Helpdesk implementation and AI agent setup
Smart Instinct is a helpdesk implementation and AI agent setup agency. Sixteen years of experience, 500+ implementations, one specialty. We take instances that were set up for an earlier stage of the business and never revisited, and turn them into support operations that earn the subscription.
You are probably here because something in your stack has been quietly broken for a while, and you have half-fixed it three times between actual fires. We do the version that stays fixed.
Partner status you can verify
Not trusted by partners. Not as seen in. Customers whose helpdesks we configured.
Zendesk build reaching 56% chat deflection in production, and 67% the following year.
150,000 learners a year with credit transfer to 3,000+ institutions. Zendesk professional services.
Fintech-scale Zendesk help center.
Long-term managed services, custom API development, then a Zendesk to Freshdesk migration under email-forwarding-only constraints with full ticket history preserved.
Full Intercom buildout plus a custom Discord ticketing integration.
A Zendesk complex enough to carry sales funnels, support funnels and custom alerting for proprietary software.
Ecommerce plus B2B Zendesk, no buzzwords required.
HubSpot Service Hub buildout.
Event support that scales for race day, plus retail and ecommerce helpdesk builds with integration work.
Categories we have shipped in but cannot name here: brands featured on Shark Tank, the Today Show and Good Morning America. Ivy League universities. AAA and indie game studios. eLearning and eTextbook platforms. SaaS teams scaling from Series A through enterprise. Those names live behind NDAs, and we will walk you through the relevant ones on a call.
Three or more of these sound familiar and the audit is the right next move.
We are one of them, not the answer to every version of the question. Alternatives described as categories, because the right choice depends on your situation rather than on who is selling.
| Smart Instinct | In-house hire | Generalist agency | Solo freelancer | Keep it in-house | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $3,750 to $12,500 fixed | $90,000 to $175,000 loaded, per year | Often $25,000 and up, scoped hourly | $40 to $150 per hour, variable | Salary you already pay |
| Time to running | 2 to 6 weeks | Hiring cycle, then ramp | Discovery phase, then build | Depends on availability | Whenever the fires stop |
| Depth in helpdesk | One specialty, 20 platforms | Depends entirely on the hire | Broad, rarely deep here | Varies widely | Whatever your team already knows |
| Who owns it after | You, documented | The employee, while employed | Often the agency retainer | They fix it, if reachable | You, undocumented |
| Best when | You want it fixed once, at a known price | Support is core and permanent | The work spans well past support | The job is small and well defined | You already know what is broken |
If the honest answer is one of the other four, we will say so on the call. The $500 audit exists partly so you can find that out for $500 instead of $12,500.
Published, identical on every page of this site, and set by scope rather than by the size of your team.
$3,750
One platform built from the ground up. Single channel, one brand, no historical migration.
$7,500
Multi-channel, AI that takes actions, custom dashboards, 90 days of history moved.
$12,500
Multi-platform or multi-brand, AI running multi-step work, full migration to 250,000 records.
Audit $500 flat, credited toward any project booked within 30 days. Retainers from $800 a month. Migrations from $3,500. Enterprise from $25,000.
Our Zendesk project was wildly complicated due to the nature of our business. Jay and team helped simplify knowing when to bring in specific resources. Our Zendesk deployment has been super beneficial to the organization, this happened because Jay was on the team. Money WELL spent.
Twenty platforms, and the price does not change between them. Zendesk, Gorgias, Intercom, Pylon, Aircall, Zoho Desk, HubSpot Service Hub, Help Scout, Front, Kustomer, Re:amaze, Richpanel, eDesk, Gladly, Tidio, Helpshift, RingCentral, Talkdesk, ServiceNow and Zoom Contact Center. What changes by platform is the work, not the invoice.
On the scoping call. A fixed price, not a range you chase through a proposal cycle. Prices are published on this site so you can check them before you talk to anyone.
Two to four weeks on Essential, three to five on Professional, four to six on Premium. Weeks, not months.
A full configuration review of one helpdesk in one to two weeks, ending in a ranked written fix list with effort estimates and a 30-minute walkthrough. It is credited toward any project booked within 30 days, so if we win the work it is effectively free.
No, and be careful with anyone who does before seeing your data. Across the Gorgias instances we have configured ourselves, containment lands between 26 and 56%. That is our own measured range, not a vendor figure. What we will commit to is a methodology that moves the number, with you deciding how far the AI is allowed to go.
You do, documented. The price includes writing it down. We do not hold the keys and we do not need a permanent retainer to keep the lights on.
Thirty minutes, no charge. Show us the queue, the reports nobody trusts, and the AI transcripts that went sideways. You leave with a fixed price or an honest reason not to spend anything yet.
Smart Instinct helps provide various services to optimize your help desk or contact center.
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