Best Contact Center Software

If none of our best picks seem like a good fit for your business, consider the following alternatives. Each provides an effective, reliable platform or service that may meet your needs.

• Aircall: If your customers primarily call in for phone-based support, Aircall is a good option for your business. Both inbound and outbound calls can be managed with ease through Aircall’s platform, which includes useful features like interactive voice response (IVR) trees, call monitoring tools, and telemarketing campaign support. We also liked Aircall’s predictive dialer, which supports targeted campaigns to boost the likelihood of conversions. Aircall supports other channels as well, including text messaging support. The platform also integrates with more than 100 other third-party business software, so you can easily expand its functionality as needed with some of the leading apps on the market.
  
• AnswerConnect: AnswerConnect specializes in managing the customer service aspects of your business for you. So, if you’re not interested in building an in-house team, consider outsourcing with AnswerConnect. You can devise scripts and provide detailed information on your business so AnswerConnect agents provide a seamless experience for your customers. AnswerConnect also integrates with some of the best CRM software platforms on the market, so you can access updated customer data and review interactions directly in the CRM system of your choice.
  
• Convoso: Better known for dialer services than contact center software, Convoso offers a suite of omnichannel tools to support outbound contact centers. Across phone, email and SMS, it remains focused on outbound communications, making it far better suited to sales than customer service. Convoso’s utilities include customized agent scripts, skill-based call routing, automated dialing and extensively customizable dashboards. These can track KPIs by extracting data from reports and previous campaigns. An open API supports existing third-party applications from the likes of Salesforce, Shopify, Zapier and Zendesk. Its focus on calls is reflected in services like local caller ID, follow-the-sun dialing and answering machine detection.
  
• 8×8: A simple user interface is a key benefit of 8×8’s platform, with identical single panes visible to agents and supervisors. Supervisors can call on a wealth of additional functionalities, such as template reports, which can be modified and scheduled to run at any point. There are two plans available to 8×8 clients, but only the X7 platform extends beyond voice calls into chat, email, SMS and social. Prices are competitive for both 8×8 packages, though the relative simplicity of the unified web browser interface means 8×8 lacks some of the advanced tools we found in our review of other contact center software. The 8×8 platform does offer voicemail transcription, video conferencing for up to 500 participants and external dashboard displays for presentations, however. There’s also 24/7 tech support in 10 languages, available via email, phone or chat. Read our full 8×8 review for more information.

A glance at the “Starting Price” column in our comparison chart above might suggest a huge disparity between the most affordable and the most expensive contact center software. As always, though, you get what you pay for. Salesforce’s most expensive package is 12 times more costly than its cheapest, while the basic GoTo Contact Center package is relatively limited. Low starting prices are more of a marketing gimmick than an actual guide – with one or two exceptions, you can expect to pay around $150 per user per month for a comprehensive suite of omnichannel platform support.

There are anomalies in terms of pricing. Twilio Flex allows new customers 5,000 free hours, and it also allows ongoing payment per hour. This might suit companies in seasonal industries who don’t want a standing monthly charge. Convoso doesn’t publish prices at all, meaning you’ll have to speak to a sales rep to find out what its services will cost your firm.

We can’t promise that every tier of every product reviewed above offers all these features, but these are some of the key features we felt that any mid-tier contact center software solution ought to offer.

Omnichannel Routing

Customers should have a consistent experience, regardless of whether they phone in, communicate through a chatbot support tool or send an SMS support request. The best contact center software platforms combine all these input channels (and others) into one interface. Agents and supervisors should be able to monitor inquiries across all channels easily and in one central location. However, it’s notable that Convoso supports outbound communications only.

Single-Pane Interface

Agents shouldn’t be flicking back and forth between different software platforms. Every aspect of customer interactions and history should be displayed (usually chronologically) in a single-pane window, giving them full oversight and granular control. These dashboards should be customizable, from colors and design to widgets and data feeds. A single-pane interface supports rapid response times from agents, which can boost customer satisfaction and improve resolution rates.

This example of an agent dashboard comes from GoTo Contact Center. It shows an agent’s assigned queues, pending tasks and summary of recent activity at a glance. Source: GoTo

Monitor and Review

Our shortlisted platforms all take slightly different approaches to reviewing agent performance and customer interactions. Twilio offers bespoke reporting in response to certain interactions or thresholds being breached, while RingCentral archives data for 25 months to support retrospective analysis. However a contact center software platform does it, we looked for a mechanism that enables supervisors to monitor and review agent performance and offer coaching to help agents improve over time.

This example of historical agent performance comes from RingCX and shows a range of charts breaking down data around agent call times, interactions and more. Source: RingCentral

Clear Pricing

We’ve explained above that pricing varies considerably from one tier to another, but all the companies we’ve reviewed, except one, offer unambiguous pricing on a per-user-per-month basis. Some additionally offer pay-as-you-go deals, while free trials are common but not universal. RingCentral’s free trial is so limited, for example, it’s effectively useless at gauging the platform.

These are the key factors to consider when shortlisting contact center software:

1. Compatibility with existing systems

Be sure any contact center software you choose is compatible with your existing hardware and software, as well as your team’s workflow. If you’re happy with your existing hardware, you might wish to avoid companies attempting to upsell you Jabra or Poly handsets. If you use certain database or spreadsheet packages, you might want your new platform to integrate with them.

2. Customer reviews

While we’ve conducted thorough testing on the platforms listed above, nobody can review contact center software better than daily users. Investigate existing customer reviews on reputable sites like TrustRadius, and study what people are saying on Google and Bing. Customer reviews can give you an idea of whether or not a contact center software will mesh well with your business’s needs.

3. Cost

Consider value, not just overall cost. A low starting price might be for a telephony-only system with no evaluation tools and limited archiving. Establish what services you need or desire, and then compare pricing between platforms, rather than basing your budget on cut-rate starter packages.

4. Client support

It’s notable that some companies are reluctant to furnish even registered clients with a telephone number for support. Others offer 24/7 support only on pricier packages or limit it to certain times of the day based on their local time zone. Is that good enough for your business?

These are some of the key reasons to consider contact center software:

• Omnichannel tools: These platforms support communications through more channels than the voice-only approach of traditional call center service providers.
• Cloud-hosted software: They’re all cloud-hosted, many through a web browser, meaning there are no hardware or setup costs involved.
• Pricing tiers based on need: Pricing is generally scaled according to the number of agents using the platform, which is transparent and makes budgets easy to calculate.
• Integrates with other business software: Most platforms offer extensive integrations with third-party platforms like Slack, Gmail, Zendesk and Teams.

The contact center software market is only expected to grow in the coming years, with a projected increase from $42.47 billion in 2023 to $164.01 billion by 2030, according to Fortune Business Insights. Since 2020, much of this growth has been attributed to third-party developers creating apps for call center software ecosystems.

Throughout 2024, we anticipate AI to become even further integrated into call center software. In addition to analyzing customer sentiment, AI will also be increasingly used to offer conversational, self-service options for customers. With greater adoption of generative AI, as well as more companies turning to cloud-based solutions, data security will become more critical than ever.

We also expect the call center industry to prioritize the customer experience. Customers have come to expect instant, efficient service and seamless omnichannel communications. While AI-powered tools can support these endeavors, the human touch will remain crucial.

At Business News Daily, our team of small business customer service experts have been researching and testing contact center software for years, comparing some of the leading solutions across more than 25 key metrics. We considered 52 contact center software platforms and closely reviewed and tested 10 of them before selecting our five best picks above.

Below are the factors we considered when determining our best picks. Each is weighted according to how much the criteria typically influences business owners’ buying decisions.

• Pricing (30%): We considered not just the base cost of the software but also the number of pricing plans available, additional fees, and add-on costs to determine which provide the best overall value. We also considered whether a free trial was available to test the software before buying.
  
• Features (25%): We evaluated each contact center platform’s dashboard, as well as key features like call monitoring tools, inbound call routing tools, social media messaging apps, agent activity reporting and artificial intelligence tools like coaching and training assistants. We also considered available integrations to other popular business software.
  
• Usability (20%): We paid close attention to the ease with which each platform could be set up, how intuitive we found the navigation and use of key features, and the training and informational resources available to new users. We also considered whether the software offered a responsive mobile app or mobile browser.
• Customer Support (15%): We examined the ease with which customers can contact a customer support team when in need of help. We reviewed customer feedback to determine how well the customer service team meets the needs of existing customers.
• Expert Insight (10%): Our product reviews are conducted by software and industry experts who are deeply familiar with contact center solutions. Given their institutional knowledge of different platforms and firsthand experiences using these programs, we take their judgment into account when determining our best picks.

In addition to scoring each contact center software we reviewed based on this criteria, we also determined the best use case scenarios for each. No two businesses are exactly alike, so we put ourselves in the shoes of different types of small business owners and identify the best contact center software for a variety of needs.

To learn more about how we review and test customer service products and services for small businesses, read about our editorial process here.