7 Best Call Center Phone Systems

Among the call center phone systems listed, Nextiva Contact Center tops our list as the best overall call center software because of its powerful AI tools, workforce management, and automated workflows. Specifically, the enterprise-grade plans incorporate AI into the call management features for more intelligent routing.

Through in-depth customer journey orchestration, you can create automated workflows that trigger actions based on predefined rules. For example, incoming calls trigger a ticket in the CRM, get assigned to an agent, and a confirmation is emailed to the customer. In addition, tools like IVR, predictive dialing, and CRM integrations eliminate the manual work of sending updates and reminders to customers.

Nextiva Contact Center also integrates its VoIP phone service with call management tools like call pop, park, and pulling, earning it a spot on our list of the best cloud contact center providers. Specifically, the higher-tier plans offer omnichannel support and workforce management tools for businesses that require in-depth call monitoring and agent supervision across communication channels.

The downside of choosing this VoIP call center phone system is that its contact center and phone systems are separate products. Additionally, workforce management and advanced analytics are only available on higher-tier plans. If you want an all-inclusive solution, RingCentral Contact Center offers native integrations and unified communications capabilities.

• Interaction deflection: This feature evaluates customer sentiment and agent actions to recalibrate communication strategies. It is exclusively offered in the most expensive plan.
• Performance dashboard: Check call center metrics to gauge the efficiency of your operations. Nextiva reports the number of calls in queue, abandoned calls, and average call and idle times in real-time.
• Call recording: Capture conversations between service representatives and customers to evaluate how to improve services. Share these with agents during coaching and training sessions.

Use Nextiva’s monitoring features to record calls. (Source: Nextiva)

CloudTalk is the best call center platform for international businesses, offering international numbers and coverage in 160-plus countries in all of its plans. Using international numbers to deliver exceptional service with CloudTalk’s multilingual analysis, you can reduce telephone costs and appear local. The automatic language detection tool also allows you to interact with customers globally.

In addition to the standard ACD and IVR tools, CloudTalk offers caller-based routing, which lets you send inbound calls to specific agents based on the caller’s phone number and preconfigured criteria. Additionally, you can create VIP queues for your most valuable clients. Place VIP tags on their phone numbers so the system can automatically move them to the front of the queue.

However, call center metrics and speech analytics, like customer satisfaction scores and conversation intelligence, are only available as add-on features. Additionally, SLA uptime guarantees are only available on the highest-tier plan. In contrast, our top software solution, Nextiva Contact Center, offers multiple call center metrics and a 99.999% uptime guarantee across plans.

• Automated call redirection: When agents are busy or unavailable during business hours, calls are automatically sent to a preconfigured phone number. This ensures you will receive all important client calls, and customers will get the timely assistance they need.
• After-call work: When a call ends, the agent sees a dialog box that lets them rate the customer’s mood and call quality. An input field for call notes is also available for more detailed call context.
• Call tagging: Label calls according to customer concerns, such as technical support, customer complaints, or order or delivery status. By organizing customer interactions, you’ll better understand callers and spot trends and opportunities for improvement in your service.

Create color-coded call tags with CloudTalk’s call center software. (Source: CloudTalk)

GoTo Connect offers the best call monitoring software for businesses that require access to detailed reports and analytics about customer experience and agent performance. Specifically, the Connect CX and Contact Center plan offer call monitoring features, like call wrap-ups and surveys, so supervisors can coach agents and improve call quality.

The intuitive call management system also provides a visual call editor for creating custom call routes. Mobile or desktop applications can create custom call flows with advanced routing, filtering, and call queues. The applications can also access performance dashboards with analytics to track call data, like recordings and customer feedback.

However, most GoTo Connect plans are cloud-based business phone systems offering unified communication tools instead of customizable call center solutions. Therefore, only the Contact Center plan provides complete access to the call monitoring and routing features required to manage a call center. Because of this, GoTo Connect does not have the workforce management tools to provide more advanced supervision.

We recommend RingCentral‘s Contact Center plans for access to workforce management tools like agent assistance and interaction analytics. The essential and enterprise plans include all these tools and prebuilt report templates.

• Autoreject: Call filtering features allow agents to block calls from specific numbers immediately to streamline call flows and remove spam callers.
• Smart call routing: Route calls to multiple phone numbers in a predetermined sequence, enhancing the quality of customer service and optimizing call distribution efficiency.
• Agent dashboard: GoTo Connect offers customizable dashboards with customer support features and insights that drive operation efficiencies by determining performance issues affecting customer satisfaction, such as hold time.

View real-time call analytics in GoTo Connect’s agent dashboard. (Source: GoTo Connect)

Talkdesk provides the best plans for AI and call center analytics. For example, Talkdesk offers AI agents that can autonomously route calls and assist agents in responding to customers. The AI is also paired with customer experience analytics, which uses call data and business intelligence to identify opportunities for improvement.

AI and automation are popular contact center trends because they use technology to improve customer experience and call routing. While some small business owners might find it challenging to adopt these new tools, Talkdesk makes it easier by providing a low-to-no-code Studio platform for designing call flows and automating workflows.

Add-on features like the Talkdesk Copilot also use AI to assist agents in decision-making and provide self-service routing for customers. Talkdesk offers Experience Cloud systems with industry-specific features and custom integrations for retail, healthcare, government, and financial services.

Although Talkdesk offers advanced AI features across plans, these tools are more expensive than other providers. Additionally, there are no annual discounts for these plans. For more flexible pricing options, we recommend CloudTalk or Freshcaller.

• Chatbots: Unlike live chat website widgets, which require an agent to interact with customers, AI-powered chatbots provide automated responses to customer inquiries.
• CTI Connector: The computer telephony integration (CTI) connector lets you customize your Talkdesk workspace with multiple integrations, such as Salesforce and Zendesk. The CTI enhances the customer experience by providing context and business insights to each call.
• Autopilot: Use Talkdesk Studio to design the best routing strategy as callers come through the IVR. Specifically, the Autopilot feature uses artificial intelligence to automate call flows and streamline customer experience.

Talkdesk Autopilot uses AI to automate call journeys. (Source: Talkdesk)

Freshcaller is one of our top call center phone systems for scalable growth. The provider offers four cloud-based contact center plans, each tier providing a breadth of features that will benefit your business at all stages of development. For example, the free introductory plan includes standard features like caller identification and call notes for small inbound call centers.

The midtier plans cater to growing businesses that need call routing and performance metrics, like call recording and barging, to coach agents and provide feedback on customer interactions. Agent day passes also allow agents to log into your phone system for a day, which is helpful for businesses that experience fluctuating call volumes or occasionally use contractors.

The Pro and Enterprise plans also offer powerful outbound dialing modes with the Power Dialer. This dialer allows you to call a set list of numbers and contacts automatically. As your call volume increases, the highest-tier plan provides advanced artificial intelligence like speech-enabled IVR and smart escalation to manage call queues so your agents can focus on answering calls.

Although Freshcaller stands out for its scalable plans, which offer options from free to enterprise call center solutions, there are additional costs. For example, users must purchase local and toll-free numbers on the base plan. The base plans also lack call reporting features. For more inclusive call center plans, we recommend Nextiva for its breadth of features and call reporting tools.

• Pause-resume recording: You can manually pause and resume call recordings to ensure private information remains confidential. This is useful for concealing sensitive data like bank accounts or credit card details.
• Call barging: To address customer concerns directly, use the call barge feature to join a live call between an agent and a caller. Call barge allows managers and supervisors to help during complex or challenging calls.
• Parallel calls: During a live phone call, you can dial another phone number and start a second call. Use this valuable feature when confirming important information with colleagues.

Access call actions during a live call with the agent dashboard. (Source: Freshcaller)

Zoom Contact Center is one of the best call center software solutions because it offers many features that facilitate better handling of inbound and outbound calls. The Essentials plan prioritizes inbound calling with customizable IVRs, while the Premium plan offers outbound dialers with progressive and preview dialing software. The Elite plan also combines inbound and outbound support across communication channels.

Each plan includes multiple support tools, such as call transcription and CRM integrations, which improve an agent’s ability to make and answer calls. The Elite plan also comes with real-time and historical data reporting, so you can monitor performance and customer interactions to identify trends and areas for improvement. These performance insights further drill down into specific queues and agents to address issues in call quality and customer satisfaction.

As a cloud contact center, Zoom is a great phone system for call center teams, thanks to its comprehensive call management and agent support tools. However, its workforce and quality management capabilities are relegated to higher-tier plans or add-on features. These features can become costly if you manage high call volumes and a larger team of agents.

Instead, we recommend RingCentral because its base contact center plan includes advanced workforce engagement tools, including advanced speech analytics and quality management for those who need them.

• Active engagements: The contact center system overviews all the live conversations. In addition to phone calls, customer interactions occur in other channels, such as video, chat, and short messaging services (SMS).
• Caller checkmark icon: This icon appears if the carrier considers the caller an authorized party for using the phone number. This lets agents recognize spammers and prevent call center fraud, such as voice phishing.
• Custom variables: In addition to routing incoming calls to specific agents or phone numbers, Zoom allows you to place outgoing calls under specific conditions, such as after-hours calling or overflow queues.

Route outgoing calls with Zoom Contact Center’s custom variables. (Source: Zoom)

RingCentral Contact Center is the best contact center solution for workforce management, supported by customer engagement data and AI. Although both plans provide access to workforce management tools, the Contact Center plan includes native workforce management through call recording, automated agent scoring, and performance tracking to improve customer satisfaction and employee supervision.

The RingCX plan focuses on call center support and includes voice, video, and over 20 digital and social channels. It intelligently distributes calls to agents through various routing modes, such as IVR routing for self-service systems, data-driven routing with CRM integrations, and AI digital routing that uses speech recognition technology to distribute inquiries to relevant agents. These routing methods ensure that agents are appropriately matched to customers.

While RingCentral offers several features to facilitate workforce engagement and management, other call centers are more scalable. Specifically, most call center providers offer more than three plans to support long-term business growth, but RingCentral only provides an Essential and Enterprise plan. These plans also include additional charges to use advanced features like artificial intelligence and analytics.

Although the pricing for RingCX is clearly stated on the website, the enterprise Contact Center plan has customizable pricing without clearly indicating the difference in cost. For more transparent pricing and scalable plans, we recommend Freshcaller. It offers three essential and one enterprise plans with affordable pricing and advanced features.

• Outbound dialers: You can run customer outreach campaigns efficiently with preview, predictive, and progressive dialers. Its powerful outbound dialing features also earned RingCentral a spot in our list of the best progressive dialer software providers.
• Skills-based routing: Ensure that your customers are directed to the customer service representative or department best equipped to address their needs, enhancing the quality of customer service and optimizing call distribution efficiency.
• Performance reports: Use prebuilt templates to measure call quality and evaluate agent performance. The data can also be used to create quarterly goals and benchmarks for customer satisfaction.

Contact Center plans provide prebuilt templates to track performance. (Source: RingCentral)