Comparing quality review features in support platforms

Compare quality review features by tracing one conversation from selection through scoring, feedback and reporting. Zendesk QA and Intercom Monitors document formal scorecard workflows, while Help Scout relies on internal notes and customer ratings. The table below answers the same six questions for all three platforms.

Ask the same questions of each platform

Zendesk QA: dedicated review and feedback

Zendesk QA provides scorecards, conversation filters, reviewer calibration and feedback. A reviewer can assess a whole conversation or focus on a message, then add comments. Conversations can be pinned for better organisation.

Agents who disagree can dispute a rating: a comment for the reviewer is required, and the dispute can be sent back to the initial reviewer or escalated to someone else, such as a Workspace manager.

The Reviews dashboard counts manually submitted reviews separately from reviewed conversations, which received one or more manual review. Its internal quality score (IQS) is the average of all review scores over a period, expressed as a percentage. Zendesk documents Quality Assurance (QA) as an add-on.

Intercom Monitors: selection linked to scorecards

Intercom Monitors define which conversations get reviewed. You set the criteria, choose the reviewer and attach a scorecard to evaluate quality. A Monitor can target a random sample, such as a weekly baseline, or a targeted set based on specific signals or risk. It runs continuously, once as a backfill, or on a daily or weekly schedule.

An attached custom Scorecard defines the evaluation. Each criterion is scored automatically with AI or manually by human reviewers, and both can sit in the same scorecard. Reviewers challenge an AI score in the Score tab, where AI-generated scores can be overridden by clicking the rating.

Monitors and custom Scorecards are available as part of the Pro add-on. If you attach a scorecard after conversations have already been added to a Monitor, those earlier conversations will not be retroactively evaluated and will show no score.

Monitor reports count evaluated scorecards, scorecard passes and fails, the pass rate and criteria scores. The pass rate is the percentage of scorecard evaluations that passed, so it counts evaluations rather than conversations or teammates.

Help Scout: internal notes and customer ratings

In Help Scout, an @mention in a note pings another user or team and sends them a notification without assigning the conversation. At the end of a chat, the customer can rate it Great, Okay or Not Good and add an optional comment. Individual ratings feed automatically into the Happiness report, and the chat transcript shows the rating and comment.

Decide from the full review path

Use the same de-identified example with each provider: a correct answer, a missed condition and a handover involving two agents. Ask how the proposed setup selects and scores each case, records feedback, handles a challenged rating and tracks a recurring process issue. Note every add-on, permission and manual step in the proposed workflow.

Key metrics tracked by each platform