Whether you’re managing a small customer service team or running a large-scale support operation, the right tools can make or break your customer experience. You need the best contact center solution for your organization, but with so many on the market, it’s hard to know which is right for you.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide on the best contact center solutions. We’ll walk you through the top contact center companies, explain the most important features, and show you how to choose the right solution for your team. If you’re located in the US and you need help making international business calls, we sell VoIP services that make it even easier! We’re located in Atlanta but we serve the entire US with VoIP and business internet services, including Los Angeles, Auburn, Memphis, and Orlando.
Contact Center Software Solutions
A contact center is a centralized hub where businesses manage all customer interactions across various communication channels. This includes phone calls, email, live chat, text messages, and social media. Unlike a traditional call center, which only handles voice calls, a contact center supports omnichannel communication, allowing customers to reach you in the way that’s most convenient for them.
Contact center software solutions are what make a contact center possible. It brings together all your channels of communication under one platform. Whether you’re answering customer questions and resolving issues, scheduling appointments, or making outbound calls, the right software can help you better serve your customers.
What Makes A Solution The Best?
What makes a platform stand out as the best contact center solution comes down to a few key factors. First, it should provide seamless communication channels, phone, chat, email, and social media, so customers can reach you however they prefer. Reliability is also crucial. Downtime means lost opportunities and frustrated customers, so the system must be stable and secure. Beyond that, the best solutions are user-friendly for agents and supervisors alike, offering clear dashboards, automation tools, and analytics that make it easy to deliver exceptional service.
Another important element is scalability. The best contact center solution should grow with your business, whether you’re handling dozens of calls a day or thousands. Integration with other business tools, like CRM or ticketing systems, is equally valuable, helping teams stay organized and consistent across customer touchpoints. Ultimately, a top-tier solution empowers your team to focus less on technology hassles and more on providing the kind of support that builds trust and loyalty.
Best Contact Center Solutions
There are numerous contact center vendors on the market, so how do you find the right one? We’ve gathered a list of some of the best contact center solutions to get started.
Nextiva
Nextiva is a feature-rich contact center solution that provides unified communications with contact center functionality. It comes with tons of features, like IVR, call recording and management, and advanced analytics to help you make data-driven improvements. Not only does it have all the features you need, it’s also very reliable, with a 99.999% uptime. Plus, Nextiva offers some of the best customer support in the field.
Nextiva standout features include:
- Fully integrated omnichannel contact center that gives you a full view of the customer journey.
- Top CRM integrations like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Zendesk, and more.
- AI capabilities, including a built-in AI assistant, dynamic scripting, native process automation, and proactive customer notifications.
- Affordable pricing for businesses of all sizes.
- Easy setup.
- Built-in collaboration features for agents.
- Call Pop, which displays key information about the caller.
- Inbound, outbound, and hybrid contact center capabilities.
Five9
Five9 is a leading cloud contact center platform that’s designed for enterprise-level customer support and sales teams. Five9 integrates tons of AI features to automate simple tasks so that agents can focus on value-added tasks. Plus, Five9 has some of the best automatic call routing we’ve seen.
Some key features of Five9 include:
- Predictive dialer, which increases agent efficiency by calling only when someone is likely to answer.
- Omnichannel support with voice, email, chat, SMS, and social media.
- AI tools like intelligent virtual agents, sentiment analysis, and workflow automation.
- CRM integrations like Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics, and more.
- Workforce optimization features, including forecasting, scheduling, and quality monitoring tools.
- Outbound and inbound calling.
NICE CXone
A robust, enterprise-grade cloud contact center solution, NICE CXone focuses heavily on the customer experience and AI-driven insights. It offers a range of plans for just about any price range, with real-time agent support and impressive conversational analysis.
Some of the best features from NICE CXone include:
- AI-powered insights, with real-time interaction analysis and agent assistance.
- Omnichannel routing.
- Workforce Engagement management, including WFM, quality management, coaching, and gamification.
- Automation studio with visual design tools for customer journey orchestration.
- Extensive APIs and prebuilt integrations for flexible customization.
- Self-service and virtual agents.
- Auto dialer and outbound communication.
Dialpad
If you’re looking for modern, AI-powered contact center software, Dialpad offers a solution built with simplicity and speed in mind. Dialpad is a great option for SMBs and mid-market companies, and is particularly well-suited for sales teams.
Some of Dialpad’s best features include:
- Real-time transcription of calls for quality and compliance.
- AI coaching that prompts agents with real-time suggestions and answers.
- Omnichannel support.
- CRM integrations like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, and more.
- Smart call routing.
- In-depth reporting dashboards.
8×8
If you’re looking for contact center software solutions with a strong international presence, 8×8 is a great choice. 8×8 offers omnichannel communication with tons of customization options and APIs. Plus, it’s highly scalable, making it a good option for teams of all sizes.
Some of 8×8’s top features include:
- Workforce optimization.
- Omnichannel routing.
- Customer journey analytics to track customer paths across channels.
- Speech and text analytics.
- Unified communications for seamless collaboration internally.
- CRM integrations like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, ServiceNow, etc.
Aircall
If you’re an SMB, Aircall is one of the top contact center companies to consider. It’s easy to use and quick to deploy, with strong support for inbound calling. Aircall offers affordable pricing, but lacks enterprise-level features like single sign-on, open APIs, and omnichannel support. Still, it’s an excellent option for startups and small businesses.
Some of Aircall’s key features include:
- Call routing with smart routing rules, IVRS, ring strategies, and queues.
- Call management features like listen-in, whisper, and barge-in tools for real-time coaching.
- Click-to-call browser-based calling form CRMs or help desks.
- Limited CRM integrations, like Hubspot, Salesforce, and Intercom.
- Analytics to track call metrics and team performance.
Most Important Features
When comparing contact center software, it’s important to watch out for these key features:
- Omnichannel support: One of the defining features of a contact center is that it offers omnichannel support, like phone, email, chat, social media, and SMS. But more than providing multiple channels for customers to contact you, omnichannel support is about ensuring a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. If a customer starts out live chatting with an agent before switching over to a phone call, it’s important that the phone agent has access to everything that was discussed in the chat. Omnichannel support does just that, providing your agents with the whole picture so that they can better serve your customers.
- Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): ACD routes incoming calls to the most appropriate agent based on customer input and rules that you set (skills, availability, priority, etc.). Essentially, it pairs customers with the right agent from the get-go so that customers get helped without repeating themselves to multiple people.
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR): IVR is the automated voice menu customers hear when they call your organization. Customers use either their voice or keypad input to indicate what they need. The system sends them to the correct department or gives them information (such as hours of operation) without needing a human to answer. IVR saves time and even allows customers to handle simple tasks on their own, like paying a bill, checking their balance, or tracking an order. And with simpler inquiries taken care of by the IVR, agents can spend more time working with customers who need their help.
- CRM Integration: CRM integration connects the contact center software with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, and Zendesk to give agents instant access to customer data. This enables personalized and informed service for a better customer service experience.
- Analytics and reporting: Most contact center software solutions provide some form of analytics and reporting. By tracking key metrics like call volume, average handle time, and agent performance, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your contact center.
- Call recording and monitoring: Call recording and monitoring are musts for quality assurance, training, and compliance, depending on the industry you’re in. They allow you to monitor agents and provide coaching when needed.
- AI and automation: AI is more than just a trend. It’s a powerful tool that helps you automate repetitive tasks while also better understanding your customers. Tools like sentiment analysis can analyze text and audio from customer interactions to understand trends and customer sentiment while also catching issues with compliance.
- Predictive and power dialers: If you’re running an out-bound contact center, predictive and power dialers can make a huge difference in the efficiency of your agents. Predictive dialers monitor agents as they work, making the next call as the agent is finishing the previous one. Power dialers call numbers from a list sequentially. Both help agents to maximize the number of calls they make.
How to Pick the Best One
With so many call center vendors on the market, it can be difficult to find the right option for your business. Here are some tips for picking the best contact center software for your needs:
- Before you do anything else, define your needs and goals. What channels do you need? Are you looking for automation and AI tools? Is remote access important? Determine how many agents you have and how much support you’d like. Make a checklist of must-have features.
- Check integration capabilities. You want to look for contact center software that works with your current tools. For example, if you’re using Salesforce as your CRM, you want software that seamlessly integrates with it.
- Next, consider the ease of setup and how intuitive the user interface is. How much training will agents need to learn the software? What’s the onboarding and setup process like?
- Determine your budget, and consider pricing. When it comes to contact center software, you don’t want to choose simply based on what’s the cheapest provider, but price does matter. Make sure you understand the pricing, as well as any add-on fees. Are there any hidden costs? Compare plans with what you actually need and avoid overbuying.
- Check reviews. One of the best ways to choose the right software is to look at reviews on sites like G2, Capterra, or TrustRadius. Look for uptime guarantees, system reliability, and customer satisfaction scores.
- Test it if you can. Not all contact center vendors offer free demos, but many do. If you’re considering a provider that offers a free trial, take advantage of it. Gather feedback from people on your team to see if it’s a good option for your organization.
Best Contact Center Solution Conclusion
Choosing the best contact center solution can take some work, but it’s worth comparing providers so you can find the right one for your organization. If you’d like help, OneStop Communication is here. We’ll do the work of gathering quotes for multiple plans to help you find one that’s right for you. Contact us today to get started!
