Freshdesk Contact Center Review: Is It Right for Your Business?

Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) is a cloud-based private branch exchange (PBX) with voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) features. It lets agents manage calls from anywhere through computers and mobile devices. It has a free version, and paid plans start at $15 per agent, per month when billed yearly. Freshdesk Contact Center is worth considering if your business has call center agents distributed across locations. Read our Freshdesk Contact Center review to determine if it matches your needs.

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Freshdesk Contact Center Overview

What We Recommend Freshdesk Contact Center For

Freshdesk Contact Center is a VoIP platform built for handling large call volumes. It also allows users to opt in for omnichannel capabilities, letting them manage other channels, such as email tickets and social media messages. Its allowed access across devices, like computers and smartphones, makes it great for businesses with remote agents.

When to Use Freshdesk Contact Center

• Small businesses looking for a budget-friendly platform with customized reports and advanced call routing tools: Freshdesk Contact Center is a cloud-based phone system that offers call center features, such as call queues, smart escalations, and routing escalations. It also lets supervisors monitor team performance through customized reports with information like metrics and activity. Unlike RingCentral, it provides a free option and low-cost paid plans with straightforward pricing. It is one of the best call center systems on our list for the balance between its affordability and available features.
• Teams looking for a platform with intuitive call monitoring features: Freshdesk Contact Center is known for its ease of setup and use. It is part of our best call monitoring software, thanks to its easy-to-deploy and user-friendly system. It also comes with a variety of tools, like call barging and service-level monitoring.
• Companies looking for a customer relationship management (CRM) call center: Freshdesk Contact Center is a platform offered within the Freshsales CRM platform—enabling calling capabilities for sales enablement needs. Both products offer free versions, and the combination of the two enables users to measure sales of individuals based on customer interactions, pipeline process, and outbound calls. It is one of the best customer relationship management (CRM) call center software in our list for allowing users to utilize a customizable CRM and calling tool in one space.

When Freshdesk Contact Center Might Not Be a Good Fit

• Businesses that prioritizes employee efficiency and productivity: If you are looking for a scalable platform with workforce optimization (WFO) tools, RingCentral is for you. It lets you gamify your employee experience through badges, points, and challenges. You can also optimize team performance through its skills-based scheduling feature. Other capabilities include quality and performance management and interaction analytics.
• Call centers with an international presence: If your business has a wide global reach, try CloudTalk. It provides international phone numbers to over 140 countries, while to Freshdesk Contact Center supports over 90. CloudTalk also has affordable plans that come with routing and productivity tools, API access, and unlimited agent-to-agent calling.
• Companies—such as those in the medical or financial industries—handling highly sensitive data: If your business’ priority is keeping your customers’ information secure, 8×8 is worth considering. While its prices are higher than Freshdesk Contact Center, 8×8 has comprehensive security measures in place. It is known for its compliance certifications, including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI).

Freshdesk Contact Center Pricing

Freshdesk Contact Center offers a free plan for an unlimited number of agents and basic features, such as call notes, customized greetings and messages, and call metrics. Paid subscription tiers start at $15 per agent, per month when billed annually. Users can purchase unlimited toll-free, vanity, or local phone numbers for $1 to $2 per number, per month.

*Annual plans are paid in full at the beginning of the billing cycle.

Apart from the phone number monthly costs, Freshdesk Contact Center charges per-minute usage fees for incoming and outgoing calls, which depend on the customer’s location. Rates are as follows:

• Calls to U.S.-based numbers start at $0.022 per minute
• Incoming calls attended on a browser when an agent’s location is in the U.S. start at $0.016 per minute
• Incoming calls attended on a phone when an agent’s location is in the U.S. start at $0.028 per minute
• Voicemails cost $0.014 per minute when an agent’s location is in the U.S.
• Call recording costs $0.003 per minute
• Call monitoring or barging costs $0.005 per minute
• Call transcriptions cost $0.004 per minute
• Calls attended on an agent’s session initiation protocol (SIP) has an added $0.005 per minute fee
• Excess minutes, once a plan’s free local incoming minutes are completely consumed, cost $0.013 per minute
• Conference calls cost $0.005 per minute

Total billing is rounded off to the next minute. For instance, if a call lasts three minutes and 35 seconds, then four minutes will be charged. Paid plans include incoming call minutes, and fees will apply once these credits are fully consumed.

Freshdesk Contact Center’s plans are packaged with premium features and inclusions—such as omnichannel routing and service level monitoring—locked in higher tiers. However, it provides users with a free plan that allows them to utilize some of its basic features, such as call blocking and call metrics. Additionally, all plans allow access to its iOS and Android mobile app.

Freshdesk Omnichannel Pricing

Apart from its contact center plans, Freshdesk also offers its Omnichannel plans, which range from $29 to $99 per agent, per month, when billed annually. It comes with added features, such as a wide range of ticketing, messaging, knowledgebase and community forum, help widget, and customer portal tools.

Freshdesk Contact Center Features

Freshdesk Contact Center is a cloud-based platform packed with call management tools, great for teams with remote agents. It lets users make and receive calls from anywhere, from any device—such as desktop computers or Android or iOS devices.

Freshdesk Contact Center features an easy-to-access network connection test from its dashboard to ensure excellent call quality.
(Source: Freshdesk Contact Center)

Freshdesk Contact Center lets users buy local phone numbers in over 90 countries—great for those with a global presence. However, other providers, like CloudTalk, have a wider reach of over 140 countries—better for those who find Freshdesk Contact Center’s offering lacking. Agents can also purchase toll-free or vanity numbers or port their existing phone numbers from their current providers to its system.

Freshdesk Contact Center has unlimited concurrent calls and basic call management capabilities, like outbound calling from any number and answering calls from a browser. All agents subscribed to a paid plan can access its call masking feature that allows agents to set the caller ID to conceal their actual number or extension.

General Features

Freshdesk Contact Center helps agents handle huge call volumes through various tools and features, like agent productivity tools. It comes with inbound caller ID, desktop notifications, call notes, call notes transfer, click-to-call, after-call work, call tagging, call transcriptions, voicemail drop, and a voice bot.

Agents may easily add numbers to the power dialer list by selecting them in the contact list or uploading a CSV file in the power dialer tab.
(Source: Freshdesk Contact Center)

Those who aim to reduce agent downtime may consider Freshdesk Contact Center as it has a power dialer. This functionality lets you automate your outbound calling by dialing numbers from your preconfigured customer list.

Interested in learning how to improve your outbound calling efforts through dialers? Read our guide on how outbound dialers work and which is best for your business.

Queue Management

Aside from agent productivity tools, Freshdesk Contact Center also provides queue management features to help improve customer experience. Agents can customize greetings and messages and set up basic call queues and wait queues. They can also transfer calls to other agents or teams to ensure issues are addressed by those with relevant expertise.

Freshdesk Contact Center enables supervisors to monitor team performance through its live dashboard. It includes customers with callback requests.
(Source: Freshdesk Contact Center)

Additionally, agents can initiate conference calls with another teammate to resolve customer inquiries without the need to transfer the line. You can also allow your callers to opt for a callback instead of waiting in a queue. These capabilities are beneficial for those with high inbound call volumes.

Advanced Routing

While Freshdesk Contact Center comes with the basics—such as call routing to external numbers, interactive voice response (IVR), and business hours—it provides a lot of advanced routing capabilities too. For instance, it allows users to set up routing automation. This functionality lets the platform automatically redirect calls based on real-time inputs from your business’ external systems, like help desks.

Freshdesk Contact Center allows users to easily create routing automation rules. It lets them set messages and responses, and select which queue to direct the calls.
(Source: Freshdesk Contact Center)

Another Freshdesk Contact Center feature that can help ensure your customers’ needs are met is smart escalation. This tool routes calls to another queue when the current team is unable to take the calls. Configuring this capability is helpful when you determine that your business has many voicemails or missed calls and there’s no one available to pick up your customers’ calls.

History & Monitoring

Know your teams’ strengths and weaknesses to meet ideal customer experiences through actual performance and activity data. Freshdesk Contact Center generates data on your platform history, including call logs, metrics, and recordings, and voicemail transcriptions. It also displays advanced information, such as call summary, queue visibility, and agent activity in real time.

Supervisors can monitor real-time calls by discreetly joining their agent’s ongoing conversations.
(Source: Freshdesk Contact Center)

Supervisors can monitor their agents’ conversations through advanced tools, like call barging. They can also review reports, such as call or agent summaries, call center health, and call volume analysis. Reports are scheduled or customized according to the business need.

Freshdesk Contact Center Alternatives

Best for: Teams looking for a platform with workplace optimization capabilities	Best for: Businesses in industries with strict data security requirements, like health or finance	Best for: Companies that need a platform that supports omnichannel customer service
Starting price: Pricing for contact center solutions available upon request	Starting price: $87 per user, per month	Starting price: $49 per user, per month

What Users Think of Freshdesk Contact Center

There are very few Freshdesk Contact Center reviews online. Many Freshdesk Contact Center users shared that it’s a budget-friendly solution with advanced features, like custom reports and warm transfer.

At the time of publication, Freshdesk Contact Center has earned the following scores on popular user review sites:

• Capterra: 3.8 out of 5 stars based on 27 reviews
• TrustRadius: 6.8 out of 10 stars based on 16 reviews
• G2: 4.1 out of 5 stars based on 118 reviews
• GetApp: 3.8 out of 5 stars based on 27 reviews
• Software Advice: 3.78 out of 5 stars based on 27 reviews

The majority of users like that Freshdesk Contact Center is easy to implement, set up, and use. While there are mixed experiences on its customer service, most users commended its support team for being responsive and helpful in addressing their issues. Others had problems with the call quality’s dependency on the internet connection; however, note that this is how VoIP software works.

Bottom Line

Freshdesk Contact Center is an excellent option for those looking for a budget-friendly platform for their call management and campaign monitoring needs. It provides a free version and plans with credits for call minutes that start at 2,000.

There are more robust options, like RingCentral, which provides open APIs for customized integrations and advanced tools like workforce optimization. However, if your business doesn’t need these complex features, Freshdesk Contact Center is worth considering. You can try its free version or its 21-day trial to determine if its software is the right one for you.

Visit Freshdesk Contact Center