Author
Peter Iansek
CEO & Co-Founder
Table of Contents:
- What is Call Center Software? == What is Call Center Software?
- Call Center Software to Know == Call Center Software to Know
- Choose the Best Call Center Software == Choose the Best Call Center Software
What is Call Center Software?
Call center software provides businesses with tools to manage customer calls and conversations. They can track customer interactions, handle call routing, monitor performance, perform analytics, and set up automated services such as IVR (interactive voice response). Call center software can also integrate customer data from other sources, like CRMs.
Call Center Software vs. Contact Center Software
These terms are often used interchangeably, but there are some key differences between them.
Call center software is focused on voice communications via phone calls such as taking customer service calls or making outbound calls to customers.
Contact center software extends call center functionality by adding additional service communication channels like email, chat, and video conferencing. Customers can reach out in their preferred communication mode and organizations can capture customer data from multiple channels to create a better customer experience management.
Call Center Software Features
Not all call center software offer the same features, but some include:
- Real-time Reporting & Analytics: Provide insights into customer behavior, allowing managers to review trends in customer satisfaction metrics or identify areas where service could be improved.
- Automatic Call Distributors (ACD): ACD uses computer telephony integration (CTI) systems and interactive voice response (IVR) to route calls efficiently to the most appropriate agent.
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Automated voice response system that greets callers and provides them with various options for interacting with the call center without speaking to a live agent.
- VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): Users can make voice calls using a broadband internet connection instead of a traditional telephone line.
- Call Recordings: This feature records calls between agents and customers, and can sometimes provide speech recognition, text analysis, and sentiment analysis.
- Dashboards: Provides a visual display of call center metrics and KPIs.
- Text Analysis: This involves understanding natural language text and extracting useful information from it.
- Omnichannel capabilities: A customer service solution that enables customer service teams to communicate with customers through various communication channels. This includes voice, webchat, email, SMS, social media, and more.
- Quality management and assurance: Quality management and assurance software evaluate customer interactions and track agent performance. It allows managers to track the quality of customer interactions and identify areas for improvement.
- CTI: Computer telephony integration (CTI) is when a call center's telephone system connects with other software. Agents don't need an actual phone because they can use their computer to do everything a phone would do through on-screen controls.
Call Center Software Types
Call center software types include:
On-Premise Call Center Software
On-premise call center software is hosted on the company’s servers and hardware infrastructure. It can require significant upfront costs for purchasing, installation, maintenance, and configuration. But, it can be highly customized to fit a specific organization's specifications, including security.
Cloud-Based Call Center Software
Cloud-based call center software is hosted offsite by a third-party provider and accessed via a web browser or mobile device. This allows organizations to use fewer IT resources while taking advantage of powerful features such as analytics, reporting, and tracking tools.
However, this type of solution may not be as customizable as on-premise solutions due to the lack of access to the backend codebase.
Call Center Software to Know
The term “call center software” covers a vast range of platforms, so this list does too. Some of these software are for insights and intelligence, while others are CCaaS, and others provide VoIP capabilities.
Therefore, while this is a “top” list, it doesn’t cover every call center software out there–and not every software on this list will be applicable for every call center. It gives a great introduction to the call center software space so you can determine what tools are best suited for your business.
1. Operative Intelligence
Operative Intelligence (OI) is the next-gen customer demand intelligence platform for enterprise contact centers and care teams. Operative Intelligence analyzes 100% of all inbound interactions to provide clear insights into the root cause of customer inquiries and the true experience for the customers at scale.
Operative intelligence is the best call center software for analytics, insights, and intelligence. It identifies:
- The root cause of reasons why customers contact support at scale
- Insights by inquiry driver: volume, cost, sentiment, satisfaction, resolution
- The root cause of customer pain points and what they cost the business
- Agent and team effectiveness (resolution + satisfaction) for 100% of inquiries
- The top contact center automation opportunities and the ROI for each
The platform uses direct phrases from customer words–not just the keywords that other platforms pull and use. This represents customer inquiries exactly how they’re shared so contact center leaders can understand the context and take specific actions that have a clear ROI.
Features:
- Shares volume, cost, and sentiment of every customer inquiry, so contact center leaders know which changes will drive the highest impact improvements.
- Shows exactly how agents are performing and where they need to focus on coaching through easy-to-read dashboards.
- Provides a single source of truth for all contact center insights so teams can focus on taking action and not mining data for answers.
- Transforms contact center data into real-world, actionable insights using machine learning.
- Determines which customer interactions can be automated, constructs a business case for the change, and monitors ROI.
Used for: Operative Intelligence provides analytics, actionable insights, and customer demand intelligence for contact and call center leaders as well as stakeholders across the organization, including executives, product managers, engineers, marketers, and more. This data is used to improve not only customer service, but also the product, service, and even company-wide policies.
Learn more about Operative Intelligence.
2. Talkdesk
Talkdesk is a cloud-based call center solution that manages customer interactions and streamlines communication. The platform offers intelligent routing, automated voice response systems, and integrated analytics and offers integrations with business applications like Salesforce and Zendesk.
Pricing: The pricing for Talkdesk starts at $75 per user per month
Used for: CCaaS
3. Five9
Five9 is a cloud-based call center and customer relationship management (CRM) platform powered by Practical AI. The platform provides businesses with software solutions for customer service, sales, and marketing.
Five9 offers features such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems, predictive dialers, and call routing. It enables companies to manage their contact center operations from a single dashboard.
Pricing: Pricing is not provided on the website.
Used for: IVR & CCaaS
4. NICE Nexidia
NICE Nexidia is an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled analytics solution platform that enables organizations to capture, analyze, and act on customer conversations in real time. NICE Nexidia provides businesses with actionable insights about customer interactions and helps them create personalized engagement experiences. It also features an intuitive AI-powered interface, performance tracking, drill-down capabilities, and customizable reports.
Pricing: Businesses must get in touch for pricing.
Used for: Customer service insights & speech analytics
Also read: NICE Nexidia vs Call Journey vs Tethr vs Callminer vs Operative Intelligence
5. Dialpad
Dialpad is a cloud-based communication suite designed to help businesses streamline their phone and video calling, voicemail, conferencing, and messaging services. It uses modern VoIP technology to provide clear audio quality and advanced features like intelligent call routing, AI-powered transcription, and search capabilities, as well as integration with other business applications.
Pricing:
- Standard: $15 per user per month
- Pro: $25 per user per month
- Enterprise: Request for pricing
Used for: CCaaS solution
6. Genesys
Genesys is a unified cloud communications and customer experience platform that enables businesses to deliver personalized customer experiences across the entire customer journey. It helps organizations create tailored, one-to-one conversations with customers to improve engagement.
The platform offers a range of features such as omnichannel routing, analytics and insights, workforce optimization, digital transformation capabilities, and more.
Pricing:
- Genesys Cloud CX 1 (Voice): $75 per month
- Genesys Cloud CX 2 (Digital): $90 per month
- Genesys Cloud CX 2 (Digital + Voice): $110 per month
- Genesys Cloud CX 3 (Digital + WEM): $130 per month
- Genesys Cloud CX 3 (Digital + WEM + Voice): $150 per month
Used for: CCaaS
7. Twilio
Twilio is a cloud communications platform that enables developers to build, scale, and operate real-time applications. It provides APIs for text messaging, voice calls, video conferencing, and other communication services. Twilio works with web programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
It provides real-time insights into the performance of applications using its analytics dashboard.
Pricing:
- Twilio engage: Pricing is customized based on needs
- Programmable voice: Starts at $0.0085/min to receive and $0.014/min to make a call
- Programmable messaging: Starts at $0.0079 to send or receive.
- Twilio SendGrid email API: Starts at $14.95/month for up to 40k emails
- WhatsApp Business API: Starts at $0.0042 to send a WhatsApp Template message
- Elastic SIP trunking: $0.0045/min for origination and $0.007/min for termination
- Twilio conversations: $0.05 per active user per month
- Programmable video: $0.0015/min per participant
- Super SIM: $2/SIM and $0.10/MB for low-volume prototyping
- Twilio flex: $1/active user hour or $150/named user per month
- Twilio frontline: $20 per active user per month
- Twilio segment: $120/month for up to 10k visitors/month.
- Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns: $15/month for 5,000 contacts and 15,000 emails
- Twilio for Salesforce: $15 per seat per month
- Autopilot: $0.001 per message
- Taskrouter: $0.025/task
- Notify: $0.00025/delivery request or action
- Authy: $0.09/authentication
- Verify: $0.05/verification
- Proxy: $0.10 per additional active session
Used for: Phone systems and communication API
8. RingCentral
RingCentral is a cloud-based phone system and communications platform that unifies voice, video, team messaging, and collaboration into one integrated solution. RingCentral enables users to make and receive calls, send and receive messages, have video meetings, collaborate on files, and more - all from the same interface. It also integrates with popular apps like Salesforce, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Slack.
Pricing:
- Essential: $19.99 per user per month
- Standard: $27.99per user per month
- Premium: $34.99 per user per month
- Ultimate: $49.99 per user per month
Used for: Phone and messaging system
9. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that delivers exceptional customer service experiences across multiple channels such as web, mobile and social media. It includes automated workflows, self-service portals, knowledge bases, reporting & analytics, and more.
Freshdesk offers companies a single repository of all their customer conversations across multiple communication channels like phone, email, social media, web forms, and chats.
Pricing:
All prices are billed annually
- Free: $0 for up to 10 agents
- Growth: $15 per agent per month
- Pro: $49 per agent per month
- Enterprise: $79 per agent per month
Used for: Omnichannel suite and phone system
10. Vonage
Vonage is a cloud communications platform for small and midsize businesses that offers voice, messaging, video, and collaboration services. Vonage's technology platforms provide unified communications experiences across multiple channels., including mobile phones, browsers, and desktop applications.
Vonage integrates easily with popular business applications like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
Pricing:
- Mobile: $19.99 per month per line plus taxes & fees
- Premium: $29.99 per month per line plus taxes & fees
- Advanced: $39.99 per month per line plus taxes & fees
Used for: Communication API capabilities
11. Avaya
Avaya integrates voice, video, messaging, and other applications into a single platform to help simplify communication between teams and locations. Avaya includes VoIP, audio and video conferencing, voicemail, and instant messaging, as well as capabilities for contact center management.
Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available.
Used for: Phone and messaging system
12. Thrio
Thrio is a cloud-based contact center platform offering an omnichannel customer experience so organizations can offer their customers the choice to interact with them via chat, phone, video chat, or text message. Thrio's cloud-native architecture provides AI-powered automated workflows, CRM integration, analytics, and more.
Pricing:
- Essentials: $89 per user per month
- Professionals: $109 per user per month
- Premium: $129 per user per month
Used for: CCaaS
13. CloudTalk
CloudTalk is a cloud-based communication platform for businesses that offers an intuitive interface and integrates with popular customer relationship management (CRM) tools, such as Salesforce and Zendesk.
CloudTalk provides robust features like call forwarding, voicemail, interactive voice response (IVR), auto-dialer, and online faxing. The platform also supports integrations with third-party applications like Slack, Google Voice, and Microsoft Teams.
Pricing:
- Starter: $25 per user per month
- Essential: $30 per user per month
- Expert: $50 per user per month
- Custom: Request for pricing
Used for: VOIP phone system
14. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is an all-in-one suite of business automation tools that enables small, medium, and large enterprises to streamline their operations. It includes features for project management, document storage, customer relationship management (CRM), time tracking, and communication with team members.
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Basic: $49 per month
- Standard: $99 per month
- Professional: $199 per month
Used for: Online workspace
15. Nextiva
Nextiva is a cloud-based business communication platform that provides VoIP, Unified Communications (UCaaS), and customer service solutions. The platform offers enterprise-grade phone systems, team collaboration tools, customer relationship management (CRM) integration, and more. Nextiva also offers managed IT solutions and customer support options to help businesses get the most out of their communications systems.
Pricing:
- Essential: $18.95 per user per month
- Professional: $22.95 per user per month
- Enterprise: $32.95 per user per month
Used for: UCaaS and VoIP
16. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system designed to help businesses manage their customer relationships and support operations. It offers various features such as customer service automation, collaboration tools, analytics, and AI-powered insights.
Salesforce Service Cloud ensures businesses can optimize their customer service operations by automatically responding to inquiries via email or text and collecting relevant customer information.
Pricing:
All prices are billed annually.
- Essentials: $25 per user per month
- Professionals: $75 per user per month
- Enterprise: $150 per user per month
- Unlimited: $300 per user per month
Used for: CRM
17. 8x8
8x8 is a cloud-based software communication platform designed to help businesses create, manage, and monitor their digital customer communications. It offers solutions such as VoIP-based phone systems, virtual meetings, contact centers, chatbots, and unified communications. 8x8 also offers enterprise-level secure data storage solutions and integrates with popular CRMs.
Pricing: The pricing starts at $15 per user per month
Used for: Inbound and outbound customer service engagement
18. SingleComm
SingleComm is a customer engagement platform that provides automated messaging, customer support, and analytics. Businesses can create, deliver, and manage personalized customer conversations across channels. SingleComm ensures businesses can create automated campaigns and conversation flows, engage with customers in real time, and measure success in a single view.
Pricing: SingleComm has a starting price of $49 per user per month
Used for: Omnichannel communications
19. Infobip
Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to communicate with customers using voice, SMS, push notifications, and other messaging systems. It provides an API-based solution for applications needing to send messages. Infobip offers mobile engagement, chatbot automation, authentication, and other services.
Pricing: The pricing for Infobip depends on the location of the traffic, country regulations, and restrictions.
Used for: Messaging
20. Cisco
Cisco is a suite of applications and services designed to help businesses manage and optimize customer service operations. It provides features such as call routing, escalation, customer self-service, analytics, reporting, and more. The platform can be managed and customized through a web-based portal.
Pricing: Pricing isn’t disclosed on its website. Organizations interested would have to request pricing.
Used for: Call routing and physical networks
21. GoTo Connect
GoTo Connect is a unified communications and collaboration platform that combines robust voice, video, team messaging, and file sharing into a single solution. It offers integration options for popular business tools like Outlook, Slack, and Salesforce.
Pricing:
- Basic: Starts at $27 per user per month
- Standard: Starts at $32 per user per month
- Premium: Starts at $43 per user per month
Used for: Remote IT support
Choose the Best Call Center Software
There are many call center software on the market, and the best call center software for an organization depends on what they’re looking for. Is it a phone system? A communication API? Advanced customer intelligence?
If you want actionable insights and a clear way to improve customer experience and reduce costs, then Operative Intelligence is the best solution. Operative Intelligence analyzes 100% of inbound interactions and shares the root causes of overall inquiries using the customer’s actual words.
These insights help drive changes not only within a call or contact center–but also impact company-wide policies, products, and services.
Book your demo with Operative Intelligence today.