Freshworks, a leading provider in customer engagement, is the first Indian software-as-a-service company to be listed in Nasdaq and has been featured in the Forbes Cloud 100 list – Forbes’ ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies worldwide. Founded by Girish Mathrubootham in Chennai, India in 2010, it has appeared in the aforementioned list 5 years in a row and was at the tenth spot in 2021.
Freshworks offers cloud-based customer relationship management and I.T. service management software and boasts of a portfolio of 52,500 clients in 120 countries.
What is Freshworks?
Freshworks focuses on quick-to-implement solutions to address customer and employee needs with a product suite that includes tools for customer experience management and conversational engagement, omnichannel help desk and contact center, sales and marketing, IT and HR services.
The following applications and services are available:
- Freshdesk
- Freshchat
- Freshsales
- Freshmarketer
- Freshservice
- Freshteam
Each solution will be discussed in the next article.
How Does It Work?
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is an extensive helpdesk solution that allows companies and business owners to view and address customer issues. It allows tracking of every support request or ticket, collation and streamlining conversations from multiple communication channels, automation of redundant and repetitive tasks to save on effort and time, building of a comprehensive knowledge base of support issues and customer engagement, generation of reports to monitor help desk data and facilitates collaboration across teams.
The best feature of Freshdesk is the compilation, organization and monitoring of customer issues for which tickets will be created. Through a collaborative ticketing function powered by AI, tickets converted from issues from any communication channel can be efficiently sorted, categorized and assigned to a company’s support group and can be monitored and viewed via a team inbox. Unlike email inboxes, the team inbox fosters team collaboration in viewing and addressing and resolving tickets by ensuring that each issue is prioritized through helpful keywords and assigned to the proper support agent or group.
Performance, response and turnaround time for tickets can be managed through service level management to satisfy customers and minimize delays in resolving customer problems.
Freshdesk also benefits from AI-powered ticketing through learned resolution stories, intuitive recommendations to aid support agents in faster resolution of issues and provision of aid in categorizing, prioritization and routing of tickets to the proper resolution process.
The key features of Freshdesk are:
- A simple yet comprehensive repository of issues converted into tickets that collates all issues from all delivery channels providing a unified inbox for the team to foster productivity and collaboration ensuring that SLA’s are met and managed
- AI-powered sorting, management and categorization of tickets
- Customizable help-widget that can be embedded in the company website
Freshchat
Freshchat is a customizable customer messaging service that aims to engage with visitors to a company’s website. Through this tool, business owners may aim to convert website visitors to prospects, offer in-app marketing campaigns, generate and qualify leads, and sell or provide customer support.
For companies and businesses that aim to provide excellent customer experience, engaging customers with real-time, accurate and efficient conversational experiences helps in enriching the relationship with customers. Freshchat can be utilized to ensure that potential customers can be drawn towards what the company can offer or resolve any issues that an existing customer might be facing.
This solution allows customer engagement through multiple communication channels such as through the website, mobile application, WhatsApp, Meta Messenger, Apple Business Chat and LINE through native integrations and through other channels such as Viber using other integration components or API.
Freshchat also allows setting up of chatbots, web widgets and sending out marketing campaigns.
Freshsales
Freshsales is Freshworks’s utility for sales automation. Businesses can take advantage of Freshsales’ customer-centric approach, lead scoring capability, sales processes automation and automated sales workflows aptly named as Sales Sequences in growing the business by generating and engaging prospects, closing deals and providing top-notch customer service. This tool, just like the other products of Freshworks, also supports omnichannel sales operations.
Freshsales takes advantage of Freshworks’ functionality-rich CRM with notable features such as:
- Allowing business users to customize their Freshsales experience by choosing sales activities that fit their sales processes, configure stages by which a lead is converted into a customer, define custom sale modules, set-up sales pipelines bespoke to the business and add customized input data and categorization specific to a business need
- Empowering business to introduce or enhance sales processes automation with auto-assignment of leads to sales agents based on configurable rules, chat campaigns, creating workflows that automates repetitive tasks and perform pre-configured actions based on rules and logic
- Facilitating omni-channel communication with clients via email, phone, chatbots, WhatsApp, SMS, Apple Business Chat and Zoom
- Increasing productivity and efficiency in closing deals by maintaining a robust source of truth containing contracts, quotes, legal documents, product catalogs, sales goals and other pertinent information
- Providing AI-powered basis for forecasting for assisting prospects and leads and determining likelihood of success for deals
Freshsales Suite combines the powerful functions of Freshsales with Freshworks’ marketing automation software.
Freshmarketer
For marketing automation, Freshworks has Freshmarketer – a simple yet sleek solution that helps businesses with multichannel engagement to attract more customers. Freshmarketer can help companies in converting website visitors into leads and potential customers by providing insights on how to improve and enhance website browsing experience and chatbots for a more efficient strategy in engaging customers.
Freshmarketer can give a boost to a business’ marketing strategy with functions such as:
- Configurable process of converting leads to customers, website landing pages for mobile and websites, email templates, email and chat campaigns, webforms
- Provision of analyzing website visitors’ behavior
- Personalization of marketing strategy based on customer segmentation
- Presentation and analysis of marketing data
- Integration with Shopify, Zapier, Typeform, Asana and other utilities to further enhance marketing activities
Freshservice
Delving into Information Technology service management, Freshservice is Freshworks’ solution. This service desk utility features a comprehensive dashboard containing tickets categorized by resolution status as well as the average resolution time and the means to communicate with employees using different channels such as Microsoft Teams, Slack or through the built-in Freshservice chatbot. A company can also maintain its knowledge base in this utility and employ self-service IT services that could empower employees and save the company manpower, time and effort. As with other Freshworks solutions, automations and AI enhances the experience by automating redundant tasks and empowering the IT support team with intelligent recommendations to maximize effort and efficiency and easily manage tickets.
Freshservice support the following functionalities:
- IT support, for reporting, management and resolution of incidents, service requests, task automation and service delivery improvement. Incident reporting can be done in person, via email, phone or through a self-service portal.
- Change management relating to IT functions for impact and change analysis and risk mitigation
- Asset management for visibility, maximizing of utilization and lowering of costs
- Self-service portal powered by a company’s knowledge base
- Alert management for operations with proper categorization of issues
- Integrated project management tool with project planning tools and task monitoring and management that can easily be harmonized with IT service data and incidents
Freshteam
Freshteam is Freshworks’ HRIS. As with the other Freshworks products, the solution is simple, intuitive and is enhanced by automation tools and AI. This utility covers applicant tracking, employee onboarding, employee data database and time off management.
Freshteam is a compact HRIS solution, offering the basic features for HR processes that include:
- Applicant tracking system with a simplified time-to-hire process, easy publishing and management of job positions and offers and automation of recruitment processes. Freshteam includes job description templates that make it easy to post job listings. The stages in the hiring process can be configured using custom workflows.
- Automatic parsing of candidates’ uploaded resumes where candidates’ data are annotated and categorized.
- Automated and paperless onboarding and off-boarding with virtual checklists, a reminder system and support for e-signatures
- Employee database that is customizable forms with drag-and-drop features
- Self-service HR processes for capturing and maintenance of employee profile
- Employee time-off tracking, approval and management with filing and approval workflows
- HR data analysis based on applications, job listings and employee data
In addition to the applications listed above, Freshworks also offers two utilities for free: Freshping and Freshstatus. These are simple light-weight applications but will definitely add value to the administration of a company’s website.
Freshping
Freshping is a tool that can be used for monitoring URL’s, monitor and help resolve website downtimes and performance issues as well as a response time graph for the last 24 hours which can aid business in ensuring that their websites are running smoothly without access and loading issues.
Freshstatus
Freshstatus is a monitoring and incident management tool that will aid in identifying, resolving and sharing updates about website downtimes and issues to stakeholders.
Integrations with Other Platforms
Freshworks allows enhanced experience with their applications by offering a wide array of solutions and tools that can be integrated to all of their products. Showcasing these options in the form of a shop or marketplace, similar to an application store, is an inspired touch, and demonstrates how Freshworks aims to simplify configuration of applications and processes by integrating their products with other tools available in the market.
The Freshworks integration marketplace has a smart and modern listing of available integration points by having a listing of the applications by Freshworks product, and then by purpose/category. The listing also has a featured list of notable and popular integration points, collections of applications based on developer and purpose, trending list and newly added integration functions. Each integration item displays a brief description of the integration recipe, publisher/developer and an indicator if the integration point has been verified by Freshworks. To top it off, all of these integration recipes are available for free!
Here are some notable integration capabilities for each Freshworks product:
- Freshdesk + Whatsapp: This allows customers to instantly engage and communicate with a support agent and automate handling and management of tickets raised through Whatsapp.
- Freshdesk + Slack: This allows collaboration and a more efficient handling of tickets including ticket notification.
- Freshdesk + Shopify: This allows excellent and personalized customer support for a company’s e-commerce customers with the use of customers’ order history, billing information and previous conversations.
- Freshdesk + Atlassian JIRA Plus: This allows automatic creation of JIRA tickets for bugs and system incident reports based on issues raised from Freshdesk.
- Freshchat + Calendly: This allows scheduling of meetings during a conversation.
- Freshchat + Salesforce: This allows fetching of customer data from Salesforce.
- Freshchat + Line: This allows a support agent to converse with a customer in Line.
- Freshchat + Chargify: This allows handling of Chargify transactions within a conversation.
- Freshsales + Google Calendar: This allows syncing of appointments and calendar events between Freshsales and Google Calendar.
- Freshsales + Pandadoc: This allows creation of sales documents pre-filled with CRM data.
- Freshsales + HubSpot: This allows syncing of marketing contacts from HubSpot with Freshsales leads and prospects.
- Freshsales + Asana: This allows automatic creation of tasks in Asana whenever a new deal is lodged or a deal reaches a milestone.
- Freshservice + Freshdesk: This allows fetching of customer contact information from Freshdesk.
- Freshservice + ZohoCRM: This allows use of Zoho CRM to manage sales-related issues.
- Freshservice + Zapier: This allows creation of Zaps. One example is automatic notification and creation of a ticket in Freshservice when an event is cancelled in Google Calendar.
- Freshservice + Shopify: This allows use of Freshdesk contact information integration with Shopify information.
- Freshteam + Monster: This allows automatic posting of sponsored jobs on Monster.com.
- Freshteam + Jooble: This allows automatic posting of sponsored jobs on Jooble.
- Freshteam + Authbridge: This allows initiation and checking of candidate background checks in Authbridge.
- Freshteam + Performance Management – 15Five: This extends capabilities of Freshteam by allowing conduction of employee performance management via this tool.
Pros and Cons
The story of how Freshworks started and the company’s journey to the entity that it is today is very impressive. Browsing through Freshworks’ website will give one a sense of one of the key goals of the company: make things easy for businesses and users without compromising the quality and value-added services that it has to offer. The website presents a richly detailed and smartly organized listing of Freshworks’ products that clearly demonstrates the capabilities of each one including pricing options, integration capabilities and product and functionality comparison capabilities.
The care and thought given to the product portfolio demonstrates how expertly crafted Freshworks’ products are, giving an affordable and lean option with applications that are functionality-rich. Freshworks clearly aims to cover all the bases of an organization, from customer support to sales, marketing and even encompasses HR and IT functions.
With respect to the applications’ capabilities and look-and-feel, all of the applications give a unified and easy-to-use interface, with basic and easy configuration where minimal technical knowledge is needed. All of the products, save for Freshteam, have a rich arsenal of functions supported by a lot of integration points that can provide excellent automation and support for most business processes.
All of Freshworks’ products are affordable and all of the plans for these products start with a free tier. One can also try out the products with a 21-day free trial to evaluate and assess the products’ capabilities.
As for Freshdesk, this tool is an outstanding product and would work best if it will be used along with other products in the Freshworks ecosystem such as Freshchat.
Freshworks also employs top-notch customer support that further adds value to the customer experience that the company is providing, especially for the upper tiers.
Nitpicking on some of the snags of Freshworks’ products, here are some. Freshteam lacks key features such as performance appraisal, time and attendance management, compensation and payroll. For Freshsales, the integration points are fewer as compared to other sales management systems.
Although setting up and maintaining the applications does not require technical expertise, technical background will still be needed, especially in embedding functions like chatbots in a website. Customizing dashboards and the look and feel of the applications is also limited.
For businesses who would need round the clock support, what Freshworks is offering might not be well-suited since 24×7 support is only available via email and calls are only available during weekdays; this might become an issue in case urgent issues on non-working days may arise.
Lastly, pricing of Freshworks products might be an issue for businesses with high headcount versus software ratio. Based on the pricing structure of their products, the price goes up as the number of active users increases so this might be an issue for small and medium enterprises with a slightly higher headcount of active users.
Target Market
Freshworks’ products cater to companies of all sizes. This is clearly evident with the functions available in each product as well as the pricing points and options.
For companies that would want to enhance customer support and engagement and upscale customer experience, Freshdesk and Freshchat would be the perfect solution.
For empowering sales and marketing teams, Freshsales and Freshmarketer could be utilized to achieve sales goals and realize a company’s marketing team’s full potential.
For HR management and IT administration, Freshworks has Freshteam and Freshservice.
Pricing
Freshworks offers a wide array of pricing options for its products depending on the business need, goals and expected agent and customer engagement.
For Freshdesk, there are two major pricing options: Support Desk and Omnichannel options.
Under the Support desk pricing scheme:
- Free for life, up to 10 agents: $0.00
- Growth scheme: $15.00 per agent per month billed annually or $18.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Pro scheme: $49.00 per agent per month billed annually or $59.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Enterprise scheme: $79.00 per agent per month billed annually or $95.00 per agent per month billed monthly
Under the Omnichannel scheme:
- Growth Omnichannel scheme: $29.00 per agent per month billed annually or $35.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Pro Omnichannel scheme: $59.00 per agent per month billed annually or $71.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Enterprise Omnichannel scheme: $99.00 per agent per month billed annually or $119.00 per agent per month billed monthly
For Freshchat, there are two major pricing schemes: Messaging or Omnichannel option.
Under the Messaging scheme:
- Free for life, up to 100 agents: $0.00
- Growth scheme: $15.00 per agent per month billed annually or $18.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Pro scheme: $39.00 per agent per month billed annually or $47.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Enterprise scheme: $69.00 per agent per month billed annually or $83.00 per agent per month billed monthly
Under the Omnichannel scheme:
- Growth Omnichannel scheme: $29.00 per agent per month billed annually or $35.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Pro Omnichannel scheme: $59.00 per agent per month billed annually or $71.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Enterprise Omnichannel scheme: $99.00 per agent per month billed annually or $119.00 per agent per month billed monthly
For Freshsales, here are the pricing options:
- Free for life: $0.00
- Growth scheme: $15.00 per user per month billed annually or $18.00 per user per month billed monthly
- Pro scheme: $39.00 per user per month billed annually or $47.00 per user per month billed monthly
- Enterprise scheme: $69.00 per user per month billed annually or $83.00 per user per month billed monthly
For Freshmarketer, here are the pricing options:
- Free for life: $0.00 per month, with 100 marketing contracts billed annually
- Growth scheme: $19.00 per month, with 2,000 marketing contracts billed annually or $23.00 per month, with 2,000 marketing contracts billed monthly
- Pro scheme: $149.00 per month, with 5,000 marketing contracts billed annually or $179.00 per month, with 5,000 marketing contracts billed monthly
- Enterprise scheme: $299.00 per month, with 10,000 marketing contracts billed annually or $359.00 per month, with 5,000 marketing contracts billed monthly
For Freshservice, here are the pricing options:
- Starter: $19.00 per agent per month billed annually or $29.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Growth: $49.00 per agent per month billed annually or $59.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Pro: $89.00 per agent per month billed annually or $109.00 per agent per month billed monthly
- Enterprise: $109.00 per agent per month billed annually or $129.00 per agent per month billed monthly
For Freshteam, there are two major pricing schemes: Monthly and Annual options.
Under the Monthly scheme:
- Free for life: $0.00 for up to 50 employees
- Growth scheme: $1.20 per employee per month + $71.00 platform fee per month
- Pro scheme: $2.40 per employee per month + $119.00 platform fee per month
- Enterprise scheme: $4.80 per employee per month + $203.00 platform fee per month
Under the Annual scheme:
- Free for life: $0.00 for up to 50 employees
- Growth scheme: $1.00 per employee per month + $59.00 platform fee per month
- Pro scheme: $2.00 per employee per month + $99.00 platform fee per month
- Enterprise scheme: $4.00 per employee per month + $169.00 platform fee per month
Conclusion
Freshworks’ products offer outstanding solution options for most of a business’ needs. The business solutions that the company offers range from lean and simple for small businesses to functionality-rich enterprise solutions. These applications are easy to use, come with clean and intuitive interface and allow integration with other tools in the Freshworks ecosystem as well as third party solutions. Lastly, the products are affordable and the pricing options include a free tier.
Freshworks’ comprehensive suite of applications is ideal for small and medium-sized companies. Maximizing the features and native integration between these products would be an ideal option for entrepreneurs to build an ecosystem that can take care of most of their needs as their companies grow, thrive and scale up.
Overall, Freshworks is an excellent option offering a full suite of solutions and has almost every solution for everyone, be it a medium enterprise that will go with the full Freshworks portfolio or a small business for which one or two solutions would suffice.
