For many players, accessing console support is a painful experience — 63% rate it as the worst channel for customer service, 33% regularly face challenges, and 89% say they’d contact support more often with easier access.
Subway Surfer players felt the same frustration, which directly impacted player satisfaction and retention. But Sybo fixed it with seamless in-game support that resolved the issue instantly without breaking immersion. By the end, Subway Surfer achieved
- A substantial initial savings of $333K
- A remarkable 95% deflection rate
- A notable 7 times increase in automation
“We found a true gaming customer service partner, not just a software provider. The roadmap of new features is remarkable and enables us to keep up with the rapid pace of technology.”
– Vlad Oboronko, Player Support Lead, SYBO
With a growing demand for the gaming industry comes a surge in challenges(no wonder here). But with in-game support tools like automated FAQs and AI-driven bots(+ more), companies can provide real-time solutions that keep players engaged.
So, this article is mapped to deliver insights on:
- Challenges in gaming customer support and actionable strategies to address them
- Curated list of tools to help you improve efficiency, and maintain player engagement.
- Integrations that streamline your customer support operations
Bonus track: Listen now to our Player: Engage podcast and learn strategies from top leaders to boost player experience, support, engagement, and safety.
What is Gaming Customer Support?
Gaming customer support refers to the assistance provided by the support team to help players resolve issues, answer inquiries, tackle technical glitches, and manage their accounts. The goal is to offer a seamless and enjoyable gaming experience.
Gamers are a distinctive group — they’re passionate enthusiasts, strong supporters, and occasionally sharp critics. Gaming companies know the importance of “live” real-time engagement for players’ queries, and know that even minor glitches or disruptions can cause dissatisfaction.
To cope with this, top-notch customer service in the gaming industry is an indispensable factor.
Challenges in Offering Customer Support for Gamers
CX managers and support agents in gaming customer service face unique hurdles, often magnified by gaming communities’ passion and vocal nature. Here are the three common pitfalls.
Offering a seamless transition to between gaming and support
Accessing customer support often requires players to leave the game and switch to a separate channel, which disrupts their immersive experience. This inconvenience often leads to frustration and negatively impacts user satisfaction scores and churn rates.
Research indicates that interruptions, even minor ones like advertisements or surveys, can harm player engagement. Similarly, directing players to exit their game environment to address issues can detract from their overall experience.
Zynga, a leading game developer, encountered this challenge firsthand. Before 2015 (and using Helpshift), players seeking support exited the game and navigated to Zynga’s website for assistance. This process disrupted the gaming experience and risked players not returning to the game after seeking help.
It’s clear from Zynga’s experience that seamless gameplay is integral to player satisfaction and retention, and addressing such disruptions is crucial to your game’s success.
Next comes the highly shadowed yet bright cause of frustration.
Lacking the previous context in support interactions
Imagine a player starting a game on a console, encountering an issue, and later trying to resolve it on their mobile device. They contact support only to realize they must explain their problem from scratch because agents can’t access the previous interactions.
Given the innovation today with AI in place, a context-aware, omnichannel support system is a reality. However, support systems are often outdated and fail to provide agents with the necessary context from previous interactions.
This gap not only prolongs problem-solving but also diminishes player experience. In a world where cross-platform gaming is the norm, ensuring support systems track and transfer contextual information is critical.
The last one is the most commonly met – the queries!
Handling high volume of repetitive queries
All gaming companies battle repetitive support requests, such as account recovery, technical troubleshooting, and in-game purchase issues. This influx overwhelms support teams and makes it difficult for agents to juggle back and forth to resolve everything.
For instance, Jam City, a prominent mobile game developer, received up to 90,000 support tickets monthly, with many repetitive inquiries. This high volume strained their support system, leading to inefficiencies and challenges in scaling customer support operations.
Creating an automated system like a self-service knowledge base is one good way to support the ticket deflection rate and improve operational efficiency. It aids your teams to deliver high-quality support for complex player needs.
While all these challenges may seem light, they are among the biggest hurdles.
So, it’s time to flip the script now. Let’s discuss some possible remedies to tackle the abovementioned challenges.
4 Strategies for Exceptional Gaming Customer Service
Level up the support systems and deliver the seamless, frustration-free experience players crave.
Provide in-game support without breaking the flow
Providing instant, direct support keeps players engaged by preserving the immersive gaming experience and addressing concerns in real time.
Enable in-game support using an in-app messaging model that keep help within the game environment. With Helpshift integrate:
- QuickSearch Bots: Handle FAQs and basic inquiries instantly
- AI Issue Classification: Route queries to the right bot or agent for faster resolutions
- Push Notifications: Send updates like “Your z bucks question has been answered!” or “You have a new message!” to re-engage players in ongoing conversations
Zynga, when faced with disruption in gameplay, implemeted in-game support with HelpShift. Instead of forcing players to exit the game for help through emails, QR code integration allowed players to seamlessly transition support interactions to a mobile device.
The impact was a 185% increase in contacts handled, increased agent productivity, and improved player satisfaction and retention. Zynga set a new standard for seamless player support by eliminating disruptions and simplifying the support process.
Want to keep your players loyal? Deliver instant, direct support like Zynga.
Build dashboards that are context-aware and track inquiries across multiple channels
Context-aware systems track key information—such as the player’s issue history, in-game activity, and device data—and share it across platforms as a unified dashboard.
Now, in a simple and sleek way, agents have all the information on issues, even when a player encounters them on a console, and follow up via mobile. Now, you provide a quick resolution without requiring the player to repeat themselves, so players remain engaged and satisfied.
Context-aware support turns frustration into trust, meeting the demands of today’s cross-platform gamers and solidifying their loyalty.
Automate your support processes to boost efficiency and agent performance
Helpshift’s benchmarking report on gaming industry shows:
- 70% of support issues can be fully automated
- An additional 20% can be handled partially through automation
So, making the most of it is a cost-efficient yet effective measure to handle highly repetitive queries. It also allows human agents to focus the remaining 10% on complex cases while keeping players happy. (A win-win, right?)
Automate your support processes with features like:
- Auto-tagging and assignment: To automate direct issues to relevant Smart Views, Queues, or individual agents
- Autoreplies: To notify users about their issue status without manual input
- Time-based updates: To automatically resolve issues after a specified period
- Auto-resolve simple queries: To handle repetitive issues without needing agent intervention.
AIDIS, the creators of Critter Crew, implemented a game-changing solution through automation. They streamlined their support processes using AI-driven workflows to deliver consistent, high-quality support across multiple languages and time zones.
Within three months, AIDIS achieved 60% automation, which grew to 96% in under a year. Their FAQ system deflected 90% of inquiries, allowing players to resolve common issues instantly without human intervention.
As a bonus – their support team had more time to tackle other complex challenges.
Pro tip: Covering a global customer base? Check Helpshift’s multilingual chatbot to offer support in more than 150+ languages. The Language AI enables real-time communication between agents and customers in multiple languages, making it easier to overcome language barriers. The Smart Intent feature identifies customer intents across languages for accurate responses.
Also, the Helpshift Help Center has a built-in machine translation feature, Language AI, that enables you to translate articles into multiple languages effortlessly with just a single click.
Choose the right mode of customer support delivery
Since gaming companies focus more on products and their upgrades, they look for outsourcing when it comes to customer support.
Outsourcing may seem budget-friendly upfront but racks up costs over time; the industry average rate ranges from $8 to $25 per hour, depending on location and service complexity. A simple net amount for 22 days of work with 5 hours daily is $880 to $2,750 – that’s huge!
Nordeus, the creator of Top Eleven, faced this exact challenge. With just two in-house employees and 29 outsourced agents, the company was handling over 20,000 player issues, particularly during high-activity periods. With a comprehensive customer support tool powered by automation and in-game assistance, they automated 73% of inquiries, with 45% fully resolved without human intervention. They reduced outsourced support costs by 40% annually while maintaining high player satisfaction.
Instead of outsourcing, invest in a customer support tool with integrated features. It offers a more scalable and cost-effective solution that can:
- Streamline support workflows and improve efficiency
- Reduce operational expenses such as staffing and training
- Improve player experience by facilitating a seamless shift between gameplay and support
- Provide faster resolutions and robust self-service options, leading to improved customer satisfaction
But where do you get such solutions? Well, that’s what we’re getting at 👇
Top 3 Gaming Customer Service Platforms
Here are our top three gaming customer support picks for 2025
1. Helpshift
Pricing starts at $150 per month and includes a 30-day free trial.
Helpshift is a leading customer service platform for gaming companies designed to provide seamless in-app support for mobile-first customer support. Our innovative approach integrates support directly within the gaming experience, minimizing disruptions and keeping players engaged.
Helpshift combines AI-powered intent classification, sentimental analysis, and intelligent routing systems to automate and resolve 70% of customer queries, lower turn-around time, and build a seamless self-serve experience for your customers.
Additionally, AI-driven automation and self-service tools can let gaming studios automate seven out of ten customer interactions. Helpshift’s outstanding features for swift resolutions and an enhanced player experience include but are not limited to:
- In-app support to maintain player immersion
- AI-powered automation to automate routine inquiries
- Language AI that enables multilingual support, catering to a diverse global audience
- Smart intent AI that classify player requests intelligently, directing them to appropriate workflows or agents
- Smart in-chat Menus that offer contextual options, enable self-serve and deflect 70% of customer queries
- Asynchronous messaging to receive responses without needing to stay online
| User experienceUsers command Helpshift as a game-changer when it comes to customer service, achieving a top-notch CSAT score, automation rate, and better ROI. |
2. Zendesk
Pricing starts at $55 per month and includes a 30-day free trial.
Zendesk is a comprehensive customer service platform renowned for its robust ticketing system and omnichannel support. It enables businesses to manage customer interactions across various channels seamlessly. Its flexibility and scalability make it popular among diverse industries, including gaming. It’s a good choice for anyone looking to start with a minimal budget. Here are Zendesk’s key features:
- Omnichannel support is available through email, chat, phone, and social media
- Efficient ticket management system that tracks, prioritizes, and resolves customer inquiries
- Self-service options through a comprehensive help center
- Automation of routine tasks and providing instant responses
- Robust analytics for detailed insights into customer interactions and agent performance
| User experience Users recommend Zendsek for its user-friendly platform and easy integrations. However, some gaming companies have found that standard functionalities may not fully meet their specific needs. For instance, SYBO, the developer behind Subway Surfers, experienced limitations with Zendesk’s basic functionalities, achieving only a 10% ticket deflection rate. This led them to transition to Helpshift, resulting in a 95% deflection rate and a higher customer satisfaction score. Read more: SYBO’s Subway Surfers Achieves 4.3 CSAT and 77% Automation Rate with Helpshift in Under 3 Months. |
3. FreshDesk
Pricing starts at $15 per agent per month for the Growth plan.
Freshdesk is an intuitive customer support platform designed to streamline customer service operations across multiple channels. With its AI-powered features and automation tools, it enables businesses to improve ticket management, reduce response times, and improve customer satisfaction. Freshdesk is ideal for businesses looking for a scalable solution that integrates seamlessly with a wide range of third-party applications.
- Freddy AI to automates workflows, ticket categorization, and enhances agent productivity
- AI-powered Writing Assistant to in craft responses, improving efficiency and consistency
- Ticket Summary Generator to summarize customer interactions for quicker resolution
- Intelligent Agent to route tickets to the best-suited agents based on predefined rules
- Multichannel Support to manage interactions across email, chat, phone, and social media on a unified platform
| User experience Users find FreshDesk easy to use with its intuitive interface and ability to scale with growing teams. It’s particularly favored for its affordable pricing and effective integration with other tools. Companies appreciate its ability to manage large volumes of inquiries. However, some feel its performance can be enhanced with more advanced AI features for complex gaming-related queries. |
Conclusion
As gaming companies compete to deliver seamless experiences, the right tool helps you stand out with a winning gaming customer support strategy. According to Helpshift’s recent benchmarking report, companies leveraging bots and AI experience remarkable efficiency.
AI in gaming lets you handle massive traffic spikes and resolve player concerns without disrupting gameplay. The best part? Even with significant automation, CSAT remains unaffected, proving players value fast, effective solutions that immerse them in the game.
Turn your gaming customer support strategy into a competitive advantage. With our 30-day free trial, you can test our solution before you take a big move.
Additional Information About In-game Support
- Solutions: It’s Time to Level-up Your In-Game Support
- Products: Customer Service Automation
