Hiver - Detailed Review
Productivity Tools
Hiver - Product Overview
Overview
Hiver is an AI-driven email collaboration platform that simplifies team communication and enhances customer service efficiency. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features.Primary Function
Hiver is built to help teams deliver fast and empathetic customer service by streamlining email collaboration. It integrates with existing email inboxes, such as Gmail and Outlook, allowing teams to manage customer inquiries and support requests more effectively.Target Audience
Hiver is ideal for businesses that prioritize customer satisfaction and rely heavily on email communication. The target market includes:Customer-Centric Businesses
Particularly in industries like e-commerce, SaaS, and customer support.Email-Dependent Teams
Teams that rely heavily on email for internal and external communication.Small to Medium-Sized Businesses
Businesses that may not have dedicated customer service teams.Remote Teams
Teams that need to collaborate seamlessly across different locations.Key Features
Hiver offers several key features that make it a valuable tool for teams:Shared Inbox
Hiver provides a shared inbox where team members can view and respond to emails collectively, ensuring no email goes unanswered and enabling fast and consistent customer service.Email Collaboration
Teams can assign emails to specific team members, add tags for easy categorization, and leave internal notes for context. This feature eliminates the need for forwarding or CCing emails.AI-Powered Features
Hiver includes AI-powered tools such as:AI Summarizer
Summarizes long email threads into bite-sized summaries for easier handoffs.AI Compose
Helps support staff craft well-written emails quickly, adjusting tone and ensuring readability.AI Openers
Suggests pre-written responses to start customer conversations positively.Automations
Users can set up automated workflows for repetitive tasks, such as assigning emails based on keywords or sending automated responses to customer inquiries. This reduces manual effort and increases efficiency.Custom Fields
Allows teams to add unique fields to customer queries, such as Due Dates or MRR, and automate workflows based on these fields. This feature also provides powerful analytics capabilities to optimize resources and plan better.Analytics and Reporting
Hiver offers analytics and reporting tools that provide insights into team performance and customer interactions. Users can track response times, resolution rates, and other key metrics to optimize their email management processes.Integration with Other Tools
Hiver seamlessly connects with over 100 apps, including Jira, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Asana, bringing all customer context into one platform. By centralizing email communication and enabling real-time collaboration, Hiver helps teams work more efficiently and deliver exceptional customer service. Hiver - User Interface and Experience
Hiver Overview
Hiver, an AI-powered customer service platform, is renowned for its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with Google Workspace, particularly Gmail.
User Interface
Hiver’s interface is intuitive and easy to use, requiring minimal training for new users. Since it works directly within Gmail, it leverages a familiar environment, making it simple for teams to adapt and start using the platform quickly. This integration ensures that users do not need to learn a new system, as all the features are accessible right from their Gmail inbox.
Ease of Use
The platform is designed to be highly accessible, even for those who are not tech-savvy. Hiver’s features, such as email delegation, sharing, and monitoring, are straightforward to implement and manage. The automated routing and response management tools also simplify the process of handling customer emails, reducing the time and effort required to manage customer support.
Overall User Experience
Users have generally positive feedback about the user experience with Hiver. It enhances team collaboration through features like internal discussions, assignments, and tasks, all of which can be managed within the platform. The analytics and reporting tools provide valuable insights into performance and productivity, helping teams to optimize their workflows. Additionally, Hiver’s AI capabilities, such as Harvey, the AI bot, assist in drafting responses and summarizing conversations, further streamlining the support process.
Customization and Integration
Hiver allows for significant customization, including the ability to change chat colors, text, logos, and branding. It also integrates with over 100 apps, making it versatile and adaptable to various business needs. This flexibility ensures that the platform can grow with the business, providing a scalable solution for customer service and email management.
Feedback and Support
Users appreciate the support provided by Hiver, with many praising the timely and personable follow-ups from the support team. However, there have been some mixed reviews regarding the setup process and pricing, but overall, the ease of use and the value it provides are highly regarded.
Conclusion
In summary, Hiver offers a user-friendly interface that is easy to use, integrates seamlessly with Gmail, and provides a comprehensive set of tools to enhance customer service and team productivity.
Hiver - Key Features and Functionality
Hiver: AI-Powered Customer Service Platform
Hiver, an AI-powered customer service platform, offers several key features and functionalities that significantly enhance team productivity and customer service. Here are the main features in the Productivity Tools and AI-driven categories:
Shared Inbox
Hiver’s shared inbox allows teams to collaborate seamlessly on incoming emails. Team members can assign emails to specific individuals, leave internal notes, and track the status of each email in real-time. This feature eliminates the need for forwarding emails back and forth, reducing response times and improving customer satisfaction.
Email Notes
Users can add contextual notes to emails, providing important information or updates for team members. This ensures everyone is on the same page and can easily access relevant information when responding to customer inquiries.
Email Templates
Hiver offers a library of customizable email templates that can be shared among team members. This feature saves time on repetitive tasks and ensures consistency in responses to customers.
Collision Alerts
Collision alerts notify team members when someone else is viewing or replying to an email, preventing duplicate responses and ensuring a coordinated approach to customer communication.
Automations
Hiver allows users to set up automated workflows for common tasks, such as assigning emails based on keywords or sending automated responses to customer inquiries. This automation saves time and reduces manual workload.
AI-Powered Summaries
Hiver’s AI Summarizer breaks down long email threads into bite-sized summaries, making it easier for teams to pass on important information during handoffs. This feature reduces the time spent scrolling through lengthy email conversations and ensures key details are readily available.
AI Compose
AI Compose helps support staff craft well-written emails quickly. It saves time in editing, allows for adjusting the tone and formality of the email, and optimizes the response’s flow, readability, and accuracy. This feature enables faster and more polished responses to customer queries.
AI Openers
Hiver’s AI openers suggest thoughtful, pre-written responses at the start of a customer conversation. This feature speeds up response times and ensures a positive first impression by providing ready-made suggestions for initial replies.
Custom Connectors and Integrations
Hiver integrates seamlessly with various third-party tools, including CRM systems, project management software, and other internal tools. Custom Connectors allow for automated data syncing between Hiver and other tools, ensuring that teams always have the latest and most accurate information without manual updates. This integration is user-friendly and does not require complex development.
Analytics and Reporting
Hiver provides detailed analytics and reporting tools that track key metrics such as response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores. These insights help teams identify areas for improvement, optimize their workflows, and track progress towards their customer service goals.
AI Sorting and Predefined Rules
Hiver allows users to set up predefined rules to automatically sort incoming emails into intuitive categories or folders. The AI sorting feature helps in organizing emails efficiently, reducing the time spent on manual sorting and categorization.
These features, particularly those driven by AI, help teams work more efficiently, reduce repetitive tasks, and deliver exceptional customer service by providing quick, accurate, and well-crafted responses.
Hiver - Performance and Accuracy
Performance of Hiver
Hiver, an AI-driven productivity tool, demonstrates strong performance in several key areas, particularly in enhancing email management and customer support.Efficiency and Automation
Hiver integrates seamlessly with email platforms like Gmail and Outlook, allowing teams to manage customer support and collaboration directly from their familiar inbox interface. It automates repetitive tasks, such as assigning emails based on keywords, categorizing tickets, and suggesting intelligent email templates through its AI bot, Harvey. This automation significantly improves team productivity by freeing up agents to focus on more critical tasks.Collaboration and Shared Inboxes
Hiver’s shared inboxes feature enables multiple users to access and manage a single email account, ensuring efficient collaboration and clear ownership of emails. This feature simplifies the management of shared inboxes like support@ or info@, making it easier for teams to respond promptly and maintain productivity.Analytics and Reporting
The platform provides detailed analytics and reporting tools that track key support metrics such as response times, team workload, and customer satisfaction scores. These insights help teams optimize their support processes and ensure compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs).Customer Support
Hiver is praised for its ability to humanize customer conversations. Unlike some other platforms, Hiver allows replies to go out from the support staff’s personal email IDs, making interactions more personal and empathetic. Additionally, Hiver offers a customer portal and knowledge base, empowering customers to find answers on their own and submit issues efficiently.Security and Compliance
Hiver ensures the security of customer information through data encryption, compliance tracking, and controlled access. It is compliant with various standards such as GDPR, ISO27001, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA, and CCPA, providing a secure environment for managing customer data.Accuracy
AI-Powered Features
Hiver’s AI features, such as Harvey, the AI bot, enhance accuracy in several ways. For instance, Harvey can summarize long email conversations into concise notes, identify and close non-actionable queries, and suggest the most appropriate email templates. These features reduce the time agents spend on manual tasks and ensure that responses are accurate and relevant.Real-Time Collaboration
The real-time collaboration features ensure that all team members are on the same page, reducing errors and miscommunications. Assigning ownership to every email, chat, or message helps in maintaining accuracy and accountability in customer interactions.Limitations and Areas for Improvement
Customization
One of the limitations of Hiver is its limited advanced customization options. While the platform is intuitive and easy to use, it may not offer the level of customization that some users might require, particularly for complex workflows.Pricing
Hiver’s pricing can be a challenge for small teams as they scale. The higher-tier plans, which include advanced features like SLA management and in-depth reporting, can be more expensive, making it less affordable for smaller businesses.Integration Limitations
While Hiver integrates well with popular tools like Hubspot, Salesforce, and Jira, there are some limitations when it comes to integrating with niche tools. This could be an area for improvement to cater to a broader range of users.Initial Setup for Complex Automations
Setting up complex automations in Hiver may require some initial effort, which could be a minor hurdle for some users. However, the overall setup and configuration process is generally straightforward and does not require significant technical expertise.In summary, Hiver performs well in automating email workflows, enhancing collaboration, and providing accurate and personalized customer support. However, it has some limitations in terms of customization, pricing, and integration with niche tools.
Hiver - Pricing and Plans
Hiver Pricing Overview
Hiver, an AI-powered customer service platform, offers a structured pricing model with several plans to cater to different business needs. Here’s a detailed breakdown of their pricing structure and the features included in each plan:
Lite Plan
Price:
$19 per user per month, billed annually.
Features:
- 2 shared email inboxes
- Unlimited email templates
- Live chat, knowledge base, and WhatsApp support
- Collision alerts
- Unlimited tags
- Free onboarding assistance
- Multi-channel support across email, live chat, and phone
Growth Plan
Price:
$29 per user per month, billed annually.
Features:
- All features from the Lite plan
- 3 shared inboxes
- CSAT surveys
- 15 rule-based automations
- Advanced analytics
- Zapier app integrations
Pro Plan
Price:
$49 per user per month, billed annually.
Features:
- All features from the Growth plan
- Unlimited automations
- 5 shared inboxes
- Chatbots
- Harvey AI
- Salesforce integration
- Round robin assignment
- Integration with productivity tools like Asana, Jira, Zapier, and Slack
Elite Plan
Price:
$79 per user per month, billed annually.
Features:
- All features from the Pro plan
- Unlimited shared email inboxes
- Skill-based auto-assignment
- HIPAA compliance
- Okta app integration
- Scheduled custom data reports
- Dedicated success manager
- AI bot
Free Trial
Hiver offers a 7-day free trial, providing access to the Elite plan features during this period. No credit card is required for the trial.
No Free Plan
Unlike some other customer service platforms, Hiver does not offer a free plan. The free option is limited to the 7-day trial period.
Each plan is designed to meet the varying needs of businesses, from small teams to large enterprises, and includes a range of features to enhance customer service and productivity.
Hiver - Integration and Compatibility
Integrations with Popular Tools
Hiver integrates seamlessly with a wide range of popular tools and applications. Some of the notable integrations include:
- Salesforce: Hiver allows you to assign conversations based on Salesforce CRM data, saving time and effort in manual email delegation.
- JIRA: This integration enables you to manage project tasks and issues directly from your email inbox.
- Asana: You can collaborate on tasks, add context, and get complete visibility into task status within your email.
- Slack: Hiver integrates with Slack to automate notifications and updates about new emails in shared mailboxes.
- QuickBooks: You can manage invoices directly from your email, ensuring smoother financial management.
- Okta: This integration automates user lifecycle management and access control.
- WhatsApp and Aircall: Hiver supports integrations with these tools to manage customer communications and voice calls within your email.
Zapier Integration
Hiver also integrates with Zapier, which allows you to connect Hiver with over 7,000 other apps. This integration enables you to automate various workflows, such as creating tasks in Asana, Trello cards, or deals in Pipedrive and Zendesk Sell, all triggered by new emails in Hiver shared mailboxes.
Custom API Integrations
For tools that are not supported out-of-the-box, Hiver provides an API that allows developers to build custom integrations. This flexibility is crucial for businesses with specific needs, as it enables them to integrate Hiver with any tool or app they use.
Platform Compatibility
Hiver is designed to work seamlessly within your existing email environment, particularly with Google Workspace. It offers a familiar interface that reduces the learning curve for teams, making it easy to adopt and use across different departments.
Device Compatibility
Given its web-based nature and integration with cloud services like Google Workspace, Hiver is accessible and functional across various devices, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. This ensures that teams can collaborate and manage customer service from anywhere, using any device with an internet connection.
Security and Compliance
Hiver is compliant with major security standards such as GDPR, ISO27001, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA, and CCPA, ensuring that your data is secure and protected across all integrations and platforms.
Conclusion
In summary, Hiver’s extensive integration capabilities, custom API options, and compatibility with major productivity and customer service tools make it a versatile and effective solution for teams looking to streamline their workflows and enhance productivity.
Hiver - Customer Support and Resources
Customer Support Options
24/7 Support
Hiver provides round-the-clock support across all its pricing plans, ensuring that you can get help whenever you need it.
Personalized Onboarding
Hiver offers free personalized onboarding to help your team get started quickly and smoothly.
Multi-Channel Support
Hiver manages customer interactions across various channels, including email, chat, phone, and WhatsApp, all from within your familiar email inbox (Gmail or Outlook).
Additional Resources
Knowledge Base and Customer Portal
Hiver includes a customer portal and knowledge base that empower customers to find answers on their own, submit issues, and track their resolutions. This also helps employees quickly locate the information they need.
CSAT Surveys
Hiver allows you to collect feedback from customers through Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys, helping you measure and improve service quality.
Analytics and Reporting
The platform provides detailed analytics to track key support metrics such as response times, team workload, and customer satisfaction scores. This helps in making data-driven decisions to improve support efficiency.
Automation and AI Features
Hiver includes AI-powered chatbots for instant support, an AI summarizer to turn long conversations into concise notes, and automation tools to handle repetitive tasks. These features significantly improve team productivity.
Integrations
Hiver integrates with over 100 apps, including Hubspot, Salesforce, Monday, Jira, Asana, and more, bringing all your customer context into one place.
Security and Compliance
Hiver is compliant with important standards like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, ISO27001, and SOC2 Type II, ensuring your customer data is handled securely.
Ease of Use and Setup
Simple Setup
Hiver can be set up in less than one hour and works directly within your existing email interface, eliminating the need for extra software or complex setups.
User-Friendly Interface
The platform is praised for its ease of use, allowing teams to be up and running from day one without the usual hassles of traditional ticketing systems.
By leveraging these features and resources, Hiver helps support teams manage customer interactions efficiently, reduce response times, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Hiver - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Hiver
Hiver offers several significant advantages that make it a valuable tool for teams managing customer support and email workflows:User-Friendly Interface
Hiver is built directly within Gmail, providing an intuitive and familiar interface that makes it easy for teams to adopt and use without needing to switch platforms.Automation
Hiver’s automation features are highly praised. It allows teams to automate repetitive tasks such as assigning emails based on keywords, categorizing tickets, and distributing workload in a round-robin manner. This significantly improves team productivity and streamlines email workflows.Collaboration and Shared Inboxes
Hiver enables real-time collaboration across all customer communication channels. It manages shared inboxes efficiently, allowing teams to create ownership for every email, chat, call, or WhatsApp message, and collaborate faster internally.Analytics and Performance Tracking
Hiver provides detailed analytics and reporting tools that track key support metrics such as response times, team workload, customer satisfaction scores, and SLA management. This helps teams stay on top of their performance and identify areas for improvement.Integrations
Hiver integrates with over 100 apps, including Hubspot, Salesforce, Monday, Jira, Asana, and more. This allows teams to bring all their customer context into one place, enhancing their ability to manage customer interactions effectively.AI-Powered Features
Hiver includes AI-powered features like an AI Summarizer, which condenses lengthy email threads into concise notes, and live chat with AI-driven chatbots to speed up responses and improve agent productivity.Responsive Support
Users appreciate Hiver’s responsive and helpful customer support, available 24/7 across all pricing plans.Disadvantages of Hiver
While Hiver offers many benefits, there are some drawbacks to consider:Customization Limitations
Advanced customization options are somewhat limited in Hiver. This can be a challenge for teams that require more detailed and specific customizations.Pricing
Hiver can be more expensive for small teams as they scale up. The higher pricing plans may include features that smaller teams do not immediately need, making it less cost-effective for them.Initial Setup
Setting up complex automations and workflows may require some initial effort and time. This can be a minor hurdle for teams getting started with Hiver.Integration Limitations
While Hiver integrates with many popular tools, there are some limitations when integrating with niche or less common software. This might affect teams that rely on specialized tools.Feature Availability
Some advanced features are only available in higher pricing plans, which might restrict access for smaller teams or those on a budget. By understanding these pros and cons, teams can make an informed decision about whether Hiver is the right fit for their email management and customer support needs. Hiver - Comparison with Competitors
When Considering AI-Driven Productivity Tools
Hiver stands out with its unique set of features, but it also has several competitors that offer distinct advantages. Here’s a comparison of Hiver with some of its notable alternatives:
Hiver
Hiver is an AI-powered customer service platform that integrates seamlessly with Gmail and Outlook. Here are some of its key features:
- Omnichannel Shared Inboxes: Simplifies the management of shared inboxes, allowing for better collaboration and ownership of emails, chats, calls, and WhatsApp messages.
- Live Chat with AI: Enables live chat interactions with website visitors, using AI and chatbots for instant resolutions.
- Automations: Automates repetitive tasks through powerful rule-based automation, improving team productivity.
- Analytics: Tracks key support metrics such as response times, team workload, and customer satisfaction scores.
- Integrations: Integrates with over 100 apps, including Hubspot, Salesforce, Monday, Jira, and Asana.
Motion
Motion is another AI-driven productivity tool that focuses on task and calendar management:
- AI-Powered Auto-Scheduling: Automatically prioritizes and allocates tasks into your calendar, ensuring deadlines are met and reducing manual planning efforts.
- Task Management and Calendar Scheduling: Combines tasks, projects, and calendar scheduling into one platform, simplifying daily planning.
- Real-Time Adjustments: Adjusts schedules in real-time to adapt to changes in your calendar.
Unlike Hiver, Motion is more specialized in task and calendar management rather than customer service. However, it lacks detailed information on integrations beyond basic calendars, which might be a limitation for users needing broader integration capabilities.
Reclaim
Reclaim is a productivity tool that acts as a personal assistant for your schedule:
- Dynamic Scheduling: Adapts in real-time to changes in your calendar, ensuring high-priority tasks are given appropriate time slots.
- Focus Time Protection: Automatically blocks focus time and schedules meetings, protecting your time from unnecessary interruptions.
- Integration with Google Calendar: Provides real-time adjustments and integrates well with Google Calendar.
Reclaim is more focused on individual task management and scheduling rather than the broader customer service and team collaboration features offered by Hiver.
Taskade
Taskade is a comprehensive collaborative workspace with integrated AI capabilities:
- Multiple Project Views: Offers lists, boards, mind maps, and other views to cater to diverse work styles.
- Real-Time Collaboration: Includes chat and video conferencing tools for seamless teamwork.
- AI Agents: Automates workflows and boosts productivity with custom AI agents.
- Security: Implements AES-256 encryption and OAuth 2.0 support for secure data handling.
Taskade is more versatile and focused on team collaboration and project management, making it a strong alternative for businesses looking for a broader range of productivity features beyond customer service.
Key Differences and Alternatives
- Customer Service Focus: Hiver is specifically designed for customer service, integrating AI and automation to manage customer interactions across multiple channels. In contrast, tools like Motion and Reclaim are more focused on individual task and calendar management, while Taskade is geared towards team collaboration and project management.
- Integration Capabilities: Hiver stands out with its extensive integration capabilities with over 100 apps, which is a significant advantage for teams needing to consolidate various tools. Taskade also offers strong integration capabilities through Zapier and extensive API support, but Motion’s integration capabilities are less detailed.
- AI Automation: All these tools leverage AI for automation, but Hiver’s automation is more centered around customer service tasks, such as email tracking, live chat, and workflow automations. Motion and Reclaim focus on automating task scheduling, while Taskade automates a wide range of project management tasks.
Conclusion
In summary, while Hiver is a powerful tool for customer service teams, alternatives like Motion, Reclaim, and Taskade offer unique features that might be more suitable depending on the specific needs of your team. If you are looking for a tool that integrates well with your existing customer service workflow, Hiver might be the best choice. However, if you need more generalized productivity and task management features, tools like Taskade or the scheduling-focused capabilities of Motion and Reclaim could be better alternatives.
Hiver - Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key productivity tools offered by Hiver?
Hiver provides several productivity tools to enhance team efficiency. These include:
- Notes: Allow users to add context to emails and customer interactions.
- Internal Discussion: Enables teams to discuss emails and customer issues internally without leaving the inbox.
- Assignments and Tasks: Allows users to assign tasks and track their progress.
- Workflows: Automates repetitive tasks and workflows.
- Templates: Offers pre-built email templates to speed up response times.
- Tagging System: Enables users to create and assign custom tags to emails for better organization.
How does Hiver integrate with other tools and platforms?
Hiver integrates with a variety of tools and platforms to enhance functionality. Key integrations include:
- Gmail Integration: Seamless integration with Gmail, allowing users to manage emails directly from their Gmail inbox.
- Microsoft Outlook Integration: Integration with Microsoft Outlook for users who prefer this email client.
- Apple Calendar Integration: Integration with Apple Calendar to manage schedules and appointments.
- Other Integrations: Hiver also integrates with over 100 apps, including Hubspot, Salesforce, Monday, Jira, and Asana.
What analytics and reporting features does Hiver offer?
Hiver provides several analytics and reporting features to help track performance and metrics. These include:
- Trends: Analyzes trends in email content and resolution times.
- Performance Tracking: Tracks the performance and productivity of users within the application.
- Email Tracking: Tracks email analytics such as emails opened, how long the email was opened for, and more.
- Dashboards: Displays important metrics relating to performance, including response times, team workload, and customer satisfaction scores.
How does Hiver support time management?
Hiver offers several features to help with time management:
- Unified Inbox: Allows users to manage multiple email accounts from a single inbox.
- Email Automation: Provides the ability to automatically send recurring emails and automate other repetitive email tasks.
- Snooze: Enables users to snooze or defer non-urgent emails to a later time.
What are the different pricing plans offered by Hiver?
Hiver offers several pricing plans to suit different business needs:
- Free Forever Plan: A basic plan with limited features.
- Lite Plan: $19 per user per month (billed annually), includes shared email inboxes, unlimited email templates, live chat, knowledge base, and WhatsApp support.
- Pro Plan: $49 per user per month (billed annually), includes additional features such as advanced automation and more.
- Elite Plan: $79 per user per month (billed annually), includes all Pro features plus access to Harvey, an AI-powered assistant.
Does Hiver support mobile devices?
Yes, Hiver supports mobile devices. It allows software to be easily used on multiple mobile devices, including phones and tablets, with a satisfaction rate of 75% based on user reviews.
How does Hiver ensure data security and compliance?
Hiver is compliant with several data security standards, including GDPR, ISO27001, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA, and CCPA. This ensures that user data is securely managed and protected.
What kind of customer support does Hiver offer?
Hiver offers 24/7 support across all its plans. Additionally, it provides free onboarding assistance to help users get started quickly.
Can Hiver be customized to fit specific business needs?
Yes, Hiver allows users to customize various aspects, such as chat colors, text, logos, and branding. It also supports user, role, and access management, allowing businesses to grant access to select data and features based on user roles.
How does Hiver’s AI, Harvey, contribute to customer service?
Harvey, Hiver’s AI-powered assistant, uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide intelligent insights into customer conversations, summarize them into concise notes, and automate repetitive tasks. It also respects human decisions and learns from feedback to improve its decision-making algorithm.