporting & Analytics: Provides insights into conversation volumes, team performance, and campaign effectiveness to optimize communication strategies.

Pricing

Intercom's pricing structure is tiered, offering different plans based on features, user capacity, and support needs. The Starter plan is the entry-level option, designed for smaller teams or those with basic messaging requirements. Higher tiers, such as Pro and Premium, offer expanded feature sets, increased user limits, and more advanced capabilities, with pricing typically customized based on specific business requirements and usage volume. All plans are billed annually.

For detailed and up-to-date pricing information, including specifics on feature breakdowns per tier and potential add-ons, refer to the Intercom pricing page.

Common integrations

Intercom provides a range of integrations to extend its functionality and connect with other business tools. These integrations help centralize customer data and streamline workflows across different platforms.

• Salesforce: Sync customer data and conversation history between Intercom and Salesforce CRM for a unified view of customer interactions. Learn more about Intercom's Salesforce integration details.
• Stripe: View customer payment information and subscription details directly within Intercom conversations, enabling more informed support. Explore Intercom's Stripe integration capabilities.
• Slack: Receive Intercom notifications and manage conversations directly from Slack channels, facilitating team collaboration. Consult the Intercom Slack integration guide.
• Google Analytics: Track user behavior and campaign performance data from Intercom within Google Analytics for comprehensive insights. Review how to integrate Intercom with Google Analytics.
• Segment: Centralize customer data from various sources into Segment, then sync it with Intercom for consistent user profiles and targeted messaging. Find information on Intercom's Segment integration.

Alternatives

When considering customer engagement platforms, several alternatives offer similar or complementary functionalities to Intercom:

• Zendesk: A comprehensive customer service platform offering ticketing, live chat, and a knowledge base, often favored for its extensive support suite.
• Freshdesk: Another popular customer support software providing ticketing, live chat, and call center capabilities, known for its user-friendly interface.
• Salesforce Service Cloud: An enterprise-grade customer service solution built on the Salesforce platform, offering advanced case management, AI-powered service, and extensive customization options.
• Drift: Focused on conversational marketing and sales, offering AI-powered chatbots and live chat to qualify leads and engage website visitors.
• Gainsight: A customer success platform that helps businesses reduce churn, increase upsells, and drive product adoption through proactive engagement and health scoring.

Getting started

To integrate Intercom into a web application, you typically embed a JavaScript snippet into your website's HTML. This snippet initializes the Intercom Messenger, allowing you to interact with users, send messages, and track events. The following example demonstrates basic Intercom initialization and user identification using JavaScript.

First, include the Intercom Messenger code snippet in your HTML <head> tag. This snippet loads the Intercom SDK asynchronously.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <!-- Other head elements -->
  <script>
    (function(){var w=window;var ic=w.Intercom;if(typeof ic==="function"){ic('reattach_activator');ic('update',intercomSettings);}else{var d=document;var i=function(){i.c(arguments)};i.q=[];i.c=function(args){i.q.push(args)};w.Intercom=i;var l=function(){var s=d.createElement('script');s.type='text/javascript';s.async=true;s.src='https://widget.intercom.io/widget/YOUR_APP_ID';var x=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];x.parentNode.insertBefore(s,x);};if(document.readyState==='complete'){l();}else if(w.attachEvent){w.attachEvent('onload',l);}else{w.addEventListener('load',l,false);}}})();
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <!-- Your application content -->
</body>
</html>

Replace YOUR_APP_ID with your actual Intercom App ID, which you can find in your Intercom workspace settings. After the snippet is loaded, you can identify users and send events. The Intercom JavaScript API allows you to customize the messenger's behavior and track user actions. For instance, to identify a user and set their custom attributes, you would use the Intercom('boot') method:

<script>
  window.intercomSettings = {
    app_id: "YOUR_APP_ID",
    // Optional: User identification details
    // If the user is logged in, provide their ID and email
    user_id: "user_12345",
    email: "[email protected]",
    name: "John Doe", // Full name
    created_at: 1678886400, // Unix timestamp of when the user signed up
    // Optional: Custom attributes
    plan: "premium",
    company_name: "Acme Corp"
  };

  // This line is already handled by the snippet above, but shown for clarity
  // Intercom('boot', window.intercomSettings);

  // Example of sending an event after Intercom has loaded
  function trackFeatureUsage() {
    if (window.Intercom) {
      window.Intercom('trackEvent', 'clicked_new_feature', { feature_name: 'reporting_dashboard' });
      console.log('Intercom event tracked: clicked_new_feature');
    }
  }

  // Call trackFeatureUsage when a specific user action occurs, e.g., button click
  // document.getElementById('myFeatureButton').addEventListener('click', trackFeatureUsage);
</script>

This code snippet initializes Intercom with user-specific data, allowing for personalized communication and event tracking. For mobile applications, Intercom provides dedicated SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter, each with platform-specific integration instructions available in the Intercom documentation. For example, the Android developer documentation offers guidance on integrating third-party SDKs, which is relevant when adding Intercom to an Android project. Similarly, Apple's developer documentation provides context for iOS app lifecycle management, which can be important for ensuring Intercom's background operations are handled correctly.