7 Best Cloud Contact Center Providers for Small Businesses

Nextiva Contact Center is our best cloud contact center for small businesses because of its future-focused customer experience (CX) tools and advanced features. Although Nextiva provides a suite of plans for small businesses, the enterprise plans offer a breadth of contact center solutions with conversational artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient customer engagement.

Across plans, Nextiva provides IVR menus and call routing, outbound dialing, and automated callback queues. These tools help ensure your contact center operates optimally, improving customer service and client satisfaction. Its three plans offer distinct packages, making it easier for small businesses to identify which package suits their needs.

For example, the Essential plan includes voice and digital contact center solutions for teams that only require single-channel support. In contrast, the Professional and Premium plans are excellent for small teams needing an omnichannel contact center with unified communications as a service (UCaaS) features like scheduling team meetings.

However, some of Nextiva’s features, such as workforce management tools and advanced analytics, are only available on the Premium plan. The contact center plans are also separate from Nextiva’s business phone systems. In contrast, RingCentral’s Contact Center plans include AI features and unified communications (UC) capabilities if you want an all-inclusive plan.

• Workflow engine: Nextiva’s drag-and-drop interface can automate processes, create complex call routing systems, and provide collaborative customer support tools. Specifically, customer service automation combines chatbots, IVR menus, and the workflow engine for more efficient call management.
• Intelligent virtual assistant (IVA): Use automated call routing or bots to handle incoming customer calls within a self-service system or to match customers with agents. Customers can also use the IVA to navigate menu options and receive personalized support.
• Single screen recording: Check in on agents and customers by capturing and recording an agent’s screen. This screen recording makes it easier to improve training and ensures that agents are handling calls adequately.

Manage calls and accounts using the agent dashboard. (Source: Nextiva)

Genesys Cloud CX offers the best contact center solutions for businesses prioritizing self-service systems because of its speech-enabled IVR and AI features. For small businesses, self-service support features empower customers to help themselves by navigating menu options and interacting with chatbots.

You can use the Genesys Cloud dialer to automate agent dialing and manage customer wait times. Genesys Cloud CX also combines various speech recognition technologies to create a personalized call journey for each customer through features like inbound voice routing and text-to-speech integrations.

While the base plans offer self-service and agent-assisted services, only the highest-tier plan includes workforce engagement management tools (WEM). Additionally, the Genesys Cloud AI experience features, such as Agent Copilot and predictive routing, are only accessible through a predetermined set of monthly tokens. For additional tokens, there are extra month-to-month fees.

If you would like integrated workforce engagement management tools at an affordable monthly price, we recommend RingCentral’s RingCX or Contact Center plans.

• Predictive routing: Improve call management by using AI to rank your agent’s ability to handle specific interactions. The system can then automatically route calls based on agent-interaction match for more efficient queuing.
• Genesys Cloud Voice: You can bundle the contact center plans with Genesys Cloud voice services or bring your own cloud carrier (BYOCC) for a highly customizable phone system.
• Journey flows: Visualize the CX by designing journey flows that map self-service and agent interactions. You can also use the flows to gather data about your call journeys’ effectiveness and adjust call management features.

Use Genesys Cloud CX to map call journey flows. (Source: Genesys Cloud)

We chose Zoom Contact Center as a top cloud contact center provider​ for customer engagement because of its personalized customer care across communication channels. Zoom offers integrations with numerous apps and customer relationship management (CRM) systems so agents can access customer information during and after calls. This access also improves customer engagement by providing context to customer concerns.

As a popular video conferencing platform, Zoom elevates audio calls to collaborative video meetings. While video conferencing offers many applications, it’s advantageous in high-touch industries like healthcare and technology, where interactions usually benefit from visual interaction. For example, IT support can use screen sharing to troubleshoot problems with a computer or assist with software setup.

Zoom also has video waiting rooms where customers can receive messages from your team while waiting, which is excellent for small businesses that schedule clients for virtual appointments. Its analytics dashboard also offers insights regarding agent competency and client interaction outcomes, leading to improved customer engagement.

While Zoom offers many UC solutions that improve customer engagement, the contact center plans lack essential VoIP features like virtual and toll-free phone numbers. Instead, these features are add-ons that incur additional fees. For a contact center provider that offers more robust telephony services, we recommend Nextiva.

• Virtual Agents: AI is embedded in chatbots to interact with customers. The contact center plans include other AI tools, such as an AI companion for meeting summarization and call recordings.
• Customer surveys: Post-call surveys will generate feedback on customer sentiment and satisfaction with the call service. You can then use this information for agent training or to improve call flows and self-service routing.
• Agent desktop: Contact Center plans have access to additional features in the Zoom Workplace interface, such as customer data and engagements.

Manage customer engagement across channels with Zoom Contact Center. (Source: Zoom)

RingCentral Contact Center is our best contact center for omnichannel support because it provides seamless customer interactions across communication channels. Omnichannel contact centers benefit small businesses by ensuring agents can handle calls in one centralized system.

With RingCX, you can interact with your customers via voice, chat, email, and over 20 digital channels, including popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Upgrading to the Contact Center plan expands these options to over 30 digital channels and access to an omnichannel interaction designer to manage multiple communication flows across channels.

RingCentral also tops the list for our best call center phone systems because it provides access to UC features, such as video conferencing, team chat, and voice calling. The cloud phone system also offers advanced call handling like call delegation, call park, and hot desking. These core phone features are paired with call monitoring to speed up issue resolution and ensure your contact center’s efficiency and effectiveness.

While most contact center providers offer multiple plans that allow small businesses to grow over time, RingCentral only offers two contact center plans, RingCX and an enterprise plan. However, RingCentral does not provide transparent pricing for its enterprise plan. For a provider with more scalable options, check out NICE CXone, which offers four plans with omnichannel support.

• Team messaging: Use RingCentral’s team messaging to collaborate with colleagues. This tool lets you chat, share files and links, and set up virtual meeting rooms for quick conversations or meetings.
• Skills-based routing: Match the agent with the most relevant skill set with each of your customers. This is more deliberate and efficient than routing clients to any available agent.
• CRM integrations: In addition to digital channels, RingCentral Contact Center provides access to integrations with multiple CRMs, such as HubSpot, Zendesk, and Microsoft Dynamics.

Provide omnichannel customer service with CRMs like Zendesk. (Source: RingCentral)

Five9 is the best cloud contact software for customizable contact center solutions because of its scalable plans and a la carte services. The five contact center plans each include different services to meet the needs of various industries, from businesses prioritizing digital outreach to contact centers that require omnichannel support and advanced call analytics. Therefore, you can start at one of the base plans and move up as your customer base grows.

Each plan can also be bundled with AI, digital engagement, and workforce optimization features. For example, the AI add-ons include intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) to answer customer inquiries within a self-service system. With 24/7 customer support, Five9 also ensures you can easily manage all these features in your contact center plan with on-demand assistance.

Despite the variety of plans with more advanced features at each tier, Five9 does not include pricing information for its highest-tier plans. The contracts are also 36 months with a minimum of 50 seats per plan. Although many contact centers offer lengthier contracts for multiple users, these contracts can be prohibitive to small business owners who need more flexibility and transparency in pricing.

Additionally, the variety of tools that Five9 offers can make it more difficult for users who are less experienced with this technology to navigate the admin dashboard and configure the phone system. For customizable cloud contact center software with pay-as-you-go pricing, we recommend Amazon Connect because there are no monthly minimum fees or long-term contracts.

• Gamification: Use the Five9 performance dashboard to engage customer service agents with interactive games and competitions. This additional feature boosts morale and encourages high performance within the agent pool.
• Managed Geographic Redundancy (MGR): Hosting data and operations across data centers ensures that you can provide continuous service despite power outages, natural disasters, or system failures.
• Outbound dialer: Five9 provides multiple outbound dialing options, from predictive dialing that automates call lists to preview dialing that provides greater context for customer calls.

Make notes and view customer data with outbound contact center software. (Source: Five9)

NICE CXone is one of the best cloud contact center providers because it offers top-tier quality management with call monitoring, reporting, and AI features. Small teams new to contact center phone systems will find report-building challenging, but CXone lets you customize templates or use prebuilt reports. Each plan also includes automation and AI features that provide deeper insights into call quality and customer interactions.

For example, the quality management dashboard tracks agent status and performance metrics with evaluations and self-assessments. After evaluating call data and CX, supervisors can use the workspace to gather insights for coaching agents and improving quality metrics, like KPIs and customer sentiments.

As a comprehensive contact center solution, NICE CXone offers advanced quality management and call monitoring. However, it is one of the most expensive providers on our list, and most of its advanced features are only available for more costly plans. For small businesses looking for more affordable cloud contact center software, check out RingCentral.

• Proactive AI Agents: Boost efficiency and interact with customers 24/7 using AI bots. CXone allows you to build your own or recycle previously built bots.
• Enlighten Copilot: NICE CXone uses AI to alert a supervisor when their assistance or inquiry is needed. This includes negative sentiment alerts and prompts to delve deeper into call data.
• CXone Agent (CXA): The browser-based agent dashboards allow you to interact with customers and clients through multiple communication channels. The web app is also compatible with mobile operating software for remote call management.

View multiple communication channels with the CXone Agent (CXA) dashboard.
(Source: NICE CXone)

For small business owners who prefer a provider without upfront costs and minimum monthly fees, Amazon Connect is our best plan for pay-as-you-go pricing. This billing benefits businesses that want to build a cloud contact center without committing to a long-term contract. Instead of a set monthly price, you are billed for voice services, such as inbound and outbound calls, and the different support channels and analytics features used.

Amazon Connect also comes with Amazon Web Services (AWS) benefits. The software fully integrates with the AWS infrastructure to create a customizable contact center with services like Amazon Kinesis for call analytics, Amazon Lex for conversational AI, and Amazon Q for automated assistance. However, configuring all of these integrations may require more technical skills.

Additionally, Amazon Connect Contact Lens provides real-time analytics and quality management that automatically assists agents with call handling. Contact Lens can generate post-call summaries, analyze customer sentiment, and aggregate data to offer call context to agents and provide coaching suggestions to supervisors. However, you must use the Amazon AppFlow to integrate external applications.

Although pay-as-you-go pricing benefits some small businesses, the monthly costs can be unpredictable for companies with fluctuating call volumes. We recommend providers with a set monthly or annual fee for contact centers with high call volumes across multiple support channels. If you need more omnichannel support, check out RingCentral.

But if you want to try out Amazon Connect, you can use the free AWS tier for 90 minutes a month for up to 12 months to predict your call usage and decide if it is the best cloud contact center software for your business.

• Customer profiles: While many cloud contact center solutions aggregate multiple screens of customer data within a dashboard, Amazon Connect syncs data across applications to create a single customer profile that provides valuable context to each interaction.
• Voice ID: Receive real-time caller authentication with machine-learning models that can use a caller’s voice to verify accounts and detect fraudulent activity.
• Interactive voice response (IVR): Use the IVR to design complex call flows that move customers through a self-service system. You can also use Amazon Connect with other AWS products to handle multiple calls and communication channels.

Leverage IVRs and Amazon Web Services for self-service support.
(Source: Amazon Connect)