CRM or Help Desk: What's The Difference Anyway?

The modern business structure is divided into two parts. One is Team CRM and the other is Team help desk service. "But why are you separating? Isn't it the same?" - Some may have reasons. And frankly, it isn't. They may look alike, but to be honest, there are two completely different tools intended to accomplish radically different things.

But that is the only bold statement. Therefore, to solve these two problems, I analyzed them in a stack. Now let's look at the depths of each system and explain the differences mentioned above. Let us begin!

What Is A CRM System?

Before starting the comparison, we first define what each system is and what problems it can solve. This will give you a better understanding of how they differ and which one is more suitable.

In short, Customer Relationship Management (CRM for short) is a dedicated platform for managing current customer relationships. At that time, all customer information was stored separately across multiple departments. Your CEO knew a few things about your business needs, sales reps had other information in their inbox, and accountants knew how to send invoices.

With the CRM system, you can collect and store all the information you need about your clients and potential clients. Contains information about your characters, companies, agreements and relationships with your company. 

As the industry grows and the company grows, having all of your customer information in one convenient, easily transferable location is more than an option. After all, if you don't put them all in one place, your support team will slow down and your staff may go offline and lose. Providing a good service requires context.

This is where the CRM system comes into play. Its purpose is to solve all of the above through a set of features. Centralize all your customer information in one place for easy access from a distance.

What Is A Helpdesk?

Now that we understand what a CRM is, let's take a look at what a help desk system is and how they can help. We've already talked about help desks, but these are cloud or on-premises software systems that allow agents to serve customers quickly and effectively.

On paper, the two systems are very similar, but in reality they sound exactly the same to many, but they are not. Wherever CRM systems maintain customer information, help desk tools can leverage that information to help agents provide better customer service. Admittedly, from answering questions to solving product-specific problems, help desk systems are great for that.

The help desk support services also gives you all the information you need for your customers and your company. However, it is related to customer service and support issues and their associated tickets.

But that is not all. You can also integrate your help desk solution into the social media platform of your choice. You can also use it to automate answers, answer common questions, and redirect people to information portals (self-service portals). As you can see, the help desk is far superior to CRM in terms of support features.

You can also use the help desk to get new customers before closing this section. Yes, most helpdesk providers offer many dedicated customer acquisition tools that CRM does not typically offer.