Call centers are often bogged down by repetitive, mundane tasks that drain agents’ time and patience, leading to frustration, burnout, and long customer wait times. But a simple solution can alleviate these pain points: call center automation.

You might wonder, “How can I leverage automation to free up my team and elevate the customer experience?”

Through advanced features and automation tools readily available in modern call center software. Many of these powerful capabilities are likely already built into your existing contact center platform, waiting to be unlocked and optimized.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through call center automation, its benefits, and key use cases, and provide actionable steps to kickstart your journey toward a more efficient, customer-centric, and future-ready call center.

What Is Call Center Automation?

Call center automation refers to using technology to automate repetitive tasks within a call center, allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues. This can involve automating customer interactions, as well as back-office tasks like scheduling and reporting.

How does it work?

Automated call centers use AI and machine learning behind the scenes. AI powers chatbots, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, virtual assistants, and sentiment analysis to handle routine inquiries, reduce agents’ workload, and personalize customer interactions.

Machine learning analyzes data to automate tasks like call routing, predicting call volume, and even suggesting solutions to agents, reducing their workload and helping them focus on more complex issues.

Automation features in call center solutions streamline call center operations, enhance efficiency, and provide a superior customer journey.

When automating your call center, balance automation and human interaction. Call center automation should complement, not replace, the human touch in customer service.

Key Benefits of Call Center Automation

Call center automation uses advanced technologies to automate repetitive tasks and processes. Here are some key benefits of automating a call center:

📈 Improved efficiency and productivity

Automation reduces mundane tasks for agents, allowing them to focus on more complex customer interactions.

Intelligent call routing increases first-call resolution rates. Self-service options empower customers to address simple requests without agent involvement.

By freeing up time from routine queries, agents can be cross-trained and upskilled, improving agent performance, promoting career growth, and enhancing overall employee satisfaction.

✅ Enhanced customer experience

Faster response times, reduced wait times, seamless call routing, and 24/7 self-service for customer inquiries improve customer satisfaction.

Automation eliminates the frustrating experience of being passed between multiple agents across departments. Instead, callers are efficiently routed to the appropriate skilled agent to have their issue resolved on the first call.

💰Reduced operational costs

Call center automation drives significant cost savings through reduced labor requirements for handling basic inquiries.

With automated self-service and intelligent routing in place, businesses need fewer agents. The agents that remain can be up-skilled to take on more high-value roles.

Automation also enables data-driven workforce management, allowing companies to accurately forecast staffing needs and optimize staffing levels based on real-time data — avoiding over or understaffing.

Lower labor costs, staffing efficiencies, and cross-trained employees translate into substantial operational cost savings.

📊 Data collection and analytics

Automated processes continuously gather comprehensive data across all customer interactions and channels. This holistic data provides granular insights into customer behavior, needs, preferences, pain points, and reasons for contacting support.

With contact center analytics, businesses can optimize processes, expand self-service offerings, identify training gaps, uncover new sales opportunities, and make data-driven decisions to improve products, services, and the overall customer experience.

📉 Better scalability

Call center automation helps businesses keep up with growth and demand fluctuations. Technologies like chatbots, voice bots, and self-service portals can seamlessly absorb spikes in inquiry volumes without impacting service quality.

No need to scramble and hire temporary staff during busy seasons. Automated systems flex capacity up or down as needed. Callers can still self-serve or receive personalized agent service despite surging demand.

☎️ Consistent customer service

With automation, every customer interaction follows the same paths, protocols, scripts, and unified knowledge base. This ensures a consistently professional and predictable experience across all channels and touchpoints. There is no variance in service quality based on the individual agent.

Automated processes eliminate human errors in data entry or missing steps. This reliability builds strong customer relationships, trust, and brand loyalty over time.

Types of Contact Center Automation

Before we jump into key call center automation tools and technologies, let’s overview six key types of automation to use:

1. Forecasting automation

Uses historical data and other factors to predict call volume and agent needs. This helps call centers staff appropriately and avoid long wait times for customers.

Example: Retailers can predict call volume during peak holiday seasons or after product launches.

2. Workflow automation

Automates repetitive tasks that agents perform, such as data entry, sending emails, and scheduling appointments. This frees up agents’ time to focus on more complex customer interactions.

Example: Hospitality companies can automatically send flight confirmations, hotel booking details, or itinerary changes.

Related: Contact Center Workflow Examples & Tips for Peak Efficiency

3. Automated agent guidance

Provides real-time assistance to agents while they interact with customers. This can include suggesting knowledge-based articles, providing scripting guidance, and even offering next-best-action recommendations.

Example: Healthcare firms can recommend treatment protocols or suggest relevant health information based on patient inquiries.

4. Sales and marketing automation

Streamlines the sales and marketing processes for call center agents by automating tasks such as lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and follow-up emails.

Example: Finance companies can automate lead qualification for new credit card applications or schedule follow-up calls for wealth management services.

5. Scheduling automation

Automates scheduling customer calls based on predefined criteria, such as the customer’s availability and the urgency of their issue.

Example: Educational institutions can let students schedule meetings with academic advisors online.

6. Robotic process automation (RPA)

Software robots handle back-office tasks, seamlessly integrating with various CRM systems and databases.

This can include automatically pulling up customer information, account details, or past interaction history, reducing call handling time. It also automates tasks related to data security, audit trails, and generating reports, ensuring adherence to regulations.

Example: For utilities, RPA can automatically retrieve account details or complete meter data verification during customer interactions.

Technologies for Call Center Automation

Based on the types above, various call center technologies have popped up that automate many contact center tasks for you. Here are some key automation tools to look for in call center software.

1. Interactive voice response (IVR) systems to simplify call routing

IVR systems use pre-recorded voice prompts and touch-tone or speech recognition to interact with callers. They can provide information, capture data, and route calls based on the caller’s responses.

An optimized IVR system can significantly improve the customer experience by quickly directing them to the right department, information, or self-service options, reducing agent involvement in basic inquiries.

2. Automatic call distributors (ACDs) to route calls to the right agents

ACDs are intelligent call-routing systems that distribute incoming calls to available agents based on predefined rules and criteria. They consider factors such as agent skills, language proficiency, call priority, and customer value when routing calls.

Automatic call distribution uses various distribution methods like fixed order, talk-time-based, uniform, round-robin, or simultaneous routing making sure the most suitable agent handles each call. This call center automation tool improves efficiency, reduces wait times, and enhances customer engagement.

When you use ACD and IVR together, you free up agents from doing the transferring and letting customer input and automation do the legwork.

3. Chatbots and virtual assistants to field basic inquiries

Chatbots are computer programs that simulate human conversation, typically through text-based interactions. They use predefined scripts or machine learning algorithms to understand and respond to customer inquiries.

By creating a database of FAQs, you can use your chatbot as your first line of defense and keep your agents free for more complex inquiries. If the chatbot can’t solve an issue, customers can talk to a human at any time.

Virtual assistants, also known as intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) or conversational AI, take this a step further by using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to understand the context and provide more natural and personalized interactions, similar to speaking with a human agent.

Virtual assistants can walk through entire customer accounts, access information and documents, and cross-reference with any integrated systems.

In fact, e-commerce giants, such as Amazon and Walmart, use IVAs in their apps (also known as conversational AI) to answer pricing questions, track orders, and provide personalized recommendations. And they do so 24/7, improving accessibility and convenience for their customers.

4. SMS-based solutions to provide proactive reminders

SMS-based solutions leverage the familiarity and convenience of text messaging to provide customers with timely and unobtrusive notifications, updates, and reminders.

These include appointment confirmations, shipping status updates, promotional offers, or even basic inquiries. This offers a good and more cost-effective solution to using an outbound dialer.

Helping customers receive and respond to information at their leisure, SMS solutions improve engagement, reduce no-shows, and provide an additional channel for customer communication.

5. Self-service portals to give customers choice

Self-service portals are secure online platforms for customers to access their accounts, view information, make transactions, and resolve customer issues without direct agent assistance.

These portals can be integrated with knowledge bases, FAQs, and chatbots or virtual assistants to provide a comprehensive self-service experience.

Empowering customers to handle their own inquiries, self-service portals reduce the workload on agents and improve customer convenience and satisfaction.

6. Knowledge bases and FAQs to reduce support tickets

Knowledge bases and FAQs are repositories of information, solutions, and best practices related to products, services, or processes.

Customers, partners, and agents can use them to find answers to common questions or troubleshoot issues.

Knowledge bases provide comprehensive and easily accessible resources, helping businesses reduce repetitive customer queries, improve self-service capabilities, and ensure consistency in the information provided to customers and partners.

7. Automated email responses to keep customers updated

HubSpot found that 90% of customers rate immediate responses as important or very important.

Automated email responses are pre-configured messages automatically sent to customers or inquirers upon specific triggers, such as submitting a support request or reaching a particular stage in a process.

These responses provide immediate acknowledgment, set expectations for response times, offer relevant self-service resources, and include personalized information like ticket numbers or account details.

Automated email responses improve customer satisfaction by providing timely updates and reducing the perceived wait time for human intervention.

Contact Center Automation Challenges

Call center automation promises efficiency and improved customer service, but it’s not without its challenges. Striking the right balance is key.

Here’s a breakdown of the key challenges and considerations to keep in mind:

💡Understanding customer needs

One hurdle is ensuring automation meets customer needs.

Chatbots and virtual assistants may struggle with complex issues or frustrated callers who crave human interaction. Imagine a customer calling about a lost package — an automated system might not be able to handle the emotional aspect or navigate the intricacies of the situation.

⚙️ Technology and Implementation

Technology itself presents challenges. Setting up automation can be expensive, and even the most advanced systems aren’t perfect. Speech recognition and natural language processing can lead to misunderstandings, requiring ongoing development and fine-tuning.

⚖️ People and change management

People and change management are also crucial. Agents might worry about job security, so it’s important to focus on reskilling them for more complex interactions that automation can’t handle. Change itself can be disruptive, so clear communication and training are essential for agent buy-in.

📑 Data and compliance

Beyond the immediate challenges, data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance must be considered. Customer data needs robust protection, and call centers must adhere to industry regulations on robocalls and data privacy laws like HIPAA compliance.

Successful call center automation requires careful planning, addressing these challenges, and finding the right balance between automation’s efficiency and the irreplaceable value of human interaction in delivering positive and exceptional customer experiences.

This brings us to..

Best Practices for Implementing Call Center Automation

According to McKinsey, around 30% of customer service tasks can be confidently automated. However, the over-automation of your call center may introduce negative results. 

When automating tasks within your call center, consider the following:

⭕️ Understand your customer journey

Thoroughly analyze your customer journey to identify the touchpoints where automation can streamline processes, improve efficiency, and enhance the customer experience. This insight will determine the most appropriate automation solutions and where to implement them.

⭕️ Prioritize customer experience

While automation improves operational efficiency, it should never come at the expense of customer satisfaction. Ensure that the implemented solutions provide a seamless and personalized customer experience, addressing their needs promptly and accurately.

⭕️ Choose the right technologies

You need to choose the right call center automation solutions for successful adoption. Here are some points to consider when choosing a call center automation software.

• Evaluate potential vendors’ expertise, customer support, and ability to meet your current and future needs.
• Ensure the automation solutions seamlessly integrate with your existing systems and tools for a consistent experience.
• Choose flexible platforms that scale and adapt as your organization grows and requirements change. The technologies should be user-friendly and intuitive for both customers and agents.
• Prioritize solutions that comply with relevant regulations and security standards for your industry.
• Consider the total cost of ownership, including implementation, maintenance, and support, as well as the potential return on investment.
• Conduct limited trials or proof-of-concept implementations before full-scale deployment to assess the effectiveness of the chosen technologies.

⭕️ Implement gradually

Instead of a complete overhaul, consider a phased approach to implementing call center automation. Start with pilot projects, gather feedback, and refine the solutions before rolling them out across the entire organization. This approach minimizes disruptions and allows for continuous improvement.

⭕️ Train and support employees

Ensure that your call center agents are thoroughly trained on the new automated systems and processes. Provide ongoing support and resources to help them effectively leverage the automation tools and ensure a smooth transition.

⭕️ Monitor and optimize

Continuously monitor the performance of the automated systems, gather customer feedback, and analyze data to identify areas for improvement. Refine and optimize the solutions based on these insights to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Focus on key call center metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT, Net Promoter Score (NPS), first-call resolution rates), operational efficiency (average handle time, accuracy rate, throughput, error rate, uptime), and data analytics (user engagement) to pinpoint areas for improvement and ensure an automated system that’s both user-friendly and runs smoothly.

⭕️ Maintain human oversight

While automation can handle many routine tasks, it’s crucial to maintain human oversight and intervention capabilities. Ensure that customers can seamlessly escalate to a live agent when needed, particularly for complex or sensitive issues.

Automate Time-Consuming Tasks With Nextiva

Call center automation is a journey, not a destination. As technology evolves, so too will the capabilities of automation tools. And Nextiva understands that.

Nextiva’s call center and contact center software enables businesses to create a future-proof customer service experience.

Seamlessly integrating AI-powered features like chatbots and intelligent call routing, Nextiva automates repetitive tasks, freeing agents to focus on creating happier customers.

Nextiva goes beyond simple automation. Its software provides real-time data and analytics, so call center leaders can continuously refine their strategies and create a seamless customer journey.

Start with automating basic tasks and watch your first-call resolution rates soar.

Call Center Automation FAQs

Want to know more? Read some frequently asked questions about automating call centers.

Nextiva and Vonage are popular VoIP service providers, each offering comprehensive features and competitive pricing.

Although both solutions are tailored to similar business needs, understanding their unique strengths helps you choose the one that fits your workflow. 

Nextiva’s advanced feature set is ideal for larger companies but is also accessible to small businesses, while Vonage focuses more on early-stage startups.

Continue reading for a head-to-head comparison of Nextiva vs. Vonage’s features, pricing and plans, support, and usability to inform your choice.

Nextiva vs. Vonage VoIP Comparison  

Feature	Nextiva	Vonage
Monthly Price (up to 99 users)	Professional plan is $22.95 per user	Premium plan is $17.49 per user and $3.50 per number
Customer Reviews (G2)	Rated 4.5 out of 5 3,147 reviews	Rated 4.3 out of 5  442 reviews
Video Conferencing	Unlimited for up to 250 participants per meeting	Unlimited for up to 200 participants per meeting
Ring Groups	Available on all plans	Not available on the Mobile or Premium plans
Monthly Toll-free Minutes and Numbers	2,500+ inbound toll-free minutes included	Add-on
Customer Support	Phone support and Live Chat (24/7)	Phone Support and Live Chat Mon – Fri 8 am – 12 am EDT; Sat & Sun 9 am – 9 pm EDT

At a glance, Nextiva offers competitive pricing, higher participant limits in conferences, and inclusive features across plans compared to Vonage.

Vonage vs. Nextiva Pricing & Plans

Nextiva is a complete communications solution that’s affordable for businesses of all sizes. Every plan offers professional-grade communications features.

With Nextiva’s pricing starting at just $18.95 per user per month, Nextiva makes it easy to get the communication tools you need to stay connected and productive.

Vonage’s pricing starts at $10.49 per user monthly on its mobile app plan for businesses with 20-100 users. For plans beyond 99 users, you need to contact Vonage’s sales team.

Regarding features, Nextiva’s plans offer better value and capabilities than Vonage’s across the board.

Nextiva’s Essential plan includes one-to-one video calling, toll-free minutes and numbers, and faxing.

But for more robust functionality like text messaging (SMS & MMS), multi-location management, and CRM integrations, the Nextiva Professional plan, starting at $22.95 per user monthly, is what you’ll most likely want to compare against Vonage.

Whether you need unlimited calling, video conferencing, or voicemail to email, Nextiva has you covered.

Vonage’s Mobile plan, although cheaper than Nextiva, doesn’t offer advanced calling features. 

Vonage’s Premium plan costs $17.49 for 20-99 users but lacks key features like multi-level auto-attendants, no-cost toll-free minutes, and free integrations that Nextiva offers. 

Additionally, some of Vonage’s integrations are available through its paid VBC app center.

Nextiva and Vonage Products & Features Comparison

Both Nextiva and Vonage offer many VoIP features, including call forwarding, call transfer, voicemail, call routing, and call queues. 

Here are some key differentiators between the two business phone providers.

Business text messaging (SMS & MMS)

Nextiva includes up to 1,000 text messages sent and received per user. This is more than most businesses need but it is definitely one of the features that business owners and their teams enjoy the most.

You can text customers for upcoming appointments, reminders, thank-you notes, and follow-up on completed orders and services. When they reply, you can see right inside Nextiva — including pictures or multimedia messages.

But for even more time-saving functionality, you can route incoming text messages with your team. This way, when customers ping you back that they want to talk with a sales rep or account manager, your whole team is in the loop and can respond to the text message.

What about 10DLC? We’ve got that covered. Our network meets and exceeds all industry standards necessary for reliable text message delivery. We’ll also guide you through registering your numbers.

Business phone features

Nextiva

With Nextiva’s Essential plan, which costs $18.95 per user per month, you get unlimited voice and video calling, voicemail, toll-free numbers, Outlook/Google Contacts integrations, and internet fax. It’s fantastic value for business owners starting out — but if you want more features, you’ll want to check out the Enterprise plan.

Nextiva’s Enterprise plan offers everything in the Essential plan plus the following features:

• Unlimited participants on voice & video conferencing
• Screen sharing
• Auto attendant (multi-level)
• Mobile and desktop apps
• SMS/MMS Functionality
• Salesforce & HubSpot Integrations
• Cloud-based call recording
• Voicemail transcription
• Microsoft Teams/custom integrations
• Single Sign-On functionality

Vonage

Vonage’s Premium plan offers unlimited team messaging, calls and SMS, mobile and desktop apps, and Vonage app center integrations but lacks unlimited video calling, voicemail transcription, toll-free numbers, and Outlook/Google Contacts integrations.

The company’s Advanced plan bridges the gap with multi-level auto-attendant and CRM integrations (Google Workspace, HubSpot, Zendesk, etc.). It also includes IP desk phone capability, call group, visual voicemail, and toll-free numbers, plus everything in the Premium plan.

It still lacks some essential features like limited meeting participants of up to 100 participants and call recording, which is available on demand and only valid for up to 15 hours.

When it comes to VoIP capabilities, Nextiva outperforms in terms of functionality, flexibility, and value. The Essential plan offers key features at an affordable price, while the Enterprise plan caters to companies looking for advanced communication and collaboration tools.

Read our guide for a deeper pricing comparison to understand Vonage business pricing plans better.

Unified communications

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) combines the capabilities of an office phone system and other real-time messaging apps in one place.

NextivaONE consolidates all business communication functions into a single platform. It works perfectly on desktop (Windows and MacOS) and mobile devices (iOS and Android). 

The app ensures a seamless and consistent user experience. Users can easily access instant messaging, file sharing, video conferencing, and collaboration tools from a central location. 

Vonage also offers some unified communications features, including team messaging and file sharing, but lacks advanced tools and some CRM integrations.

Contact center capabilities

Nextiva’s sales and service tools cater to companies with high-volume call centers and contact centers. These tools include call recording, call analytics, and integrations with popular customer relationship management (CRM) systems. 

Vonage lacks pricing transparency, where users must request a quote. Nextiva, on the other hand, has public pricing shown on its contact center solutions page.

Vonage’s contact center platform offers comparable functionality but isn’t as advanced as Nextiva’s sales and service tools.

Nextiva vs. Vonage Analytics

Nextiva and Vonage reports provide call recordings to improve the analysis of call statistics and enable you to gain deeper insights into customer interactions.

The Vonage Summary report offers a comprehensive snapshot of account-wide call activity. You can also track, measure, and correlate activity with detailed reporting. 

However, reports can only be accessible to the Reports Administrators, Super User, Call Queue Reporting Administrators, Account Administrators, and Call Queue Administrators.

On the other hand, Nextiva features a built-in business intelligence tool that helps you make smart business decisions, find hidden insights, and boost staff performance. 

Nextiva platform, in particular, has a voice analytics tool that provides a real-time synopsis of all actions in your contact center. You can also see the voice analytics data that you need with Nextiva’s interactive maps and graphs.

Vonage vs. Nextiva Screen Pops

Call Pops are built into the Nextiva communications platform, making them easy to use. The feature displays important information about the caller on the screen before you answer the call and during your conversation.

When a customer calls, Call Pop displays contact and essential account information, such as the customer experience score, last survey score, account value, and last interaction sentiment.

Businesses can customize the Call Pop to contain the most relevant information. Nextiva Call Pops can also be integrated into CRM systems, making customer data readily accessible for an integrated customer experience.

Vonage screen pops are not integrated into the platform and require outside integration with Zoho CRM. This can be a disadvantage for companies that don’t use Zoho CRM or want a more integrated solution. Additionally, Vonage’s screen pops are not as customizable as Nextiva’s Call Pops.

The screen pops are still easy to use and work well for basic call management, including outgoing and incoming call reporting and call history. You can also add contacts, notes, and future tasks directly in Zoho CRM, even while on the phone.

Nextiva and Vonage Performance Comparison

Nextiva’s network is one of the most reliable in the world, with eight points of presence and carrier-grade data centers.

The company is committed to providing 99.999% uptime so you can always stay connected with your customers. It’s also highly secure, with multiple layers of protection to keep your data safe.

Nextiva’s network performance is consistently praised by its customers, who appreciate its uptime and speed. The company has a proven track record of providing businesses the reliability they need to stay connected and productive.

On the other hand, Vonage also claims to have a 99.999% uptime guarantee on all of its services. This is significant because the breadth of its uptime reliability adds value to its customers as it expands its communications offerings. 

Vonage vs. Nextiva Customer Support

Nextiva is known for its legendary customer support. A team of experts is always available to help with questions and concerns.

The company offers numerous options for customer support, including online ticketing support, online chat service, and quality response, starting from the base package. 

They also provide email and phone support Monday through Friday between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. MST and Saturday between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. MST.

Overall, Nextiva is rated 9 out of 10 (2,494 responses) vs. Vonage 8.7 (343 responses) for its Quality of Support on G2.

Vonage also provides its users with phone, email, live support, tickets, and training. They offer Phone Support and Live Chat between (Mon – Fri, 8 a.m. – 12 a.m. EDT; Sat & Sun, 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. EDT).

However, some Vonage customers have reported experiencing long wait times and difficulty resolving their problems. 

One Ron C. cited issues with making changes to the service, like porting a number away from Vonage and canceling an account. Also, there are mentions of slow service when customers waited several hours for a support call back.

Nextiva and Vonage Setup and Usability

Nextiva’s platform is designed for ease of use and intuitive navigation. In just a few clicks, users can quickly set up accounts, manage users and devices, and configure communication settings.

The platform is also well-documented, with a comprehensive help center and various training resources.

Vonage’s platform is also relatively easy to use. It provides a comprehensive introduction and setup resource to help new users get up and running quickly with their service.

Its simplistic design makes it easy to locate the functionality you need at a glance.

Which VoIP Provider Is Right for You?

Vonage makes sense for your business if:

Your business has 10 to 50 people who work mostly in a traditional office environment rather than remotely.

Vonage is also a good option for companies that already utilize many communication platforms or CRM systems and are looking to integrate those systems into their Vonage package.

Nextiva is best for your business if:

You want to get the most value for your money, prefer native functionality above third-party compatibility, and want to expand rapidly in the near future.

Nextiva’s platform is suitable for businesses that rely significantly on voice, video, and text communications. 

Nextiva is also best suited for companies that don’t have a business communication system and want a full system or teams that find utilizing several software solutions too difficult and time-consuming and want to switch to an all-in-one solution. 

So, which business VoIP should you choose?

Vonage’s strength lies in its communication APIs and residential service offerings. The API allows businesses to integrate their VoIP phone system with other business applications.

Nextiva works best for small businesses and enterprises due to its ease of use and affordable pricing. Nextiva wins when it comes to transparent pricing, plans, and basic features, such as one-to-one video calling, toll-free minutes & numbers, and faxing.

Ready to give Nextiva a try? Speak to a Nextiva expert.

AWS Connect, also known as Amazon Connect, is a contact center solution offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon uses the same platform to communicate with several customers on its website. 

It’s an extension of AWS services, which is suitable if you already use Amazon cloud-based services. However, there are a few situations where Amazon Connect doesn’t meet user requirements, especially regarding pricing. 

Some users feel its contact center pricing is not very predictable. The pay-as-you-go pricing model lets you pay only for usage, but this makes forecasting the total costs tricky. 

Some users have also experienced pricing-related issues and feel enabling support for small businesses is too costly. 

Source: G2

Overall, numerous usage elements determine the actual costs of the service. Let’s cut through the confusion and get precise details on Amazon Connect pricing to better understand the costs. 

AWS Connect Usage-Based Pricing Explained

Amazon Connect pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model with no long-term commitments or minimum fees. You’re billed based on the minutes of usage. It helps businesses that prefer not to commit long-term and offers them more flexibility. You can easily avoid fixed monthly fees if it doesn’t work. 

However, the pay-as-you-go model presents a variety of usage elements that affect the final costs. For example, you’re charged per minute for service usage. There are also PSTN charges, the cost of additional features, and a monthly targeted audience. 

Amazon Connect pricing includes a free tier that covers monthly usage, such as 90 minutes of voice service and 30 minutes of telephony. Savings plans are available to commit to a certain usage level, which can reduce costs significantly if you’re sure of your usage levels.

Let’s discuss the costs you can encounter when considering AWS Connect as your contact center solution. 

1. Amazon Connect pricing for voice services

AWS Connect Voice fees consist of two costs: A) voice service charges and B) the cost of communication services. 

A) Voice service charges are billed per minute (minimum 10 seconds). Billing for inbound calls starts when the end customer is connected to the service. You’re charged for outbound calls or campaigns when AWS Connect initiates the contact attempt. For unsuccessful attempts, you’ll be charged the minimum 10-second cost. 

These are the per-minute rates for different voice calls: 

• Inbound voice call usage cost: $0.018 per minute
• Outbound voice call usage cost: $0.018 per minute

B) The cost of communication services includes the per-day cost of the number and telephony rates for inbound or outbound calling. 

These are the per-day costs of numbers:

• Direct inward dialing (DID): $0.03 per day in the US 
• Toll-free number: $0.06 per day in the US
• Universal international freephone numbers: Starts from $1.2 per day if available

Last, calling rates are billed per minute for at least 60 seconds. The telephony per-minute usage rate for inbound calls is $0.0022 for DID numbers and $0.0120 for toll-free numbers. 

Example to calculate the cost of an inbound call with AWS Connect
A customer calls a company’s DID numbers (in the US-West2 region) on a softphone and talks to your representative for 5 minutes.  Voice service charge = $0.018 × 5 = $0.09 Cost of communication service = Per-day cost of the number + telephony rates Cost of communication service = $0.03 + ($0.0022 × 5) = $0.41 Total cost = $0.131 (plus applicable taxes, surcharges, and fees)

2. AWS Connect in-app, web, and video calling charges

AWS Connect also charges for in-app, web, and video calls. Let’s understand these charges with an example. Suppose a customer makes a seven-minute call using your organization’s mobile app and connects with an agent on their softphone. You’ll be charged as follows: 

• The Amazon Connect service fee is $0.018 per minute, which totals $0.126 for seven minutes.
• The in-app calling voice fee is $0.01 per minute, which totals $0.07 for seven minutes.

👉 That makes the total cost of the call $0.196.

On the other hand, when a customer initiates a seven-minute call through your organization’s website, an agent responds via their softphone. Both the customer and the agent use video for the entire call. The charges break down as follows:

• The Amazon Connect service fee is $0.018 per minute, totaling $0.126 for seven minutes.
• The web calling audio fee is $0.01 per minute, so the seven-minute total is $0.07.
• The video calling fee is $0.015 per minute for each video connection. With two connections over seven minutes, the total is $0.21.

👉 This makes the total cost $0.406. 

3. AWS Connect outbound voice campaign charges

👉 Outbound campaign call usage cost: $0.025 per minute

When targeting customers for marketing (or any specific endpoints), the first 5,000 endpoints are free on AWS Connect. Beyond that, it costs $1.20 per 1,000 endpoints. Amazon Pinpoint manages this while orchestrating contact lists for your campaigns. 

Let’s understand how the monthly targeted audience fits into calculating the cost of an outbound campaign. 

Suppose you run an outbound campaign using Amazon Connect in the US East. Here are a few things you should know: 

• Purpose: Notify customers about changes in terms of service 
• Target customers: 6,000
• Percentage of calls connected: 25
• Duration of connected calls: 30 seconds
• Voice service charges: $0.025 per minute
• Number of days it takes to call all customers: 1
• Type of phone number: Toll-free US number
• Outbound telephony call charges: $0.0048 per minute

These details will help you calculate the total outbound campaign cost. 

• Targeted audience charges = Cost of (total audience − 5,000 free targets)
• Voice service charges = Cost of connected calls + cost of unsuccessful attempts
• Telephony charges = Per-day cost of the number + cost of billable usage

Target audience charges 

Since the first 5,000 targeted audience members in the campaign are free, we need to calculate the cost of the remaining 1,000 audience members at $1.20 per 1,000 audience members. 

👉 Target audience charges = $0 (5,000 free) + $1.20 (1,000) customers = $1.20 

Voice service charges

At a 25% connection rate, 1,500 calls connect and play the message. 

Total connected call durations = 1,500 × 30 seconds = 750 minutes.

Since 90 minutes is free, the billable connected call duration will be 660 minutes at a rate of $0.025 per minute. 

For unsuccessful attempts, you’ll be charged a minimum 10-second call rate. Therefore, 4,500 unsuccessful call attempts will add 750 billable minutes, making the total billable minutes 1,500. 

👉 At a rate of $0,025, the total cost of voice service comes to $37.5. 

Telephony charges

AWS Connect doesn’t charge the per-day cost of the number for the first 12 months due to the free tier. So there’s no day charge for the toll-free number. AWS Connect also provides 30 minutes of free calling with the free plan. 

The total connected call duration is 750 minutes. With 30 minutes free, you’ll pay for 720 minutes at $0.0048 per minute, which adds up to $3.45.

Apart from these charges, Amazon Pinpoint will charge$6 to manage the processing of endpoints (target audience).

Now you just add up all these charges to get the total bill. 

👉 For this outbound campaign, the total bill will be $48.15.

4. AWS Connect omnichannel messaging and chat charges

Below are the rates for messaging and chat options on Amazon Connect: 

• Chat: $0.004 per message
• SMS : $0.01 per message
• Chat experiences using step-by-step guides: $0.005 per message

For example, a customer may start a chat and send nine messages, and the agent sends 11 messages. 

👉 The total charges of the chat = (11 + 9) × 0.004 = $0.08

If the above 20 conversations happened via SMS, it would be billed at $0.01 per message, making the total SMS cost $0.20. Plus, there will be a per-message cost for the Amazon Pinpoint service. 

For chat experiences, the total bill is calculated based on two charges: the cost of using the chat (at a rate of $0.004 per message) and using guides (at a rate of $0.005 per message). Suppose agents and users exchanged five messages; the total cost would be $0.045. 

5. AWS Connect costs for additional features

Different costs related to agent productivity can appear on your bill, such as: 

• Cases: You’re billed $0.12 for every case created in the agent application or whenever the case creation action is successfully executed. It can also be executed through API. 
• Customer profiles: Those created using Amazon Connect’s data are free. Other customer profiles are charged $0.0025. 
• Amazon Q in Connect: You’ll get a bill for $40 per agent per month. 
• Voice ID: This is charged at a rate of $0.025 per transaction every month. 
• Conversational analytics for voice calls: This starts at $0.015 per minute.
• Conversational analytics for chat messages: This starts at $0.0015 per message.
• Real-time performance evaluation: This is charged at a rate of $12 per agent per month. 
• Screen recording: This costs $0.006 per recorded minute. 

If you thought your contact center’s phone bill was hard to read before, wait until you get hit with the surprise fees and granular reporting that Amazon Connect provides. 

Why Contact Centers Prefer Nextiva Over AWS Connect

AWS Connect’s over-complicated pricing makes it tricky for companies to risk purchasing the call center solution when there is no clear view of what size budget to set aside. There are several other reasons that companies look for other ways to find better solutions when onboarding a reliable cloud-based contact center solution. 

While doing so, many companies choose Nextiva to solve their pain points and streamline their cloud contact centers’ workflows. 

Predictable pricing

Nextiva features all-inclusive, cost-effective plans that cover unlimited calling, messaging, and additional features. This contrasts with the Amazon Connect pricing pay-per-minute model, which may cause your costs to vary monthly.

With Nextiva, you have a clear picture of how much it would cost per month, which helps you set a budget and easily negotiate with stakeholders involved in procuring and onboarding a contact center platform.

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

Rich features and CRM integration

Nextiva’s automated contact center solutions include features like advanced call routing, call recording, AI-based suggestions, and several functionalities to improve customer interactions at scale. They integrate seamlessly with your existing business applications, such as customer relationship management software. 

Nextiva is easy to configure with your existing apps to enable agents to get the complete context of customer interactions, making your communication more effective. It also makes you more efficient and better equipped to handle communications at scale. 

Ease of use and support

Nextiva users usually provide positive feedback on the contact center platform’s user-friendly interface, ease of use, and support quality.

Users say they don’t need any technical skills to set up Nextiva, and if they need anything, their questions get answered quickly. Nextiva also offers an intuitive user interface. 

Overall, Nextiva ensures a smoother customer experience, which is crucial for businesses requiring reliable communication solutions.

High reliability

With rock-solid 99.999% uptime, Nextiva provides consistent and reliable communication capabilities, minimizing potential disruptions.

Nextiva maintains a record of the availability of its systems and keeps track of issues (if any) reported daily. When you want to offer your audience an uninterrupted communication experience, you can go with Nextiva. 

Scale Your Contact Center as You Grow 

Nextiva offers a range of solutions to grow your business. It’s a flexible solution that caters to the changing needs of a business. 

Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Nextiva offers features and functionality that help companies manage and streamline their contact center operations, no matter how their needs evolve. 

Simmons Bank chose Nextiva’s cloud communications and contact center solution to transform 240 locations from on-premises to the cloud.

You have a simple choice as you’re researching contact center platforms. 

You can either build it from scratch and spend thousands of dollars to reinvent the wheel and never have a simple bill again. 

Or, you can choose one that is ready to use today. Tell us your needs and key requirements, and we’ll help you launch your contact center!

Related: Amazon Connect vs. Genesys: Which CCaaS Platform Is Better?

Zoom Phone offers a cloud-based business phone system that seamlessly integrates with Zoom’s existing video conferencing, streamlining communication and boosting collaboration within your business.

Consolidating phone calls, meetings, and chats into a single platform, Zoom Phone improves communication efficiency and productivity.

But how much does it cost? And is the pricing worth it for your business?

Every business’s phone system needs and feature requirements differ. For some, Zoom Phone pricing and features may complement expectations, while others may find it tricky to use Zoom Phone as their business communication system. 

Let’s break down the factors that influence Zoom Phone pricing and help you decide if it fits your business needs.

Zoom Phone Plans and Pricing: A Deep Dive

Zoom Phone offers a variety of pricing plans, depending on the features you need and the number of users. Here’s a quick look at the main plans (broken down below):

Plan	Monthly Cost (Billed monthly)	Outbound Calling	International Calling	Key Features
US & Canada Metered	$10/month/user	Pay-as-you-go	Additional charges	Auto attendant, dial-by-name directory, voicemail transcription, call recording
US & Canada Unlimited	$15/month/user	All features of the Metered Plan	Optional add-on for 19 countries	All features of Metered Plan
Global Select	$20/month/user	Unlimited domestic calling in 48 countries	Included	All features of Unlimited Plan, DID service

1. US & Canada Metered Plan

This is a pay-as-you-go subscription plan. With a monthly cost of $10 per user, it offers unlimited internal and metered outbound calls. There are additional costs for international calling.

Outbound call charges vary according to the geographic location. The plan comes with a Zoom One management portal, where you can provision and manage users while monitoring call quality and usage data. It’s like a centralized admin portal. 

Zoom Phone offers 24/7 live chat and phone support to help customers if they run into an issue or need help changing settings. 

As a VoIP provider, Zoom Phone delivers decent call quality with the ability to use SMS and MMS for US, Canada, and Australia numbers.

SMS and MMS features work with direct numbers and not company numbers, and they work with many operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as native mobile apps on iOS and Android. 

Below are some notable features of Zoom Phone’s US & Canada Metered Plan: 

• Auto attendant/IVR: Functions as a virtual receptionist to greet callers and transfer their calls.
• Dial-by-name directory: Routes incoming callers to the correct person or extension by searching for the recipient’s name. 
• Toll-free numbers: Let your customers call you for free. They usually begin with three-digit codes, such as 800, 877, 888, 866, 844, 855, or 833.
• Barge, monitor, whisper, takeover: Allow you to interrupt a live call as a participant or monitor it without the participants’ awareness. You can even talk to your teammate without the client listening or simply take over the call from a Zoom Phone user.
• Conference calls: Allow you to add or merge a third party on an ongoing cloud phone call. 
• Call recording: Lets users record a call and return to it for more comprehensive insights into the conversation. 
• Voicemail transcription: Analyzes and converts voicemail audio into text.
• Anonymous call blocking: Enables users to block calls if there’s no caller ID on the inbound calls. You can also choose to block specific phone numbers. 

You get other features such as call handoffs between devices, letting users transfer ongoing calls. Call park capabilities on this plan move incoming calls to “park,” where agents can pick them up at their earliest convenience. This plan lets you chat 1:1 and on team chats (presence, 1:1, and team messaging).

You can choose a hot-desk, plug-and-play VoIP phone, and, if needed, add analog devices such as pagers and other equipment. 

Zoom lets you take calls to video conferencing and transfer them to a Zoom Room. It’s easy to work with and integrates with business apps such as Salesforce, Slack, and other tools. The platform comes with enterprise-grade features such as single sign-on.

Lastly, the US & Canada Metered Plan offers security features with zero-touch phone provisioning while providing real-time reporting and support for a virtual desktop environment. A hybrid integration will serve your requirements if you work with a legacy public switched telephone network. 

While the US & Canada Metered Plan offers a robust set of features, there are a few limitations to consider:

• Unlimited outbound calling: This plan doesn’t include unlimited outbound calling. Calls are charged per minute based on the destination.
• Free international calling: International calls are not included in the plan. You’ll need to refer to Zoom Phone’s international calling rate sheet to determine the cost per minute for calls to specific countries.
• Porting existing numbers: Additional fees might be associated with porting existing phone numbers to Zoom Phone.

2. US & Canada Unlimited Plan

The US & Canada Unlimited Plan comes at a monthly cost of $15 per user. It includes all features of the Metered Plan. You get unlimited outbound calling and an option to purchase an add-on for unlimited calling to 19 countries.

Below is the list of countries you can call with an optional add-on: 

• US
• UK
• Australia
• Canada
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• Austria
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• Puerto Rico 
• Japan

There are additional fees for international calling, but you get unlimited regional calling with this subscription plan. 

3. Global Select plan

The Global Select plan includes all features of the US & Canada Unlimited Plan and comes at a monthly cost of $20 per user. It offers unlimited domestic calling in one of 48 select countries and territories. 

The plan comes with direct inward dialing (DID) service, allowing people to connect to your company’s private branch exchange (PBX) with a block of numbers.

Zoom Phone Add-Ons

Those who have at least one licensed user can select Zoom Phone add-ons. Below is the list of add-ons you can choose: 

• Additional phone numbers: Provides additional phone numbers starting at a monthly cost of $10. You’ll need a Zoom Phone service to get additional business numbers. You can choose to add local, toll-free, or international premium numbers. 
• Premium developer support: Provides access to prioritized technical resources and committed developer work hours. Developer support helps you quickly resolve technical issues within a guaranteed response time. This can significantly increase the overall cost of Zoom Phone. 
• Hardware as a service: Starts at $5.99 per month to lease office phones. You can add a managed service to install and manage the devices as well. 
• International calling: Offers unlimited international calling to more than 15 countries and regions for $10 monthly. You must have a Zoom Phone plan to get this add-on.
• Zoom Phone Power Pack: Gives enhanced call queue analytics and historical insights for contact center teams for a monthly cost of $25. 

Zoom occasionally offers discounts or promotions on their services. Be sure to check their website or contact their sales team for any current offers.

Zoom Phone Alternatives

While Zoom Phone offers a robust set of features, there might be situations where exploring alternatives proves beneficial. Here’s a look at some reasons why you might consider looking beyond Zoom Phone.

• Focus on video conferencing: Zoom’s core strength lies in video conferencing. While Zoom Phone offers a solid phone system, some competitors like Nextiva might have a more comprehensive phone-centric feature set.
• Pricing structure complexity: With multiple plans and add-ons, Zoom Phone’s pricing structure can appear complex. Evaluating the most cost-effective plan for your specific needs might require careful consideration.

Let’s weigh Zoom Phone against Nextiva to see why a Zoom Phone alternative might better fit your business needs.

Nextiva Pricing & Plans

Nextiva’s cloud phone system and conferencing solution offer an affordable option for lean teams. Below are some details about Nextiva’s pricing for you to compare before making a decision. 

Essential Plan

Nextiva’s Essential plan costs $18.95 per user per month. Compared to Zoom’s US & Canada Metered Plan, you pay an additional $8.95, but its value is worth much more than that.

Nextiva offers more value in its Essential plan, with features typically found in higher-tier plans of other service providers, focusing on integrated business communication tools and customer support features. You get unlimited calling and fax within the US and Canada. 

Below are a few details on the value you get with Nextiva: 

• Voicemail to email service
• 1,000 toll-free minutes per month
• Free number porting
• 24/7 customer support
• Auto attendant for basic call routing
• Integration with Google Contacts and Outlook

Zoom Phone mentions toll-free numbers but doesn’t suggest free minutes like you get with Nextiva. 

Professional Plan

Nextiva’s Professional plan comes at a monthly cost of $22.95 per user. Below are some additional features you get in the Professional plan: 

• Unlimited SMS messaging
• Unlimited conference calls
• One free professionally recorded greeting
• Integration to Salesforce and other CRM systems
• Visibility insights into the team’s presence
• Mobile app for iOS and Android with more features

Enterprise Plan

Nextiva’s Enterprise plan costs $32.95 monthly per user. It offers enterprise features such as single sign-on and more integrations with platforms such as Zendesk and HubSpot. 

Below are some additional features you get over the Professional plan: 

• Call recording
• Voice analytics to gain deeper insights
• Unlimited participants in video conferencing
• More customization options with advanced call flows
• 10,000 toll-free minutes per month

Common features across all Nextiva’s plans

Among these three Nextiva pricing plans, there are a few features common in all, including the following: 

• Call Pop with customer information
• Call forwarding, transferring, waiting, holding, and other advanced call management capabilities
• Customizable call routes
• Voicemail to text service
• 24/7 chat and phone support
• Unlimited virtual faxing 

Top 5 Features of Zoom Phone and Nextiva

When considering a business phone system, you should look for features that cater to your unique business needs. Below are the top Nextiva and Zoom Phone features you can compare to find the right fit for your business.

Zoom Phone

Here’s a list of the top five features of Zoom Phone: 

1. Unlimited regional calling: Offers unlimited regional calling in one of 48 select countries and territories (Global Select plan only). It’s great for businesses with a global presence. 
2. Direct dial numbers: Gives client-facing roles direct inward dial numbers, letting customers directly contact your team when needed. 
3. Advanced call handling features: Manages voice calls effectively with capabilities such as call park, call recording, and call delegation. 
4. Integration with Zoom meetings: Lets businesses access Zoom’s ecosystem to increase ease of use and reliability. 
5. Centralized management portal: Makes administration easy with a centralized admin, helping lean teams with limited IT resources.

Nextiva

Here’s a list of the top five features of Nextiva:

1. Unlimited voice and video calling (US & Canada): Lets small businesses make unlimited calls and send faxes in the US and Canada. 
2. Auto attendants and call flows: Greets callers and routes them to appropriate departments or individuals. It’s a virtual receptionist that helps increase call management efficiency while adding a touch of professionalism. Anyone can adjust call flows without any technical experience. 
3. Unlimited video conferencing: Provides video conferencing for up to 250 participants (Professional and Enterprise plans only). It’s useful for companies looking to conduct large virtual meetings. 
4. Business text messaging and mobile SMS/MMS: Lets clients communicate freely with your team members via text. It doesn’t require hardware. Employees can use Nextiva’s softphone to communicate with customers on the go. 
5. Call recording and analytics: Helps businesses improve call quality while using recordings and analytics to gain insights into customer interactions. Customizable call recording rules let you focus on sales calls, support, or any other business calls whenever you need them. 

Nextiva vs. Zoom Phone Comparison

Here’s a table comparing Zoom Phone’s and Nextiva’s features:

Functionality	Nextiva Essential	Nextiva Enterprise	Zoom Phone US & Canada Metered Plan	Zoom Phone Global Select Plan
Monthly pricing	$18.95	$32.95	$10	$20
Unlimited internal calling	✅	✅	✅	✅
Unlimited voice and video calls (US & Canada)	✅	✅	No	✅
Toll-free numbers	✅	✅	✅	✅
Toll-free minutes	1,000	10,000	❌	❌
Call recording	❌	✅	✅	✅
Auto-attendant	✅	✅	✅	✅
Unlimited internet fax	✅	✅	❌	❌
SMS & MMS	❌	✅	✅	❌

Which Provider Is Right for Your Business?

Both Zoom Phone and Nextiva have their positives and negatives when it comes to pricing and features. There are a few things that stand out for both solution providers, including the following: 

Zoom Phone

Zoom offers a strong video conferencing solution and allows Zoom Phone to integrate seamlessly with Zoom video meetings. You get unlimited calling in one of 48 select countries and territories under the Global Select plan. 

It also offers basic telephony features such as direct dial numbers and centralized administration, making it easier for teams to use. 

Nextiva

Nextiva brings all your voice, video, SMS, email, and CRM communication into one platform. The unified CX platform offers robust collaboration tools and mobile applications for remote or distributed teams. 

You get detailed call insights on the customer support and sales side, helping you manage customer interactions at scale. 

Don’t overlook Nextiva’s conference calling service, either. When it’s time for a scheduled all-hands meeting or a client sync call, all it takes is two clicks, and your team is talking. No apps to download — you can call in from anywhere. 

Nextiva offers a range of integrations, especially CRM integrations, that are crucial for sales and support teams to maintain customer relationships and streamline workflows.

With the NextivaONE app and comprehensive mobile device support, you can easily connect with clients no matter if you’re an on-the-go, hybrid, or remote employee. 

The Final Verdict on Nextiva

Nextiva tops the chart if your priorities include integrated communication, scalability for various business sizes, remote work optimization, and potential value for money with unlimited calling. 

If you rely on a phone system day in and day out for customer support and management, Nextiva is a suitable choice. It offers unlimited calling and a platform to integrate all communication channels into one, so you always stay within context.

Considering the value Nextiva drives, it’s a cost-conscious solution for businesses looking for a full-featured VoIP phone solution. 

On the other hand, if your system is heavily integrated and reliant on the Zoom suite, then Zoom Phone will likely make more sense for your business. 

Zoom Phone Pricing FAQs

What Is an IVR System? An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system is an intelligent, automated phone menu that uses prerecorded messages, touch tones, and voice recognition to understand caller needs, route them to the right place, or even complete tasks without needing a live agent.

Finding the right IVR software can make a world of difference in enhancing customer experiences and streamlining operations. Customers don’t like to wait, and IVR software offers a solution for that pain point. With phone system features like IVR, you can provide faster service, reduce wait times, route customers to the right agent or department, and handle common tasks. 

We’ve made choosing the perfect IVR for your business easier by creating a list of the best IVR systems of 2024. We provide an overview of each vendor, along with features and pricing, so you have all the answers you need to make a data-driven decision.

IVR Software	Key Features	Best For	Starting Price
Nextiva	24/7 support, call routing and queuing, and holiday scheduling	Customer Support	$18.95 per user per month, billed annually
Five9	Visual IVR prompts, embedded call widget, visual customer surveys	Mobile support	$175 per user per month, billed annually
GoTo Connect	Automatic call distribution, auto-queue callback, pre-recorded messages	Customization	$29 per user per month, billed annually
Aircall	Single-level and multi-level IVR, setup options for creating classic and IVR numbers, dynamic visual editor	Remote teams	$30 per user per month, three-user minimum, billed annually
RingCentral	Self-service options, skills-based call routing, speech recognition and natural language processing	Integrations	$20 per user per month, billed annually
8×8	Advanced reporting and analytics tools, speech-enabled voice response system, customizable options	Cloud-based IVR	Contact 8×8 for custom pricing
Zendesk	Phone trees, call recording and monitoring, warm transfer options	Enterprises	$55 per agent per month, billed annually
LiveAgent	Automated call routing, customizable menus, call prioritization	Live chat	$9 per agent per month, billed annually
Zoom	Unlimited IVR and auto attendants, no-code customization, speech recognition and text-to-speech	Video conferencing	$13 per user per month, billed annually
CallHippo	Intelligent call routing and automatic call distribution, multilingual IVR, power Dialer	Bulk calling for small businesses	$16 per user per month, billed annually

1. Nextiva 

Best IVR system for customer support and office phone systems

Nextiva’s IVR system is part of its unified communications platform as a service (CPaaS), aiming to improve business communications, call flows, and customer interactions. It offers a user-friendly interface to create custom IVR menus and supports multi-channel communication, including SMS and video chat. The system provides advanced call routing, directing callers to appropriate agents based on various criteria. 

Nextiva includes integrated features like self-service options, speech recognition, and real-time analytics. Nextiva emphasizes scalability, system reliability, and security with its cloud-based solution. Finally, its conversational AI also offers customizable voice response systems to enhance call handling and improve customer experience. 

Related: How to Use Conversational Analytics Software Effectively

Features

Nextiva’s IVR system has the right IVR features to enhance the customer experience, including:

• 24/7 support ensures customers get exceptional service, even outside of business hours.
• Call routing and queuing efficiently direct customers to the right agent or department the first time. 
• Holiday scheduling provides a positive experience by keeping customers informed and providing alternative support options.
• Advanced functionality, such as taking payments, account verification, and diverting calls away when agents are unavailable. 

Nextiva also integrates telephony advancements and ensures secure payment transactions with PCI DSS Level 1 Compliance.

Pricing

Nextiva offers pricing plans for businesses of all sizes with features that support scalability.

• Essential: $18.95 per user per month, billed annually
• Professional: $22.95 per user per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $32.95 per user per month, billed annually

Nextiva also offers a free demo so you can see the benefits first-hand. 

Pros	Cons
Unified communications platform Easy-to-use interface Advanced analytics and reporting	Not suitable for companies outside of the U.S. No free trial

2. Five9

Best IVR system for mobile support

Five9 offers an advanced IVR system designed to enhance customer interactions and streamline call routing through its visual IVR, multi-channel support, and personalized greetings. The platform also provides self-service options for tasks like account inquiries and bill payments, reducing the workload on live agents and improving customer satisfaction. 

Features

Five9’s IVR system offers various features, including:

• Visual IVR prompts that are optimized for mobile devices
• Embedded call widget that includes wait time information and callback options.
• Visual customer surveys that help gather customer feedback

Additionally, Five9’s integration with CRM systems and real-time analytics offers businesses valuable insights to optimize their IVR performance.

Pricing

Five9 has various pricing plans for digital, voice, and additional services.

• Digital: $175 per month 
• Core: $175 per month
• Premium: $235 per month
• Optimum: $290 per month
• Ultimate: $325 per month

Five9 also offers custom plans to meet individual business needs.

Pros	Cons
Omnichannel support Visual IVR Advanced integrations	Connectivity issues Limited advanced analytics

3. GoTo Connect

Best customizable IVR system

GoTo Connect offers a cloud-based phone system and contact center features like VoIP calling, video conferencing, messaging, and integrations, and an IVR system. GoTo Connect’s IVR offers menus and prompts for callers to choose self-service options or connect with a human agent. 

Features

GoTo Connect’s IVR system features include:

• Automatic call distribution efficiently routes incoming calls to the most appropriate agent or department based on predefined criteria.
• Auto-queue callback offers callers the option to receive a callback instead of waiting on hold, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing wait times.
• Pre-recorded messages ensure consistent and accurate information delivery to callers, reducing agent workload and improving service quality.

GoTo Connect also offers recorded greetings and call queue information, auto-queue callback, pre-recorded agent messages, international calling, video conferencing, and a mobile app. 

Pricing

GoTo Connect offers pricing for its phone system, customer engagement software, AI tools, and contact center. However, you’ll need to contact their sales team for a quote.

Pros	Cons
User-friendly Customizable greetings and menus Configurable call paths	No pricing transparency Basic analytics

4. Aircall 

Best IVR system for remote teams

Aircall is a cloud-based phone system and call center software equipped with IVR software. Its customizable IVR allows users to add files, choose text-to-speech voices, and select language options, complete with accents. However, creating complex multi-level IVRs can be challenging due to Aircall’s call routing limitations.

Features

Aircall’s IVR system offers these unique features:

• Single-level and multi-level IVR creation provides flexibility to design simple or complex menus based on your needs.
• Setup options for creating classic and IVR numbers allow users to choose between traditional phone numbers for calls and dedicated numbers specifically designed for IVR systems.
• Dynamic visual editor offers a user-friendly interface for creating and customizing IVR menus.

In addition to IVR capabilities, Aircall provides access to integrations, APIs, SMS functionality, telephony features like call recording and click-to-dial, and unlimited simultaneous outbound calls. 

Pricing

Aircall offers these flexible pricing plans:

• Essentials: $30 per license, billed annually
• Professional: $50 per license, billed annually

Aircall also offers a customizable plan (for 25 licenses or more).

Pros	Cons
International support Real-time call monitoring Call recording	Sales-oriented features Limited self-service options

5. RingCentral

Best IVR system for integrations

RingCentral offers an IVR system as part of its cloud-based phone software. It provides functionalities like multi-level menus, text-to-speech or custom recordings, and call routing based on various criteria. It offers capabilities such as self-service options, speech recognition, integrations with CRM systems, and analytics and reporting to optimize support team performance. 

Features

RingCentral offers features aimed at enhancing the customer experience.

• Self-service options eliminate wait times.
• Skills-based call routing efficiently routes callers to agents based on skills or expertise.
• Speech recognition and natural language processing provide a conversational experience.

Pricing

RingCentral’s pricing comes in three tiers:

• Core: $20 per agent per month, billed annually
• Advanced: $25 per agent per month, billed annually
• Ultra: $35 per agent per month, billed annually

Potential users should consider RingCentral’s pricing plans, which vary based on features and user capacity. They should also note that creating complex menus may require technical expertise or training. 

Pros	Cons
Seamless operation across desktop and mobile devices Robust integration options Remote, hybrid, and on-premises communication	Some features are only available with an upgrade Complex menus

6. 8×8

Best cloud-based IVR system

8×8 provides contact center software with an intelligent IVR system and self-service options. The platform uses conversational AI technology to handle routine customer inquiries and offers customizable self-service resources to help with call routing decisions. 

8×8’s contact center includes reporting and analytics tools for insights into the customer journey and IVR system performance. It also offers scripting tools for administrative tasks and allows manual adjustments to caller options without involving IT.  

Features

8×8’s key features include:

• Advanced reporting and analytics tools for valuable customer insights.
• Speech-enabled voice response system that uses conversational AI.
• Customizable options, including an intuitive call flow designer.

Pricing

8×8 has many pricing plans that allow businesses to customize. However, businesses need to contact 8×8 to get a custom quote. 

Pros	Cons
Easy to build Intelligent routing Conversational AI	Limited integrations Inconsistent experiences

7. Zendesk 

Best IVR system for enterprises

Zendesk offers an IVR phone tree with its Professional and Enterprise Suite plans. Its IVR feature allows businesses to create phone trees and conditions to route customers to the right place. Zendesk’s multi-level IVR systems also provide information and answers to frequently asked questions, like business hours or sales promotions, via recorded messages.

Features

A few of Zendesk’s key features include:

• Phone trees that efficiently guide callers through pre-recorded messages and prompts.
• Call recording and monitoring to uncover customer insights.
• Warm transfer options to loop in human agents when appropriate.

Zendesk’s IVR also offers custom greetings, call recording, group call routing, and queue size and wait time information. Finally, Zendesk features options for customers to request a callback or text back while keeping their place in line.

Pricing

Zendesk offers various pricing tiers in its customer service suite:

• Suite Team: $55 per agent per month, billed annually
• Suite Growth: $89 per agent per month, billed annually
• Suite Professional: $115 per agent per month, billed annually

Zendesk also offers an enterprise suite, but you need to contact sales to discuss your needs and get a quote.

Pros	Cons
Robust integration options Advanced reporting tools Intelligent routing and triage	Expensive pricing tiers Low-rated AI

8. LiveAgent

Best IVR system for live chat

LiveAgent is a help desk software platform that manages customer requests across various channels. It offers a built-in IVR system with functionalities like automated call routing based on customer selections from pre-recorded menus or touch-tone options. 

Users can design multi-level IVR menus with greetings, prompts, and options, record messages, or use text-to-speech functionality. The system also prioritizes calls from high-priority customers or VIPs to specific agents or departments for service. 

Features

LiveAgent’s IVR system features:

• Automated call routing for efficient call navigation.
• Customizable menus to enhance the user experience.
• Call prioritization to escalate high-value customers.

Additional features include callback functionality and an automatic callback request feature that prompts callers when they reach preset wait times.

Pricing

LiveAgent’s business pricing offers four different pricing tiers:

• Small: $9 per agent per month, billed annually
• Medium: $29 per agent per month, billed annually
• Large: $49 per agent per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $69 per agent per month, billed annually

LiveAgent also offers a limited free plan and a 14-day free trial. 

Pros	Cons
Easy to use Fast support Seamless communication structure	Clunky visual layout Cluttered interface

9. Zoom

Best IVR system for video conferencing

Zoom provides omnichannel cloud contact center software featuring unlimited IVR and auto attendants. The software offers call routing based on dialed numbers and supports multi-level menus with voice prompts, self-service options, and speech recognition for natural language interaction. 

Zoom’s visual IVR system allows for phone number provisioning and is customizable through drag-and-drop modules. Users can automate customer engagement using features like speech recognition, recordings, and text-to-speech capabilities. 

Features

Some of Zoom’s primary features include:

• Unlimited IVR and auto attendants are free.
• No code customization to adapt to changes quickly.
• Speech recognition and text-to-speech to support user preferences.

Additionally, Zoom’s auto attendant feature enables the creation of pre-recorded greetings to guide callers to specific extensions or voicemail boxes.

Pricing

Zoom price plans include a free tier with limited features. They also offer different pricing tiers for businesses.

• Pro: $13.33 per user per month, billed annually
• Business: $18.33 per user per month, billed annually 
• Business Plus: $22.49 per user per month, billed annually

Pros	Cons
High-quality video and audio Supports heavy call-volume Scalable for small, medium, and large businesses	Primarily focused on video conferencing use cases Outbound calling requires an upgrade

10. CallHippo

Best IVR system for small businesses

CallHippo offers an IVR system as part of their office phone system and call center software packages. Their IVR software includes both single-level and multi-level systems. Features of CallHippo’s IVR include 24/7 support through recorded messages, categorized menus with submenus for navigation, and real-time call recording for quality maintenance. 

Features

CallHippo boasts IVR system features, including:

• Intelligent call routing and automatic call distribution for AI-powered or manual configuration.
• Multilingual IVR that provides global support options.
• Power Dialer that automates the dialing process for outbound calling.

CallHippo also provides call forwarding options, advanced reporting, and integrations.

Pricing

CallHippo offers pricing tiers for startups, small teams, feast-growing teams, and larger teams, including:

• Basic: $0 per user/month
• Bronze: $16 per user/month 
• Silver: $24 per user/month 
• Platinum: $40 per user/month 

Pros	Cons
Budget-friendly User-friendly interface Essential call routing functionality	Connectivity issues Limited customer support

CallHippo also offers a 10-day free trial for the Bronze, Silver, and Platinum plans.

Related: Best Call Center Software to Try in 2024

Features to Look for When Choosing an IVR Solution 

Different types of IVR software can have a variety of features. Here are some of the top features to look for in an IVR system:  

IVR System Feature	Why It Matters
Input recognition	The IVR system recognizes caller choices through touch-tone keypad presses using dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) and speech recognition technology where callers can verbally express their preferences.
Call routing and queuing	Based on the selected option, the IVR system directs calls to configured destinations such as agents, departments, call queues, or automated messages.
Holiday scheduling	The IVR system can include pre-recorded messages, directing customers to voicemail for specific departments, or providing self-service options during holidays or closures.
Ease of use	IVR systems should be intuitive — meaning it’s easy enough for non-IT people to make changes quickly and confidently.
Self-service options	This allows callers to complete tasks like checking account balances, making payments, or resetting passwords without needing an agent.
Analytics and reporting	Track important call center metrics like call volume, wait times, and menu selections. This data helps identify areas for improvement and optimize your IVR system.
Integration capabilities	Integrate your IVR with your CRM or other business software for a seamless flow of information. This allows agents to access caller details and provide more personalized service.
Intuitive menu navigation	Make sure the IVR menu is easy to understand and navigate. This includes clear prompts, short options, and the ability to repeat messages for callers who miss something.
Omnichannel support	Extend self-service options beyond phone calls. Look for IVR systems integrating with web chat, SMS, or mobile apps for a unified customer experience.
Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) functionality	DNIS allows the IVR to recognize the specific dialed phone number and route calls accordingly.
Callback functionality	Give callers the option to request a callback instead of waiting on hold. This improves customer satisfaction and reduces wait times.
Conversational AI	This advanced feature uses natural language processing to understand spoken commands and complete tasks based on caller requests.

How to Choose the Best IVR System Provider

Choosing the best IVR service providers for your business can be easy if you have the right information.

Here are a few common questions when deciding which vendor is right for you.

• Define business needs: Knowing the goals you want to achieve can help you find a provider that aligns with those needs. Some examples include enhancing the customer experience through self-service, improving sales, and streamlining workflows.
• Choose must-have features and capabilities: Create a list of essential features that make it easy to meet those business needs. Consider self-service options, conversational AI, or call center reporting and analytics.
• Consider scalability and flexibility: Choose a provider that can grow with your business. Look for systems that allow you to easily add new features or handle increased call volume.
• Ensure data security and reliability: IVR systems handle sensitive customer information. Verify the provider offers robust security measures and a reliable infrastructure to prevent downtime.

Reduce Hold Times and Scale Operations Easier With Nextiva

The best IVR systems are created with the perfect blend of self-service and human interaction throughout the touchpoints of the customer journey. With Nextiva, you get the best of both worlds: An advanced IVR system with intelligent virtual agent functionality that provides fast, reliable self-service and understands when the customer needs a human touch. See what Nextiva can do for your business today.

IVR Systems FAQs

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