“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates
Whenever entrepreneurs tell me that they are sick of customer complaints, I think of the above-mentioned Bill Gates’s famous quote. While customer grievances are inevitable, I think they help your business learn from mistakes and improve. It’s all about perspective!
If you, too, feel overwhelmed by customer complaints, let me introduce you to a complaint management system—a versatile tool that can help you centralize a high volume of complaints from multiple channels. It can save your business from delayed responses and help build customer trust.
In this blog, I will share 8 tools to help you turn complaints into compliments! Let’s go!
What Is a Complaint Management System?
Complaint management software allows businesses to manage all incoming customer complaints and their resolutions in a single platform. Customer support agents can assign, prioritize, and quickly respond to complaints to ensure the highest customer satisfaction.
Whether a customer complaint is sent via email or shared on any leading social media platform, the top complaint management software can help you track all grievances in one place. Also, you can even capture valuable customer feedback to reduce future complaints and enhance the support experience.
Read More: 10 Customer Complaint Response Templates That Work Like a Charm
Which Is the Best Complaint Management System?
If you don’t have time to review all the tools, here’s a summarized version of my top three picks:
Option A: ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk offers powerful AI features to understand customer intent and share automated responses. With the knowledge base integration, you can reduce ticket volume by allowing customers to self-serve. Collaboration features like internal notes and parent-child ticketing also improve team coordination and efficiency.
Option B: Hiver
Hiver turns Gmail into a help desk, allowing teams to manage complaints directly within the Gmail interface. It offers shared inboxes, automation, and reporting tools, making it ideal for businesses using Google Workspace. While it’s great for email complaints, it misses out on other key channels.
Option C: Vivantio
Vivantio is tailored for IT service management, helping teams handle technical complaints with ITIL-aligned processes. It integrates with tools like Jira and SolarWinds, making it perfect for managing complex IT complaints efficiently. However, the tool comes with a steep learning curve.
Top 10 Complaint Management Systems to Consider This Year
To make it easier for small, medium, and large companies to handle customer complaints, I’ve created this detailed list. While I’ve used most of these tools on my own, some were discovered after days of research on software review platforms.
Feel free to explore their unique features, pros and cons, and subscription plans.
1. ProProfs Help Desk – Best for AI Help Desk & Support Ticketing for Customer Delight
As free complaint management software, ProProfs Help Desk impressed me with its easy-to-use interface and powerful AI automation capabilities.
I really like the customer intent analysis feature, which helps me decode lengthy and detailed complaints in seconds. Its AI-driven response suggestions enable my agents to reply quickly and accurately, reducing the time needed to address complex issues.
The integrated knowledge base allows our customers to find answers to common questions 24/7, significantly lowering the support ticket volume. For instance, they can access FAQ or help center pages on product returns, refund policies, delivery schedules, billing, etc
For efficient team collaboration, ProProfs Help Desk offers features like internal notes, which allow agents to leave helpful information for colleagues, and parent-child ticketing, enabling multiple teams to work together. This fosters better coordination and faster resolutions.
What you’ll like:
- Canned responses can be created for common customer complaints
- Shared inbox to access multiple email inboxes like support@, complaints@, help@, etc.
- ProProfs Live Chat, Knowledge Base & CSAT for a complete solution
- Awesome human support 24/7 via phone, chat, and knowledge base
What you may not like:
- Dark user interface option is not available
- Lacks an on-premise version
Pricing:
FREE for a single user. Plans start at $19.99/user/month for 2 or more users.
2. Apptivo Help Desk – Best for Complaint Assignment & Organization
Image Source: Google Workspace Marketplace
Apptivo Help Desk helps businesses manage customer complaints efficiently through its advanced assignment features. It ensures that complaints are directed to the right team or agent without delay, improving response times.
My favorite aspect is the platform’s easy-to-use interface, which allows users to organize and prioritize complaints, ensuring no issue is left unattended. This enhances overall customer satisfaction and team productivity.
Also, Apptivo offers multi-channel support, allowing businesses to capture complaints from various sources. On the downside, its chatbot lacks AI capabilities, unlike its closest competitors in the market.
What you’ll like:
- Automatic complaint assignment to the most relevant team
- Intuitive dashboard for tracking the status and priority of complaints
- Multi-channel support to handle complaints from email, chat, and phone
- Integrated analytics for performance and complaint resolution tracking
What you may not like:
- Limited customization options for advanced users
- Can be overwhelming for very small teams due to the numerous features
Pricing:
Starts at $20/user/month.
3. Zoho Desk – Best for Context-Driven Support
Image Source: Zoho Desk
After using Zoho Desk for more than six months, I can say one thing with confidence—it is designed to provide customer support agents with all the context they need to handle complaints effectively.
For example, by consolidating complaint history, customer interactions, and relevant information in one place, my agents can offer faster and more personalized solutions.
The platform’s AI-driven assistant helps me predict customer needs and offer proactive solutions to their complaints. Also, Zoho Desk’s self-service portals enable users to manage their own complaints, reducing dependency on agents while maintaining excellent service levels.
What you’ll like:
- AI assistant that offers suggested solutions for agents
- Contextual ticket views that showcase all customer interactions in one place
- Self-service portals for customers to track and manage their complaints
- Workflow automation for complaint escalation and resolution tracking
What you may not like:
- Limited functionality in the free version
- Zoho Desk’s focus on customer data may lead to information overload for agents
Pricing:
Starts at $14/user/monht (a free plan is available with limitations)
4. Hiver – Best Gmail-Based Help Desk Solution
Image Source: Hiver
Hiver transformed our Gmail into a powerful help desk, allowing my support agents to manage complaints directly from their Gmail inboxes. This integration streamlined our support workflow and helped us manage email complaints effortlessly.
By using shared inboxes and collaboration features, Hiver allowed us to handle complaints more efficiently without leaving Gmail.
The tool also offers robust reporting and automation tools, making it a simple yet effective solution for complaint management right within a familiar interface.
On the downside, Hiver is strictly limited to Google Workspace users. So, if you use any other email client like Outlook or Yahoo Mail, the tool does not offer anything.
What you’ll like:
- Complaint tracking and management directly from Gmail
- Shared inboxes for teams to handle complaints collaboratively
- In-depth reporting and analytics within Gmail
- Automated ticket assignment based on pre-set rules
What you may not like:
- Heavy reliance on Gmail, limiting integration with non-Google services
- Features like advanced reporting come with higher-tier pricing
Pricing:
Starts at $19/user/month
5. Vivantio – Best for Handling IT Service Management Complaints
Image Source: Softwareadvice.com
If you want complaint-handling software to track IT issues, you may want to consider Vivantio.
The tool is tailored for IT service management, providing powerful tools for managing technical complaints. It helps IT departments streamline the process of logging, tracking, and resolving complaints, ensuring that service disruptions are handled efficiently.
With its ITIL-aligned processes, Vivantio makes it easy to handle complex complaints while maintaining high standards of service delivery. This makes it a favorite among IT service teams.
Also, its integration capabilities with tools like Jira and SolarWinds further enhance the ability to manage large-scale IT complaints and improve collaboration across departments.
What you’ll like:
- ITIL-aligned complaint management processes
- Advanced incident tracking and resolution workflows
- Customizable dashboards for real-time monitoring of complaints
- Integration with popular IT management tools like Jira and SolarWinds
What you may not like:
- Focuses heavily on IT complaints, less ideal for non-technical complaints
- Higher pricing may not be suitable for smaller businesses
Pricing:
Starts at $59/user/month
6. Complaints Pro – Best for Workload Tracking
Image Source: Causia.com
Complaints Pro is designed to help businesses manage their complaint workload efficiently, ensuring that no team member is overwhelmed. I’m impressed with its ability to automatically distribute complaints to agents based on availability, improving team efficiency.
If you ask me, I think the platform is ideal for businesses that handle high volumes of complaints and need to balance the workload among multiple teams. This ensures that complaints are resolved promptly without overburdening any single team member.
With its dynamic workload tracking, Complaints Pro gives managers insight into team performance, helping them make informed decisions to optimize complaint resolution processes.
What you’ll like:
- Dynamic workload tracking with automatic complaint distribution
- Performance analytics to monitor team efficiency
- SLA management to ensure complaints are resolved within the deadlines
- Multi-channel complaint intake, including email, phone, and social media
What you may not like:
- Not as flexible for non-complaint-related tasks
- Integration with third-party apps can be challenging
Pricing:
Custom pricing.
7. Next4biz CSM – Best for Customer Self-Service
Image Source: Capterra
While searching for a tool with great self-service options, a colleague recommended Next4biz CSM to me.
This complaint-tracking software helped me empower customers to resolve their own complaints through self-service. The self-service portal allowed our customers to log in and track their own complaints without needing to contact support.
Businesses that value a customer-driven resolution approach will benefit from Next4biz’s extensive self-service options, paired with AI tools for streamlined complaint handling.
However, it’s important to note that the tool’s initial setup and configuration can be time-consuming.
What you’ll like:
- Self-service portal where users can log and track their own complaints
- Advanced knowledge base integration for self-resolution
- Customizable workflows for automatic complaint escalation
- AI-powered chatbots for basic complaint handling
What you may not like:
- Setup and configuration can be time-intensive
- Self-service focus may not suit businesses requiring more hands-on support
Pricing:
Starts at $60/user/month
8. Jira Service Management – Best for Boosting Collaboration Between Dev & Ops Teams
Image Source: Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management is a leading platform for managing complaints that require close collaboration between development and operations teams. The tool integrates seamlessly with Jira, allowing DevOps teams to handle complaints more effectively.
I think this platform is ideal for businesses that need to resolve IT and infrastructure-related complaints quickly, as it provides incident tracking and automated workflows. It ensures that complaints are addressed by the right teams without delay.
On the downside, the tool comes with a steep learning curve. You will have to devote additional time to agent training and learning.
What you’ll like:
- Seamless integration with Jira for development and IT complaint handling
- Automated workflows for incident escalation and resolution
- Comprehensive SLA management and reporting
- Collaboration tools to connect DevOps teams for faster issue resolution
What you may not like:
- More suited for IT and DevOps complaints, less flexible for general complaints
- Requires time for users to learn and adapt to the interface
Pricing:
Starts at $17.65/user/month (a free plan is available with limitations)
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation of products or tools chosen for this article follows an unbiased, systematic approach that ensures a fair, insightful, and well-rounded review. This method employs six key factors:
- User Reviews / Ratings: Direct experiences from users, including ratings and feedback from reputable sites, provide a ground-level perspective. This feedback is critical in understanding overall satisfaction and potential problems.
- Essential Features & Functionality: The value of a product is ascertained by its core features and overall functionality. Through an in-depth exploration of these aspects, the practical usefulness and effectiveness of the tools are carefully evaluated.
- Ease of Use: The user-friendliness of a product or service is assessed, focusing on the design, interface, and navigation. This ensures a positive experience for users of all levels of expertise.
- Customer Support: The quality of customer support is examined, taking into account its efficiency and how well it supports users in different phases – setting up, addressing concerns, and resolving operational issues.
- Value for Money: Value for money is evaluated by comparing the quality, performance, and features. The goal is to help the reader understand whether they would be getting their money’s worth.
- Personal Experience / Experts’ Opinions: This part of the evaluation criteria draws insightful observations from the personal experience of the writer and the opinions of industry experts.
Speed Up Issue Resolution With the Best Complaint Management Software
Most people will tell you that complaints are unpleasant and you must eliminate them. But in reality, complaints and negative reviews bring you closer to your improvement areas and present the opportunity to delight customers.
Before investing in customer complaint management software, it is essential to check the tool’s interface, pricing, workflows, and other factors.
In the end, I would recommend you choose ProProfs Help Desk to centralize customer grievances and track them until they are resolved. Also, features such as complaint prioritization, automated routing, shared inbox, knowledge base, CSAT surveys, etc., make this tool all the more special.
FAQ’s
Who uses complaint management software?
Complaint management software is used by customer service teams, IT support departments, and businesses of all sizes to manage, resolve, and track customer or user complaints efficiently.
What are the benefits of complaint management software?
The software helps streamline complaint resolution, improves customer satisfaction, ensures accountability, and provides data insights to identify recurring issues, making overall service management more efficient.
What are the top features of complaint management software?
Key features include automated complaint tracking, multi-channel support, SLA management, real-time analytics, and customizable workflows to streamline the process and improve resolution times.
How much does customer complaint software cost?
The cost varies depending on the provider, features, and scale. It can range from free versions for small teams to $10-$100 per user per month for premium or enterprise solutions.
How to choose the best customer complaint tracking software?
When choosing software, consider factors like ease of use, scalability, integration capabilities, support for multiple channels, and reporting features. Align your choice with your business needs and budget.
How long does it take to implement customer complaint software?
Implementation time can range from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the software's complexity, customizations, and the size of the organization using it.
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