Comparing Salesforce Service Cloud and Gladly

As a tech leader for your business, you need to consider the costs, features, and scalability of your CX infrastructure in order to ensure the long-term viability of your support center — no matter how big your company grows.

When you’re deciding on the right CX solution for your organization, it’s common to go with the option provided by a company you already use in another part of your infrastructure. In this case, it might mean implementing Salesforce Service Cloud due to familiarity with the Salesforce brand. But if you compare Salesforce Service Cloud against Gladly, you’ll find that prioritizing quality over convenience can yield greater long-term benefits.

Let’s break down the value of a solution like Salesforce Service Cloud and see how it stacks up against a more specialized customer service industry leader like Gladly.

What Is Salesforce Service Cloud?

An extension of the overall Salesforce platform, Service Cloud is a cloud-based CRM solution that works off of the core infrastructure to deliver hands-on service, AI-driven solutions, and real-time support analytics.

Launched in 2009, Service Cloud fits in with the Salesforce suite of business management tools by providing a customer support platform already integrated with and working off of the core Salesforce CRM.

Which Is Better, Gladly or Salesforce Service Cloud?

At a glance, the distinctions between Gladly and Service Cloud are abundantly clear. Gladly is an independent support solution preloaded with state-of-the-art features, integrations, and scalable, ticket-free pricing. Meanwhile, Salesforce Service Cloud is a comprehensive solution for existing Salesforce users, albeit at an additional cost for licensees who want to fully unlock the platform.

But as you delve deeper into some key differences between each solution, you’ll find that one is a service- and agent-oriented solution while the other is simply a tool that works more readily with existing infrastructure.

Comparing Gladly and Salesforce Service Cloud Features

Salesforce features

Salesforce Service Cloud offers a wide-ranging set of AI-driven and cloud-based features for efficient data management and application. Coupled with the larger Salesforce ecosystem, Service Cloud also offers some of the most robust real-time analytics available in the world of support.

However, Salesforce integration is notoriously complex for new users — often requiring on-site support and implementation to fully onboard the platform. Gladly integrates with numerous existing IT infrastructures while boasting a flexible API, making it an easy process to get it up and running.

According to Info-Tech research, Gladly was rated higher than Salesforce, Kustomer, and Zendesk in the Ease of Implementation category.

Gladly features

Gladly is one of the most future-minded customer service solutions, particularly for ecommerce customers. Gladly offers automation features like intelligent People Match routing and an AI-powered self-service platform, Sidekick. The analytics options offered by Gladly provide channel-specific insights that can be accessed from a centralized hub, benefiting CX leaders and individual agents alike.

According to Info-Tech research, Gladly was rated higher than Salesforce, Kustomer, and Zendesk in the Reliability category.

Gladly also offers an agent-friendly conversation-driven system that consolidates all customer communications into a single interface. By providing a transparent view of an entire customer’s history, Gladly avoids the common issue of case collision that debilitates Service Cloud’s legacy ticketing system. This approach reduces hassle for both customers and agents.

According to Info-Tech research, Gladly was rated higher than Salesforce, Kustomer, and Zendesk in the Security Protects category.

Comparing Gladly and Salesforce Service Cloud Pricing

Gladly and Service Cloud have distinct pricing structures primarily because they cater to different target customers. Gladly focuses on B2C brands, while Service Cloud is geared toward B2B companies.

Gladly Pricing

• Hero Package: $180 per support hero/month, billed annually; with a 10 hero minimum
• Superhero Package: $210 per support hero/month, billed annually; with a 45 hero minimum

Salesforce Service Cloud Pricing

• Essentials: $25 per user/month, billed annually
• Professional: $75 per user/month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $150 per user/month, billed annually
• Unlimited: $300 per user/month, billed annually

While pricing is transparent and cheaper at lower levels, Salesforce licensing typically causes a “price-berg” of implementation costs, which can amount upwards of $100,000. In addition, because of the requirement for a comprehensive Salesforce CRM, users are inundated with far more than just support tools. For many brands, especially ecommerce ones, these additional features may exceed what they actually need. Meanwhile, Gladly offers one of the most transparent, scalable pricing models in the realm of support technology.

The Final Verdict on Gladly vs. Salesforce Service Cloud

If you’re an exclusively B2B company that wants all of its CRM needs handled within one interface, then Salesforce Service Cloud could be a great solution for covering all of your bases. But for growing B2C and ecommerce businesses that want a more specialized approach to customer service and a support system for agents, Gladly is the superior choice.

To see how Gladly can be your ideal CX partner, try a demo and explore the potential of a truly optimized support center.

DEMO

Experience the first all-in-one customer service platform

Sign up