Choosing the best call center software can be a daunting task, with so many options available and countless features to consider. Scheduling demos, evaluating functionalities, and comparing solutions — it can feel overwhelming!

But what if someone (an expert in call centers) has already done the heavy lifting for you? 

In this blog post, we’ve meticulously researched and ranked the top call center software solutions on the market. We’ll narrow down your options and find the perfect fit for your business needs.

So, grab your pen and paper (or your note-taking app), and join us as we compare the key features, benefits, and unique strengths of each contender. Discover why these solutions are the top choices for growing call centers like yours and confidently make an informed decision.

What Is Call Center Software?

Call center software is a technology solution for handling a high volume of incoming or outgoing phone calls between multiple employees, known as agents. This software makes it super efficient in handling inbound and outbound communications. Besides voice-based calls, today’s call centers support additional contact methods, including website chat, email, SMS, and social media interactions. 

When it comes to the types of call center software, they can be categorized in a few different ways depending on the specific functionality you need. Here’s a breakdown of the most common types:

Call center deployments:

• Cloud-based: This is the most popular option today because it’s scalable, easy to use, and requires minimal upfront investment. Cloud-based call center software is hosted by the provider, so you don’t need to maintain your own hardware or software.
• On-premises: On-prem software means it’s installed on your own servers, which gives you more control over your data. However, it can be more expensive and complex to set up and maintain.

Call flows:

• Inbound call center software: Inbound call centers handle incoming customer calls, such as for customer service or technical support.
• Outbound call center software: Outbound call centers make outgoing calls, such as for sales or telemarketing.
• Blended call center software: This software can handle both inbound and outbound calls, which is great for account management and customer success.

In a nutshell, call center software is essential for businesses that want to deliver high-quality customer service and streamline their operations. It also allows call centers to get specific insights into their performance to improve upon it.

Top 10 Call Center Software Providers

Provider	Pros	Cons	Standout Feature
Nextiva	Affordable cost for businesses of all sizes.	No free trial.	All-in-one communication platform that seamlessly integrates voice, video, messaging, and collaboration tools.
Five9	Longstanding AI legacy.	A separate provider is required for voice.	Advanced AI and machine learning that delivers intelligent routing, real-time analytics, and automated workflows.
Ringover	Unlimited international calls.	Limited omnichannel functionality.	Seamless integration with popular CRM systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho.
CloudTalk	Specialist in CRM integration.	Inflexible pricing.	Workforce management capabilities that are built directly into the platform, rather than being provided through a third-party solution.
Talkdesk	Advanced call routing and workflows.	Expensive add-ons.	Artificial intelligence and no-code development that helps organizations rapidly scale their contact center.
Freshcaller	Focus on remote-ready organizations.	Focus on sales, which may be off-putting for customer service functions.	Gamification feature that helps motivate agents and improve productivity.
CallHippo	Automatic call logging and recording.	The most expensive pricing plan required for basic features.	Supports WhatsApp and shared inboxes for businesses, which can be useful for agents who work independently within specific areas of the business.
Bitrix24	Ideal all-in-one solution for very small teams.	Complex implementation for large businesses.	SIP connector for third-party calling that allows for more flexibility, cost savings, and the ability to integrate communication tools seamlessly.
Twilio Flex	AI capabilities for sales and service.	A demo that isn’t self-service.	Programmable cloud call center platform that lets you create your digital environment based on your exact needs and communication channels.
Dialpad	Dynamic call scripts.	Extra costs for basic features.	AI is native across all products, so you get instant insights like call sentiment analysis, real-time text transcription, and built-in AI for call scripts.

1. Nextiva

Pros	Cons
Quick and simple setup	No free trial
Affordable cost for businesses of all sizes	No support for on-premises deployments
New advanced AI features due to Thrio acquisition	Lack of out-of-the-box integration for some niche lines of business apps

Nextiva provides a robust platform flexible enough for just about any size company. Founded in 2006, the company is the leader in business phone systems and call center solutions, either provided in-house or via technology partners. You can choose from inbound, outbound, or blended contact center software alongside your core internal communications app.

Key features

Expect a wide range of features for inbound call centers, including call routing, advanced IVR, and analytics for measuring agent performance, caller behavior, and customer preferences. Omnichannel functionality opens up more possibilities in email, web chat, SMS, and social media.

For outbound call centers, expect computer telephony integration (CTI), a power dialer or predictive dialer, and a ton of advanced reporting.

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

Why Nextiva is great for high-growth call centers

When you’re ramping up activity, everyone needs to stay connected. Nextiva really shines when you have to create a two-way information exchange between your internal users and frontline support agents. 

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 higher customer satisfaction. Customers benefit from shorter wait times, a more personalized customer journey, and a higher first-call resolution rate (FCR).

For support teams handling high call volumes and those in high-pressure environments, new features, thanks to Nextiva’s acquisition of Thrio in 2024, include AI features, like:

• A built-in AI assistant
• Dynamic scripting
• Native process automation
• Proactive customer notifications
• One intelligent display for all your agents’ needs
• High availability (zero downtime) even through updates

If you’re ready to supercharge your call center productivity, the addition of these AI capabilities can be drip-fed so you see a genuine, tangible difference.

2. Five9

Pros	Cons
Longstanding AI legacy	High price point for small businesses
Focus on automation	An overwhelming solution for some new users
Enterprise scalability	A separate provider is required for voice

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. 

Key features

You get what we’ve come to expect as stock call center features, like call queuing, IVR, and custom routing.

But where Five9 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 a decently sized service team, 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

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

Five9 is easy to scale up agents and features as your business grows. Once set up and configured, more users and extra functionality are added via a self-service portal.

If you have minor phone system requirements and plan to use the basic call platform for your collaboration needs, you can focus on agent efficiency without complex PBX or VoIP configurations.

Where Five9 comes into its own for high-growth call centers is the suite of analytics available to help identify areas for improvement and optimize performance. If your business relies on the outcomes of its calls, instant access to a range of actionable insights can prove invaluable.

Related: Five9 Pricing: How Much Does Its Cloud Contact Center Cost?

3. Ringover

Pros	Cons
Unlimited international calls	Lack of support for lesser integrations
Robust basic call routing	Limited omnichannel functionality
Specialist in sales and recruitment	Lack of contact center market exposure

Ringover was founded in 2005 with the goal of replacing time-consuming manual tasks with intuitive features that allow call centers to optimize their conversations. Ideal for businesses of all sizes, this software seamlessly integrates VoIP phone systems, video conferencing, SMS, and collaborative tools into one unified platform. 

Key features

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 to enhance call efficiency.

Focusing 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), this software supports emails, SMS, and social media.

At the top level, you get AI features like real-time transcription, predictive analytics, and radio coaching. 

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

Ringover’s unlimited international calling packages make scaling up affordable during rapid growth. These international capabilities support global expansion, removing the need to approach local vendors in different geographies and having multiple phone bills to juggle.

Ringover’s mobile app is easy to use and is praised by many users. It makes agent access to call queues at short notice simple, eliminating the need for agents to be on-site to handle calls at short notice.

4. CloudTalk

Pros	Cons
Specialist in CRM integration	Lack of some omnichannel support
Native workforce management	Inflexible pricing
No on-premises legacy	Slow communications process

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.

Key features

CloudTalk offers AI routing and customer 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.

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

While not a feature per se, there’s a lot to be said about a call center tool that’s easy to set up and use. Setting up for the first time to add new agents at the drop of a hat is simple, thanks to an intuitive admin portal. Likewise, an agent UI will be familiar to both the seasoned and novice call center agent.

With a pay-as-you-go pricing model, there’s no need to negotiate call bundles or unlock a new discount tier. Instead, you can focus on making and receiving calls as soon as agents get onboarded.

5. Talkdesk

Pros	Cons
Advanced call routing and workflows	Lack of enterprise case studies
Focus on automation and self-service	Expensive add-ons
Easy implementation	Poor support for lesser integrations

Talkdesk is a cloud-based platform predominantly used by support enterprises to enhance their customer engagement through automation and AI. 

Key features

Talkdesk supports basic call routing functionality and 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
• Agent callback
• 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. 

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

Talkdesk is known for its easy implementation, but that’s not to say it doesn’t offer the scalability and customization associated with more complex deployment models.

Catering to your specific needs as you grow, Talkdesk can scale from a basic call center to a full-blown omnichannel contact center with advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making to optimize your call center.

6. Freshcaller

Pros	Cons
Tight integration with other Freshworks products	Multiple customer service solutions in Freshwork’s catalog, which can be confusing
Focus on remote-ready organizations	Large jump in price for enterprise plan
Easy-to-interpret live dashboards	Focus on sales environments, which may be off-putting for customer service functions

Freshcaller is the cloud PBX and contact center solution created by Freshworks, a provider of multiple types of cloud productivity and business software.

Key features

In addition to coming with standard call center features, Freshcaller focuses on gamification features to motivate agents by creating a sense of competition and camaraderie. In sales teams and during periods of high-pressure queries, adopting a sales-esq environment can help turn things around and improve agent productivity.

When opting for its call center module, you also get access to built-in collaboration tools for improved teamwork. Unless you need a complex PBX underpinning your call center software, Freshcaller removes the need to buy separate phone and call center solutions.

Backed by generative AI, Freshcaller also provides features like:

• Self-service IVR and skills-based routing
• Automatic call distribution (ACD)
• Agent copilots to ask for help with specific queries
• Real-time and historical performance analysis

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

You can use a “day pass” whenever an occasional agent logs into your account, meaning temporary staff for unplanned occasions don’t need a monthly or annual license. The pass lapses at the end of the day and only costs a few dollars for access.

If you’re a sales team already using Freshworks for sales, marketing, or CRM, you have all your systems under one provider. This often makes combined growth easier to plan and implement.

7. CallHippo

Pros	Cons
Ease of setup and use	Lack of omnichannel
International calling	The most expensive pricing plan required for some basic features
Automatic call logging and recording	Siloed channels for call center management

CallHippo is an affordable and easy-to-use cloud-based solution that comes with a wide range of international calling capabilities.

Key features

CallHippo excels in basic call features like automatic call recording and call logging, making an agent’s role solely about providing a great experience and less about admin and reporting on metrics and KPIs.

The platinum plan grants you access to features like smart DID routing, predictive dialer, and compliance call recording.

While there is no formal omnichannel contact center offering, CallHippo supports WhatsApp and shared inboxes for businesses. This could prove a neat standalone offering for agents working in silos dedicated to a specific area of the business.

You get built-in integrations with popular CRM and business tools like:

• Salesforce
• Intercom
• Pipedrive
• Shopify
• Zapier
• HubSpot
• Slack

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

CallHippo is a cost-effective option for budget-conscious businesses. If your goals don’t include implementing omnichannel or delving into the world of AI, it’s easy to set up and scale with CallHippo.

While not an all-singing, all-dancing contact center like others, it still offers a large number of integrations that allow you to share customer information between critical communications and business systems.

8. Bitrix24

Pros	Cons
Extended business capabilities like collaboration, CRM, and projects	Complex implementation for large businesses
Ideal all-in-one solution for very small teams	Offers too much “more-of-the-same” functionality for businesses with mature communications environments
SIP connector for third-party calling	Expensive enterprise pricing

Key features

Bitrix 24 isn’t solely a call center software. Instead, it’s an amalgamation of project, task, and CRM management tools that businesses can use as much or as little as they choose.

For smaller teams and startups, the free plan (five users) grants access to features like:

• Live chat
• Call queuing
• CRM integration
• Built-in CRM
• Built-in website builder
• SIP connector for third-party calling
• Access to a single channel for communication management

If agents need to manage one channel, such as voice, email, or live chat, Bitrix24’s free plan does a good job of supporting them while providing access to other key business functions.

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

The free plan allows you to test the software before committing. If you’re a small business going all in on Bitrix24, you can play around with many components you may end up using when you scale.

This reduces the need to buy disparate solutions for other business needs like project management, task management, or CRM.

9. Twilio Flex

Pros	Cons
Customizability	An overwhelming platform for some small businesses
Rapid proof of concept	A demo that isn’t self-service
AI capabilities for sales and service	Partner or customer support requirement for setup

Key features

As something of a curveball inclusion in this list of call center software, Twilio Flex is a programmable cloud-based call center platform. This means you can create your digital engagement environment based on your exact needs and communication channels.

Twilio’s easy-to-navigate interface remains the same regardless of the components you configure, enabling high productivity across the board. And whether you choose per minute or agent pricing, you get access to agent copilots to help analyze agent interactions and provide auto-generated summaries and disposition codes.

Twilio also curates customer profiles based on sales, interactions, and customer data from other business systems. This helps provide estimates into reasons for calling, likeliness to buy again, and the most suitable agent to handle a call.

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

Opting for Twilio’s per-hour or per-user pricing means you can scale up and down to manage the flow of seasonal peaks and onboard part-time agents.

The configurable nature of Twilio Flex lends itself to adding new features to existing users who have been asked to take on further responsibilities. The consistent interface means management is similar to features they’ve used before, reducing training time.

10. Dialpad

Pros	Cons
Longstanding leader in AI coaching	Potentially overwhelming AI
Next-generation analytics	Undisclosed enterprise pricing
Dynamic call scripts	Extra costs for basic features like eFax

If AI is seriously at the top of your 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.

Key features

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 efficiently.

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 included in the same Dialpad pricing plan.

If AI isn’t your sole requirement, Dialpad provides unlimited calling, number forwarding, and custom call routing options for those looking to check off the basics.

Why it’s good for high-growth call centers

As somewhat pioneers of agent-assisted AI, Dialpad’s AI-powered cloud-based business phone system with call center features stands out from those that have only just introduced AI into their feature set. This gives customers the confidence to rely on AI capabilities to automate tasks and improve agent efficiency.

Being able to lean on self-service call routing and real-time coaching empowers existing agents to improve while you get new agents up to speed. The more you can automate and hand off to AI, the more time you can dedicate to new hires.

Practical Uses of Call Center Software

Call center software has numerous practical applications to improve almost all aspects of a contact center. By taking advantage of these practical uses, your business can significantly enhance operations, leading to higher customer satisfaction and increased efficiency.

Call center use cases

• Automating Call Routing: ACD makes sure that incoming calls are directed to the most suitable agent based on factors such as skill set, availability, and call priority. This reduces wait times and improves customer satisfaction.
• Centralizing Customer Information: CRM integration provides agents with a comprehensive view of customer history and interactions, enabling personalized and informed service.
• Improving Quality Assurance: Call recording and monitoring features enable supervisors to review calls for quality control, training, and compliance purposes, ensuring that agents maintain high standards of service.
• Optimizing Workforce Management: WFM tools help schedule shifts, forecast call volumes, and manage agent performance, ensuring optimal staffing levels and efficient operations.
• Providing Omnichannel Support: Omnichannel capabilities integrate various communication channels (phone, email, live chat, social media) into a single platform, allowing agents to seamlessly handle customer interactions across multiple channels.
• Streamlining Reporting and Analytics: Advanced analytics and reporting features provide detailed insights into call center performance metrics such as average handle time, first call resolution, and customer satisfaction, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Enhancing Customer Interaction: IVR systems allow customers to interact with automated menus to quickly reach the department or service they need, reducing the burden on live agents and speeding up resolution times.

• Facilitating Remote Work: Cloud-based solutions enable agents to work from any location with an internet connection, supporting remote work and improving flexibility in staffing.
• Enhancing Customer Self-Service: AI and chatbots provide automated responses to common customer inquiries, reducing the load on human agents and offering 24/7 support.
• Managing Campaigns and Outbound Calls: Outbound call management features support proactive customer outreach for sales, marketing campaigns, or customer follow-ups, improving engagement and lead conversion.
• Ensuring Compliance and Security: Compliance tools help make sure that call center operations adhere to regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and other industry-specific standards, while robust security protects customer data.
• Supporting Multilingual Service: Language support and translation features enable call centers to serve a diverse customer base by providing support in multiple languages, enhancing accessibility and customer satisfaction.
• Improving First Call Resolution: Knowledge base integration gives agents quick access to information and resources needed to resolve customer issues on the first call, reducing repeat contacts and improving efficiency.

The practical uses listed here solve all the common pain points that drive most businesses to seek this kind of software.

Call center features

• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): ACD routes incoming calls to the most appropriate agent based on factors like skill set, availability, and workload.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): IVR allows callers to interact with a computer system using their voice to select menu options or enter information.
• Call Recording and Monitoring: This allows you to record and review calls for quality assurance purposes.
• Workforce Management (WFM): This software helps you schedule agents, track their performance, and forecast call volume.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration: This allows you to integrate your call center software with your CRM system so that you can have a complete view of your customer interactions.
• Omnichannel Support: This type of software allows you to interact with customers through a variety of channels, such as phone, email, chat, and social media.

Now, let’s look at these recurring issues that inconvenience your organization and annoy your customers.

Signs your business is ready for call center software

Call center platforms are no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses who want to keep getting those five-star reviews from their customers.

If you resonate with the following pain points, your call center is due for an upgrade.  

1. High call volume and long wait times

If your issue is an inability to handle high call volumes efficiently, this will inevitably lead to long wait times and frustrated customers.

Call center software with Automatic Call Distribution and Interactive Voice Response systems can route calls effectively and provide self-service options – which means much shorter wait times.

2. Inconsistent customer service

Have you ever called a company seeking help and then called them again for additional assistance only to receive a different answer? It’s frustrating and makes you think that the business doesn’t know what it’s doing. Inconsistency in the quality of customer interactions is usually due to a lack of standardized processes.

Software that provides call scripting, CRM integration, and comprehensive training modules can help ensure consistent service.

3. Poor workforce management

Difficulty in scheduling and managing agent workloads can lead to overstaffing or understaffing and thus affect productivity.

But workforce management functionality within call center software that offers scheduling, forecasting, and real-time monitoring capabilities can easily solve this issue.

4. Lack of integration

Have you ever experienced the frustration of manually transferring data between different systems, resulting in errors and delays? Disconnected systems lead to inefficient workflows and data silos. 

Most importantly, a lack of integration is the cause of a lot of human error, which is prevalent with copying and pasting, saving notes, or simply getting distracted (or bombarded) by the next incoming call. 

Software that integrates seamlessly with existing CRMs and other business systems can make sure that you enjoy smooth data flow and unified operations.

5. Limited analytics and reporting

Without software, you may haveinadequate insights into your call center performance and customer interactions.

But when you have advanced analytics and reporting features, you’ll get detailed metrics and insights so you can continually improve and give your customers what they want.

6. Compliance and security concerns

Have you ever experienced the anxiety of a potential data breach or the complexity of navigating regulatory requirements? These days, they’re all too common. Challenges in meeting regulatory requirements and making sure your business’ and customers’ data are secure are significant concerns for any call center. 

The solution to this is getting or upgrading call center software that has robust security features and compliance tools so you can protect customer data and adhere to regulations.

7. Scalability issues

And the last issue we regularly see is an inability to scale operations as your business grows.

The perfect solution is cloud-based call center software that offers flexibility and scalability to accommodate your growing needs.

Legitimate Call Center Software & Why It Matters

So, the question on the mind of American consumers is if that incoming call is legitimate.

Trust is key with the rise of robocalls, scam calls, and voiceprint technology. Mobile phone providers have collectively elevated the industry standard to authenticate the sources of large volumes of calls. Examples of this include STIR/SHAKEN and 10DLC (for text messages) to curb misdeeds and abuse of phone systems.

Legitimate call centers have:

• Call encryption between agents and call center providers
• STIR/SHAKEN compliance (attestation)
• 10DLC compliance for SMS/MMS texting capabilities
• FCC registered and features to meet all telephony laws
• Fully disclosed address with points of contact
• Hosted data centers for customer and call data

Legitimate call center providers like Nextiva already do the heavy lifting for businesses needing a call center solution. Many self-hosted PBXs lack the third-party verification technology to convey these trust signals to phone carriers, and as such, they may be blocked or restricted from high-volume dialing. (Consumers appreciate that.)

This is why it’s critical for call center operators to choose a trusted partner that has secured relationships and active monitoring with all the major PSTN providers.

Related: 20 of the Top Contact Center Companies in the USA

What to Look for in the Ideal Call Center Provider

While every business is different, there is some common ground that you must be aware of when deciding on your next call center service provider.

Here’s what to look for when choosing call center software.

High importance: 

🟢 Scalability: Can your call center platform handle increasing call volume and agent count? How easy is it to upgrade licenses or add more users? Will you need a period of planning, implementation, or downtime, or is it a matter of click-and-go?

🟢 Features: Does your chosen solution cover the basics like call routing, IVR, and CRM integration? Does omnichannel mean access to every channel, like chatbots, email, SMS, and social media? What types of in-call or in-chat capabilities do you have? 

Moderate importance: 

🟡 Pricing: Does the pricing model fit your budget and growth trajectory? Can you afford to pay what the vendor is asking for on a monthly basis? Does it reflect the value you’ll gain from it? Do they provide a discount for annual billing?

🟡 Ease of use: Does the provider offer a demo, free trial, or helpful videos of the platform in action? Is it easy to set up and get going quickly?

🟡 Customization: How much do you need to tailor the platform to your needs? Are you going to make use of configurable options? Are the advanced enterprise solutions overwhelming?

Low importance:

🟠 Omnichannel and multichannel: Does it at least offer multichannel? Do you really need (and need to pay for) omnichannel? What channels are included in omnichannel (phone, email, social media, live chat)?

🟠 Integrations: Does your chosen call center solution integrate with every internal tool? And don’t forget about other business systems like:

• Cloud call center like Nextiva
• Integration tools like Zapier and AppyPie
• Line of business apps for HR, sales, and marketing
• SaaS ticketing solutions like Zendesk, Intercom, and Zoho
• Task management tools like Notion, Trello, and Monday.com
• E-commerce stores like Shopify, Klayvio, and WooCommerce
• Collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Webex

Nextiva: Simply the Best Call Center Software Solution for Growing Businesses

When choosing call center software for your business, look for something easy to use, scalable, affordable, and capable of supporting remote agents. 

Then, narrow your choices by the available features and whether your chosen vendor can deliver them at a price that represents value and sits within your budget.

We’re confident that Nextiva delivers all this and then some!

Customers are saying things like: “It’s been an incredibly reliable way to connect with our fans and create a better customer experience.” 

With industry analysts like Frost & Sullivan recognizing our approach, which “provides actionable intelligence and significant ROI for customers,” it’s no wonder Nextiva ranks among the Deloitte Top 500 fastest-growing companies in North America.

You’ve made it this far, so it’s worth a shot to get a personalized demo. You don’t have to have all the details now, but we’ll help you make the best choice for your team. 

Related: 7 Features Customer Service Software Support Teams Need

Call Center Software FAQs

When it comes to Five9 pricing, how does this contact center compare to Nextiva?

Five9 is a staple among contact center operators. It’s been in the market for quite some time and helps popular enterprise businesses power their contact center operations across multiple channels. 

Sometimes, that longevity comes with some baggage. Is Five9 the right solution for you? 

To help you make an informed decision quickly, we’ll do a deep dive into Five9’s pricing and features. We’ll also see how it stacks up against Nextiva, another popular contact center solution for businesses.

Five9 Pricing Explained

Five9 offers five pricing plans for different contact center functionalities. Here’s a quick look at what you get at each tier: 

	Best For	Pricing (per month)	Features
Digital	Medium-sized organizations looking to operate a digital-only global contact center	$175	24/7 support Blended call center capability (inbound and outbound calls) SMS/MMSCall recording Social media messaging
Core	Medium-sized organizations that need best-in-class call center software	$175	Dialer Call recording Voice channel Geo redundancy Blended call center capability
Premium	Medium-sized organizations building an omnichannel contact center	$235	Chat, voice, and email support Dialer Call recording Essentials quality management Agent desktop
Optimum	Enterprise businesses scaling omnichannel customer engagement and workflow automation	$290	Enterprise quality management Enterprise workforce management Chat, voice, and email support  Geo redundancy Full platform
Ultimate	Enterprise businesses looking for data insights to scale contact center operations	$325	24/7 support Integration analytics Enterprise quality management Enterprise workforce management Chat, voice, and email support

1. Digital (digital only)

Priced at $175 per month, Five9’s digital-only plan is ideal for midsized businesses looking to scale customer support across digital channels like email and chat. 

Its features include: 

• 24/7 support
• Blended call center capability (inbound and outbound calls)
• SMS/MMS
• Call recording
• Social messaging

2. Core (voice only)

The Core plan costs the same as Five9’s Digital plan. However, it only gives you access to voice features, making it ideal for medium-sized businesses looking for a robust call center software phone system. 

Apart from 24/7 support, it also offers the following features: 

• Dialer
• Call recording
• Voice channel
• Geo redundancy
• Blended call center capability

3. Premium (digital + voice)

The Premium plan combines Five9’s digital and voice packages, offering a more integrated solution for integrating multiple communication channels. 

It costs $235/month and is best for medium-sized organizations scaling omnichannel customer engagement. 

With the Premium plan, you get: 

• Chat, voice, and email support
• Dialer
• Call recording
• Essentials quality management
• Agent desktop

4. Optimum (digital + voice + WEM)

Priced at $290/month, the Optimum plan layers advanced workforce engagement management (WEM) tools on Five9’s voice and digital capabilities. This makes it ideal for enterprise businesses looking to streamline content operations. 

It offers the following features: 

• Enterprise quality management
• Enterprise workforce management
• Chat, voice, and email support 
• Geo redundancy
• Full platform

5. Ultimate (digital + voice + WEM + analytics) 

Priced at $325/month, this is Five9’s most comprehensive plan, adding analytics to the suite of tools available. It’s the preferred option for enterprise organizations that need deep insights and data-driven decision-making capabilities to enhance customer interactions and operational efficiency.

It offers the following features: 

• 24/7 support
• Integration analytics
• Enterprise quality management
• Enterprise workforce management
• Chat, voice, and email support

Top Five9 Capabilities

Five9 offers an all-in-one cloud contact solution with AI capabilities, security and compliance tools, and workforce engagement support. 

1. Customer engagement solutions 

As an omnichannel contact center, Five9 integrates all your customer channels into a single platform, helping you scale customer engagement efficiently. 

It offers cross-channel routing, allowing you to automatically assign inbound messages and calls to agents across multiple touchpoints. It also integrates social messaging and automates SMS filtering to enhance customer interactions on social media and SMS platforms.

2. Automation and AI tools

Improve your contact center efficiency with Five9’s wide range of automation tools. 

Take its intelligent virtual agent, for example. It responds to inbound inquiries and automatically routes calls and messages that require a human response to the right agent, thereby reducing call wait times, increasing operational efficiency, and lowering contact center costs.

It also provides real-time transcription for instant call insights and workflow automation to streamline everyday tasks and free up agents’ time for human-centered responsibilities.

3. Interaction analytics

Five9 gives you a bird’s-eye view of all your customer interactions across multiple channels — from your social media accounts to emails and live chat. 

Beyond monitoring and responding to inbound calls and messages on time, you can use Five9’s text analytics and speech recognition tools to analyze these interactions for real-time insights into customer behaviors. 

This data will help you improve customer engagement strategies and personalize sales and marketing messages to deliver better customer experiences.

4. WEM

Five9’s workforce optimization tools ensure that your contact center agents work efficiently and deliver high-quality customer service. For example, its Enterprise workforce engagement management helps you forecast call volumes and schedule agents across channels accordingly. 

It also provides quality management tools for monitoring agent performance and providing coaching and feedback to improve agent productivity and delivery.

Why Contact Centers Prefer Nextiva Over Five9

Five9 covers a lot of ground when it comes to contact center functionalities. However, its high price point and platform complexity often push users to switch to more reliable alternatives like Nextiva.

As a cloud-based contact center software, Nextiva offers everything you get with Five9 (and more) at a more reasonable price — increasing the efficiency of your contact center operations.

1. Lower pricing

Nextiva’s packages offer more features at a lower price than Five9. Our basic plan costs only $99/month and supports voice and digital channels, workflow automation, and generative AI integration. 

On the other hand, Five9’s cheapest plans cost $175/month for either voice or digital channels. For an omnichannel contact center solution with voice and digital capabilities, you’ll need to upgrade to Five9’s Premium plan, which costs $235/month. That’s more than twice what Nextiva costs. 

This makes Nextiva the preferred solution for businesses looking to maximize their ROI on their contact center budget.

2. Rich feature set

Most of Five9’s advanced features are locked into higher-tier plans. For example, you need to upgrade to its $235/month Premium plan to access its omnichannel features. 

And its analytics features only come with the Ultimate plan, which costs $325/month. This means you need to spend significantly more just to access one or two extra features. It’s not cost-effective for many organizations.

Nextiva, on the other hand, offers more robust contact center capabilities across all pricing tiers. For example, our $99/month Essential plan includes advanced features like process automation, workflow engines, agent assist, and AI integration — which you’ll only find in Five9’s higher-tier packages.

3. User ratings

Nextiva constantly outranks Five9 on major review sites for support, ease of use, and value for money. On Software Advice, for example, we have a 4.4-star overall rating compared to Five9’s 4-star rating. Here’s a quick look at how our ratings compare across the board:

That’s not all. Check out our full breakdown to see how Five9 pricing and features compares to Nextiva.

Maximize Your Contact Center ROI With Nextiva

Five9 offers decent contact center features, especially for midsized and enterprise businesses. But if you’re looking for a contact center solution with advanced features and affordable pricing packages, Nextiva is an excellent alternative. 

Nextiva offers scalability in contact center services without a proportional cost increase, making it an attractive option for businesses seeking to grow efficiently and economically.

Five9 Pricing FAQs

Find answers to common questions about Five9 pricing plans.

Looking for a solution that mitigates the limitations of voice calls and text chat? A video contact center is your answer.

Customer expectations are evolving, and traditional contact centers are struggling to keep pace. Video contact centers are stepping in to bridge the communication gap and connect you with your customers on a whole new level.

This article dives deep into video contact centers. We’ll explore what they are, key benefits and drawbacks, implementation tips, and top features to help you decide if video is your key to creating a more personalized and efficient customer experience.

What Is a Video Contact Center?

A video contact center incorporates video conferencing technology into the traditional call center model, enabling customers to contact your business via video call, much like they would through a regular phone call. This technology allows face-to-face interactions, visual demonstrations, and a more immersive customer support experience.

Think ease of a phone call combined with the richness of in-person interaction.

Take the example of a customer with a faulty product. Instead of struggling to explain the issue over the phone, they can simply show the problem through their webcam. This visual communication allows support agents to:

• Diagnose problems faster: Quickly understand the situation and provide targeted solutions.
• Offer personalized support: Get valuable insights via visual cues and nonverbal communication that lead to more effective interactions.
• Improve customer satisfaction: Make customers feel valued with faster resolutions and a more personal touch.

Customers place equal importance on a company’s service experience and its products, with 4 out of 5 stating that the quality of customer interaction is as crucial as the products or services themselves.

A video call center just doesn’t let you place a video call through a separate app, it seamlessly integrates with your existing platform, working alongside options like web chat and email, which enhances your customer support capabilities, driving a better experience.

Pretty good, right? There are more pros too…

What Are the Benefits of a Video-Enabled Contact Center?

The benefits of implementing video in a contact center are both numerous and impactful. Incorporating video allows for a quicker resolution time, accurate troubleshooting, and a less frustrated customer, significantly reducing the risk of complaints later on. 

The face-to-face interaction that video provides builds trust and reduces the necessity of in-person visits, reducing the risk of dispatching an incorrect engineer. These enhance the customer experience without negatively impacting your bottom line.

Video call centers excel in several key areas:

• Enhanced visual communication: Clearer understanding as both support personnel and customers can visually demonstrate and resolve issues.
• Real-time issue resolution: Immediate problem-solving as issues are shown and fixed in real time, preventing the escalation of problems.
• Personalized support: Customers receive a more tailored experience since support staff can see the issue firsthand, enabling a more accurate and personal response.
• Visual product demonstrations: Demonstrating product features or issues through video enhances comprehension and customer satisfaction.
• Improved agent productivity: Visual cues let agents diagnose technical problems quicker, explain complex concepts more effectively, and build customer trust. This translates into higher first-call resolution rates and increased sales opportunities that enhance agent productivity.
• Seamless omnichannel integration: Video capabilities integrate smoothly with other communication channels, providing a cohesive customer experience across platforms.

Challenges of Video Contact Centers

While video contact centers offer many benefits, it’s important to consider some challenges you may encounter:

User adoption and preferences

David Maldow, Founder of Let’s Do Video, is a little cautious over video in contact centers because of previous attempts. 

Amazon tried using a “Mayday” button on its Kindle Fire tablet but it was often abused.

Focussing a little too much on accessibility, anyone with a tablet and an Amazon account could access video support without a reason to connect.

Video fatigue

Remember when we were all talking about Zoom fatigue during the pandemic?

When people work 9-5 (or longer now we’re at home and have no commute), the last thing we want to do is jump on another video call.

The hasty decision here is not to offer video at all. But what about all the people you could help with video?

A rational solution is to offer rather than require video as a channel in your contact center. For example, option 1 on your interactive voice response (IVR) system could be to speak to an agent and option 2 could be to video call an agent. 

Technical restrictions

Outside of personal preference, you need to think about bandwidth. While a VoIP call only needs 100kbps, video demands higher bandwidth to process media. 

Typically, you need at least 1MBps of bandwidth to run a video call without compromising the call quality. 

Make sure you consult your IT team to free up enough resources before rolling out video in your contact center.

Video calls require significantly more bandwidth than traditional voice calls. Both the contact center and the customer need adequate internet speeds to ensure smooth, high-quality interactions.

Accessibility concerns

Harry Gallagher, CTO of Life Part 2 and former call center manager, points out that “Video can be more difficult to use than other channels, which can lead to customer frustration.” This is particularly relevant for demographics less comfortable with technology.

While video excels in certain scenarios, it may not suit all industries or customer interactions. It’s crucial to identify where video adds value and offer it as an option rather than a requirement.

To address these challenges, businesses should:

• Offer video as one of multiple contact options, not the sole channel.
• Ensure robust technical infrastructure to support high-quality video calls.
• Provide clear instructions and support for customers using video services.
• Carefully consider use cases where video truly enhances the customer experience.

Acknowledging and preparing for these potential drawbacks helps implement video contact centers more effectively, maximizing benefits while mitigating risks.

Use Cases for Video Contact Centers

The following use cases demonstrate how video contact centers spin up traditional customer service models, offering more engaging, efficient, and personalized interactions across industries.

• Customer service and technical support: Agents visually guide customers through complex issues, expediting problem-solving. Insurance companies streamline claims processing through visual assessments.
• Sales and retail: Car dealerships offer virtual test drives, while retailers provide personalized video shopping experiences, bridging the gap between online and in-store interactions.
• Healthcare: Telemedicine facilitates follow-up appointments and mental health consultations. Pharmacists offer video counseling to improve medication adherence and patient understanding.
• Education: Video enables personalized tutoring and immersive language learning with native speakers, expanding educational reach and effectiveness.
• Financial services: Banks and investment firms leverage video to explain complex products, conduct consultations, and foster stronger client relationships.

How To Implement a Video Contact Center

How do you successfully implement a video contact center to get the most out of it?

1. Plan & assess

Identify departments that would benefit most from video interactions and assess your customers’ technological readiness.

Choose contact center software that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems and offers essential features like screen sharing, call recording, and robust video capabilities. Consider scalability, ease of use, and vendor support when selecting your platform.

2. Train & prepare your team

Upgrade your network bandwidth and equip agents with quality cameras and microphones.

Train your team in video etiquette and effective on-screen communication. Cover both verbal and visual skills, including proper lighting, camera eye contact, and appropriate gesturing.

Conduct regular practice sessions to boost agents’ comfort with the technology and improve their virtual presence.

Teach agents to troubleshoot common technical issues and guide customers through joining video calls. Also, create a feedback system to continuously improve video chat performance based on customer and team member input.

3. Do a pilot run & educate customers

Before full implementation, conduct a small-scale pilot program to test your processes and gather feedback. This allows you to identify and address potential issues early on.

Once you’re confident in your setup, gradually expand the video service across your business. Educate customers about this new option, providing clear instructions and highlighting its benefits to encourage adoption.

4. Rollout & continuously improve

Establish video-specific metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) like average handle time, first call resolution, and abandonment rates, and monitor them closely. Regularly refine your service based on the performance metrics and feedback from both agents and customers.

Above all, stay updated on emerging video meeting technologies to keep your contact center at the front.

Key Features To Look for in a Contact Center Solution

Choosing the right video contact center software that fits your team and customers is a top priority when implementing video in your processes. Let’s look at the feature set to keep an eye out for.

• Intuitive interface: User-friendly designs ensure smooth adoption for both agents and customers.
• Live video messaging: Video chat options enable real-time, face-to-face interactions, streamlining digital and in-person support.
• IVR integration: Advanced interactive voice response systems now incorporate video options, allowing customers to choose their preferred communication method.
• Self-service enhancement: Video tutorials and visual guides help customers resolve issues independently.
• Workflow optimization: Streamlines support processes, reducing resolution times and improving efficiency.
• Actionable insights: Call analytics provide valuable data on customer behavior and agent performance, facilitating continuous improvement.
• API capabilities: Allow for seamless integration with CRM and other business systems.
• Automation: Incorporates intelligent routing and other automated processes to enhance operational efficiency.
• Customization: Tailored solutions to meet specific business needs and branding requirements.
• Multi-touchpoint integration: Extends video capabilities across various stages of the customer journey.
• Webinar functionality: Supports group sessions for customer education and product demonstrations.
• Closed captioning & screen reader compatibility: Guide customers with hearing or visual impairments and accommodate diverse user needs.

Should You Implement Video in Your Contact Center?

Patrick Watson, Senior Analyst at Cavell Group (a cloud communications research firm) points out that 36% of businesses use video as part of their customer contact toolset already. A further 29% plan to adopt video as a customer communication channel in the future. 

However, the decision to implement video should be based on your use case and industry needs. Watson notes that video is particularly effective in verticals where visual information enhances the interaction.

For example: When a visual adds to the interaction — like within retail for a more detailed product examination — video in the contact center is a good idea.

While video can significantly enhance customer interactions in most scenarios, it may not work for every customer engagement. Assess your goals, customer expectations, and the nature of your services to make the right choice.

Where Can I Get Video Call Center Software?

Nextiva Contact Center provides an omnichannel solution including video as a channel to serve your customers.

It works in tandem with other channels like voice, live chat, email, SMS, and social media, offering a consistent customer experience regardless of the channel they opt to reach out to you.

Besides an inbound option for video callers, you benefit from skills-based routing and a single interface. Customers receive the same experience as if they were calling you via phone. Just because they choose to call with video no longer means a compromised customer experience.

A single interface and a standard reporting suite mean agents and supervisors continue working in a place they know their way around.

Ready To Try Video in Your Contact Center?

The pros of video-enabled contact centers outweigh any deemed cons. Most of which you can manage by offering choice rather than enforcing video for every call.

For the small amount of potential negatives, like caller bandwidth, the bigger picture is that offering video as a channel can only be a good thing.

Whether you’re a support, sales, or bookings call center, think how much easier an agent’s life would be if they could see what they were troubleshooting.

Then think about how much happier customers will be when they can literally show you their problem.

Video in the contact center is a good idea.

Whether you’re choosing your first or your next call center software as a small business, it’s a decision that will impact how you work and how you serve your customers for years to come. 

When considering a call center phone system, there’s a lot to consider regarding inbound and outbound calls, applying specific call treatment, and configuring custom call queues.

In this post, we address the absolute must-haves when it comes to buying call center software, introduce new features, and highlight the right solution for you.

Spoiler Alert: The best five call center software for small businesses are:

1. Nextiva
2. Ringover
3. Sprinklr
4. Five9
5. LiveAgent

What Should Small Businesses Look for in Call Center Software?

If you do nothing else when comparing call center software, make sure to look out for these three things:

1. Rapid onboarding with a user-friendly interface

When you lack the in-house resources to dedicate to user onboarding and constant training, the time taken to get call center agents up to speed is vital.

Will your call center software take weeks to learn, with day sessions needed to learn the interface? Or can you walk a new agent through the main functions and let them get on with it?

If your chosen vendor suggests a lengthy period for onboarding and adoption, consider this a red flag. The solution is most likely too complex for a small business and better suited for an enterprise with custom requirements.

When assessing call center software for a small business, look for an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate, especially for non-technical users. These might be the people who offer the most value when it comes to customer service, so you don’t want your new software to become a block for them.

2. Built-in CRM integrations

Your call center software will rarely be the only tool your agents work with. Think about the other key business apps they’ll be using on a daily basis and ensure your chosen call center integrates with them.

This needs to happen out of the box to avoid setup delays and free up internal resources that are already dedicated elsewhere.

Ensuring CRM integration between your call center software and your most used apps ensures all customer data, like past interactions and purchase history, is readily available to agents. Failure to integrate can lead to lower customer satisfaction, siloed information, and duplicate effort.

3. Unlimited vendor support

As a small team, you don’t want to be out on your own when something goes wrong.

Choose a vendor known for exceptional customer service with readily available support options (phone, chat, and email). If you operate 24/7, for example, make sure you can reach your vendor at any time and through your preferred method of contact.

Look for plans that include unlimited support to ensure you get the help you need to customize the software or troubleshoot any issues when you need it.

Essential Call Center Features Every Small Business Needs

The number of possible call center features available on the market today is overwhelming. Comparing feature by feature is no longer a productive exercise, as there are so many.

Instead, make sure your shortlist of call center vendors supports all the following high-quality features:

Automatic call distribution 

Automatic call distribution (ACD) is a technology used in contact centers to route incoming calls to available agents based on predetermined rules.

You can distribute phone calls based on caller ID, business hours, support level, and interactive voice response (IVR) selections. As a result, inbound calls reach the right agent, department, or even voicemail quickly and without the caller having to dial a different phone number.

Imagine a customer calling about a specific appliance at a big-box store. ACD can identify keywords and route the call to an agent familiar with that product line, ensuring expert assistance on the first try.

Interactive voice response

IVR offers self-service options for basic inquiries, reducing agent workload and wait times.

An IVR helps callers navigate to their desired destination through preset menu options.

By choosing the right option, callers get matched with the respective department, individual, or queue.

Inside an IVR, you can configure special rules for who picks up each call based on skills, call volume, or period.

Call recording & call monitoring

Basic call recording ensures all your calls get recorded and retained for compliance reasons. If you need to recall a customer interaction in the future, you have them securely stored.

More advanced call recording enables you to level your training and quality assurance processes. Not only can you listen back to any call of your choosing, but you can also set up routine (and automated) workflows where you take customer calls and review them for key criteria.

With easy access to call recordings, you can build a formal quality assurance process without constant legwork and effort.

Dashboards & reporting

They say what gets measured gets managed, and this couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to call center operations.

With access to the right call center metrics, you can track volumes, wait times, and resolution rates to identify areas for improvement.

What’s even more helpful is having these displayed on dashboards for easy viewing. You may have a wallboard to track agent performance, and you could even introduce contact center gamification.

You can also have a supervisor-specific dashboard for certain teams to get a holistic view of what’s happening at any given moment (or in the past) so you can make business decisions backed by real customer data.

Related: 7 Features Customer Service Software Support Teams Need

Top 5 Call Center Providers for Small Businesses

Now, we will introduce the five best call center software providers specifically designed for small businesses. 

These are all providers who hit the key criteria:

• Ease of use
• Rapid onboarding
• Unlimited vendor support
• CRM integration and open APIs
• Delivery of essential features for small teams

1. Nextiva

Pros	Cons
Quick and simple setup	No free trial
Affordable for small businesses	No support for on-premises deployment
24/7 support and 99.999% uptime	Lack of out-of-the-box integration for some niche business apps

Nextiva provides a phone system, video conferencing, and call center solution, meaning you have a single platform for all your communication and business needs. 

You can choose from inbound, outbound, or blended contact center software alongside your core internal communications app. 

Expect a wide range of features, even in the basic call center package:

• Call routing
• IVR
• ACD
• Speech analytics
• Reporting and dashboards
• Mobile app for instant access
• Option to add email, chatbots, SMS, and social media

For outbound call centers, expect computer telephony integration (CTI), a power dialer or predictive dialer, and a ton of advanced reporting options to streamline sales.

Out-of-the-box 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

Nextiva customers love the assisted implementation, ease of setup, and friendly and knowledgeable support team.

“I can’t really say enough about the support. Nextiva is top-notch when it comes to any issues that I have. It is thorough, responsive, and professional. From my perspective as the IT Director, it’s really the forefront of my requirements for any vendor that we deal with. We have to be able to reach out to support and resolve an issue very quickly.”

— Rich Sparkman, Director of Technology at Shelby American

2. Ringover

Pros	Cons
Unlimited international calls	Lack of support for lesser integrations
Robust basic call routing	Fewer omnichannel add-ons
Specialist in sales and recruitment	Lack of call center market exposure

Ringover is a cloud-based software that is mainly used by small and medium-sized businesses. 

It offers unlimited international calls to various destinations and has robust basic voice call capabilities. The call center platform also includes advanced routing features to enhance call efficiency.

With a focus on sales and recruitment, Ringover integrates with specialist CRMs like Bullhorn, TextUs, Sense Messaging, and Loxo. You also get integrations with major platforms like Zoho and Microsoft Dynamics.

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, call center analytics, and radio coaching. 

3. Sprinklr

Pros	Cons
Supports 30+ communication channels	Choice of solutions can be overwhelming for small businesses
Dedicated account manager for enterprise plans	No dedicated account manager for smaller teams
Wide range of CRM integrations	Potential for complex setups

Sprinklr offers a comprehensive omnichannel contact center, including calls, emails, social media, and messaging.

This cloud-based call center software integrates with a wide range of CRM platforms, including:

• Freshdesk
• IBM Watson
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Salesforce
• SAP
• ServiceNow
• Zendesk

Support options include phone, chat, and email, with dedicated account managers for enterprise plans. Sprinklr’s marketing messaging focuses on improving customer support metrics, so you’d hope they are practicing what they preach.

Related: Sprinklr Pricing: Is It Right for Your Contact Center?

4. Five9

Pros	Cons
Longstanding AI legacy	High price point for small businesses
Focus on automation	Can be overwhelming for new users
Enterprise scalability	Needs a separate provider for VoIP

Just because you’re a small business, it doesn’t mean you’re not looking for the most advanced features. If you want an advanced AI-powered contact center solution, Five9 hits the nail on the head. 

You get what we’ve come to expect as stock call center features, like call queuing, IVR, and skills-based routing.

But where Five9 really excels is in its ability to use AI to generate reports and provide sentiment analysis on your customer transactions.

If you’re a data-driven organization with a lot of customers and a decently sized service team, 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

5. LiveAgent

Pros	Cons
Great alternative for budget-conscious businesses	Not a fully-featured call center
30-day free trial	Lack of call center market exposure
Adds extra help desk features	Can require a lengthy implementation

LiveAgent is an affordable option, best known as a ticketing and help desk software. However, with a user-friendly interface, it makes a great choice if call center costs are your primary concern and your core function is customer service. 

Think of LiveAgent as a shortcut to a call center software solution, with help desk features like:

• Configurable business hours
• Canned responses
• Contact forms
• Email forwarding
• Universal inbox
• Time tracking

It also comes with basic call center features like:

• IVR
• Call back requests
• ACD
• Smart call routing
• Call transfers
• Call recording

You also get out-of-the-box integration with popular CRMs like Zoho, HubSpot, and Freshsales.

Related: How to Choose the Best Call Center Service Provider for Your Business

Need to Do More Than Take Calls?

If a call center solution for your small business sounds useful, but you need to do more than handle calls (like responding to support emails, website chats, and social media questions), a contact center platform might be a better fit.

Unlike a call center, contact center software streamlines multiple channels into a single interface.

We refer to this extra functionality as omnichannel — combining all your customers’ communication methods and providing a holistic view for agents to work efficiently and provide a superior customer experience.

It’s not for everyone, but it can help your team work more efficiently and reduce the chaos caused by switching between several disparate apps. 

What’s the Preferred Call Center Solution for Small Teams?

Nextiva.

When looking for call center software as a small business, it’s not necessarily about which has the most features.

While more is generally better, think about what you’re realistically going to use and how efficient and easy it is to use what you need.

When those crucial features are considered alongside the level of support required, we find that Nextiva consistently delivers in this category.

With customers like Veterans Home Care and Canyon Coolers using Nextiva because of its ease of use and quality support, we’re happy to go toe-to-toe with anyone when it comes to providing call center software to small businesses.

“We foster relationships based on the connections we make and having the best software, the best hardware, the best suppliers. Nextiva has checked all the boxes for us.”

— Jason Costello, CEO of Canyon Coolers

With a simple portfolio of products and a history of delivering, Nextiva’s small business experience is second to none.

Related: Small Business Contact Center Software: Overview & Key Features

Helpful FAQs

Sprinklr Service is a cloud-based customer service tool offering omnichannel support features, AI functionality, and analytics through the Enterprise plan. The software can help contact centers focused on customer experience management (CXM) by unifying communications.

While Sprinklr does offer features designed to help contact centers provide customer support, it is not a contact center provider itself. Instead, clients must purchase a separate telephony carrier like Twilio, which is an expense customers should consider when evaluating Sprinklr pricing and alternatives. 

Many of Sprinklr’s customers may also consider the brand for their other three products, which include their marketing, social listening and analytics, and social media management platforms. 

If you’re considering their contact center software, you’re in the right place. We’re going to break down Sprinklr Service’s pricing and plans in-depth to see if there’s a better option out there.

Sprinklr Service Pricing and Plans 

There are two Sprinklr Service plans: Self-Serve and Enterprise. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the significant differences between the two plans:

Self-serve plan

Sprinklr’s Self-Serve plan is targeted toward growing teams looking to enhance their customer service capabilities with basic features. 

These features include the following:

• 15+ communication channels, including voice, email, and social media
• AI chatbots
• Skill-based routing automation
• Canned responses
• Persona-specific dashboards

The Self-Serve plan is priced at $249 per seat per month when billed annually, translating to $2,988 per year for just a single user. Additional users don’t come at a discount, which can make even their lowest-cost plan prohibitive for small and growing teams — especially considering the relatively basic features. 

Enterprise plan

The Enterprise plan is best suited for larger organizations with more advanced needs. 

This plan includes all features available in the Self-Serve plan, as well as features like the following: 

• 30+ digital and social media channels
• Unified contact center operations
• Premium contact center intelligence
• Premium conversational AI bots
• Workforce and quality management
• Dedicated customer success manager
• Access to Sprinklr’s community and self-service knowledge base with FAQs 

Customers can always start with the Self-Serve plan and level up to the Enterprise plan as they scale and require contact center solutions for large enterprises. 

Pricing for the Enterprise plan is custom, requiring a direct quote from Sprinklr. As a result, there’s no published pricing listed online, making it hard for potential customers to assess potential costs and long-term scalability. 

Additional Pricing Details

In addition to your monthly cost per seat, there are four things to consider:

• Contact center provider costs: Sprinklr requires you to work with a third-party carrier like Amazon Connect or Twilio, requiring a significant additional cost that must be factored into your total budget. 
• Set-up fee: Optional setup fees may apply, which can influence your total cost depending on the services you choose.
• Free trial: Sprinklr offers a 30-day free trial for the Self-Serve plan, allowing potential customers to explore the service without a financial commitment. No credit card is required for the trial. 
• Price only for Sprinklr Service: The price you pay for Sprinklr Service only includes the contact center product; other products like Sprinklr Insights and Sprinklr Social are purchased separately. 

It’s important to factor in these potential extra costs when making a purchasing decision. Amazon Connect pricing, for example, includes the following charges:

• Inbound voice call usage cost: $0.018 per minute
• Outbound voice call usage cost: $0.018 per minute
• Chat: $0.004 per message
• SMS: $0.01 per message
• Outbound campaign call usage cost: $0.025 per minute

Key Features and Services Offered

Sprinklr offers many important call center phone system features.

The features and services offered vary depending on the plan you choose, but these are the most notable: 

• Omnichannel support: Both plans offer omnichannel capabilities, supporting over 15 channels, including email, voice, and social media for the Self-Serve plan and expanding to more than 30 digital and social channels for the Enterprise plan.
• Automation and AI: This includes AI-driven chatbots, ticketing, and skill-based routing automation. The Enterprise plan enhances these with premium AI capabilities for deeper customer engagement and better support efficiency.
• Reporting and analytics: Basic reporting is included in the Self-Serve plan, with more advanced, persona-specific dashboards and premium analytics available in the Enterprise plan.

What’s Left to Be Desired About Sprinklr?

Sprinklr Service is a solid CCaaS tool, and they have a good lineup with a variety of products. That said, there are a few good reasons why customers may decide that Sprinklr isn’t a fit for their needs, and many of those reasons center around the overall usability of the product. 

Customization and flexibility

Some users have found that Sprinklr’s contact center offers limited customization options, especially compared to other competitors. This can make it challenging to tailor the platform to specific business needs or preferences and could be a hindrance for companies looking for more personalized solutions. 

Complexity and usability

Users report that Sprinklr’s platform can be too complex and isn’t as intuitive as they need. They also struggled to navigate the interface and retrieve necessary information efficiently. These issues with product complexity and usability can increase the learning curve and adoption period for new users and may require additional training. 

Reporting tools

Sprinklr provides useful analytics, particularly for Enterprise plans, but the reporting tools are described as not being particularly user-friendly. This can pose challenges for users who need to quickly access, understand, and analyze data to make strategic business decisions. 

Steep cost

The platform may be perceived as expensive, especially for smaller companies or those that do not require an extensive suite of features. And for many growing teams, the pricing model and costs are prohibitive; many SMBs can’t afford to pay $2,988 per year for a single user for relatively straightforward features. This is particularly true given that the platform requires connection to a third-party contact center provider, which comes at another additional cost. 

Smaller enterprises may not have budgets that align with the steep costs, especially when there are more reliable, robust, and cost-effective solutions. 

Slow support 

Multiple reviews mention difficulties with Sprinklr Service’s customer support. One user specifically noted that the support team can’t make the client’s requested changes to the system, and the support team’s instructions for the fix can be difficult to follow. 

Why Contact Centers Prefer Nextiva Over Sprinklr

Considering Sprinklr alternatives to deliver an exceptional customer experience for your brand? Contact centers looking for tools to facilitate unified CXM often turn to Nextiva’s contact center solutions. 

Our AI-powered contact center software offers the omnichannel support that call centers need while also offering key benefits like service and support reliability, transparent pricing, and exceptional ease of use. 

Pricing clarity

Nextiva offers clear, upfront pricing, which is easily accessible on its website, making it simpler for businesses to understand and plan their costs. In contrast, Sprinklr pricing requires custom quotes for Enterprise plan customers, which can be unpredictable, less transparent, and potentially time-consuming.

In addition to pricing clarity, Nextiva’s contact center solutions include multiple plans, all of which cost significantly less than Sprinklr’s Self-Serve option. 

Nextiva contact center plans

• Essential: $99/month 
• Professional: $119/month 
• Premium: $139/month 

Essential call center features 

Nextiva’s solution offers essential call center tools.

All plans include the following: 

• Powerful inbound and outbound capabilities
• Workflow engine to reduce human error
• Gold-standard automations and APIs
• Real-time dashboards and reporting

The Professional plan includes the following features (plus the essential ones above):

• Voice, SMS chat, email, social, web form, and more
• Plug-and-play advanced AI for instant intelligence
• Key quality management and digital supervision
• Customer journey context at every step

The Premium plan includes popular contact center features (plus the advanced ones above):

• Dynamic and streamlined workforce management
• Optimized workflows for heightened productivity
• Elite CX analytics with user-friendly views

Ease of use

Nextiva is known for its user-friendly platform, which simplifies operations and reduces the need for extensive training. Sprinklr, while powerful, tends to have a more complex interface and a steeper learning curve that can be challenging for some users.

Reliable and convenient support 

Nextiva is known for its outstanding 24/7 support, staffed by product and technical experts who can assist customers with any concern. While Sprinklr offers customer support, some customer reviews discussed earlier mentioned struggling to get the support they needed, especially on technical issues. 

Integration with other Nextiva products 

Nextiva offers more than contact center solutions. Other Nextiva products, sold separately, include:

• Business phone system: The highly reliable virtual phone system, which includes advanced call management features, offers integrations with tools like Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce, and integrates with Nextiva’s contact center solutions.
• Social media management: Campaign management of all social media platforms is in one dashboard that includes approval workflows, smart routing, and social media monitoring with performance data. 
• Reputation management: Collect, track, assess, and engage with customer reviews, which are an essential part of business improvement and digital marketing. 
• Live chat: Interact with website visitors when they browse your site or sales or customer service support. These interactions are logged and handled within one communications platform. 

Comprehensive communication tools

Nextiva provides a wide array of communication tools integrated into one platform, essential for contact centers that need robust, seamless communication capabilities. Sprinklr focuses more on digital experience management, which might not meet all the direct communication needs of a typical contact center​.

Which Is Better: Nextiva or Sprinklr? 

Nextiva and Sprinklr both offer popular CX software that can benefit most enterprises and small businesses. Choose the software that best meets your current and future needs, including budget, functionality and features, integrations, usability, and support friendliness. 

Many businesses will be priced out of Sprinklr Service, even if they opt for the lowest-cost Self-Serve plan. This is particularly true for growing teams who need multiple user accounts, intuitive software that requires little training, and strong inbound and outbound support options.That said, Sprinklr may be a good option for customers already using other Sprinklr products for social media management purposes. 

And if you just need social media publishing and monitoring, Sprinklr is a viable choice, but it’s expensive. For a more comprehensive customer experience platform with voice, Nextiva is the best Sprinklr alternative.

Nextiva customer Tata Play is the leading content distribution platform in India, with an incredible 31.61% market share and over 19 million subscribers. To serve their massive customer base, Tata Play offers 24/7 support in 14 languages. Using a legacy support platform created significant challenges for the Tata team.

“Nextiva worked with us to develop real-time listening, integrated the multiple channels into a singular customer support interface, and improved our first response time by integrating WhatsApp as a communication channel in our customer service.”

~Dwarka Srinath, CIO, Tata Play

Nextiva’s transparent pricing, exceptional ease of use, reliable support, and essential features make it a great choice for call centers of all sizes. Learn more about our contact center solution to get started.

Looking for the most important customer service trends? Cooking up an exceptional customer service experience starts with the perfect recipe. And Chris Bryant, the director of strategic growth at Nextiva, knows all the right ingredients: 

“Customers expect to get real-time responses. However, they also still expect quality, accuracy, and a human touch.”

To meet and exceed customer expectations, it’s important to analyze and follow customer service trends. The trends we collected can provide you with valuable insights to help keep up with constantly evolving technologies and customer needs. 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these 10 customer service trends.

1. Leverage Artificial intelligence to Enhance CX
2. Build an Omnichannel Customer Experience 
3. Personalize Customer Interactions
4. Prioritize Self-service Resources
5. Embrace Remote and Virtual Customer Support Teams
6. Streamline Quality Assurance Workflows 
7. Amplify the Voice of the Customer
8. Increase Agent Training, Development, and Upskilling 
9. Leverage Real-time Data for Actionable Insights 
10. Create Customer Loyalty Through Company Values

1. Leverage Artificial Intelligence to Enhance CX

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already transformed customer service, but we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. AI chatbots and intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) leverage Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to understand language and provide personalized, conversational support in real time.

Along with AI bot and automation capabilities, generative AI advancements enable AI agents to have more natural conversations, understand context, and solve problems quickly, enhancing the customer experience (CX). 

2. Build an Omnichannel Customer Experience

Omnichannel platforms create a seamless and unified customer journey across all touchpoints, including social media, live chat, messaging, email, and more. This creates an effortless and convenient customer experience and builds stronger customer relationships. As technology advances and more communication channels become available, it’s important to have flexible software that can quickly adapt to changing customer needs. 

For example, Nextiva’s omnichannel customer service software empowers agents to connect with customers on their preferred channels to resolve issues efficiently. It uses past interaction data for personalized experiences and ensuring seamless transitions between channels while preserving interaction history.

Interactions via social media channels make up 25% of support requests. ~Nextiva Contact Center Statistics Survey

3. Personalize Customer Interactions

Personalized customer interactions significantly enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales by leveraging customer data such as purchase history, past interactions, and preferences to create tailored communication and recommendations. Providing a consistent experience across all channels, whether by phone, email, chat, or social media, ensures that customers feel valued and understood. 

Companies achieve personalization by using customer data from various sources, deploying AI-powered chatbots, offering dynamic content on websites and apps, and sending targeted email marketing. These strategies improve customer satisfaction and boost customer lifetime value by fostering repeat business and brand loyalty.

20% of businesses say empathetic customer service agents drive personalized customer experiences. ~Nextiva State of CX Survey

4. Prioritize Self-Service Resources

Self-service support allows customers to find answers and resolve issues independently using resources like knowledge bases or chatbots. This provides quick and convenient 24/7 customer support, catering to the high customer demand for self-service options due to their convenience and speed. 

Self-service support is scalable for businesses and offers continuous availability without additional staffing costs. To get started, companies can evaluate past support tickets to identify common questions suitable for a self-service knowledge base. Implementing these systems should be integral to the overall customer service strategy.

5. Embrace Remote and Virtual Customer Support Teams

There’s no such thing as “after hours,” as customers expect around-the-clock support. Absolve time zones by implementing an AI-powered customer service solution with AI agents and a remote workforce of human customer service reps at a virtual contact center.

Your remote teams will need to see what your local teams see. They’ll need technology that keeps them in the loop. Then top-tier support is always available and doesn’t strain your team. Of all the customer service trends, being available to your customers is timeless.

Beyond lower operational costs, you also insulate your company from common business threats that impair your ability to serve customers.

Less than 10% of contact center operators have no remote call center employees. ~Nextiva Contact Center Statistics Survey

6. Streamline Quality Assurance Workflows 

AI-powered call center quality assurance (QA) software is revolutionizing customer service by providing a more automated, objective, and data-driven approach to QA. Unlike traditional QA, which is time-consuming, subjective, and hard to scale, AI-powered QA software can efficiently analyze large volumes of data, ensuring consistent and unbiased evaluations. 

This technology helps customer service teams identify areas for improvement, coach agents more effectively, and enhance the overall customer experience. Benefits include increased efficiency and scalability, objective and accurate assessments, automated coaching, sentiment analysis, and proactive issue identification.

7. Amplify the Voice of the Customer

Amplifying the voice of the customer (VOC) is a growing trend that helps businesses gain insights, improve customer experience, and build stronger relationships by actively listening and acting on feedback. Customers now expect businesses to be customer-centric, and companies prioritizing VOC demonstrate their commitment to addressing customer needs, which enhances loyalty and satisfaction. 

By leveraging modern technology for real-time customer feedback collection, companies can develop better products, enhance customer experience, and make data-driven decisions. However, it’s essential to listen and take action on feedback, address negative comments constructively, and manage large volumes of data effectively to ensure a comprehensive understanding of customer needs.

8. Increase Agent Training, Development, and Upskilling 

Increasing agent training, development, and upskilling is a growing trend in customer service due to evolving customer needs and the rise of automation. Customers now expect support agents to handle complex products and services, navigate omnichannel interactions, and provide fast, personalized service. As automation takes over repetitive tasks, human agents must focus on complex issues and collaborate effectively with AI technologies. 

Upskilling benefits include improved customer satisfaction, increased agent retention, enhanced problem-solving skills, and a stronger brand reputation. However, challenges include the cost and time investment required for training programs and the need to keep up with the constantly evolving customer service landscape.

9. Leverage Real-time Data for Actionable Insights 

Leveraging real-time data for actionable insights empowers customer service teams to be more proactive, efficient, and personalized. Traditional customer service relied on post-interaction feedback, limiting its effectiveness, whereas omnichannel analytics surfaces real-time data to capture valuable insights immediately. 

Benefits include improved resolution rates by quickly identifying patterns, proactive support by flagging issues early, and predictive support by anticipating future needs based on data. Additionally, real-time data enables personalized interactions, enhances the customer experience, and informs data-driven strategic decisions. Examples include proactive chat pop-ups offering assistance and predictive maintenance to prevent device issues before they begin.

25% of CX leaders say they use reputation monitoring and analytics tools to handle customer interactions on online review sites. ~Nextiva Contact Center Statistics Survey

10. Create Customer Loyalty Through Company Values 

Creating customer loyalty through company values is a potent trend that enables businesses to forge deeper connections with their customers. Companies cultivate a loyal customer base beyond mere transactions by aligning with customer priorities and fostering trust through shared values. Today’s consumers seek purpose-driven brands, preferring to support those that stand for more than just profit. 

Companies build trust and emotional connections with customers by communicating and demonstrating values like trust, transparency, sustainability, and social responsibility. When a company’s values are integrated into its culture, employees are more engaged, increasing customer engagement, positive experiences, and customer retention.

Examples include offering eco-friendly options, supporting charitable causes, and actively engaging in community initiatives, all of which can be highlighted in customer service interactions to reinforce shared values.

Keep Up With Customer Service Trends with Nextiva

Providing standard customer support isn’t enough. Following customer service trends can help you keep up with changing customer expectations and give you a competitive advantage. The right customer experience software empowers you to deliver exceptional experiences at every touchpoint and build stronger customer relationships.

Customers base their decisions on the entire experience you provide, from initial interaction to purchase and beyond. CX software helps you identify areas for improvement and ensure a consistently high-quality experience for every user.

Consider Nextiva’s CX solution. More than just following the latest customer service trends, it offers omnichannel support, cloud-based communication tools, customer-centric features, and scalable pricing to fit your needs. 👇

Conversation analytics definition: Conversation analytics is the process of analyzing customer interactions to learn more about their behavior and sentiment.

When customer interactions are happening across multiple channels, it can be hard to unearth the right insights about your products, services, and experiences. Enter conversation analytics.

Conversation analytics lets you analyze all the interactions occurring via phone, email, live chat, social media, and more to learn how customers feel and what they’re saying in real time so you can make the necessary improvements.

Our guide explores conversation analytics, how it works, the benefits it offers, the challenges you might encounter, and how you can leverage it to unlock valuable insights and transform your customer experience (CX). 

How Does Conversation Analytics Work?

Conversation analytics is like having a window into your customers’ minds, allowing you to understand their wants, needs, and frustrations — directly and indirectly — from their interactions.

Here’s the process for how it works:

• Collecting data: The first step involves gathering conversational data from various touchpoints across the customer journey. This could be phone calls, emails, live chat transcripts, and social media (like comments, posts, and direct messages).
• Understanding the language: The system utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP) to convert speech into text for spoken conversations. NLP helps the system understand the meaning behind the words, including customer intent and sentiment.
• Blending data sources: Conversation analytics tools combine with traditional analytics data sources like CRM, call center software, and knowledge bases to gain a comprehensive and holistic view of your customers. By using datasets and algorithms, the software can identify interactions with the same customer across different devices and applications.

• Analyzing data with AI: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms then analyze the text data. These algorithms are trained to identify conversational patterns, keywords, and emotions.
• Extracting actionable insights: By analyzing conversations and customer queries, the system identifies insights like customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), common or trending issues, and customer behaviors. It also surfaces key call center metrics and KPIs such as first response times and first contact resolution rates.
• Making sense of the data: Finally, the conversation analytics tool translates this complex data into clear reports and visualizations. These reports allow you to easily see trends and patterns across all your customer interactions.

Benefits of Conversation Analytics

Conversation analytics isn’t just about listening to your customers; it’s about truly understanding them. By analyzing your customer interactions, you can gain valuable insights and customer feedback that can help you make business decisions to deliver better customer experiences consistently.

Here are a few benefits of using conversation analytics.

Increases sales and conversions

Imagine being able to pinpoint the moments during sales calls where prospects are most likely to convert. With conversation analytics, you can analyze sales calls and identify buying signals and customer objections, helping sales teams improve their ability to close deals. Understanding these roadblocks allows you to optimize your strategies to handle sales objections more effectively and boost conversion rates.

Improves the customer experience

Conversation analytics helps you identify areas where your customer experience might be lacking. By analyzing customer sentiment across various channels, you can pinpoint frustration points and proactively address them. This could involve increasing your self-service options and streamlining customer support processes, such as improving average handle time (AHT).

Enhances agent performance

Your customer service agents are on the front lines, interacting with your customers every day. Analyzing call recordings and chat transcripts helps you spot areas where agents need improvement, such as handling customer escalations or following specific standard operating procedures.

You can then use this data to provide targeted coaching and training for your agents and also measure agent performance metrics. This allows you to see what top performers are doing to excel and share their best practices with the rest of the team.

Conversation Analytics Use Cases

Conversation analytics goes beyond simply listening to customer conversations. It empowers you to predict customer needs and deliver proactive service.

Here are some use cases of conversation analytics that can help your business.

Anticipate customer behavior 

Analyzing past customer interactions and identifying patterns with conversation analytics can help you predict customer behavior. With conversational insights like sentiment analysis, you can determine which customers are at risk of churning or which ones are likely to make a purchase. This allows you to take proactive steps to increase retention, such as offering targeted promotions to high-value customers or reaching out to at-risk customers with personalized support before they turn to a competitor.

Identifying customer pain points

Customers won’t always communicate their complaints verbally. Speech analytics can identify customer sentiment across channels, even in situations where a customer might be vague about their dissatisfaction. 

Gathering and addressing this indirect feedback allows you to identify recurring issues and pain points your customers might face. By understanding these pain points, you can prioritize improvements to your products, services, or customer support and address the customer’s negative experiences before it’s too late.

Optimizing the sales funnel

You can use conversation analytics to analyze sales calls and pinpoint where prospects get stuck or hesitant about converting the sale. You can optimize your sales scripts so your sales team can handle issues more effectively, leading to a smoother sales process. 

Conversation analytics can also help identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities during sales calls. Your sales team can recommend relevant products or services by analyzing customer buying habits and preferences taken from conversations, increasing their order values.

Common Challenges of Conversational Analytics

Conversation analytics is a beneficial tool for customer interactions, but it’s not without its challenges. Here are some key difficulties you might consider:

• Language interpretation: Human language can be messy and complex. Conversation analytics can struggle with subjectivity, sarcasm, and slang. AI algorithms can misinterpret these nuances, leading to inaccurate insights.
• Multilingual support: For your business to operate globally, your customer conversation analytics software needs to be able to support multiple languages. This can be a challenge, as training AI models for each language often requires significant resources.
• Understanding context: Just like humans, conversational analytics tools can struggle to understand the full context of a conversation. Conversational cues like tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language are missing from text data, making it hard for AI to understand the true meaning of what they’re saying. 
• Data privacy and security: Conversation analytics involves analyzing customer interactions — which can contain sensitive data. Businesses need to prioritize data privacy, security, and compliance to ensure customer information is safe. This protection starts with meeting security and privacy regulations and implementing robust security measures to safeguard customer information.
• Conversation analytics software scalability: As the volume of customer conversations increases, conversation analytics software needs to handle the growing data load at the same rate the business grows. Scalability is crucial to ensure that the tool can continue to deliver customer insights efficiently.

Enhance Customer Conversations with Nextiva

Understanding your customers is crucial to providing exceptional experiences throughout the entire customer journey. Conversation analytics empowers you to do just that by unlocking valuable insights from customer interactions. Nextiva can be the key to unlocking the full potential of your customer interactions and driving your business forward.

Nextiva’s business intelligence analytics product goes beyond simply collecting data; it provides real-time insights that can be acted upon immediately. Imagine monitoring contact center activity across your organization, identifying performance trends, and even gamifying performance to boost employee engagement, all within one comprehensive platform. 

Conversation Analytics FAQs

If you still have questions about conversation analytics, we’ve got you covered. Here are more in-depth answers to some common questions.

Businesses are using AI for customer service now more than ever. What started as a futuristic concept is now the standard, helping to meet and exceed customer expectations with every interaction they have with your brand. 

Our guide to artificial intelligence in customer service details the various ways to use AI in customer support, the benefits of AI in customer service, and what to expect in the future. 

What Is AI Customer Service?

AI in customer service refers to using artificial intelligence (​​AI) to automate tasks, assist human agents, and provide automated customer support that improves over time.

Using artificial intelligence for your customer service can help businesses improve the efficiency and quality of their customer service. It can also help enhance the overall customer experience (CX).

Customer Service AI Components

How does AI in customer service work? AI and customer service consist of various moving parts that come together to understand, respond to, and assist customers and human agents.

Here’s an overview of three key components and their impact on customer service and overall business operations:

• Contextual understanding: AI uses sentiment analysis and natural language processing (NLP) to understand the context of conversations. Sentiment analysis helps AI detect how customers feel, while NLP enables AI to understand customer intent, creating faster, more accurate responses. 

• Business relationship: Customer data integration allows AI to provide decision-makers and support teams valuable customer insights into their relationship with the business. This enables agents to prioritize high-value customers and deliver personalized experiences tailored to each customer’s needs and preferences.
• Outcomes: Using AI for customer service can help meet business and customer expectations, reduce churn, and drive revenue. For example, AI-powered tools boost efficiency, allowing customer service teams to achieve goals such as first-contact resolution, and identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities. 

What Are the Benefits of AI in Customer Service?

Businesses are continuously finding new benefits of using AI for customer service. Here are a few advantages of customer service AI:

• Reduces operational costs: AI streamlines workflows, automates repetitive tasks, and deflects calls, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex issues. This boosts operational efficiency and reduces costs. 
• Increases customer satisfaction and retention: AI provides 24/7 support, seamless handoffs to human agents, and the ability to anticipate customer needs for proactive support. This builds relationships, loyalty, and customer retention.
• Helps provide faster, more personalized support: With AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, you can quickly understand customer intent and sentiment to deliver fast, personalized responses and solutions on the customer’s preferred communication channels. 

12 Use Cases for AI in Customer Service

As the bar for customer expectations rises, delivering fast, efficient, and personalized service with every interaction is crucial. With AI in customer service, businesses can revolutionize how they deliver customer experiences.

Let’s explore how to use AI in customer service so you can level up your customer service game.

1. Intelligent ticketing and routing

Intelligent ticketing and routing uses NLP and speech analytics to understand customer intent and sentiment. The AI system can tag, categorize, prioritize, and route tickets to the right agent or department. It matches each ticket with the most suitable agent based on their expertise, workload, and past interactions, ensuring the issue gets addressed and resolved promptly. 

2. Handle repetitive tasks

AI helps customer service representatives by taking care of repetitive tasks so they can focus on issues that require specific expertise or a human touch. AI chatbots or intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) can reply with human-like responses to customer questions and handle tasks like checking order statuses or resetting passwords.

3. Provide 24/7 support and self-service

AI makes sure customers get help whenever they need it, even outside regular business hours. Chatbots and IVAs are available for 24/7 customer support and offer customers self-service options. These resources — like help centers and online portals — help customers help themselves, keeping ticketing and call queues more manageable while reducing wait times.

4. Agent assistance

AI empowers customer service agents by providing real-time guidance, suggesting relevant knowledge articles, troubleshooting steps, and call scripts, accelerating response times, and improving accuracy. Workflow automation handles tasks like call logging, data entry, and ticket classification, while generative AI reduces wrap time by analyzing interactions and generating summaries, saving agents time and minimizing stress. 

5. Accelerate agent onboarding and training

AI accelerates onboarding and training for new customer service agents, ensuring they can handle customer inquiries from day one. It also provides real-time coaching during live interactions, suggesting relevant resources and best practices. AI seamlessly integrates with monitoring and feedback processes and quality assurance tools providing data-driven insights for continuous improvement.

6. Proactive customer support

AI-powered customer support looks ahead and tries to fix problems before they happen. Using predictive analytics, AI can anticipate potential problems and suggest proactive solutions. During interactions, AI analyzes real-time sentiment to prompt agents to offer proactive customer service. At the same time, automated reminders and notifications keep customers informed about service interruptions or personalized recommendations based on their history.

Related: Customer Intelligence: What It Is & How to Implement It

7. Intelligent product recommendations

AI can recommend products to the customer during chatbot interactions or surface recommendations for customer service agents. AI analyzes customer behavior and data, like browsing and purchase history, and context from real-time conversations, to make personalized recommendations tailored to individual preferences and needs. With AI’s assistance, agents can upsell or cross-sell products, enhancing customer satisfaction and driving sales while increasing customer lifetime value. 

8. Personalized interactions

AI enriches customer interactions by personalizing conversations, such as personalized greetings, referencing the customer’s name or past interactions, which can foster a sense of connection. AI seamlessly integrates customer data for proactive support, enabling agents to offer data-driven responses and predict potential issues, ensuring a smoother customer journey and overall satisfaction.

9. Gather customer insights and feedback

AI can take large amounts of data and customer feedback and turn it into actionable insights to improve customer service. AI provides a holistic understanding of customer sentiment and feedback by analyzing text from different channels, like call recordings, live chat transcripts, and social media comments. Through sentiment analysis, AI identifies emotional tones and finds trends and patterns in customer feedback, helping businesses address common pain points. 

10. Optimize knowledge bases and content

Businesses use AI to improve knowledge-based content and self-service options. AI can identify content gaps and outdated articles by analyzing conversations, keyword searches, and customer queries. AI-powered tools streamline content creation and curation, suggesting relevant articles and FAQs. AI can also tailor the knowledge base experience to the customer based on previous interactions and browsing history, proactively offering personalized articles.

11. Multi-language support

Through real-time language detection and translation, AI enables agents to communicate with customers in their native language instantly. Multilingual chatbots and IVAs can interact with customers in multiple languages and provide support tailored to each customer’s preferences. AI also considers cultural nuances and conducts sentiment analysis across languages, ensuring respectful and effective communication that builds trust and rapport with multilingual customers.

12. Deflect tickets with AI chatbots and virtual agents

AI chatbots and virtual agents provide omnichannel support, handling common inquiries and tasks, and freeing human agents for more complex issues. With 24/7 availability, the AI-powered tools answer FAQs and handle repetitive tasks, deflecting tickets and providing immediate assistance. Recognizing customer intent and routing calls to the right place ensures agents resolve requests quickly and efficiently.

Examples of AI in Customer Service

The rise of artificial intelligence in customer service continues to empower businesses to deliver exceptional experiences.

These are a few key AI technologies currently enhancing customer service across industries:

• 🤖 AI chatbots: The most talked-about customer service AI tool, these intelligent virtual assistants use machine learning and natural language understanding (NLU) to deliver conversational, human-like support around the clock. For example, AI agents can handle customer inquiries, like tracking orders, or help with IT support, like resetting passwords. An AI chatbot can handle these requests efficiently, freeing up human agents for more complex issues.
• 📞 Agent assist in contact centers:  Agent assist tools provide real-time guidance during interactions. For example, AI-based call centers can summarize tickets to help the agent get up to speed faster. It can surface suggested replies and relevant knowledge base articles and even offer potential solutions for faster and more effective customer support. Agent assist can also use generative AI to wrap up faster with call summaries, call logging, and ticket classification.
• 🗣️ Advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Not all IVRs are AI-powered, but those that do enhance the customer experience. For example, Nextiva offers an Advanced IVR with Conversational AI that can understand natural language and use context to route customers to the most appropriate resources. It can understand the urgency in a customer’s voice, prioritize their call, and route it to the agent best suited to handle the issue.
• 🦾 Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs): IVAs are AI agents that go beyond basic chatbots. They can handle complex tasks, personalize interactions, escalate complex issues to human agents, and even learn from past experiences. For example, if a customer receives a damaged product, an IVA can handle the entire process from end to end. It understands the intent and sentiment, accesses the customer’s order history, processes the return, and ships a replacement without involving a human agent.
• ⚙️ Natural Language Processing: NLP helps AI understand the nuances of human language—including intent, sentiment, and context. NLP is a key element, allowing AI-powered tools — like chatbots and IVAs — to interpret customer inquiries accurately, personalize conversations, and gauge customer satisfaction during calls or chats.

The Future of Customer Service AI Starts with Nextiva

From self-service options to intelligent agent assist, AI has already transformed the face of customer service. It’s not simply a luxury item that sets businesses apart — it’s an industry standard that customers have come to expect throughout different touchpoints in their journeys.  

With Nextiva’s AI-powered contact center, you get all the bells and whistles to enhance the customer experience. AI-powered customer service includes tools that provide call summaries quickly and accurately document key details and action items from the interaction, AI-powered quality assurance tools that offer more coverage and reduce manual QA, and intelligent call routing gets customers to the right agent the first time.

The future is now. Try Nextiva today. 👇

Customer Service AI FAQS

Still have questions? Our FAQ can fill in the blanks so you have all the info you need about how AI is being used in customer service.

Acronyms like SIP and VoIP can confuse everyone — from the average person gathering info on contact center solutions for their startup or small business to enterprises looking to revamp their telecommunications systems. Let’s keep it simple.

Our guide to SIP trunking vs. VoIP details the definitions, differences, and how they work so you can choose the right one for your business.

SIP Overview

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol.

It’s a method that computers use within VoIP applications to initiate how active devices at each endpoint connect, communicate, and disconnect multimedia communication sessions. SIP is used in voice (telephony), video, live chat and messaging, fax, and mobile phone calling over LTE.

How SIP works 

SIP works behind the scenes to connect you with the person you’re calling, set the parameters for the call — like voice or video — and then disconnect the sessions when you finish.

Example of SIP in action: Say a group of kids wants to play Fortnite together online. The group leader logs on and sends out invitations, and everyone who wants to play accepts the invite.  SIP acts like the organizer, ensuring that everyone is connected, their game settings match, and the session starts smoothly. During the game, SIP keeps everything running without disconnects, and when you’re done, it helps end the session properly, making sure everyone logs out safely. SIP handles all the behind-the-scenes work so everyone can focus on having fun.

VoIP Overview

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

VoIP technology allows you to make phone calls using your internet connection instead of a traditional landline. It uses the internet to transmit your voice, providing high call quality and advanced features without needing physical phone lines.

How VoIP works 

A VoIP system lets you make calls using the Internet rather than relying on a phone line. Just like sending emails, VoIP works by turning your voice into digital messages that travel online then converting them back to sound at the other end.

Example of VoIP in action: Think of VoIP in the landscape of remote employees. Instead of collaborating via traditional phone, you can use an app on your computer to call each other, like Zoom. VoIP does the work, transmitting your voices over the internet, allowing you to talk, share ideas, and collaborate in real time. When you’re done, you simply end the call in the app, making the whole process easy and efficient without needing a traditional phone line.

What Is SIP Trunking?

SIP trunking is like having a bunch of virtual phone lines that use the internet instead of physical wires. A SIP phone uses VoIP phone service to allow businesses to make and receive calls over the Internet using their existing PBX (Private Branch Exchange).

Simply put, SIP trunks bridge the gap between your VoIP phone system and a cloud-based phone service provider. The call flows through a SIP server and into a centralized service, such as an IP PBX.

How SIP trunking works 

SIP trunking works by using your internet connection instead of traditional phone lines to handle calls for your office. It connects your office phone system to the regular phone network through a SIP trunk provider, translating calls into digital data packets sent over the internet.

Components of the SIP Trunking system: SIP channels: Digital phone lines that allow two simultaneous calls — one in, one out — and can be added easily without physical wiring. SIP trunks: Multiple SIP lines grouped together that connect a company’s phone system with its internet telephony provider. SIP protocol: a set of rules for starting and ending online voice, video, and messaging communication sessions over the internet. SIP provider: SaaS vendor that offers services like voice calls, video conferencing, and messaging, as well as connecting company phone systems through SIP trunks over the internet, with options for both businesses with or without existing PBX systems.

Differences Between SIP Trunking and VoIP

VoIP is a ready-to-use service that includes apps, direct user dialing, messaging, and other features the service provider offers without needing technical configuration. It’s straightforward and user-friendly.

On the other hand, SIP trunking is like a wholesale version of VoIP. It provides the basic dial tone but requires technical configuration for each user and line. The user or company will manage the additional features like voicemail setup, not the provider.

Choosing VoIP vs. SIP trunking depends on your technical expertise and needs. SIP trunking is a good option if you’re comfortable managing your existing PBX system and want more control. VoIP is the better choice if you prefer a simpler setup without worrying about technical details. Nextiva offers solutions for both setups to cater to different preferences and requirements.

Feature	VoIP	SIP Trunking
Function	A complete solution for you and your team to communicate and place calls over the internet	A digital connection between your PBX system and the phone network, providing PSTN access via the cloud.
Equipment	Softphone app, computer, or VoIP phone	Existing PBX system, SIP trunk provider
Pros	Easy to set up User-friendly interface Includes features like messaging and video calls	Integrates with existing PBX system Offers more control and flexibility Often more cost-effective for high call volume
Cons	Reliant on the provider’s network and features Limited control over configuration	Requires technical expertise for setup and maintenance Must have a PBX (on-prem or cloud) May require additional hardware or software licenses for features like voicemail
Monthly cost	Approximately $25–45 per user Depends on plan features; often unlimited calling is included.	Approximately $15 per line (metered) or $25 per line unlimited. Varies on usage and number of channels; unlimited calling is rare.
Best for	Businesses with basic calling needs who prefer a simple setup and have limited technical expertise.	Businesses with existing PBX systems, high call volume, and a need for advanced features and control.

Why do companies need high-volume business voice services?

Several business practices require high-volume voice services. These include:

• Autodialing, predictive dialing, or robo-dialing: These automated systems make many calls for tasks like appointment reminders or surveys.
• Continuous, repetitive, or extensive call forwarding: Businesses with high call volume often rely on call forwarding to distribute calls across multiple lines or locations. SIP trunking can handle this efficiently.
• Telemarketing: Telemarketing involves making a high volume of outgoing calls to generate leads or sales. Reliable and scalable voice services are crucial for such operations.
• Government communications: State and local governments (like schools) often use SIP trunks to alert residents in a specific location about events such as snow days, weather notifications, or school closures. Additionally, these offices use VoIP for staff member communications for safe, secure, and auditable communications.

SIP Trunk Use Cases

SIP trunking offers a powerful and flexible solution for businesses looking to modernize their voice communication systems. Here are some key use cases for SIP trunking.

• Brings cloud features to your existing PBX: If you have a functioning PBX system but want to add features like video conferencing or mobile extensions, SIP trunking lets you leverage the cloud for these features while keeping your existing phone system.
• Replaces outdated phone lines: If you’re still relying on traditional phone lines like PRI or POTS lines, SIP trunks offer a cost-effective and future-proof way to retire these aging technologies and connect your PBX to the phone network using your internet connection.
• Enables unified communications across locations: SIP trunking allows you to bring all your locations under a single, centralized telecom environment, simplifying call management, and offering a seamless experience for your employees and customers.
• Adds PSTN connectivity to a cloud-hosted PBX: Businesses already using a cloud-hosted PBX — like 3CX or FreePBX — can use SIP trunking to connect your cloud PBX to the traditional phone network (PSTN).

How to Choose Between SIP Trunking vs. VoIP

Choosing SIP vs. VoIP depends on your specific business needs. Here are some key factors to consider.

• Consider your existing PBX: If you already have a PBX system, SIP trunking lets you leverage your existing hardware while adding cloud features. If not, a hosted VoIP solution might be simpler to set up.
• Identify key features and functionality: Once you’ve determined your must-have communication features, you can more easily choose the right fit for your business. SIP trunking offers more flexibility for features like video conferencing and instant messaging, while basic VoIP might be enough for simple voice calls.
• Review call volume and budget: SIP trunking can handle high call volumes efficiently but might have a slightly higher cost. Basic VoIP plans can be cost-effective for low call volumes.
• Be honest about maintenance and updates: Are you comfortable managing your own phone system updates? SIP trunking requires some IT expertise to manage the PBX system. Hosted VoIP solutions handle updates automatically, freeing up your IT staff for more strategic projects.
• Think about scalability: SIP trunking easily scales by adding more SIP trunks. Hosted VoIP solutions often offer flexible plans that adjust to your growing needs.

Make the Clear Call with Nextiva SIP Trunking

Now that you know the difference between SIP trunking and VoIP, you may already know which is best for your business needs. With Nextiva’s Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), you get SIP trunking that brings your PBX to the cloud effortlessly without requiring new equipment. 

Our service provides scalable voice capabilities, reliable calling, and flexible SIP trunk pricing that saves on business voice expenses. With features like online management, fraud mitigation alerts, E911 support, automatic failover, and detailed call records, Nextiva ensures seamless deployment and a scalable solution to help you meet your business needs, now and in the future.

SIP Trunking vs VoIP FAQs

For more information about SIP trunking vs. VoIP, check out these FAQs.