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June 17, 2022

7 Best Call Center Software For 2022 (Expert Pick)

Are you looking for call center software for your business?

Many customers like to reach out to businesses by phone to get information or help. Having a call center service for your business can streamline your customer support and provide a better user experience.

In this article, we’ll share the top call center software so that you can select the best option for your business.

How to Find the Best Call Center Software

Offering customer support through phone calls is a great way of helping your users. However, it can be hard for small businesses that are quickly growing to handle a large volume of phone calls.

With the help of a call center software, you can respond to multiple phone calls at once, answer customers questions more quickly, help your sales team reach a larger audience, improve the overall support process, and increase customer satisfaction.

There are a few features you should look for when selecting a call center software for your business, such as:

Interactive Voice Responses (IRV) – You should choose a software solution that offers automated responses through IRVs, greets a customer when they call, and helps to direct them to the right department.
Cloud Contact Center – A cloud-based call center allows your remote team to attend to customers from anywhere in the world without having to be on-premises.
Multichannel Support – Also called omnichannel routing, this lets your support staff respond to customers from social, live chat, email, phone calls, and other channels, all using the same software.
Call Routing & Voicemail Option – You should look for software that allows voicemail and call routing features, so customers can share their queries even when the call center agents aren’t available.
CRM Integrations – By integrating customer relationship management (CRM) software, you can make the best use of your customer information and get a complete picture of how often they call, their support tickets, and more. Some tools also offer CTI (computer telephony integration) to identify customers through phone numbers.
Reporting and Analytics Tools – Your call center software should provide additional reporting and analytics tools to see how well your customer support is performing.
Call Recording – You can perform quality management checks and training by listening to recent call recordings.

That said, let’s take a look at some of the best call center software you can choose for your business.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best virtual business phone number service in the market. It’s the perfect solution for remote teams, since Nextiva is completely cloud-based.

Your support agents can simply log in to the Nextiva desktop or mobile app to handle all incoming calls. Plus, it includes complete help desk software as well. It lets you talk with customers across multiple communication channels, be it phone, voice, SMS, live chat, video, or social media.

With the Nextiva contact center solution, you also get screen popups that can be tailored according to your brand. There’s also a speech-enabled IVR feature that helps customers when they contact you.

You can take IVR a step further and automate routine tasks. This way, you can reduce the cost of hiring more agents and efficiently handle high call volumes. It also allows support agents to focus on attending important calls while IVR solves repetitive problems.

Besides that, Nextiva offers affordable cell phone plans and more features like a toll-free number, voicemail to email option, call recording, HD video conferencing, auto-attendant, and more.

You can also easily integrate it with different CRMs and communication tools like Salesforce, Oracle Sales Cloud, Microsoft, and more. It even offers APIs and SDKs for specific uses and allows you to set up workflow automation.

Note: At WPBeginner, we use Nextiva for all our business phone needs because the software offers robust features and affordable pricing plans. As a small business, it helps our team attend to incoming customer calls from anywhere in the world without having to share their personal cell phone numbers.

Besides that, Nextiva also allows us to send text messages and connect with customers through its video conferencing features.

Expert Review: In our experience, Nextiva helps provide exceptional customer experience and offers a complete cloud-based business phone service, which makes it the best call center software.

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is a popular business VoIP service provider and lets you set up a cloud call center solution for your business. You can quickly provide customer support from anywhere in the world and at any time.

It offers an omnichannel solution where you can define rules to route calls based on capacity, availability, and more. This way, you can speed up your customer support and easily have customer interactions on multiple channels at once.

With RingCentral, you can also boost your support agent’s productivity. The software offers gamification options that can be used to provide incentives to agents. Besides that, it’s a complete workforce management software that makes it super easy to handle your team’s schedule and plan inbound calls based on traffic volumes.

Another advantage of using RingCentral is that it provides detailed analytics about your customer support performance. You can monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) in real-time, track agent performance, set up call monitoring, self-service resources, and more.

Plus, there are data visualization and root cause analysis tools that help you build custom stats dashboards for reporting. Other than that, you get an automated IVR system, seamless integrations, a predictive dialer, and more with RingCentral.

Expert Review: RingCentral offers tailored solutions based on your audience or industry. Whether you’re in the financial, healthcare, education, government, or have an eCommerce store, RingCentral is a great call center software to have.

3. Ooma

Ooma is an all-in-one virtual phone solution for businesses of all sizes. Whether you have a startup, small business, or running an enterprise, Ooma offers lots of features to keep your remote teams and customers connected.

Ooma makes it very easy for you to set up a cloud call center and provide exceptional customer support. It provides intelligent call routing functionality and lowers long call queues by helping customers find the right agent without going through repetitive or redundant steps.

You can also create customized call flows for your support team. The service offers a drag and drop call flow designer that helps you build a call sequence in a few minutes.

Other than that, Ooma also offers features like multi-level IVR and automatic call distribution based on caller data, business hours, and agent skills. You can even match callers to the right agent with intelligent reconnect, where the customer is automatically connected with the person they were speaking to before the call dropped.

Ooma also lets you monitor your customer support performance. However, it doesn’t match the 45 different reporting features and reports that Nextiva has to offer for measuring your VoIP call center efficiency.

Expert Review: Ooma is a great solution for small to medium-sized businesses looking to add a call center solution.

4. FreshDesk

FreshDesk is a famous software that offers a complete contact center solution for businesses. Over 50,000 companies use FreshDesk to provide customer support.

FreshDesk Contact Center software, previously known as Freshcaller, is easy to use and helps you set up the software in just a few clicks. It also offers many features like setting up automated voice responses using artificial intelligence.

With FreshDesk, there’s an option to create a global contact center. You can use bring your own phone (BYOC) or purchase phone numbers from over 90 countries. Plus, it offers affordable pricing plans that you can scale as your business grows.

Other than that, it’s a complete omnichannel solution for your customer support. You can convert a call to a ticket and offer support to users from multiple channels in a single place while lowering wait time.

More features offered by FreshDesk include call recordings, call transcripts, call lifecycle information, voice bots, speech-enabled IVR, reporting tools to monitor agent performance and improve customer support, and more.

Expert Review: FreshDesk is a beginner-friendly call center solution. However, if you’re looking for more powerful features, then we recommend checking out Nextiva.

5. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is the next call center software on our list, and it offers a lot of features like other services we’ve covered. However, what makes this service different is that you get a 14-day free trial to try the software before committing to a premium plan.

With LiveAgent, you get a cloud-based call center solution. The VoIP phone system helps your support agents to connect with customers from anywhere.

Plus, you get features like IVR, call back requests, call transfers, unlimited call recording, smart call routing, video conference calling functionality, in-app push notifications, chatbot, and automatic call distribution (ACD).

The software also integrates with popular CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. It also works seamlessly with email marketing tools like AWeber and Mailchimp. You can even integrate it with your WordPress website and add a live chat button.

Expert Review: If you’re looking for affordable pricing plans along with a free trial to test the software, then LiveAgent is the perfect tool for you.

6. 8×8

8×8 is a cloud communication platform that offers a secure call center solution. The service is loaded with features and offers 99.99% uptime across UCaaS and CCaaS.

What this means is that the service is reliable and guarantees faster performance without any delays or downtime. Besides, it has 35 data centers located globally to provide great quality of service.

It has a simple user interface and offers a detailed knowledge base, expert connect, and a complete communication hub to help you get started.

8×8 call center also provides features to handle inbound and outbound calls. For instance, you get easy call routing, call recording, speed and text analytics, omnichannel support, IVR, agent workspace management, click to call option, and more. However, you’ll find more features in other software we’ve covered, like Nextiva and RingCentral.

The service also easily integrates with CRMs such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Azure, and Zendesk. You can also improve your customer support through contact center analytics and even conduct surveys to get customer feedback.

8×8 call center pricing plans are on the expensive side, as they start from $85 per user per month. If you want a more affordable solution, then you’ll get more value for money using Nextiva.

Expert Review: 8×8 is a powerful virtual phone platform that offers a robust call center solution. It is great for SaaS enterprises and large organizations.

7. CloudTal k

CloudTalk is the last call center solution on our list. It’s a popular virtual call center platform and powers over 2,500 call centers, including companies like DHL, Mercedes Benz, Fujitsu, and GoStudent.

The service offers 140 national phone numbers that you can use for your business or select a toll-free number. CloudTalk has also partnered with multiple telcos across the globe to provide a strong network and ensure crystal clear calls and reliable performance.

Other features offered by CloudTalk include call queuing, call recording, voicemail, adding extensions, fax to email, business hours, conference calls, call masking, 3-way calling, smart outbound auto dialer, and more.

You also get intelligent routing features like a complete call flow designer to create automated workflows, IVR, ACD, skill-based call routing, set a preferred agent for clients, call forwarding, VIP queues, auto-answer functionality, and more.

Expert Review: CloudTalk is a dedicated call center software. You can use it to provide inbound support, outbound sales, and easily collaborate with remote teams.

Which is the Best Call Center Software?

If you’re looking for a complete cloud-based call center, then we highly recommend Nextiva. The software ticks all the boxes for what you should look for in a call center solution.

It offers powerful features that go beyond simply creating a call center. Nextiva is a complete virtual phone solution for businesses that want to take their customer support to the next level.

You get IVR, call recording, video conferencing, mobile and desktop apps, detailed reports and metrics to track performance, and so much more with Nextiva. Plus, it easily integrates different CRMs and marketing tools.

We hope this article helped you find the best call center software. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best blogging platform and the best WordPress plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 7 Best Call Center Software For 2022 (Expert Pick) first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 20, 2022

8 Best Small Business Cell Phone Plans for 2022 (with Free Option)

Are you looking for a small business cell phone plan to stay in touch with your customers and team members?

A business cell phone plan gives you the freedom and flexibility to answer calls, communicate with your team, and attend meetings while on the go. It helps you stay connected from anywhere in the world.

In this article, we’ll share the best small business cell phone plans with pros and cons, so you can pick the best solution for your needs.

Why Do You Need a Business Cell Phone Plan?

A business cell phone plan is important for many small business owners, so they can keep their business phone separate from their personal phone and easily coordinate with other team members.

With the right cell phone plan, your customer support staff will be able to help out customers and respond to their questions while on the go. This way you can improve retention and create a long-term relationship with your customers.

Similarly, if you have a remote team spread across different locations, then a cell phone plan can improve business communication since you can hold webinars and meetings to keep everyone connected.

As a business owner, you have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting a cell phone plan for your company. There are traditional wireless carriers, business VoIP services, and virtual calling systems that provide a business cell phone service.

That said, let’s look at some of the best small business cell phone plans in the market.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best VoIP and virtual business phone service in the market. It’s a cloud-based business phone system that offers a powerful set of features, and it’s super easy to set up.

This is what we use for our business here at WPBeginner.

Nextiva is often referred to as a UCaaS (unified communication as a service) because it brings separate communication channels like video, text message chat, voice, and collaboration tools together in one place.

There are Nextiva apps for mobile phones, tablets, desktop, and even desk phones, so your team can use a separate business phone number or extension without needing two separate devices which helps reduce cost.

Some of the features you get include an auto-attendant feature, HD video conferencing option, nationwide unlimited calling and SMS messages, free number porting, voicemail to email notifications, toll-free numbers, a cloud-based VoIP call center, cloud PBX, call pop with caller ID details, and more.

The VoIP service also helps your team improve communication and automate different workflows. For example, you can set up email automation and create automated replies to quickly respond to business customer queries that come in through your WordPress website.

Another benefit of using Nextiva is that it easily integrates with other communication tools and CRMs like Salesforce, Google Contacts, Zendesk, Oracle Sales Cloud, Zoho, and more.

Nextiva offers 3 business cell phone plans that you can choose from.

Essential – The prices start from $18.95 per user per month, and you get unlimited voice and video calling, toll-free numbers, Outlook and Google contacts integrations, and more.
Professional – Starting at $22.95 per user per month. In addition to the features in the Essential plan, you also get unlimited conference calls, a screen sharing option, mobile and desktop SMS/MMS feature, auto-attendant, and more.
Enterprise – In this plan, you get all the features that Nextiva offers, and it will cost $32.95 per user per month. Plus, you get a call recording option, Microsoft Teams integration, voicemail transcription, and more.

If you’re looking for a small business cell phone plan that doesn’t require getting a separate device and allows for sharing the business phone number with multiple team members, then Nextiva is the way to go.

This is what we use for our business, and many other top organizations like UnitedWay, TacoBell, YMCA, Stanford University, and others also use Nextiva for their business phone.

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is also one of the best business cell phone services that you can use for your website. The VoIP phone service provider allows your support team to handle customer support from anywhere using its Android and iOS mobile app and desktop app.

This way, you can also implement a bring your own device (BYOD) policy and allow your team members to use their own devices to handle work-related tasks from any place at any time.

With RingCentral, you get unlimited phone calls within the US and Canada, voice-to-text features, video conferences, business SMS, internet fax, toll-free number, and more.

There’s also an auto attend feature in RingCentral and advanced call handling features where support agents can see the caller’s interaction history, get real-time analytics, and allow managers or another team member to take over a call.

RingCentral offers 4 business cell phone plans that you can use, and the best part is that you get a 14-day free trial.

Essentials – Starting from $19.99 per user per month, you get up to 20 users, a toll-free number, unlimited calls in the US/Canada, team messaging, and more.
Standard – In this plan, RingCentral offers an unlimited number of users, business phone numbers in 100 countries, unlimited internet fax, video meetings, 24/7 support, and more for $27.99 per user per month.
Premium – It will cost you $34.99 per user per month. You get more features like automatic call recording, hot desking, advanced call handling features, real-time analytics, CRM integrations, etc.
Ultimate – This plan is for $49.99 per user per month, and it includes all the features along with device status reports, status alerts, and unlimited storage.

3. Ooma

Ooma is an all-in-one virtual phone service for small businesses. With Ooma, you get amazing features to keep you connected with your customers and remote team members.

The phone service offers HD audio, video conferencing, messaging, virtual receptionists, free 1-800 toll-free numbers, and free local phone numbers. The best, you get mobile apps that let you receive calls and answer your customers’ queries on the go.

Besides that, there’s also an Ooma Office suite that works out of the box and is very easy to set up. With Ooma Office, you can attend meetings and video conferences to keep your team connected with each other.

Other features offered by Ooma include voicemail transcription, online fax, enhanced call blocking, call recording, call forwarding, unlimited calling in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, affordable international call rates, and more.

Ooma offers 2 pricing plans for small business cell phones.

Ooma Office – It will cost you $19.95 per month per user and you get a lot of features like a mobile app, virtual receptionist, call transfer, call logs, and more.
Ooma Office Pro – This plan will cost you $24.95 per month per user and you get additional features like a desktop app, call recording, enhanced call blocking, caller info match, and more.

4. Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a top virtual phone service for small businesses that’s affordable and packed with valuable features.

Using Grasshopper, you can get a toll-free number, a local number, a vanity number, and transfer users to an existing virtual number easily. The cloud-based phone service offers a desktop and mobile phone app, so you can take calls and respond to messages from anywhere.

Other than that, you can set up custom greetings to welcome callers and ensure that you never miss a call by routing customers to another phone or team member. The service also offers virtual fax, voicemail, incoming call controls, analytics, and more.

The only downside is that Grasshopper is only available in the USA and Canada. That said, you get a 7-day free trial with 3 premium plans.

Solo – It will cost you $26 per month. You get to choose 1 phone number and 3 extensions.
Partner – This plan costs $44 per month and offers up to 3 types of phone numbers and 6 extensions.
Small Business – You can use unlimited extensions and up to 5 phone numbers for $80 per month.

5. Phone.com

Phone.com is a versatile virtual phone service that’s great for small businesses and startups. It offers affordable pricing plans and lets you mix and match plans based on your business needs.

The VoIP service offers business mobile and desktop apps so that you can handle customer support from an office or on the move.

With Phone.com, you get additional functionality like audio conferencing, call analytics, call recording and screening, call forwarding, text messaging, fax-from-phone option, and much more.

Phone.com offers 3 pricing plans with a monthly billing cycle, and you can combine these plans according to what you need. Plus, each plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Basic Users – Starting from $10.39 per month per user, you get 300 minutes and 1000 text messages. It also includes video conferencing up to 10 participants, document sharing, fax from phone feature, and more.
Plus Users – It will cost you $15.99 per month per user and includes everything in the basic user package along with unlimited minutes and business text messages.
Pro Users – This plan will cost you $23.99 per month per user, and you get all the features that Phone.com has to offer. Plus, you get advanced call management features like call recording, call analytics, and CRM integrations.

6. AT&T

AT&T is one of the largest wireless carriers in the United States, and it offers unlimited domestic mobile data usage, talk minutes, and text messages. It’s a great alternative to VoIP business cell phone plans and you get exceptional call quality.

With AT&T, you get no roaming charges along with unlimited talk time and instant messaging for Mexico and Canada. There are also shared data plans where you can make the data shareable for up to 25 phones, tablets, and other devices.

There is also an international addon that lets you make calls and send messages to over 210 countries. Each mobile plan also comes with 5G and 5G+ access, so you won’t worry about slow internet speeds.

Other than that, AT&T offers a video streaming feature, but the video quality will depend on your plan. It also offers powerful security measures to protect your business. For instance, you get spam and fraud call blocking, identity monitoring, safe browsing, and more.

There are the 3 business cell phone plans offered by AT&T, and you get to choose up to 10 lines per plan. However, the prices go down if you select 6 to 10 lines per plan. Also if you exceed the data limit, then your internet speeds are slowed down to 128 Kbps.

We’ll show you prices for 6 – 10 lines.

Business Unlimited Starter – Priced at $30 per month per line, you get basic security features, 5G/5G+, standard definition video streaming quality, 5GB mobile hotspot data per line, and more.
Business Unlimited Performance – It will cost $35 per month per line, and you get HD video streaming, 40GB of mobile hotspot data per line, and advanced security features.
Business Unlimited Elite – This plan is for $40 per month per line. It offers advanced security features, business fast track, HD and 4K video streaming, and 100GB of mobile hotspot data per line.

7. Verizon

Verizon is another wireless carrier that you can use for your business cell phone needs. It also offers some of the best cell phone plans and features like unlimited calling, texting, and data plans within the US.

With Verizon, you get extended high-speed data coverage across the USA and selected international countries. It even offers flexible plans for adding unlimited data for tablets. However, you’ll need compatible devices and ensure that 5G coverage is available in your area.

Besides, the wireless carrier offers different security measures. For instance, you can use its call filter to block spam, protect your device against phishing and web risks, Wi-Fi protection notice, and more.

Verizon offers 3 different pricing plans, and you can choose the number of lines you require. The more lines you add, the lower will be the overall prices.

Business Unlimited Start 2.0 – It will cost you $30 per line per month, and you get unlimited talk, text, and data. It also includes 5G/4G LTE, an unlimited mobile hotspot, and a call filter spam blocker. You can also save $5 per month for paper-free billing and autopay.
Business Unlimited Plus 2.0 – You can select this plan for $35 per line per month. It includes a 5G ultra-wideband, 100GB of data, and more security features.
Business Unlimited Pro 2.0 – This unlimited plan is priced at $45 per line per month. In addition to everything in Start and Plus plan, you get unlimited premium network access and more perks. Since you get unlimited data, there are no overage charges.

8. Google Voice

Google Voice is the last business cell phone plan on our list, and it’s a virtual phone service that you can use for your business. With Google Voice, you can work from anywhere, as it works on your mobile device, laptop, and supported desktop phones.

Google Voice also offers ease of use with a simple interface that helps manage your workflows, assignments, and billing from a single platform.

Currently, the cell phone service is only available in the US. However, you get free calling to the US from any country, free calling to Canada from the US and unlimited SMS in the US.

A few other features offered by Google Voice include spam call blocks, voicemail transcriptions, and integration with Google Workspace. You can easily use Google Voice with Google Meet and Calendar.

You can choose from 3 monthly plans for Google Voice.

Starter – It will cost you $10 per user per month, and up to 10 users can use the service in 10 domestic locations. However, you cannot use Google Voice internationally if you use this plan.
Standard – You can get this plan for $20 per user per month. It includes an unlimited number of users and domestic locations along with all the basic features. You also get auto attendant, Ring Groups, desk phone support, and eDiscovery for calls, voicemails, and SMS records.
Premier – Priced at $30 per user per month, this plan offers unlimited users, domestic and international locations, and advanced features like advanced reporting.

Which Small Business Cell Phone Plan is the Best?

If you’re looking for a VoIP business phone service that offers lots of flexibility and features, then we recommend Nextiva.

It’s simple to use, and you can stay connected with your customers and team from anywhere. Plus, it offers mobile, desktop, and tablet apps, so you handle calls, take meetings, organize workflows, and provide a great customer experience while on the go.

RingCentral and Ooma are great alternatives for Nextiva, and they round out the top 3 providers in our list.

On the other hand, if you want to use a traditional wireless carrier, then you can consider using AT&T. It offers unlimited text, talk, and data, along with an addon to include international calling and messaging. Plus, if you’re an Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phone user, then are no limits to 5G wireless service when using traditional carriers.

We hope that this article helped you find the best small business cell phone plans. You may also want to see our comparison of the best email marketing services and best push notification software for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Best Small Business Cell Phone Plans for 2022 (with Free Option) first appeared on WPBeginner.