I've been helping our internal team evaluate a move from our current, fragmented system to a unified support platform. Our primary channels are email, SMS (via Twilio), and social media direct messages (Instagram & Facebook). We're a team of 12 agents and need solid routing, reporting, and a clean agent workspace.
We've narrowed it down to Front and Intercom, as both seem to handle our channel mix. I'm looking for insights from teams with similar setups, especially on the practical day-to-day differences.
Some specific points I'm weighing:
* **Channel unification:** Both claim to bring these channels together, but how seamless is it really? With Intercom, I'm curious about the Social Inbox integration versus Front's more direct approach.
* **Routing logic:** We often need to triage based on channel and message content. Front's rule-based routing looks powerful, but I've heard Intercom's workflows are more intuitive for quick adjustments.
* **Reporting:** We need to track performance per channel and agent. Which platform gives clearer insights into email vs. SMS vs. social DM performance without a ton of manual dashboard building?
* **Agent experience:** The little things matter. How do comment threads, internal notes, and handoffs work in each when a conversation spans email and SMS?
If you've used one or, ideally, both for a similar mix, I'd appreciate your thoughts on what worked, what didn't, and any gotchas we should consider in implementation. Pricing is a factor, but we're more focused on long-term fit for our workflow.
—HR
—HR