Traditional call center technology doesn’t cut it anymore. It slows down operations and drives up costs. Plus, remote work benefits employers and employees across industries — and that goes for call centers, too.
Virtual call center software helps distributed teams deliver a superior customer experience, even with high volumes of inbound calls. With the right virtual contact center platform, you can reduce costs, scale your team, and go live faster.
Below, we’ll cover the fundamentals of remote call center software, including key benefits, features and functionality, and how to choose the best virtual call center platform for your business.
But first, some quick definitions.
What Is Virtual Call Center Software?
Virtual call center software is a cloud-based application that uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which allows call centers to make high-quality online calls without bulky and costly physical hardware.
This software refers to specific applications or tools within the virtual call center platform that provide particular functionalities, such as automatic call handling, ticketing, monitoring, or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems.
A virtual call center platform is a comprehensive, integrated solution that includes all the tools and infrastructure needed to run a virtual call center (where remote agents work from home rather than from a centralized physical location). It encompasses such components as CRM integration, analytics, workforce management, and omnichannel support.
Virtual Call Center Software | Key Features | Starting Price | Best For |
---|---|---|---|
Nextiva | Cloud-based VoIP calls Conference calling Voicemail to email Mobile app | $60 per month | Small, medium, and large businesses with a wide range of needs. |
Five9 | Predictive dialer Scripting and guided interactions Customizable APIs | $149 per user per month | Large enterprises and contact centers. |
Aircall | Cloud-based phone system Helpdesk and CRM integrations Callback requests | $30 per license per month | Sales and customer support teams and small businesses. |
Twilio Flex | Voice APIs Dynamic call routing Real-time call monitoring | $150 per named user per month or $1 per active user hour | Developers (requires manual coding). |
Freshcaller | VoIP phone integration Ticketing and case management system Workflow automations | $15 per user per month | Ticketing and helpdesk teams. |
Genesys | Omnichannel routing Self-service solutions like IVR Pre-built integrations | $75 per user per month | Small businesses and large enterprises. |
RingCentral | Cloud-based VoIP calling Mobile app Voicemail transcription | $30 per user per month | Remote and hybrid teams. |
Note that each service varies in price depending on features or number of users.
Now, let’s dig into the details of the top seven software options.
7 Best Virtual Call Center Software of 2024
The best call center software can help you with organization, customer communication, third-party integration, and much more — all with one solution.
These are the seven best virtual contact center software solutions available for businesses.
1. Nextiva
Nextiva offers all the necessary features to function as a robust virtual call center platform alongside its cloud-based phone system.
Nextiva integrates various communication channels, including voice, SMS, email, and chat, allowing for a seamless, omnichannel customer experience. You can also automate multichannel customer support and self-service options with Nextiva’s call center system.
And Cloud communications empower your call center to take more customer calls with fewer agents. This solution includes everything your team needs to provide exceptional customer service and skyrocket your business to the next level.
Features:
- VoIP calls to make and receive high-quality calls over the internet.
- Call monitoring and whispering for supervisors to assist agents in real time during challenging calls without the caller hearing.
- Call forwarding rules to redirect calls to alternate numbers or agents so no call goes unanswered.
- Voicemail to email to automatically forward voicemail messages to email, so agents can easily access and respond to messages even when they’re away from their desks.
- Conference calling with multiple participants so agents can easily collaborate or start group discussions with customers.
- Call center performance metrics for call center managers and supervisors so they can track KPIs and make informed decisions.
Additionally, Nextiva’s mobile app keeps agents connected to handle calls from their smartphones and simplify remote and on-the-go call center operations. It’s a contact center solution with every support feature available at your agents’ fingertips.
Pricing:
Nextiva starts at $20 per user per month. The virtual call center solution begins at $60 per month for smaller businesses and around $129 per month for larger ones.
2. Five9
Five9 is a cloud-based call center software and contact center solution with features that improve call center operations and customer service.
It can help support your customers across different touch points.
Features:
- Omnichannel support to help manage customer interactions across multiple channels, voice, email, chat, social media, and more.
- Predictive dialer to optimize the calling process by automatically dialing numbers and connecting agents to live calls.
- Workforce management tools to optimize staffing levels to meet customer demand while controlling costs.
- Scripting and guided interactions for agents to access pre-built scripts and guided workflows.
- Customizable APIs to tailor the call center platform to their needs and integrate with other business applications.
You can use these features for marketing efforts like predictive dialer campaigns that increase how many callers your agents can handle in a certain period.
Pricing:
Five9 starts at $149 per user per month for a digital or voice-only contact center solution.
3. Aircall
Aircall is a business phone and communication platform specifically designed to handle sales and customer support calls.
It can help with everyday call center duties.
Features:
- A cloud-based phone system for flexible and scalable call center operations.
- Multichannel communication to support voice calls, SMS, and other communication channels.
- Integrations with CRM and other help desk systems, such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and HubSpot, to access customer data.
- Convenient appointment setting for call-back requests so your customers don’t have to stay on hold.
Like most cloud-based offerings, cloud telephony offers better reliability for less money than their traditional phone counterparts.
Pricing:
Aircall starts at $40 per user per month for up to 3 users.
4. Twilio Flex
Twilio Flex offers an array of cloud communication APIs and services for developers to build a contact center and integrate it into their tools.
It has many features for customer contact center needs.
Features:
- Voice APIs to build and customize voice-based communication applications, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, call routing, call recording, etc.
- Automated messaging through SMS, chat, and social channels to send notifications, alerts, and updates to customers.
- Dynamic call routing based on customer profiles, call volume, and agent availability.
- Highly customizable interactions over VoIP and messaging.
Twilio does require coding, so consider the costs of hiring developers to implement your solution, too.
Pricing:
Twilio Flex starts at $150 per named user per month or $1 per active user hour. The first 5,000 hours are free.
5. Freshcaller
Freshcaller from Freshdesk is a customer support and help desk software best known for its email and ticket support. It also offers features for handling phone-based customer support.
Outside of its free tier, Freshcaller offers a suite of features.
Features:
- A built-in phone system to integrate with popular VoIP providers, enabling call centers to make and receive calls directly within the interface.
- Interaction history to see all your past customer conversations so your agents have a history to draw from
- Warm transfers when passing off calls to give agents context before they jump in to address an issue
Customer service automations can help boost agent efficiency and increase cross-team collaboration to move customer tickets along.
Pricing:
Freshcaller starts at $15 per user per month . There is also a free tier for small teams that are just getting started.
6. Genesys
Genesys Cloud CX is a comprehensive and scalable virtual call center solution designed to provide omnichannel customer engagement.
This virtual contact center platform supports voice, chat, email, social media, and messaging channels, making it easy to deliver consistent customer experiences across multiple platforms.
Features:
- Uses artificial intelligence (AI) to route calls based on customer needs and agent skills, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Integrates voice, digital, and AI-powered bots into a single interface for seamless, omnichannel customer interaction.
- Provides workforce management tools for scheduling, forecasting, and real-time monitoring of agent performance.
Genesys Cloud CX is suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises.
Pricing:
Genesys Cloud CX starts at $75 per user per month for voice only, $115 per user per month for digital only, and $155 per user per month for both.
7. RingCentral
RingCentral offers a cloud-based solution that focuses on flexibility, scalability, and comprehensive integration with other business tools.
It is built to support remote and hybrid teams, making it a strong option for businesses with virtual call center needs.
Features:
- Features such as skills-based call routing, IVR, and auto-dialers ensure that calls are managed efficiently and reach the right agents.
- Provides real-time analytics and customizable reports to help managers monitor performance and make data-driven decisions.
- Seamlessly integrates with popular CRMs like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Microsoft Dynamics to unify customer data and interactions.
This remote call center software provides many features designed to improve customer service and agent productivity in virtual environments.
Pricing:
RingCentral’s pricing plans start at $30 per user per month, with volume discounts for 50+ users.
How Virtual Call Center Software Works
Virtual call center software uses VoIP to connect calls over an internet connection rather than analog phone lines. This allows a call center to be configured based on agent availability rather than their location. Anyone with a reliable internet connection can work as a call center agent from anywhere using an internet-connected headset, computer, or smartphone.
Virtual call centers rely on this web-based application hosted in the cloud by a VoIP provider. This is what enables call routing between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and logged-in agents.
An automatic call distributor (ACD) manages the call routing, distributing calls to the appropriate agents based on factors like:
- Customer availability
- Agent skills
- Language preferences
You shouldn’t have to worry about the underlying technology of virtual call center programs — the call center service provider takes care of it. Instead, invest your saved-up resources and time to coach and develop your customer service and sales skills.
Traditional call centers vs. virtual call centers
Virtual call center agents can work from anywhere, whereas traditional call center agents must work from a single location, often with on-premises telephony hardware in the building.
Here are the key differences between virtual and traditional call centers.
Function | Virtual Call Center | On-Premises Call Center |
---|---|---|
Monitoring | Live data in an easily accessible & intuitive dashboard in the cloud. | Managers dial into ACD to monitor calls. |
Location | In the office, on the road, at home, or anywhere. | In a physical building. |
Collaboration | Asynchronous communication, team chat, and video conferencing. | Voice-based or in-person meetings. |
Real estate costs | Pay-as-you-go cloud-based model with minimal upfront costs. $0 if telecommuting. | High setup and infrastructure costs, including real estate and office equipment.Up to $5,000 per employee. |
Start-up costs | Low: Web/thin client, mobile or desktop apps, headsets. | High: PBX, telecom, IT, VoIP phones, headsets, etc. |
Ease of scaling | Easy: Unlimited scalability, features anytime you want them. | Limited by physical space and telecom hardware. |
Benefits of a Virtual Call Center Platform: Why You Should Upgrade
Whether you’re deciding to move your existing call center to a virtual team or looking to start a virtual call center altogether, it pays to know the potential benefits.
1. Organize your customer data
A virtual call center platform collects and organizes all the required metrics in a single dashboard. This empowers your team to create actionable, data-driven strategies and your agents to provide the stellar, personalized experiences your customers expect.
Your agents will be able to provide more personalized experiences for each customer when they can:
- See previous conversations with a customer across channels.
- Connect insights from your sales and support teams by integrating calls with your CRM.
- Create automations for follow-ups and reminders.
This type of omnichannel contact center environment removes barriers to integrating data between channels and encourages cross-team collaboration. In return, your customers can benefit from a more fluid experience.
2. Communicate across several channels
To reach the most customers, your team needs to provide outreach via business communication channels such as email, social media, text messages, chatbots, and more.
A true omnichannel environment offers advantages like:
- Separate apps, tools, or dashboards for agents to help customers on multiple communication channels
- Intuitive, effortless travel between channels without endless phone tree menus
- Faster customer service by routing the customer to the appropriate virtual call agent instead of bouncing around between departments and transfers
Your call center’s efficiency and your customer and agent satisfaction are tied to how quickly and how well customer questions are answered. Answer them faster with a more integrated omnichannel solution.
3. Boost customer satisfaction
Virtual call centers help agents help customers faster, increasing customer trust, loyalty, and satisfaction.
A solution that leads to positive customer satisfaction scores is worth investing in, thanks to:
- Predictive routing to quickly connect customers to the right team member, which helps them straighten out issues the first time.
- Live monitoring to ensure customers struggling to resolve their queries get help from supervisors jumping in on calls.
- Continuous improvement from training and feedback customized agent-to-agent based on performance in live calls.
Together, these features empower agents to improve their customer service skills and capabilities.
4. Help your agents work smarter
The right virtual software can guide customers to help themselves, which eases burdens on your team, improves productivity, and raises satisfaction scores for employees and customers alike.
Virtual call centers help agents work smarter, which:
- Improves agent productivity and efficiency
- Reduces employee burnout
- Lowers turnover rates
Running your virtual call center in the cloud can also help you handle higher call volumes. Nextiva’s software, for example, handles over 500 calls per line. You can take more customer calls with fewer agents to streamline call flows and distribute calls without issue based on varied daily and weekly agent schedules.
Tip: Nextiva’s AI-powered voice and chatbot power a comprehensive, customizable contact center solution that can help you take “smart” one step further — starting at $129 per agent per month.
5. Integrate seamlessly with third-party software
If your agents have to manually enter data from a customer call into your other tools, you might benefit from adopting virtual contact center software.
Connecting old-school call center software with modern apps and tools your business uses can be challenging. But virtual contact center tools include the following pre-built integrations for third-party software:
- CRMs
- Helpdesks
- Ticket management
- Productivity
- Power dialers
- Shared team workspaces
Nextiva’s integrations work with (most) of your in-house tools and processes. Your agents will be equipped to seamlessly move between resources to help your customers better, enhance customer service, and boost overall efficiency.
A solution like Nextiva offers out-of-the-box business integrations for popular online tools like:
It also provides options for configurable setups with no-code API integrations.
The best call center software alleviates your contact center challenges and headaches. And if you’re thinking of migrating your entire operation to the cloud or starting a virtual call center from scratch, learning the benefits you stand to gain may make your decision easier.
6. Free up office real estate
A virtual call center is better for some companies than an on-premises one because it doesn’t require physical office space.
Since agents only need an internet connection and a headset, you can set up and install your virtual call center a few hours after signing up. When the time comes, simply onboard new virtual agents and scale up when you need the software licenses.
IT support also frees up time by reducing the number of hardware support cases they’d have to deal with on-site. They can focus on larger, more beneficial initiatives, like:
- Enhancing VoIP security measures to protect the increased flow of data with a virtual call center
- Optimizing and integrating software to improve agent efficiency
- Exploring artificial intelligence (AI) automations to streamline operations
You can start a virtual call center with minimal investment or lower your operational costs for an existing one. You also score a more risk-free solution to scale as your business grows.
7. Increase reliability and geographic redundancy
When geographical boundaries don’t restrict agents, supervisors, and managers, everyone can stay connected from anywhere. Whether using the app from a home computer, tablet, or smartphone, calls and messages move seamlessly into the cloud.
This work-from-anywhere approach means you can provide 24/7 customer support and impeccable service without worrying about:
- Bad weather
- Traffic delays
- Sick days
Scheduling remote agents in each time zone around the globe always gives your customers someone to connect with fast — and they won’t be able to tell the difference between an on-site or virtual call.
How to Choose Virtual Call Center Software
Finding the right solutions for your business is essential because every customer interaction counts. The best call center software has key features that help businesses stand out from the competition.
So here are the top capabilities to look for to boost efficiency and help you scale:
- Omnichannel functionality so agents can handle requests and share information across multiple channels
- Virtual phone numbers so your team can make and receive calls from customers worldwide, whether working in an office or from home
- Cloud-based VoIP calls to streamline business communications and increase security
- Advanced calling features like ACD, IVR, customizable call flow, and call queues
- Third-party integrations to reduce time your call center staff spends switching apps and hunting for information
- Real-time analytics and contact center reporting to view the status and statistics of a call center’s activity and its agents’ productivity
- Training options like supervisor resources, admin guides, and user tutorials to speed up adoption
- 24/7 customer support to reach help easily via web, chat, email, or phone
- Regulatory compliance to meet industry standards for specific requirements like HIPAA
- Call center training and automation to guide agents, including peer-to-peer listening, live call monitoring, and conversational AI
If you opt for a virtual call center solution that has these features, you’ll be better equipped to meet your unique customer needs and scale while you do it.
Nextiva: Software That Helps You Scale
Virtual call center software enhances the customer experience by providing a seamless and convenient way to handle interactions across multiple channels.
For businesses, virtual call center platforms it optimizes operations by intelligently distributing calls and workloads among agents based on availability and skill set. This allows virtual call center agents to work smarter, not harder — and your profits can increase.
With campaign-specific analytics, automation, and advanced call routing, Nextiva’s platform allows you to confidently handle a high volume of outbound or inbound calls from anywhere in the world.
There are many virtual call center solutions, but Nextiva consistently stands out for its ability to combine robust communication tools with user-friendly features, ensuring both business efficiency and a stellar customer experience.
Virtual Call Center Software FAQs
For more info, check out these frequently asked questions.
Virtual contact center software is a technology solution that enables businesses to manage customer service and support operations with virtual call center agents working remotely. This software typically includes features such as call routing, customer relationship management (CRM) integration, and real-time monitoring, allowing companies to provide consistent and efficient customer service from anywhere.
The difference between virtual call center software and a virtual call center platform lies in their scope and functionality.
Virtual call center software is a specific application or tool that provides particular functionalities required to run a virtual call center, such as software for call routing, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), call recording, or CRM integration. Example: A VoIP phone system or auto dialer software that facilitates calls over the internet or automates outbound calling, respectively.
A virtual call center platform is a comprehensive, integrated solution that combines multiple software tools and features needed to manage all aspects of a virtual call center operation, such as modules for voice calls, chat, email, social media support, and advanced features like conversational AI for customer interactions. Nextiva or Five9 are virtual call center platforms that offer a full suite of tools for call centers, both virtual and traditional.
Call centers use a variety of software solutions to handle customer interactions and streamline processes. Some key types of software commonly used in call centers include:
Basic Call Center Software (that includes essential functionalities such as Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), call recording, and reporting tools).
Contact Center Software (these are more advanced platforms that support omnichannel communication, AI assistance, knowledge bases, and customer relationship management (CRM) integration).
Workforce Management (WFM) Software (helps forecast call volumes, scheduling agents, and managing performance metrics).
Some of the leading call center software solutions include Nextiva, Five9, and Genesys.
A VCC (Virtual Call Center) is simply a type of call center where agents work from different locations rather than a centralized office. These centers often employ technologies like an auto dialer for managing outbound calls or conversational AI to provide automated customer support.
The cost of virtual contact center software can vary a lot depending on the provider and the specific features and capabilities required. But monthly subscription fees typically range from $129 to $199 per user per month.
Some of the most common virtual call center services are:
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration
Call Recording and Monitoring
Omnichannel Support
Auto Dialers
Virtual contact center solutions are examples of customer experience software that reduce wait times and dropped calls through greater call efficiency. They support agents in different time zones 24/7, ensuring intelligent call routing for quick problem resolution. Plus, call center automation and AI provide self-service options and accelerate solutions, and depending on the type of CRM, integrations enable agents to deliver more personalized customer experiences.