The contact center software market was valued at over $33 billion in 2023. According to Grand View Research, contact centers are set to grow even further (23.9%) by 2030.
This is due, in part, to the rising demand for new and better cloud technology to support customers. But it’s also due to the realization that providing a genuine best-in-class customer experience requires more than just an extended VoIP phone system with some email and web chat support.
Over the next few years, and even today, transformational features like artificial intelligence (AI) coaching and sentiment analysis will prove their return on investment by lowering customer support costs, improving agent productivity, and reducing customer churn.
The contact center solutions on the market are introducing new technologies rapidly. Thanks to demand from customers and competition among providers, contact center software is significantly more capable than its call center ancestors.
Cutting right to the chase, here are the 15 best contact center software providers available today.
@media only screen and (max-width: 500px) {
.toclist li {padding-left: 0.2rem!important;font-size: 1.25em!important;}
}
Best Contact Center Software for 2024
Nextiva
Five9
Dialpad
CloudTalk
8×8
Avaya
Talkdesk
Genesys
Aircall
NICE CXone
RingCentral
Broadvoice
Cisco
Salesforce
Ringover
1. Nextiva
Nextiva provides a unified communications solution with the option to integrate a call or contact center platform. You can choose from inbound , outbound , or blended contact center software alongside your core internal communications app.
You can expect a range of features, including call routing, advanced interactive voice response (IVR) , and analytics for measuring agent performance, caller behavior, and customer preferences. You also get access to email, web chat, SMS, and social media via omnichannel routing.
Out-of-the-box customer relationship management (CRM) system integrations include:
Salesforce
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Teams
HubSpot
Zendesk
Zoho
Oracle Sales Cloud
Workbooks
ServiceNow
SugarCRM
Act! CRM
Lotus Notes
ConnectWise
GoldMine
Bullhorn
But where Nextiva really shines is its integration of your internal users and frontline agents. When you need to escalate customer cases, the blend of everyday communications apps is vital.
Handling the integration behind the scenes, Nextiva enables seamless calling, messaging, and document retrieval via the NextivaONE app. Agents have a single pane of glass to work from, benefiting from better productivity and providing a more efficient customer experience.
To bolster its already impressive feature set, Nextiva acquired Thrio in 2024, adding tons of new capabilities, like:
A built-in AI assistant
Dynamic scripting
Native process automation
Proactive customer notifications
One intelligent display for all your agents’ needs
If you’re ready to supercharge your contact center productivity , the addition of these AI capabilities can be drip-fed so you see a genuine, tangible difference.
2. Five9
If you’re looking for an advanced AI-powered contact center solution, Five9 hits the nail on the head.
If you’re a large business with scalability concerns, or if you want to let your agents handle more value-added tasks and automate your run rate activities, Five9 makes AI do the legwork so your agents remain efficient and productive.
Where it really excels is using AI to generate reports and provide sentiment analysis on your customer transactions.
If you’re a data-driven organization with tons of customers and lots of agents, Five9 can be a great way to get control of your contact center, with features that include:
Agent assist
Call recording and transcription
Workflow automation
Digital engagement
Conversational IVR
Quality assurance
Workforce management
You can bolt Five9 on to a range of cloud telephony solutions and retain existing hardware and software. If you’re looking for standalone contact center software, Five9 is a solid option.
Related Article: Nextiva and Five9 Team Up to Help Businesses Deliver Seamless Customer Communications
3. Dialpad
If AI is seriously top of mind and you want to eke out the most possible, Dialpad has been ringing that bell for quite some time. So, if you’re interested in providing real-time coaching insights and accessing next-generation analytics, Dialpad is a good option.
Entry-level features take the shape of call sentiment analysis, real-time text transcription, and built-in AI for call scripts. You can get agent prompts based on the context of live conversations to help serve customers in the most efficient manner possible.
With a specific focus on sales teams, Dialpad’s AI suggestions can prompt agents to mention new products and identify the ideal time to close a deal. Its outbound calling solution also features AI, including smart call monitoring and call queues.
If AI isn’t your sole requirement, Dialpad also provides unlimited calling, number forwarding, and custom call routing options for those looking to check off the basics.
4. CloudTalk
CloudTalk provides high-quality call and CRM software integration with effective workforce optimization tools. It’s ideal for businesses that prioritize managing high call volumes and applying select treatments.
As the name suggests, providing a cloud contact center gives CloudTalk the advantage of avoiding any leftover on-premises baggage. Everything is scalable and flexible, promoting the benefits of consumable cloud technology.
CloudTalk offers AI routing and call prioritization capabilities, customizable call queue messages, and toll-free numbers. It’s geared toward enhancing phone support efficiency, making inbound calls work as hard as possible.
Its AI-powered conversational intelligence module aims to “amplify human potential” by automating repetitive tasks that would normally add hours of work every week.
5. 8×8
8×8 offers an integrated cloud communications platform that combines contact center, voice, video, chat, and enterprise API solutions.
Thanks to previous acquisitions like Jitsi, 8×8 has a more programmable feel to it, similar to CPaaS .
Standout features include:
Omnichannel routing
Workforce engagement management
Speech and text analytics
Quality management tools
Co-browsing
Customer journey mapping
8×8 is an all-in-one, select-your-functionality cloud deployment that’s popular with prescriptive customers. The 8×8 pricing plan works well for large businesses with global calling needs and a generous budget.
It integrates with several CRMs and has competitive pricing for mid-market customers.
6. Avaya
Avaya provides omnichannel contact center support across a range of on-premises, cloud SaaS, and hybrid models. Each implementation option includes advanced reporting and analytics, CRM integration, and a standard set of traditional call center features.
As well as providing on-premises and hybrid solutions, Avaya now has a cloud call center (CCaaS) offering via resale agreements.
Avaya’s contact center software gives your employees the tools they need to respond faster with greater insight, allowing them to engage and satisfy your callers.
Avaya comes with the safety of a longstanding telecoms player, and if you’re already invested in the Avaya ecosystem (phone system, handsets, etc.), you may get a discount.
7. Talkdesk
Talkdesk is a cloud-based platform predominantly used by support enterprises to enhance their customer engagement via the use of automation and AI.
It supports multichannel communication (email, web chat, SMS, and social) and allows for workflow and interaction personalization.
You get all your basic call center software features:
Agent dashboard
Call forwarding
Call queuing
Click-to-call
Predictive dialing
IVR
REST APIs
Call tracking
CRM software integrations
Call recording
Voicemail inbox
The platform is best known as a premium call center solution with easy implementation and comprehensive features for call centers.
That said, a lot of customization is available, proving useful for larger customers with complex routing and multichannel needs.
Related Article
Top 8 Talkdesk Alternatives for Contact Centers on a Budget
8. Genesys
Aimed at large enterprises and complex contact centers that need advanced features and customizations, Genesys specializes in on-premises and hybrid deployments for industries like finance and others with rigid compliance regulations.
Genesys offers scalability as a main selling point, boasting 1,000+ agent clients, including Vodafone and Sodexo.
You get omnichannel support, advanced self-service features (chatbots, voicebots, and knowledge bases), and integrations with enterprise-level applications. If you’re rolling out at scale, consider Genesys for a complex, hybrid deployment.
9. Aircall
Aircall focuses heavily on providing inbound call management to small businesses and startups looking to manage high call volumes without compromising on quality.
It includes call routing, IVR, call recordings, transcriptions, and collaboration tools for agents. You get CRM integration with major apps like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk and a quick-to-deploy, easy-to-use agent app.
Aircall’s pricing is attractive if you’re looking for premium call handling without the major expense of enterprise features including omnichannel, open API access, or single sign-on.
10. NICE CXone (formerly InContact)
NICE is another contact center vendor that’s launched its own generative AI and assistant-style modules. Its most recent innovations, Enlighten Copilot and Enlighten Autopilot, are pioneering the charge for automated companions for contact center agents. Agents can ask questions and get feedback on tasks they carry out.
This is all in addition to a robust set of features, like omnichannel routing, workforce optimization, and AI analytics.
NICE can also provide professional services, business consulting, and contact center training, making it a popular choice for enterprise contact center software or major technical deployments.
11. RingCentral
RingCentral is a well-known communication platform with features that include push-to-talk, team messaging, and video conferencing for internal collaboration. Its contact center platform offers whisper coaching, call routing, and IVR among other features and supports multiple channels, including email, web chat, SMS, and social media.
In 2023, RingCentral unveiled RingSense to bring conversation intelligence to its platform. Using generative AI technology, RingSense makes it possible to:
Automate customer follow-ups.
Automatically score calls based on sentiment and tone.
Track keywords (like competitor names) to see how often they get mentioned.
Create two-way information exchanges between RingCentral and Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoho, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and other virtual meeting providers.
RingCentral has connectivity agreements with major vendors to make large-scale networking to contact centers a smooth process. If you’re a multi-location business using an SD-WAN backbone, RingCentral can bring everything together.
12. Broadvoice
Broadvoice has a major push on putting the service back into customer service, even taking a dislike to self-service on its home page. It has a call center solution for small and medium businesses and an omnichannel contact center suited to larger businesses.
If you’re looking for scalable, basic-level contact center software, Broadvoice provides everything you need without the bells and whistles.
Also specializing in business process outsourcing, Broadvoice claims its solution is designed specifically for those operations.
Managing multiple customer bases is a unique challenge, so Broadvoice is one to check out if you’re tasked with doing so.
13. Cisco Contact Center (Webex)
Cisco’s collaboration and contact center products have undergone a recent facelift, and its cloud offering now falls under the Webex umbrella.
The well-adopted platform supports call routing, omnichannel routing, integrations, and a management portal for creating customer profiles, segmentation, and resource monitoring.
More recent additions include generative AI components like Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center, which identifies instances when an agent faces difficulties with clients or productivity. The assistant recommends breaks as needed and aids agents by providing automatic answers to customers’ questions in real time.
Webex can also generate automatic call summaries to reduce manual workload and provide supervisors with insights for enhanced mentoring and support.
14. Salesforce Service Cloud
Run by one of the world’s largest companies, Service Cloud helps businesses manage and resolve customer issues. If you’re a heavy Salesforce user for marketing and sales, it’s a logical step to retain all your customer history for future technical support.
You get case management tools, omnichannel support, a built-in knowledge base, and a variety of automation and analytics that we’ve come to expect from Salesforce.
If you’re already using Salesforce, Service Cloud can represent a significant cost saving, as you’re adding another license to an existing platform.
You’ll get a unified interface for a customer’s entire journey, which can track their first entrance to your company website through to their first support ticket and every time their renewal comes around.
15. Ringover
Ringover is cloud-based software mainly used by small and medium-sized businesses. It offers unlimited international calls to various destinations and has robust basic voice call capabilities. The platform also includes advanced routing features for enhancing call efficiency.
With a focus on sales and recruitment, Ringover integrates with specialist CRMs like Bullhorn, TextUs, Sense Messaging, and Loxo.
For teams that wish to get set up quickly, Ringover boasts that you can get going in minutes. If you spend a little extra time (and money), Ringover supports emails, SMS, and social media.
At the top level, you get AI features like real-time transcription, predictive analytics, and radio coaching.
10 Must-Have Contact Center Software Features
When evaluating contact center software, it’s important to break through the noise and find features that specifically enhance your business.
Here are 10 modern contact center features that can futureproof your sales and support teams.
1. Omnichannel support
Omnichannel integrates your voice and digital channels and provides agents with a holistic view of all interactions. Rather than managing customer interactions on a call-by-call (or email-by-email) basis, agents can see the bigger picture.
Be it web chat, email, or social media, the agent who just picked up the phone can access everything they need, so your customers don’t have to explain themselves over again.
Functionality Multichannel Contact Center Omnichannel Contact Center Support for multiple channels Intuitive switching between communication channels CRM integration for relevant customer data Real-time insights on customer activity One team to handle requests across all channels
The key difference between multichannel and omnichannel is the seamless transition between channels for customers and agents, ensuring consistency in customer service.
2. CRM integration
CRM integration is the process of stitching your contact center software together with your most used customer information system. It enables smooth and consistent customer experiences by ensuring agents have the necessary information to resolve queries effectively.
Seamless integration with CRM systems is a basic need for most contact centers. How many aren’t using a CRM of some kind, after all?
With deepened access to enterprise contact center software from higher pricing tiers, you can expect better data utilization and customer history tracking.
Nextiva provides integration with the following enterprise CRM platforms:
Salesforce
Microsoft Dynamics
HubSpot
Zendesk
Zoho
Oracle Sales Cloud
3. Skills-based call routing
Skills-based routing uses customer input (via IVRs) to connect them to agents with specific skill sets needed to assist the customer.
On the back end, admins assign skills to agents so your phone system or contact center software knows which agents to route incoming calls to.
The end result? Customers get to the right place every time, and agents deal with issues they’re best qualified to handle. As a direct result, you can expect an increase in first call resolution and lower average handle time.
4. Call recording and monitoring
Call recording is essential for quality assurance, training, and compliance purposes. Whether you need to take payments without storing card details or you want to create a formal quality assurance program, call recording is a must-have feature.
What separates the best contact center software from run-of-the-mill programs is what you can do once those calls have been recorded.
Call recording is more than just a storage facility. Features including monitoring and sentiment analysis enable real-time tracking and reporting on customer satisfaction and agent performance.
Feeding into a wider improvement program, when you provide value-enhancing interactions, there’s an 82% probability that your customers will remain loyal when presented with an opportunity to switch.
5. Analytics and reporting
Included with all contact center software is some form of reporting based on the data you collect. Contact center software can track everything that happens in your department and turn it into data insights. This applies to both real-time and historical call analytics.
Make sure your chosen software includes standard call center metrics , including:
Call volume
Average wait time
Average handle time
First call resolution
Peak hour traffic
But also factor in more outcome-focused metrics:
Net promoter score
Customer satisfaction
Customer retention rate
Customer effort score
Contact center reporting has improved by leaps and bounds. You can now report on channel mix and agent utilization rate, not just call time.
Moving to an all-encompassing reporting package allows you to use the data you’re generating to inform business decisions and improve operational efficiency.
6. Interactive voice response
Interactive voice response ( IVR ) allows customers to interact with a contact center via voice or keypad inputs, offering self-service options and facilitating efficient routing to the appropriate agent or department.
Instead of connecting to a receptionist or routing to any agent and then needing to be transferred, callers can use an IVR to get through to the right person (or system) every time.
For example, if a customer wants to pay a bill, they don’t necessarily need to speak to a human. Instead, they can choose the option to make a payment, identify themselves with their account number and security details, and then make a PCI-compliant payment.
Likewise, if a caller needs to speak to an agent in a specific language or for a technical product, choosing the right options will direct them based on your pre-configured call flow.
7. Automatic call distribution (ACD)
ACD automatically routes calls to specific agents based on predefined criteria, enhancing the efficiency of call handling.
When your business receives a call, ACD can recognize the caller and send them to your star agents via a VIP line. You might route customers who pay higher support rates to the front of a queue or to more-qualified agents.
You can distribute calls based on ANI , business hours, support level, and IVR selections. As a result, inbound calls reach the right agent or department quickly, without requiring the caller to dial a different phone number.
ACDs prevent unnecessary transfers by getting inbound calls to the appropriate agent using skill-based routing or other distribution methods. And since calls reach the right agent, handle times remain low with improved customer satisfaction.
8. Cloud-based flexibility
Not so much a contact feature but important nonetheless, virtual solutions open the door to remote or hybrid work models.
Without compromising on quality or productivity, your agents get access to the same toolset and interface as their office-based colleagues.
Assuming connectivity and workspace environment are sufficient, you can access contact center software via a standard log in/out process on any device in any location.
9. Speech and text analytics
When you receive hundreds or thousands of calls and messages daily, it pays to analyze these interactions for insights into customer sentiment, trends, and compliance issues.
By understanding, in real time or after the fact, how customers (and agents) feel during conversations, you can tailor coaching, schedules, and forecasting for your teams.
This functionality might be offered in-house or via a third-party solution.
Get access to the basics:
Geographical breakdown of where your calls come from
Stress levels per individual call
Agent performance throughout the day
Opportunities to upsell and cross-sell
Whatever happens inside your customer interactions, you need to know what’s working and what’s not.
10. Predictive and power dialers
Specialized for sales, market research, and debt collection-type businesses, dialers are outbound call center software that brings efficiency to the calling and managing of customers and prospects.
Auto-dialer software comes in four different varieties:
Predictive: Using smart algorithms to predict when an agent will be available to take a call, it auto-connects the next call when an agent is “ready.”
Preview: Software brings up information about the next contact (via CRM integration) before connecting the call.
Power: This software type dials numbers sequentially from a contact list.
Progressive: This type of auto-dialer software combines elements of preview and power dialers. Agents get access to information before a call, and then the dialer automatically connects the call.
Whichever you opt for, dialers automate the process of making outbound calls, improving efficiency and reducing labor costs.
By removing misdials and introducing functionality like screen pop , dialers let agents spend time on what matters most: delighting customers, collecting payments, and generating leads.
Tips for Choosing the Right Contact Center Software Provider
Outside of comparable features, it’s important that you find a provider who gets your business . Look out for these key characteristics when evaluating vendors on your shortlist.
Compatibility with your business needs
It goes without saying that anyone you work with must know why you operate a contact center and what’s unique to you.
Make sure to clearly define the capabilities you need from a contact center. These might be things you take for granted but are custom to your industry.
Consider basic factors like the number of agents, required tools, and level of support needed. But also engage stakeholders to discuss and detail even minor complexities so you can start planning from day one.
Scalability
Whether you’re an enterprise contact center with 1,000 agents or a small business with a single-digit team, being able to change at a moment’s notice is invaluable.
Choose a provider that can scale up (or down) with your business as needed. Ensure that it’s easy to add or reduce lines and features, adapting to changes in demand. Some providers make this more difficult than others. But, in a cloud-first world, there should be little reason, other than contractual issues, to get what you want whenever you need it.
Easy implementation
Look for a solution that’s easy to set up and doesn’t require extensive time or resources for implementation. Thanks to cloud technology and the advent of SaaS-style contact centers, almost any user, supervisor, or admin can get access within a few clicks.
Sure, configuring complex call flows and applying special treatment needs time and attention. And if you have bespoke needs that require extensive planning, you’re probably an anomaly.
But cloud-based contact center software typically offers quicker and easier setup compared to traditional systems.
Seamless integration
Implementation doesn’t end at your chosen vendor’s own solution. Think about all the other business apps your contact center agents use daily.
Ensure your contact center software integrates well with your existing tech stack.
Think about:
CRM systems
Email programs
Collaboration apps
Workforce management tools
Bespoke line of business apps
Help desk and ticketing systems
Security and compliance
It goes without saying that all contact center software must be secure.
Verify that your chosen provider adheres to stringent security protocols and is compliant with relevant regulations, especially if you’re in a highly regulated industry like finance, healthcare, or legal services.
Make sure your next contact center purchase adheres to industry-specific guidelines as well as the basics, for instance, GDPR, HIPAA , or PCI DSS.
As standard, Nextiva ensures:
99.999% uptime
24/7 network monitoring
Real-time network status updates
Off-grid power sources at each data center
ISO/IEC 27001 certification
SOC 2 compliance
Call encryption
Quality of customer support
It’s not all that helpful to suggest you choose a provid
All Rights Reserved SME Helping business owners succeed and grow
Page 10 |
Page 20 |
Page 30 |
Page 40 |
Page 50 |
Page 60 |
Page 70 |
Page 80 |
Page 90 |
Page 100 |
Page 110 |
Page 120 |
Page 130 |
Page 140 |
Page 150 |
Page 160 |
Page 170 |
Page 180 |
Page 190 |
Page 200 |
Page 210 |
Page 220 |
Page 230 |
Page 240 |
Page 250 |
Page 260 |
Page 270 |
Page 280 |
Page 290 |
Page 300 |