Whether you’re choosing your first or your next call center software as a small business, it’s a decision that will impact how you work and how you serve your customers for years to come. 

When considering a call center phone system, there’s a lot to consider regarding inbound and outbound calls, applying specific call treatment, and configuring custom call queues.

In this blog post, we address the absolute must-haves when it comes to buying call center software, introduce new features, and highlight the right solution for you.

Spoiler Alert: The best five call center software for small businesses are:

  1. Nextiva
  2. Ringover
  3. Sprinklr
  4. Five9
  5. LiveAgent

Must-Haves When Choosing a Call Center Software for Your Small Business

If you do nothing else when comparing call center software, make sure to look out for these three things:

1) Rapid onboarding with a user-friendly interface

When you lack the in-house resources to dedicate to user onboarding and constant training, the time taken to get call center agents up to speed is vital.

Will your call center software take weeks to learn, with day sessions needed to learn the interface? Or can you walk a new agent through the main functions and let them get on with it?

Nextiva call center interface

If your chosen vendor suggests a lengthy period for onboarding and adoption, consider this a red flag. The solution is most likely too complex for a small business and better suited for an enterprise with custom requirements.

When assessing call center software for a small business, look for an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate, especially for non-technical users. These might be the people who offer the most value when it comes to customer service, so you don’t want your new software to become a block for them.

2) Built-in CRM integrations

Your call center software will rarely be the only tool your agents work with. Think about the other key business apps they’ll be using on a daily basis and ensure your chosen call center integrates with them.

This needs to happen out of the box to avoid setup delays and free up internal resources that are already dedicated elsewhere.

Ensuring CRM integration between your call center software and your most used apps ensures all customer data, like past interactions and purchase history, is readily available to agents. Failure to integrate can lead to lower customer satisfaction, siloed information, and duplicate effort.

3) Unlimited vendor support

As a small team, you don’t want to be out on your own when something goes wrong.

Choose a vendor known for exceptional customer service with readily available support options (phone, chat, and email). If you operate 24/7, for example, make sure you can reach your vendor at any time and through your preferred method of contact.

Look for plans that include unlimited support to ensure you get the help you need to customize the software or troubleshoot any issues when you need it.

Essential Features for Small Teams

The number of possible call center features available on the market today is overwhelming. Comparing feature by feature is no longer a productive exercise, as there are so many.

Instead, make sure your shortlist of call center vendors supports all the following high-quality features:

Automatic call distribution 

Automatic call distribution (ACD) is a technology used in contact centers to route incoming calls to available agents based on predetermined rules.

You can distribute phone calls based on caller ID, business hours, support level, and interactive voice response (IVR) selections. As a result, inbound calls reach the right agent, department, or even voicemail quickly and without the caller having to dial a different phone number.

Imagine a customer calling about a specific appliance at a big-box store. ACD can identify keywords and route the call to an agent familiar with that product line, ensuring expert assistance on the first try.

Interactive voice response

IVR offers self-service options for basic inquiries, reducing agent workload and wait times.

An IVR helps callers navigate to their desired destination through preset menu options.

By choosing the right option, callers get matched with the respective department, individual, or queue.

Inside an IVR, you can configure special rules for who picks up each call based on skills, call volume, or period.

How-a-call-moves-through-an-IVR-system

Call recording & call monitoring

Basic call recording ensures all your calls get recorded and retained for compliance reasons. If you need to recall a customer interaction in the future, you have them securely stored.

More advanced call recording enables you to level your training and quality assurance processes. Not only can you listen back to any call of your choosing, but you can also set up routine (and automated) workflows where you take customer calls and review them for key criteria.

With easy access to call recordings, you can build a formal quality assurance process without constant legwork and effort.

Call center quality assurance criteria

Dashboards & reporting

They say what gets measured gets managed, and this couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to call center operations.

With access to the right call center metrics, you can track volumes, wait times, and resolution rates to identify areas for improvement.

What’s even more helpful is having these displayed on dashboards for easy viewing. You may have a wallboard to track agent performance, and you could even introduce contact center gamification.

You can also have a supervisor-specific dashboard for certain teams to get a holistic view of what’s happening at any given moment (or in the past) so you can make business decisions backed by real customer data.

Nextiva dashboard and wallboard

Top 5 Call Center Providers for Small Businesses

Now, we’re going to introduce the five best call center software providers that are specifically great for small businesses. 

These are all providers who hit the key criteria:

  • Ease of use
  • Rapid onboarding
  • Unlimited vendor support
  • CRM integration and open APIs
  • Delivery of essential features for small teams

1. Nextiva

ProsCons
Quick and simple setupNo free trial
Affordable for small businessesNo support for on-premises deployment
24/7 support and 99.999% uptimeLack of out-of-the-box integration for some niche business apps

Nextiva provides a phone system, video conferencing, and call center solution, meaning you have a single platform for all your communication and business needs. 

You can choose from inbound, outbound, or blended contact center software alongside your core internal communications app. 

Expect a wide range of features, even in the basic call center package:

  • Call routing
  • IVR
  • ACD
  • Speech analytics
  • Reporting and dashboards
  • Mobile app for instant access
  • Option to add email, chatbots, SMS, and social media

For outbound call centers, expect computer telephony integration (CTI), a power dialer or predictive dialer, and a ton of advanced reporting options to streamline sales.

Nextiva contact center solution

Out-of-the-box CRM system integrations include:

  • Salesforce
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Microsoft Teams
  • HubSpot
  • Zendesk
  • Zoho
  • Oracle Sales Cloud
  • Workbooks
  • ServiceNow
  • SugarCRM
  • Act! CRM
  • Lotus Notes
  • ConnectWise
  • GoldMine
  • Bullhorn

Nextiva customers love the assisted implementation, ease of setup, and friendly and knowledgeable support team.

“I can’t really say enough about the support. Nextiva is top-notch when it comes to any issues that I have. It is thorough, responsive, and professional. From my perspective as the IT Director, it’s really the forefront of my requirements for any vendor that we deal with. We have to be able to reach out to support and resolve an issue very quickly.”

~ Rich Sparkman, Director of Technology at Shelby American

2. Ringover

ProsCons
Unlimited international callsLack of support for lesser integrations
Robust basic call routingFewer omnichannel add-ons
Specialist in sales and recruitmentLack of call center market exposure

Ringover is a cloud-based software that is mainly used by small and medium-sized businesses. 

It offers unlimited international calls to various destinations and has robust basic voice call capabilities. The call center platform also includes advanced routing features to enhance call efficiency.

With a focus on sales and recruitment, Ringover integrates with specialist CRMs like Bullhorn, TextUs, Sense Messaging, and Loxo. You also get integrations with major platforms like Zoho and Microsoft Dynamics.

Ringover

For teams that wish to get set up quickly, Ringover boasts that you can get going in minutes. If you spend a little extra time (and money), Ringover supports emails, SMS, and social media.

At the top level, you get AI features like real-time transcription, call center analytics, and radio coaching. 

3. Sprinklr

ProsCons
Supports 30+ communication channelsChoice of solutions can be overwhelming for small businesses
Dedicated account manager for enterprise plansNo dedicated account manager for smaller teams
Wide range of CRM integrationsPotential for complex setups

Sprinklr offers a comprehensive omnichannel contact center, including calls, emails, social media, and messaging.

This cloud-based call center software integrates with a wide range of CRM platforms, including:

  • Freshdesk
  • IBM Watson
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Salesforce
  • SAP
  • ServiceNow
  • Zendesk

Support options include phone, chat, and email, with dedicated account managers for enterprise plans. Sprinklr’s marketing messaging focuses on improving customer support metrics, so you’d hope they are practicing what they preach.

Sprinklr dashboard

4. Five9

ProsCons
Longstanding AI legacyHigh price point for small businesses
Focus on automationCan be overwhelming for new users
Enterprise scalabilityNeeds a separate provider for VoIP

Just because you’re a small business, it doesn’t mean you’re not looking for the most advanced features. If you want an advanced AI-powered contact center solution, Five9 hits the nail on the head. 

You get what we’ve come to expect as stock call center features, like call queuing, IVR, and skills-based routing.

But where Five9 really excels is in its ability to use AI to generate reports and provide sentiment analysis on your customer transactions.

If you’re a data-driven organization with a lot of customers and a decently sized service team, Five9 can be a great way to get control of your contact center, with features that include:

  • Agent assist
  • Call recording and transcription
  • Workflow automation
  • Digital engagement
  • Conversational IVR
  • Quality assurance
  • Workforce management
Five9-contact-center-assistant

5. LiveAgent

ProsCons
Great alternative for budget-conscious businessesNot a fully-featured call center
30-day free trialLack of call center market exposure
Adds extra help desk featuresCan require a lengthy implementation

LiveAgent is an affordable option, best known as a ticketing and help desk software. However, with a user-friendly interface, it makes a great choice if call center costs are your primary concern and your core function is customer service. 

Think of LiveAgent as a shortcut to a call center software solution, with help desk features like:

  • Configurable business hours
  • Canned responses
  • Contact forms
  • Email forwarding
  • Universal inbox
  • Time tracking

It also comes with basic call center features like:

  • IVR
  • Call back requests
  • ACD
  • Smart call routing
  • Call transfers
  • Call recording

You also get out-of-the-box integration with popular CRMs like Zoho, HubSpot, and Freshsales.

Need to Do More Than Take Calls?

If a call center solution for your small business sounds useful, but you need to do more than handle calls (like responding to support emails, website chats, and social media questions), a contact center platform might be a better fit.

Unlike a call center, contact center software streamlines multiple channels into a single interface.

We refer to this extra functionality as omnichannel — combining all your customers’ communication methods and providing a holistic view for agents to work efficiently and provide a superior customer experience.

It’s not for everyone, but it can help your team work more efficiently and reduce the chaos caused by switching between several disparate apps. 

What’s the Preferred Call Center Solution for Small Teams?

Nextiva.

When looking for call center software as a small business, it’s not necessarily about which has the most features.

While more is generally better, think about what you’re realistically going to use and how efficient and easy it is to use what you need.

When those crucial features are considered alongside the level of support required, we find that Nextiva delivers time and again in this category.

With customers like Veterans Home Care and Canyon Coolers using Nextiva because of its ease of use and quality support, we’re happy to go toe-to-toe with anyone when it comes to providing call center software to small businesses.

“We foster relationships based on the connections we make and having the best software, the best hardware, the best suppliers. Nextiva has checked all the boxes for us.”

~Jason Costello, CEO of Canyon Coolers

With a simple portfolio of products and a history of delivering, Nextiva’s small business experience is second to none.

It’s a win-win with Nextiva.

Customers get personalized phone support. Your sales teams get a flexible inbound call center.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dominic Kent

Dominic Kent is a content marketer specializing in unified communications and contact centers. After 10 years of managing installations, he founded UC Marketing to bridge the gap between service providers and customers. He spends half of his time building content marketing programs and the rest writing on the beach with his dogs.

Posts from this author

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions offer cloud-based customer support software to businesses managing customer conversations. These solutions support customer service professionals with capabilities like call routing, interactive voice response (IVR), and other advanced features.

Not all contact center software providers offer comparable features, functionality, or pricing. There are numerous differences among vendors. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss the best CCaaS providers on the market today and some of their standout features. We’ll also share our checklist of ways to narrow your search effectively. 

8 CCaaS Solution Providers Leading the Market in 2024

Every CCaaS provider has pros and cons. Compare the leading software solutions on the market, and choose the most suitable one for your business. 

1. Nextiva

Nextiva offers many VoIP services, including business phone services and extensive contact center software. It delivers the best Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and CCaaS solutions to manage internal communication while customer-facing teams deliver a delightful customer experience across multiple channels.

Nextiva lets you improve overall contact center operations while streamlining customer interactions through several features. It helps your agents become more productive and improves their performance with real-time insights. 

Nextiva analytics

Pricing: Nextiva offers custom pricing based on your requirements. You pay for the features your business truly needs. Talk to an expert and get your quote

Nextiva features

Below are some notable features of Nextiva Contact Center:

2. Talkdesk 

Talkdesk uses generative AI and automation to help businesses gather customer experience insights. These data points allow you to make more informed and customer-centric decisions. 

The platform allows agents to create simple workflows to automate tasks and improve productivity. After every call, agents can easily access all call recordings in their CRM systems. 

Talkdesk dashboard

Source: Talkdesk

Pricing: Starts at $85 per user per month.

Talkdesk features

Below are some notable features of Talkdesk: 

3. 8×8

8×8’s CCaaS solution is a comprehensive suite of VoIP and contact center platforms catering to businesses of all sizes. Its secure cloud CCaaS offers a consistent customer journey while providing options to optimize workforce management.

8x8 dashboard

Source: 8×8

Pricing: 8×8 doesn’t share its pricing on the website. Contact the 8×8 sales team for a custom quote. 

8×8 features

Below are some notable features of 8×8:

4. Vonage

Known for its VoIP services, Vonage offers a unified communications solution with helpful features for contact center professionals. The Vonage Business Communications desktop app combines calls, messages, and video conferencing.

Vonage dashboard

Source: Vonage

Pricing: Vonage doesn’t share pricing on its website. You can get a quote by reaching out to its sales team. 

Vonage features

Below are some notable features of Vonage:

5. RingCentral

Established in 1999, RingCentral offers decent features to manage outbound calls. These include a mix of progressive, predictive, and preview dialers. It helps reduce the fatigue that comes from manual dialing and makes agents more efficient. 

Overall, it offers a simple CCaaS solution, RingCX, that’s AI-first and easy to deploy. 

RingCentral dashboard

Source: RingCentral

Pricing: Starts at $65 per agent per month when billed annually. 

RingCentral features

Below are some of RingCentral’s notable features:

6. Aircall

Aircall offers businesses access to toll-free and local numbers for outbound and inbound calling in more than 100 countries. It lets organizations route calls intelligently and ensure that suitable agents take calls per their availability and area of expertise. 

The platform offers integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zendesk, helping agents easily work with different business apps while being more productive. 

Aircall dashboard

Source: Aircall

Pricing: Starts at $30 per user per month when billed annually. You need to subscribe for a minimum of 3 users. 

Aircall features

Below are some notable features of Aircall: 

7. Genesys

Genesys Cloud lets users manage customer interactions across multiple channels, including voice, text, web, and social media. The platform recognizes repeat customers and routes them to the last agent they spoke with or the agents best suited to address their needs. 

It also gives agents a customer’s context and insight, helping them personalize and tailor the interaction. 

Genesys dashboard

Source: Genesys

Pricing: Genesys’ voice and digital plan costs $115 per month.

Genesys features

Below are some notable features of Genesys: 

8. NICE CXone

NICE CXone, previously known as NICE inContact, offers a comprehensive CCaaS solution to optimize customer interactions and improve agent efficiency. The platform’s virtual phone offers global VoIP telephony, capable of making HD voice calls with 99.99% uptime to over 130 countries.

NICE CXone dashboard

Source: NICE CXone

Pricing: CXone’s interaction orchestration for omnichannel agents costs $110 per month.

NICE CXone features

Below are some notable features of NICE CXone. 

Things to Consider Before Choosing Your CCaaS Provider

Choosing the right CCaaS provider for your business requires thorough research and a deep understanding of your needs. 

UCaaS versus CCaaS. Which one to choose

Here are a few factors to help you with the decision-making process. 

Scalability

This involves assessing whether the service can grow or shrink according to your business needs without significant disruptions or costs. 

Start by understanding the provider’s capability to handle changes in call volume and user count. Consider whether the provider’s infrastructure is cloud-native, as this can often allow for more seamless scaling. 

Additionally, evaluate the ease of adding or removing features, integrating new services, and expanding to different geographical locations. The ability to scale should not compromise the quality of the service or the user experience, ensuring that transition periods are smooth and barely noticeable to end users.

💡Tip: Always perform a “stress test” with your potential CCaaS provider to see how its system handles increased demands under controlled conditions. This will give you a realistic view of its scalability and flexibility in supporting your growth. 

Unified communications compatibility

UCaaS has some overlap with CCaaS. Many organizations already use a hosted business communications provider, but it’s often entirely separate from the contact center. 

This means that some CCaaS providers force you to purchase a separate SIP trunking provider so your team can make or receive calls. 

SIP Trunking Diagram

You don’t need a separate voice carrier. Top CCaaS providers like Nextiva provide everything you need in one comprehensive solution, with no surprises, so your team can focus on improving customer satisfaction and increasing operational efficiency.

Integration capabilities

The ability to seamlessly integrate with existing systems — such as CRM software, ERP systems, workforce management tools, and marketing platforms — is essential for maintaining workflow continuity and enhancing operational efficiency. 

Check whether the CCaaS platform supports open APIs that allow for custom integrations. This is crucial as it enables the contact center to connect with various third-party applications and services that are important to your business processes. 

Furthermore, examine the provider’s pre-built integrations: a good range of native integrations with popular business tools can significantly reduce the time and cost involved in setting up and maintaining the system.

Nextiva integrations

The ease of integration also impacts your organization’s learning curve and adoption rate. It’s important to consider how intuitive the integration processes are and whether the provider offers any tools or services to facilitate these integrations. For example, some CCaaS providers offer visual dashboards that allow non-technical staff to configure integrations without needing coding skills. 

💡Tip: Opt for a CCaaS provider that regularly updates its API capabilities and offers a comprehensive support network to assist with integration challenges. This ensures your contact center remains agile and can adapt to new technologies or changes in business processes. 

Omnichannel support

Omnichannel engagement is an essential feature to consider when choosing a CCaaS provider. It ensures that all customer interactions across various channels,  including email, social media, live chat, and voice calls, are integrated into a single, cohesive customer experience. This integration enables agents to provide more personalized and efficient service by having access to the full context of a customer’s interactions, regardless of the channel used. 

When assessing a provider’s omnichannel capabilities, it’s important to verify that it can support all the channels your business uses and that these channels are seamlessly integrated within the platform. Look for features like universal queues, which manage interactions from all channels in one place, and real-time syncing of customer data across channels.

💡Tip: Prioritize a CCaaS provider that not only supports a wide range of communication channels but also demonstrates a commitment to adopting future technologies in customer communication. 

Reliability and uptime

High uptime guarantees are essential, as even minimal downtime can lead to significant service disruptions and potentially significant financial losses. When evaluating a provider, look for one that offers at least 99.99% uptime. This level of reliability is often supported by robust infrastructure, including redundant data centers and failover mechanisms that ensure continuous service even in the event of hardware or software failures. 

Nextiva uptime status log

Additionally, review the provider’s historical performance data and client testimonials to gauge its track record on reliability and uptime.

The provider’s approach to handling unexpected issues and its disaster recovery plans are also important. It’s crucial to understand how it manages data backups, system updates, and emergency situations. A provider should be transparent about its maintenance schedules and provide regular updates on system status. Ask about its service level agreements and what compensation or remedies it offers if the agreed-upon uptime is not met.

These details can give you insight into how seriously a provider takes its service commitments and what you can expect in terms of reliability. 

💡Tip: Always include specific uptime guarantees within your contractual agreement and clarify the recourse available if the provider fails to meet these standards. This not only secures your interests but also incentivizes the provider to maintain high standards of reliability. 

AI features

AI-powered solutions can automate routine tasks, provide predictive analytics, and support real-time decision-making.

When selecting a CCaaS provider, assess its AI capabilities, focusing on features like chatbots for customer self-service, intelligent routing to direct customers to the appropriate agent or department based on their needs, and sentiment analysis to gauge customer emotions during interactions. These AI functionalities can help reduce agent workload, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize overall contact center performance.

Additionally, evaluate how the AI integrates with other systems and data sources. Effective contact center AI features should seamlessly draw on existing customer data to provide context-rich support and enhance customer interactions. 

Chatbot vs IVR
💡Tip: Look for AI that learns and improves over time through machine learning algorithms. This ensures that the system becomes more effective as it processes more data.

Security and compliance

A reliable CCaaS provider must adhere to rigorous security standards and compliance regulations to protect your data from breaches and ensure legal compliance. When assessing potential providers, verify that their technology meets relevant industry standards, such as ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA (for healthcare-related services), and PCI DSS (for payment processing). These certifications indicate a provider’s commitment to security and data protection.

In addition to checking for certifications, it’s crucial to understand the specific security measures the provider implements. This includes data encryption at rest and in transit, regular security audits, and access controls to ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information. 

💡Tip: Always request detailed documentation of the provider’s security and compliance measures and verify its claims through third-party audits, if possible. This due diligence is crucial not only for protecting your data but also for maintaining your customers’ trust. 

Post-sale support

Effective post-sale support ensures that any issues encountered after the initial deployment are quickly and efficiently resolved, minimizing downtime and maintaining operational continuity. When evaluating a provider, consider the breadth and quality of its support services. Look for providers that offer 24/7 support through multiple channels, including phone, email, live chat, and even social media, to ensure that help is available whenever needed.

Additionally, assess the expertise and responsiveness of the support team. A good support service should have a well-trained team that can handle a range of issues, from simple troubleshooting to complex technical problems. The provider should also offer a comprehensive knowledge base, training resources, and user communities. These resources empower your team to resolve common issues independently and make the most of the CCaaS solution. 

💡Tip: Prioritize providers that respond to issues and collaborate with you to optimize the system and adapt the service as your business needs evolve. This partnership approach in post-sale support can significantly enhance the value you derive from your CCaaS investment. 

Cost and ROI

When evaluating affordability, it’s important to look beyond just the initial pricing and consider the total cost of ownership, which includes setup fees, maintenance costs, upgrades, and potential costs associated with scaling the service. Opt for vendors that offer transparent contact center pricing with no hidden fees, allowing you to predict and control your expenses effectively.

Additionally, assess the value provided by the service in relation to its cost. A cost-effective CCaaS provider should offer a comprehensive suite of features that meet your specific business needs without requiring extensive customizations, which can drive up costs. 

Compare how other providers can streamline your operations and improve customer service. Pay attention to the flexibility of pricing plans — providers that offer scalable solutions can adjust to your needs as your business grows or changes, potentially offering better cost efficiency over time. 

💡Tip: Find out if the CCaaS provider offers pay-as-you-go options or if it can provide tailored plans that adapt to your changing business dynamics. This ensures you are not locked into long-term, inflexible contracts that do not reflect your current needs. 

Vendor reputation

A reputable vendor typically has a proven track record of stability, strong customer support, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Begin by reviewing the provider’s history in the industry, including how long it has been in business and its experience with businesses similar to yours. This background can give you confidence in its ability to understand and meet your specific needs. 

Also, assess the vendor’s reputation through customer testimonials, case studies, and thousands of customer reviews. Look for feedback on its service reliability, the effectiveness of its technology, and the quality of its customer support. It’s beneficial to check industry forums and social media to get unfiltered insights from current and past users. 

Nextiva ratings and reviews on Gartner
💡Tip: Engage with potential vendors directly to ask specific questions and gauge their transparency and willingness to provide information. This interaction can often give you a better sense of its customer service and reliability than secondary research alone. 

Solve Your CCaaS Needs With Nextiva

CCaaS is a suitable and scalable solution for customer-facing professionals like sales and support teams, while UCaaS is a wise choice for almost every other department. With Nextiva, you get the best of both, which is why it’s a leader among the best CCaaS providers. 

With it, you get to create a seamless ecosystem that caters to the communication needs of all departments. Nextiva lets your team work efficiently and deliver a memorable customer experience across all touchpoints. 

Don’t settle for less when you can get CCaaS and UCaaS in one platform.

The ultimate communications platform.

Discover why top brands scale their orgs faster with UCaaS and CCaaS together.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Doan

Alex Doan is an experienced senior marketing professional specializing in propelling growth for both B2B and B2C companies. Proficient in streamlining marketing operations for seamless sales transitions, utilizing analytics and consumer insights to achieve measurable outcomes. Committed to enhancing lead and customer experiences through effective journey mapping.

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How to Use Speech Analytics in Your Call Center 

April 30, 2024 7 min read

Dominic Kent

Dominic Kent

Every day, you collect tons of data while interacting with customers. Each call creates more and more information that you could learn from to empower your business.

How? Through speech analytics.

Before, during, and after each call, you can use data points, assumptions, and patterns to better serve your customers and get one-up on your competition. By detecting what happens in each call (and even the key presses before an agent intervenes), call centers can totally transform their customer journeys.

Let’s learn the exact benefits of speech analytics and how you can leverage them at different phases of each call.

What Are Speech Analytics?

Speech analytics are records, graphs, and collections of conversations that inform business decisions and help call center agents improve customer satisfaction. Using statements picked up during customer calls, data is translated into usable information that can influence training, processes, and workflows.

Speech analytics, one of the less marketed or adopted call center analytics, has been somewhat revolutionized by the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in modern contact center solutions.

Nextiva voice analytics

Also known as voice analytics, speech analytics consists of three main components:

  • Customer sentiment: Speech patterns can indicate frustration, anger, or satisfaction in a customer’s voice.
  • Keywords and phrases: Identify specific terms used by customers and contact center agents to pinpoint areas of confusion or highlight key topics.
  • Agent milestones: Ensure agents adhere to scripts and company or industry policies.

Speech analytics examples and use cases

Emotion detection

When customers get frustrated with having to repeat themselves, their negative tones are detected, and the speech analytics software triggers the next action.

This action could be an alert on a supervisor’s dashboard, an on-screen prompt for the agent, or a notice that flags the call for follow-up at a later date.

Nextiva-Customer-Journey-and-Sentiment

Keyword or key phrase detection

If a key phrase like “renew my contract,” “I’m thinking of leaving,” or “Is there a better option” is detected by speech analytics tools, these can be flagged for various outcomes.

If account renewal is being discussed but your agent is a technical analyst, the customer might be better served by another agent. But your agent might think it’s on them to complete the call. In reality, you have specialist agents trained to deal with churn and retention, so the speech analytics technology can direct the call to the more equipped retention rep to handle the call.

Speech sentiment analysis

Compliance assurance

In the case of contact center compliance, you could be dealing with HIPAA, PCI DSS, FINRA, or non-discrimination compliance. Whatever you need to protect your business from, speech analytics will always be scouting for potential vulnerabilities and non-adherence. 

One case could be if a new, untrained agent uses a word they are unaware is derogatory; rather than letting this go unnoticed and risk offending a customer, keyword detection flags this for the agent, supervisor, or compliance manager to get on top of any potential situation.

Likewise, if an agent starts to read back card information, going against your process, as agents shouldn’t see the actual card numbers, an instant red flag (literally in the software and figuratively) gets raised to understand why the agent has your customer’s card details.

These are some examples of speech analytics that are used in the real world. Let’s now learn how to best implement and use your call center speech analytics. 

How to Best Use Your Call Center Speech Analytics

When using speech analytics holistically, you’re covering all bases and making the most of the software at your disposal. 

You can use speech analytics before, during, and after calls to identify call trends, manage customers in real time, and create an environment of proactive coaching and feedback.

Before the call

By identifying call routing trends and analyzing past customer interactions, you get an understanding of peak call times, call volumes, common customer issues, and preferred agent skills. If you know the likely reason for each customer call, you can assign the most appropriate agent to handle each query.

You can use intelligent call routing by way of an interactive voice response (IVR) system to better understand what customers need, as they will literally say their reason for calling.

For example, instead of routing all customer service calls to your helpdesk, where they are asked for their reason for calling and manually transferred, customers are greeted with a menu that asks their reason for calling, allows them to say their issue, and knows where to send the call.

How-a-call-moves-through-an-IVR-system

This automated process is quicker, and customers get through to the most skilled agent for their issue.

When combined with natural language processing — that’s the smart AI part — your IVR can even start handling calls for you. For routine inquiries like opening times and bill payments, there’s often no need for human intervention.

For example, think about the potential time, resource, and cost savings versus needing to handle a basic inquiry today. Even with compliance procedures to consider, several minutes per call could be saved if you’re able to successfully remove the human from the process.With conversational AI, you’ll be able to offer open-ended prompts and automate routing intelligently. It could look something like this:

Conversational-AI

It could be as easy as that, thanks to speech recognition. And you’re safe in the knowledge that phone calls are not only recorded but tracked for all kinds of emotions, keywords, and compliance.

During the call

What if you had a tool to detect when customers get frustrated or when agents miss opportunities to upsell a product? Sounds pretty good, right?

That’s exactly what real-time sentiment analysis does. It literally analyzes customer sentiment.

Speech analytics solutions can detect emotions in a customer’s voice and flag frustrated or angry callers. This allows supervisors to intervene and provide real-time support to agents handling these calls, ensuring a better customer experience.

speech analytics

In positive customer conversations, where there’s an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell, speech analytics can help identify missed keywords. Not only does this identify knowledge gaps and areas where scripts or training materials need improvement, but it also means you can flag the upsell opportunity mid-call.

You can improve agent productivity by notifying agents they missed a keyword. This way, they can mention the superior product during the call instead of missing the sale or having to call the customer back to offer them a new product.

Agents provide exactly what the customer calls for. Your business benefits from extra revenue and profit. Everyone’s a winner.

The same helpfulness applies to compliance monitoring. Using keyword detection for quality assurance and quality management, you can ensure agents adhere to regulations and company policies by identifying instances where specific phrases or topics are used inappropriately.

You’re derisking your business every time you use speech analytics — which is in every single call.

After the call

You know all those call recordings you have? It’s impossible to go through each one and separate good and bad calls, isn’t it?

With speech analytics doing the sorting and grading, you can save hours per day (weeks per year) on simply identifying calls with room for improvement.

When you have time to objectively evaluate agent performance metrics, like adherence to scripts, empathy, and active listening skills, you can better diagnose low first-call resolution rates by analyzing topics mentioned by callers. 

Rather than accepting that agents are humans and will make mistakes, you can safeguard processes and embrace continuous learning.

As a side benefit, you can also identify common roadblocks and use this data to improve internal processes and develop knowledge base articles for future reference. 

Every output from your speech analytics can reveal positive and negative feedback within conversations. Use this to understand customer pain points and areas of satisfaction to improve overall service.

Using speech analytics, you can introduce proactive call center coaching after the fact. This means you can highlight areas where agents frequently struggle. This data can identify training areas and customer needs, allowing you to proactively coach agents before they encounter those situations on live calls. 

If you run an omnichannel contact center using email, web chat, SMS, social media, etc., you can extend the power of speech analytics to text-based conversations. This is often one of the biggest reasons businesses choose a contact center versus a call center.

Call CenterContact Center
Voice calls onlyVoice plus email, live chat, social media, and video
Call reports onlyMultichannel analytics
Speech analytics onlyExtends speech analytics to text-based conversations in web chat, SMS, social media, etc.
Disjointed customer experienceConnected customer experience
Lacks future expansion capabilitiesAble to connect to future media channels

Make Better Decisions With Nextiva

When you move from merely collecting data to using data, your business can start digging deeply into areas that excite and frustrate your customers. With speech analytics, you can turn countless hours of call recordings into actionable insights.

Be it for something as simple as changing the order of your IVR menu or as far as a total overhaul of your customer journey mapping, lean on the data collected in every customer call.

On the surface, it seems like you’re creating a better customer experience, which is true. But what you’re actually doing is optimizing agent performance and impacting your bottom line as well.

With the side benefit of creating a database for continuous training and compliance derisking, it’s hard to ignore what speech analytics can do for your business.

You’ve got all this data anyway. Why not make use of it?

Ready to put your data to work?

Nextiva helps you deliver the best customer experience at scale.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dominic Kent

Dominic Kent is a content marketer specializing in unified communications and contact centers. After 10 years of managing installations, he founded UC Marketing to bridge the gap between service providers and customers. He spends half of his time building content marketing programs and the rest writing on the beach with his dogs.

Posts from this author

Call Center Security Best Practices: The Complete Guide

April 30, 2024 16 min read

Jeremiah Zerby

Jeremiah Zerby

If you were to describe customer service in a few words, you’d be right to call it “the first point of customer interaction.”

But as a call center operator, although every call is an opportunity to assist, it also exposes you to potential risks.

Imagine this: Amid a buzz of daily calls and navigating different applications, you’re one spreadsheet or document away from exposing sensitive information — or worse, introducing vulnerabilities. While important to your work, tools like Google Sheets and Docs can become gateways for security breaches if not properly managed.

In this guide, we’ve compiled a list of best practices that call center operators should implement to enhance their security posture.

The Rising Security Concerns in Call Centers

Increased fraud attempts

Call centers, especially those in the financial sector or that offer other forms of financial services, are facing a surge in fraudulent activities.

This is because hackers view your bank’s contact center as a goldmine of information. In fact, the Contact Center Fraud and Security Survey by Pindrop reveals a concerning uptick trend in fraud attempts targeting call centers.

A recent TransUnion survey shed light on this issue, revealing that a staggering 90% of financial industry respondents have observed an increase in fraud attacks on call centers, with some noting that attacks have risen by more than 80% over 2022.

For the most part, these fraud attempts have a single aim — to initiate an account takeover (ATO). To do this, they leverage tactics like social engineering and spoofed phone numbers to deceive call center staff and gain unauthorized access to sensitive information and accounts.

A typical example of this is the case of a fake call center where fraudsters had access to a database containing the personal and financial information of about 500,000 US citizens. With this information, they were able to establish trust and convince their targets of the legitimacy of their fraudulent activities.

💡What is an ATO? An ATO occurs when a cybercriminal gains unauthorized access to a person’s online account, whether their a bank account, email, social media, or any other type of online account.

Data security breaches

It’s not news that call centers handle a significant amount of personally identifiable information (PII), making them prime targets for data breaches.

A notable example of this occurred with Discord, a messaging and video chatting platform. Discord reported that a malicious actor gained access to its systems via a third-party customer service agent, exposing users’ email addresses, customer service queries, and documents sent to Discord.

While Discord provided no further information to determine whether this was an internal or external attack, it did report that the account was now locked.

Meanwhile, it’s important to note that data breaches can occur for several reasons, such as outdated systems, human error, or malicious attacks, all of which can cause reputational damage, regulatory fines, and even lawsuits.

For example, over the last year, the following companies have been on the receiving end of data breaches:

  • Fortra’s GoAnywhere: Hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Fortra’s GoAnywhere managed file-transfer software early last year, affecting over 130 companies.
  • Software-based phone system 3CX: Hackers targeted 3CX using a supply chain attack to embed malware in software distributed to its clients and end-users.
  • MOVEit Transfer: Hackers accessed the personal data of almost 84 million individuals across more than 2,600 victim organizations, making this breach stand out as one of the most significant last year.

What is PII? PII refers to any data that could be used to identify a specific individual. Examples of PII include, but are not limited to:

Insider threats

Insider threats within organizations pose significant security risks, whether from disgruntled or careless employees. These threats can lead to accidental data leaks, unauthorized access, or even the intentional theft of information, with severe consequences for the organizations involved.

A recent report notes an increase in these incidents, with 74% of organizations acknowledging vulnerability to insider threats.

Compliance issues

Failing to comply with data privacy regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can lead to hefty fines and penalties, further impacting an organization’s finances and reputation.

We can see this in the case of Dish Network’s $280 million fine for violating the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry.

Costs and Damages of Unsecured Call Centers

Financial losses

Unsecured call centers can lead to substantial financial losses for organizations, primarily due to data breaches, fraud, and compliance violations.

These incidents can result in costs of various forms, including direct fines and settlements as well as indirect remediation expenses required to address the aftermath of a security incident.

Here are a few examples of such costs:

  • GDPR fines: Under the GDPR, companies face significant fines for failing to protect consumer data. For instance, in 2023, Meta was fined €1.2 billion by the Irish Data Protection Commission for inadequately protecting European users’ personal data during transfers to the US.
  • HIPAA violations: In the healthcare sector, compliance with HIPAA requirements is crucial. Violations can lead to hefty fines, as we’ve seen with the settlement of $4,750,000 that Montefiore Medical Center agreed to in 2024 for failing to conduct a comprehensive risk analysis, among other compliance issues.

Reputational damage

A single security incident can tarnish a brand’s reputation, which most likely took years to build. News of a data breach or fraud can spread quickly, especially with social media, leading to negative publicity for a brand.

Even worse, a damaged reputation can have lasting effects on customer perceptions, potentially leading to a decline in brand loyalty and customer churn. In support of this claim, reports from Delinea show that 31% of consumers stop using a product after a data breach.

The financial services company Capital One had a data breach incident that involved 100 million of its customers in the US and Canada. The immediate financial repercussions were estimated to be between $100 and $150 million to cover customer notifications, credit monitoring, technology costs, and legal support. However, beyond the tangible costs, the breach inflicted substantial reputational damage, evidenced by a 6% slide in Capital One’s share price following the breach announcement.

Operational disruption

Once a call center detects a security breach, it conducts an intensive investigation to determine its scope and impact.

This process often requires taking certain systems offline, limiting access to essential data, or even halting operations entirely to contain the incident. While necessary for security reasons, such actions can severely impact call center productivity, leading to longer wait times for customers and a backlog of service requests — all of which affect customer experience.

Best Practices for Securing Your Call Center

Data security

The sensitive nature of the data handled, ranging from personal information to payment details, puts several call centers at risk of constantly being targeted for cyber-attacks.

To mitigate these risks, adopting a comprehensive approach to data security is vital. This involves implementing several layers of security measures to protect both the information and infrastructure of the call center.

Implement data encryption

Data encryption is a fundamental security measure that encodes information, making it accessible only to individuals with the decryption key. For call centers, encrypting data both at rest (stored data) and in transit (data being transferred) should be a priority.

  • At rest: Encrypting data at rest protects it against unauthorized access by ensuring that, even if data storage is compromised, the information remains in an unreadable format without the proper encryption keys. Techniques include disk encryption and database encryption.
  • In transit: Encrypting data in transit safeguards it as it moves across networks — be it between internal systems or over the internet.

Enforce data access controls

Data access control simply means selectively restricting an employee’s access to data. It is a critical element in protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access and breaches.

To enforce data access control, implement the following:

  • Principle of least privilege: This principle involves granting employees access only to the information and resources absolutely necessary for their job functions. This minimizes the risk of accidental or malicious data breaches.
  • Role-based access control (RBAC): Implementing RBAC streamlines user permissions management. With this, you assign users roles based on their job requirements, and each role is granted specific access rights. This way, employees can access only what they need.

💡Pro Tip: Conduct regular audits of access controls to ensure that permissions are up to date and align with current job titles and responsibilities. This helps identify discrepancies or unnecessary access privileges that need to be revoked.

Backup data regularly

Data backups are a safety net in the event of data loss or corruption, whether from cyber-attacks, system failures, or human error. Regular and systematic backups ensure that call center operations can resume quickly with minimal loss of data.

  • Backup frequency: The frequency with which data is backed up should align with the call center’s data update rate. For highly dynamic environments, daily or even real-time backups may be necessary.
  • Offsite storage: Storing backups in a location separate from the primary data center adds an additional layer of security. In the event of a physical disaster, data remains safe and recoverable.

Network security

Securing your call center’s network involves taking several measures to prevent unauthorized or malicious access (both internal and external).

To do this, you combine multiple layers of security defenses at the edge and in the network. Each network security layer implements policies and controls. Authorized users gain access to network resources, but malicious actors are blocked from carrying out their exploits.

Segment your network

Network segmentation involves dividing a larger network into smaller, distinct subnetworks or segments. This practice is important for call centers for several reasons, including:

  • Reduced attack surface: By separating the call center network from the rest of the organization’s networks, you limit the potential spread of malicious activities. If one segment is compromised, segmentation can help contain the breach, preventing it from proliferating across your entire network.
  • Improved performance: By isolating the call center traffic, you can ensure that critical communications are prioritized and uninterrupted. Segmentation can also improve network performance by reducing congestion.
  • Enhanced monitoring and control: By segmenting networks, more granular monitoring and control over traffic is possible. This enables you to more quickly identify and mitigate suspicious activities.

💡Pro tip: Implementing protocols such as Transport Layer Security ensures that data exchanged between clients and your call center is safe from eavesdropping or interception.

Implement firewalls and intrusion detection systems

Firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) are essential tools to have in your network security toolbox. They serve as the first line of defense against potential cyber threats.

  • Firewalls: These act as a barrier between your secure internal network and untrusted external networks, such as the internet. A firewall can be software-based, hardware-based, or both, and it works by filtering incoming and outgoing network traffic based on an organization’s security policies.
  • IDS: IDSs monitor network traffic for suspicious activities and potential threats. They can detect malicious activities like security policy violations, malware, and unauthorized system access. They then alert network administrators to suspicious patterns, enabling them to act immediately against potential threats.

Keep software up to date

Software vulnerabilities are a common entry point for cyber threats. Maintaining the latest versions of all software, including operating systems, applications, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, is critical to securing your call center’s network.

  • Regular updates and patches: Developers frequently release software updates and patches to address vulnerabilities and enhance security features. Regularly applying these updates ensures that your systems are protected against known vulnerabilities.
  • Automated patch management: Considering the amount of software that call centers may use, implementing automated patch management tools can help streamline the process of updating software across all systems within the call center, ensuring the timely application of critical security patches.

User security

This aspect of security focuses on safeguarding user identities, credentials, and data from unauthorized access, theft, and misuse.

It involves a combination of enforcing strong authentication measures, educating users about security risks, and monitoring activities to prevent or respond to security incidents.

Here’s a closer look at how call centers can implement effective user security measures:

Enforce strong password policies

The first line of defense in user security is often the strength and management of passwords. Implementing and enforcing strong password policies can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

  • Strong password creation: Require users to create passwords that are complex and difficult to guess. This typically means that passwords should have a minimum length and include numbers, symbols, and a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters.
  • Regular password changes: Encourage or mandate regular password updates, such as every 60 or 90 days, to limit the risk of compromised passwords being used to gain unauthorized access.
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to provide two or more verification factors to access their accounts. This can include what they know (password), what they have (a security token or a smartphone app), or what they are (biometrics).
  • Single sign-on (SSO): SSO allows users to log in once and gain access to multiple systems without being prompted to log in again. SSO can simplify the user experience while maintaining high-security standards, especially when combined with MFA.

Educate employees on security best practices

Human error remains one of the largest vulnerabilities in cybersecurity.

Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report found that the human element was involved in about three-quarters of all analyzed breaches.

Tech Xplore further supports this by stating that more than 90% of cyberattacks are made possible by human error, highlighting the critical need for user education. Educating call center agents and other employees on security best practices is the best approach to mitigating this risk.

  • Regular training: Conduct regular training sessions to keep employees informed about the latest security threats and best practices. This includes identifying phishing attempts, managing sensitive customer data, and understanding the importance of security policies. 
  • Social engineering awareness: Train employees to recognize social engineering attacks, such as phishing or pretexting, that manipulate individuals into breaking normal security procedures.
  • Simulated attacks: Consider conducting simulated phishing exercises to test employees’ vigilance and provide practical learning opportunities based on their responses.

Monitor user activity

Continuous monitoring of user activity within your systems can help quickly identify and mitigate suspicious behavior, potentially preventing a security breach.

  • Automated monitoring tools: Implement tools that automatically log and analyze user activities, flagging actions that deviate from normal patterns.
  • Anomaly detection: Use anomaly detection systems to identify unusual actions, such as accessing high volumes of data or attempting to access restricted areas, which could indicate a security threat.
  • Incident-response plan: Have a clear incident-response plan in place so that if suspicious activity is detected, your team can act swiftly to investigate and prevent any potential damage.

💡Pro Tip: Nextiva offers the most flexible and scalable enterprise-grade contact center solution.

Compliance

Compliance in the context of call center operations refers to meeting legal and regulatory standards for data privacy and security. These standards vary by region and industry but share the common goal of protecting consumer information and ensuring ethical business practices.

Identify relevant data privacy regulations

Data privacy regulations are designed to protect personal information but vary significantly across jurisdictions and sectors. Understanding and complying with these regulations is fundamental to operating a call center legally and ethically.

  • HIPAA: HIPAA sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data in the US. Any call center handling healthcare information must ensure HIPAA compliance.
  • GDPR: The GDPR is a regulation in the European Union (EU) law on data protection and privacy that covers the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. Call centers handling data of EU citizens, regardless of the call center’s location, need to comply with GDPR.
  • Other regulations: Other regulations, like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), might also apply, depending on the geographical location and the nature of the data being handled.

What’s PCI DSS? PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. 

Implement data breach response procedures

A data breach can have significant legal, financial, and reputational consequences. Having a response plan in place helps minimize the impact of a breach.

  • Incident response plan: This plan should outline the steps to take immediately after discovering a breach, including containing it, assessing its impact, and beginning the recovery process.
  • Notification procedures: Regulations like the GDPR and HIPAA have strict notification requirements. Your plan should include protocols for notifying regulatory authorities and affected individuals within the required timelines.
  • Continuous improvement: A post-breach analysis should be conducted after a breach is addressed to identify what went wrong and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future. Use the following insights to strengthen your security posture.

Regularly review and update your security policies and procedures

Regular reviews of your security policies and compliance procedures ensure they remain effective and aligned with current laws.

  • Scheduled reviews: Establish a regular schedule for reviewing and updating security policies, procedures, and compliance measures. This could be annually or more frequently, depending on the nature of the data you handle and the regulatory environment.
  • Stay informed: Be aware of changes in data protection laws and cybersecurity trends. Regulatory bodies often provide updates and guidance that can help you remain compliant.
  • Security awareness and training: Ensure that all employees, especially those who handle sensitive customer information, are regularly trained on the latest compliance requirements and security best practices.

Open-Source Call Center vs. Choosing an Enterprise Call Center Provider

When it comes to managing customer interactions, businesses face a tough decision: whether to use a free, open-source call center platform or an enterprise call center provider. This choice carries significant implications for security, cost, compliance, and operational complexity.

Risks of a DIY call center software

Weaker security posture

Building and operating your own call center means taking on the responsibility of securing the platform. This is a daunting task that requires specialized knowledge and constant vigilance. 

Enterprise call center providers, on the other hand, typically have dedicated security teams whose sole focus is to protect the platform and its data. These teams are equipped with the expertise and tools needed to prevent and stop cyber threats, monitor for suspicious activities, and implement best practices in cybersecurity.

Without this level of expertise, your self-managed call center might be more susceptible to breaches and cyber attacks, potentially compromising customer trust and data.

Increased technical complexity

Integrating security solutions in-house so that they work seamlessly together is a complex process. Each additional solution or layer of security can introduce new vulnerabilities, especially if they’re not properly configured or maintained. This complexity increases the risk of security loopholes, making the system harder to manage.

Compliance hassles

This is perhaps the biggest challenge. Data privacy regulations like the GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA impose strict rules on how customer data should be handled and protected.

Ensuring compliance with these and other regulations is a huge responsibility when operating your own call center. This involves continuous monitoring, reporting, and updating practices to align with legal requirements.

Meanwhile, enterprise call center providers often have dedicated compliance teams and standardized processes designed to meet these regulations, reducing the burden on your shoulders.

Unexpected maintenance burdens

The responsibility of updating, patching, and maintaining an open-source call center falls entirely on you.

This is a continuous effort that requires dedicated resources to ensure the system remains operational and secure. Failing to keep up with maintenance tasks can leave your system vulnerable to exploitation.

In contrast, an enterprise CCaaS provider manages these tasks on behalf of its clients, ensuring that the platform remains up-to-date and secure without additional effort from the client’s side.

Potentially higher cost

While the initial idea of building your own call center might seem cost-effective, the long-term financial implications are high.

For example, the costs associated with development, ongoing maintenance, security, and compliance can accumulate quickly, making it a less viable option for many businesses.

Furthermore, the hidden costs of potential data breaches or compliance violations can be huge. Enterprise call center providers spread these costs across their client base, often offering more predictable pricing models.

What does enterprise call center software offer?

Opting for an enterprise call center provider offers several benefits, including preventing many of the challenges associated with managing a call center in-house.

These platforms are designed with security, compliance, and operational efficiency in mind, offering a compelling case for businesses looking to streamline their customer service operations.

Here’s a closer look at the advantages of choosing an enterprise call center platform. 

Proven security infrastructure

Enterprise call center providers invest heavily in security infrastructure and expertise. They employ dedicated teams whose sole focus is to ensure the platform remains secure against emerging threats and vulnerabilities.

This specialization in security helps safeguard sensitive data and ensures that the platform adheres to the latest compliance standards.

The benefit here is twofold: robust protection against data breaches and a compliance-ready posture that shields your business from potential fines and legal complications.

Simplified management

Managing a call center operation involves coordinating multiple tasks and systems, from customer interaction channels to backend databases.

Enterprise call center platforms simplify this complexity by offering pre-integrated security features and tools designed for seamless operation. This integration reduces the time and effort required to manage the system, allowing businesses to focus on strategic operations rather than wasting time on technical details.

Compliance support

Data privacy regulations constantly evolve, posing a challenge for businesses to remain compliant.

Enterprise call center platforms provide built-in compliance support, helping businesses comply with regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA.

This support comprises everything from data handling and storage practices to consent management and data subject rights fulfillment. Leveraging the provider’s expertise in these areas can help reduce the risk of compliance violations.

Reduced maintenance

The responsibility of maintaining the call center infrastructure, including the execution of updates and patches, lies with the provider.

This arrangement minimizes the maintenance workload for businesses, ensuring the platform remains up-to-date with the latest security measures and feature enhancements without requiring direct intervention.

It also eliminates the need for a dedicated in-house team to manage these tasks, freeing up resources for other critical business functions.

Lower operating costs

While the upfront costs of an enterprise call center solution might seem high, it can be more cost-effective in the long run.

This cost efficiency comes from the reduced need for in-house development, maintenance, and security management. Whether you opt for on-premises servers or private clouds, you won’t need to build or secure them.

Moreover, by outsourcing these complex and resource-intensive tasks, businesses can avoid the indirect costs associated with security breaches and compliance violations, making it a prudent decision.

Nextiva: An Enterprise Call Center You Can Trust

Nextiva provides an enterprise contact center platform built to fit your business with three core offerings:

Enterprise phone service

Nextiva’s enterprise VoIP phone system comes loaded with advanced features, such as auto-attendant, call forwarding, voicemail, and conference calling, and seamlessly integrates with popular business applications, making it easy to consolidate all business communications in one place.

Nextiva call flow chart

Nextiva employs robust security measures and monitors its networks 24/7 to protect against unauthorized access and data breaches. This active monitoring also contributes to its resilient 99.999% network uptime, made possible by Nextiva’s redundant data centers.

Not ready for UCaaS? Enterprise-grade SIP trunking from Nextiva provides call recording and toll-free and local phone numbers and ensures compatibility with on-premises or cloud-based PBXs. See all features.

Cloud call center solution

Nextiva’s cloud call center empowers your team to make and receive a high volume of calls with the right degree of control that supervisors want. It also doesn’t require any third-party hosting or technical staff to set up.

With its carrier-grade data centers and impressive uptime, you’ll never miss a beat with your customers. Nextiva built one of the world’s most reliable enterprise-ready voice networks.

Some of its call center features include:

  • Interactive voice response (IVR): Send incoming calls to the right call center agents. Set up your IVR any way you want.
  • Call recording: Record, pause, and listen to customer interactions at any time.
  • Automatic call distribution: Distribute calls based on business hours, technical support level, IVR options, and more.
  • VoIP phone numbers: Get local and toll-free numbers or port your existing phone numbers.
  • Call routing: Manage customer interactions like a pro. Don’t let your customers repeat requests.
  • Dashboards and reporting. Get access to 40+ advanced features and reports to measure your VoIP call center efficiency. 

Enterprise SIP trunking

Nextiva offers you PBX with SIP trunking. You also get carrier-grade PSTN connectivity with easy setup and no code required.

Features include:

  • Online management: Manage your credentials, direct-dial numbers, and more from a web-based admin portal. Goodbye, terminal.
  • Fraud mitigation: Thwart abuse and fraud in a few clicks. Nextiva will let you know if we see unusual call activity.
  • Enhanced 911 (E911): Ensure users are safe with turnkey E911 functionality. Supports physical location for public safety operators.

Automatic failover: Direct calls to another destination with cloud connectivity. If your PBX goes offline, no problem. 

  • Detailed call records: Research call detail records. Administrators can view CDRs securely and in minutes.
  • Rapid setup: Deploy the same day without any coding with ready-to-use SIP trunks.

Why enterprise businesses love Nextiva

  • Proven reliability: Each data center is equipped with uninterruptible power sources with 99.999% uptime and zero reported outages in 2019 and 2020. 
  • Highly scalable: Scaling any part of your business phone system is easy. Add phone numbers, new users, or entire new locations from your admin web portal.
  • Easy to deploy: Installation is often as easy as configuring your account from a web portal, plugging desk phone hardware into the internet, and downloading the mobile app.
  • Award-winning support: Rated #1 on Gartner, Frost & Sullivan, G2, and GetVoIP, Nextiva is also a Stevie® Award winner for Sales & Customer Service.
  • Rapid expert training: Our trainers can provide on-premises, 1:1, or remote training with webinars to help you get the most out of your unified communications solution.

Level up your contact center.

Equip your team with the industry’s best call center software.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeremiah Zerby

Jeremiah Zerby is a marketing specialist at Nextiva. He spent three years on the front lines of technical support, troubleshooting internet and VoIP topics. He moved forward into the technical writing and content creation space. He’s helped set up hundreds of businesses and advised thousands of people with their cloud communications.

Posts from this author

Imagine you’ve put in weeks of work to get a new customer on board. You’ve walked them through your product, tailored the pricing plan to their budget, and checked in to make sure they’re happy.

Two months down the line, you get the notification: they’ve closed their account.

Now, you’re back to square one, sourcing new leads and working hard to move them through the sales cycle.

This is where customer retention management comes in. It helps you create long-lasting relationships with each customer, keeping them loyal to your brand.

Your contact center agents are the key to accomplishing that. They’re the ones talking to customers day in and day out, figuring out what they need, and putting out fires.

Here, you’ll learn more about customer retention management and its benefits — with seven strategies to leverage your contact center solution to nurture vital customer relationships, ensuring they stick around for the long haul.

What Is Customer Retention Management? 

Customer retention management is the set of processes and strategies you implement to keep your existing customers happy and loyal to your brand. The ultimate goal of any customer retention program is to increase customer engagement, reduce customer churn, and support a healthy bottom line.

Key functions of customer retention management

Why You Should Prioritize Customer Retention Management

Keeping your customer retention rate up can significantly increase the customer lifetime value (CLV), reduce the cost of acquiring new ones, and enhance the overall experience and satisfaction of your customer base.

Let’s look at what makes customer retention important in more detail.

1. Increased CLV

CLV represents the total amount you expect a customer to spend on your products or services over their entire relationship with your business.

Your current customers already trust and value your company, so they’re more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others, increasing their CLV.

A recent study out of UC Berkeley found an exponential relationship between customer retention rates and CLV.

X-Y graph showing the relationship between customer retention rates and CLV

Basically, the longer your customers stay with you, the more value they bring to your business. This value rises at an increasing rate.

2. Reduced customer acquisition costs

Your customer acquisition costs (CAC) are the amount of money you spend to get a new customer.

This includes expenses like advertising, engaging potential customers through your contact center, and conducting direct sales outreach.

When your current customer base is happy and stays with your company longer, you don’t need to spend as much on customer acquisition. Plus, satisfied customers tend to recommend your business to people they know. These referrals help you get new customers without having to spend a dollar on marketing or sales to acquire them.

3. More opportunities for upselling & cross-selling

Upselling is when you encourage a customer to buy a more expensive version of a product they’re already interested in.

Here’s an example of upselling from Dollar Shave Club:

Dollar Shave Club upselling razors example

Cross-selling, on the other hand, means suggesting related products or services that complement what the customer is buying.

Here’s an example of cross-selling from Galaxus:

Galaxus-example-of-cross-selling

Loyal customers who already like what you offer and have had a positive experience with you are more willing to check out new products and services and expand their relationship with you.

Imagine you’re a customer success manager at an online shop specializing in photography equipment. You’re collaborating with the sales department to identify people who’d be open to buying the new camera lens you’ve just started offering.

You have two options:

KevinEve
Kevin is a loyal customer who’s bought equipment and camera accessories from your store five times in the last year. He reads most of your newsletters and recently praised your customer support in a survey.Eve knows of your brand but hasn’t bought anything yet. She’s hesitant, doubting whether your products are worth the investment or will significantly improve her photography.

Which of these two customers is more likely to buy your new, premium camera lens? Kevin, with his loyalty and firsthand experience of your product quality, or Eve, a potential but uncertain customer?

Kevin, right?

4. Better understanding of customer needs

Through your customer retention efforts, you’re constantly in touch with your customers.

This close contact lets you see what works for them and what doesn’t. Understanding their needs and pain points helps you make smarter choices about your products or services.

It takes the guesswork out of product development and service enhancements so you’re using real feedback to make things they’ll love.

This makes your offering customer-first, which can boost your revenue and overall user experience.

5. Improved CX

To retain your current customers, you need to maintain high standards of quality and service.

This includes:

As you focus on nurturing your current user base, you’ll naturally create a better CX for them, turning one-time buyers into long-term fans.

Remember, great customer service is the reason 88% of customers stay with a brand.

It also boosts word of mouth, making three out of four people more likely to recommend a company to others.

Seven Strategies for Managing Customer Retention in Your Contact Center

Here are seven customer retention strategies to help you hang on to your best customers:

1. Create personalized CX

Offering your customers personalized experiences helps make them feel understood and valued by your company.

It also makes it easier to exceed customer expectations, making them more likely to keep coming back.

A 2021 Segment study revealed that surveyed customers are 60% more likely to become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience — a 16% increase from 2017.

Bar graph showing how likely are you to become a repeat buyer after a personalized shopping experience

This number is expected to rise. According to Salesforce, 73% of customers expect better customization as technology advances.

One way to achieve this is by tailoring interactions based on customer history, preferences, and feedback, but remember to always keep it in balance.

“Be transparent about how the customer data was gathered. Using the customer’s name or referring to their recent order is usually a good way to personalize their experience. But personalizations can go from relevant to creepy when the customer notices that the personalized recommendations or offers are based on information they didn’t willingly disclose to the company.”

~ Edita Vaskeviciute, Director of Customer Support at Omnisend

Let’s say you have a customer who gave feedback about needing more detailed tutorials for your product. You can use this data to make each interaction feel personal and relevant.

For example, the next time they reach out, you can acknowledge their feedback and provide links to step-by-step guides or offer a one-on-one walk-through session, specifically addressing the areas they found challenging.

You can use a CRM or CX platform to help you keep track of this information.

Pro tip: Nextiva’s Customer Experience tool unifies all your customer communications and gives your reps a clear view of each prospect and customer’s sentiment and history.

The next time a customer contacts you, your reps can instantly access their previous concerns and preferences, allowing for a more informed and personalized conversation.

Nextiva-Customer-Journey-and-Sentiment

2. Offer proactive customer service

Offering proactive customer service means identifying and responding to an issue before the customer even reaches out.

This approach shows customers that you’re attentive and committed to their satisfaction, which can build trust and reduce churn rate.

According to Gartner, it can even result in a full point increase in a company Net Promoter Score — a call center metric measuring how likely customers are to recommend your business to others.

Consider using customer data analytics to anticipate potential issues or trends.

For example, if data suggests new users find your software’s setup process complex, send out easy-to-follow guides and tutorials during onboarding.

You can also set up FAQs, knowledge bases, and AI chatbots. These resources can often resolve smaller issues before they escalate. And since they don’t require agent intervention, they free up your people’s time.

Finally, “using automation can also be very helpful,” says Edita, “especially in sending proactive notifications [and checking in] about order status updates, relevant recommendations, service errors, planned maintenance, delays, and similar issues.”

Follow-up SMS reminder message

3. Train reps to resolve issues quickly

According to a HubSpot study, 60% of survey participants rank a rep’s quick response and ability to resolve issues as the top reason they keep making repeat purchases.

Consider training your agents to aim for first-call resolution. This means teaching them to solve a customer’s issue in just one interaction.

You can do this by:

4. Offer omnichannel support

Omnichannel customer support means connecting with your customers wherever they are, whether through phone calls, social media, email, or live chat.

This allows you to offer customers seamless, high-quality support through all channels.

It ensures that they always have a consistent and reliable way to reach you, improving customer satisfaction experience and building their loyalty to your brand.

omnichannel-cx-benefits

Ideally, consider linking all channels to one support tool. This way, switching between channels is smoother for your team, and your customers don’t have to repeat the same information.

“If channels are supported separately,” says Edita, “ensure consistent branding and messaging across all platforms. [You can do this] by assigning a dedicated support agent or team to manage this aspect, or by collaborating closely with the responsible team.”

5. Create a customer feedback loop

Creating a customer feedback loop means regularly asking for and listening to what your customers have to say about their experiences.

Using this insight to make improvements to your products or services ensures you’ll continually evolve based on what your customers tell you they want.

You can gather customer feedback through touchpoints like:

The exact method you use for collecting feedback depends on the nature of your work, your customers, and the kind of information you’re looking for.

“We have our contact center folks call every client a day or two after [the arborist’s visit] to ask for feedback. This ensures a good feedback loop cycle and closes each project on a good note.”

~ Kaustubh Deo, President at Blooma Tree Experts

This team found that following up through their call center yielded the best results. Your customers, on the other hand, might prefer short surveys embedded on your website or to just leave comments under your social media posts.

Whatever method you choose, make sure to let customers know that you’ve heard their feedback and are working on addressing their concerns or implementing their suggestions. This can boost their loyalty and encourage them to become repeat customers.

6. Empower your agents

According to a CallMiner survey, one in four customers decide to switch service providers because the call center advisers they interact with are inexperienced or lack the necessary knowledge to help them.

Slightly more than one in four (26.9%) people decide to switch because agents fail to respond to their problems quickly enough.

But agents that have the skills and authority to make on-the-spot decisions can solve problems more quickly and confidently, helping reduce turnover and improve satisfaction.

These decisions could include offering a discount after a shipping delay, waiving a fee, or upgrading a service.

Here are some tips to do this:

Pro tip: Nextiva’s Call Pop instantly shows your reps a breakdown of the caller’s most important information before they pick up the phone so your people can provide better, more personalized service.

Nextiva call pop

7. Choose the right contact center platform

The right contact center software brings all your customer communications together, making it easier for your reps to get a clear picture of each customer’s history and preferences.

This insight helps them anticipate potential problems and tailor their approach to each individual.

Plus, the more detailed customer information they have, the more they can personalize their service and build genuine customer relationships, increasing the number of customers you retain over time.

Retaining Your Customers Is Easier With Nextiva

Customer retention management helps you boost customer loyalty, increase CLV, reduce CAC, and provide a better CX. It also helps keep your revenue steady, as keeping your current customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

Of course, with constantly changing customer expectations and insufficient resources, maintaining high retention rates can be hard. Contact center platforms like Nextiva can make it easier for your agents.

Here’s what you get when you choose our AI-powered contact center solution:

  • Call recordings for ongoing coaching
  • Automatic call distribution functionalities to automatically direct calls to the best agent for the job
  • Call analytics to view data points like talk time and abandoned calls and know where to improve
  • Customer satisfaction surveys at any stage of the customer journey so you can understand their needs and sentiments in real time and keep stepping up your game

CX software service done right.

Integrate secure phone service, SMS, video, and team chat in ONE platform for a better CX.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hava Salsi

Hava Salsi is a content writer and editor specializing in B2B SaaS, HR, and tech. With over five years of experience working with startups and businesses around the world, she produces engaging, user-centric content that educates, ranks highly, and drives conversions. She spends her time building her virtual writers' community, the H Spot, and tending…

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You’re at a restaurant where each server interacts with customers differently. One shouts orders across the room, another takes them tableside, and another does everything on a mobile app. Line cooks must constantly switch between communication channels to ensure that the dishes leaving the kitchen meet diners’ expectations.

Confusing and inefficient, right? 

This chaotic system is what it feels like when businesses don’t use a customer engagement platform (CEP). Fragmented communication channels silo customer data and create inconsistent customer experiences (CX) that tank satisfaction scores.

So, let’s explore the features and benefits of bundling your customer communication into a single platform designed for engagement.

What Is a Customer Engagement Platform?

A customer engagement platform is a unified software solution that empowers businesses to enable, manage, personalize, and track customer interactions across communication channels.

This comprehensive tool acts like a command center for support, sales, and marketing teams. It integrates the capabilities of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, help desk, contact center, and more to meet customer expectations.

customer engagement platform

Customer engagement software unifies customer interactions across touchpoints, providing seamless, personalized customer experiences that foster loyalty, streamline support, and drive business growth.

Today, consumers want to talk to brands on their channel of choice and at a time that suits them. Providing consistently engaging customer experiences across channels and touchpoints is the foundation of a unified customer experience

Email

Email marketing boasts a staggering 4,200% ROI — and when a company personalizes emails, this can increase open rates by 26% and revenue by up to 760%, according to Campaign Monitor:

CEPs equip your team to craft targeted, personalized email campaigns based on preferences in your CRM tools and customer behaviors across channels.

For example, a customer follows your e-commerce brand on social media. Using a CEP, you can email a promo code when an item they’ve “liked” goes on sale. In this way, you maximize engagement and drive conversions in one go.

Social media

Customers are on social media (a lot), and 90% of users follow at least one brand. A CEP facilitates social media listening, letting you engage directly with customers on their chosen platforms and provide real-time support from the same dashboard.

These perks help your team build an active, engaged community, foster brand loyalty, and breed brand advocacy.

SMS and messaging apps

In 2024, 79% of consumers opted to receive texts from businesses — an 11% surge from 2023. With 81% of consumers checking their SMS notifications within five minutes of receiving a text, this channel boasts the highest open rates.

A CEP allows your team to leverage SMS and messaging apps (WhatsApp, Twilio, etc.) for direct, immediate customer communications: think urgent updates, appointment reminders, delivery notifications, password reset requests, and more. Plus, you can manage and automate these conversations in one central location in the cloud.

Web chat and chatbots

Real-time assistance is mandatory for customer satisfaction, yet most brands can’t hire reps for 24/7 support. That’s why AI is estimated to drive 95% of customer interactions by 2025, per stats compiled by Gitnux.

These tools offer real-time customer support on your website, answering FAQs, directing customers to your self-service knowledge base, or deflecting simple inquiries to free up your human agents for complex issues. 

Mobile apps

Mobile apps are a cornerstone of customer engagement. A CEP that integrates with yours can amplify the ROI of push notifications for personalized promotions, in-app messaging for targeted support, loyalty programs to drive customer engagement, and more.

Key Capabilities of a CEP

The best CEPs offer a comprehensive suite of functionalities and integrations. These equip your team to deliver exceptional customer experiences that elevate your entire customer engagement strategy. 

Omnichannel support

In a multichannel ecosystem, your brand engages with customers and provides support through multiple channels (phone, email, social media, etc.). However, these channels operate independently, leaving your teams in the dark about what transpires in each silo.

Omnichannel customer service and support unify and integrate the customer journey so that every interaction, regardless of the chosen device or communication channel, feels like a seamless continuation of the previous one. 

This means a support agent can access a customer’s help tickets, transcripts from prior phone calls, social media messages, purchase history, and more. They never have to ask customers to start over or repeat information. 

This holistic data informs more empathic, engaging conversations and drives faster resolutions. More meaningful, personal customer interactions are gold for your business, considering that:

  • Nearly 60% of consumers have higher customer expectations for service and support than they had a year ago.
  • Almost two-thirds think the most important thing a company can do to provide a good customer experience is value their time.
  • And 76% will stop doing business with a company if they have just one bad experience.

Customer data platform

Data is king. In unified customer experience management, the more first-party data your business collects from your CRM software and other channels, the more relevant and personalized your customer engagement strategies.

CEPs integrate customer data platforms to provide a centralized data source. Everything from your customers’ demographics and purchases to their website behaviors and chatbot transcripts creates a holistic customer profile.

This 360-degree view empowers your team to understand your customers on a deeper level, personalize customer communications, anticipate customer needs, target marketing campaigns more effectively, build lasting customer loyalty, and more.

Personalization

McKinsey research reveals that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen:

That’s why Segment reports that 69% of businesses are increasing their personalization spending in 2024:

Leveraging a CEP gives your team a unified customer view to better understand each customer as an individual. You can send personalized push notifications for new product recommendations, discount codes via SMS on their birthday, etc.

Personal touches that land at the perfect time in the customer journey actually work:

Automation and AI

Over 90% of companies now use AI to unlock deeper customer insights and craft individualized experiences. Forget the next wave; it’s a tsunami!

Automation and AI are no longer buzzwords — they’re the driving force of modern businesses. These tools enable humans to get more done and play to their strengths.

These automations help you turn website visitors into email subscribers or send automatic surveys after customer interactions to gauge sentiments. Your team will see responses directly in the continuous conversation, know how the customer feels, and respond based on intelligent feedback.

Simple automation - personalized email

Customer journey mapping

You can’t craft an exceptional customer experience without understanding the path your buyers take — from initial brand awareness to purchase and beyond. A CEP empowers your team to visualize and analyze customer interactions across all touchpoints in this journey.

This high-level overview and newfound clarity give your team the ability to:

Analytics and reporting

CEPs provide access to real-time customer engagement metrics. You can monitor customer behaviors, campaign performance, resolution times, and your team’s overall effectiveness. 

Use these insights to improve weaknesses, get ahead of issues, and optimize your engagement strategy to grow revenue and customer retention.

Nextiva analytics dashboard

What Benefits Does a CEP Offer Companies?

A CEP supercharges your customer engagement strategy, driving the following measurable results.

Enhanced customer satisfaction

Customers crave a sense of connection — they want to feel seen, appreciated, and respected. So, imagine being able to anticipate customer needs before they even arise, resolve issues efficiently with real-time support, and nurture stronger relationships through personalized interactions. 

These perks lead to significantly improved customer satisfaction scores. That’s the power of a CEP in action!

Customer satisfaction

Nextiva’s CX plug-in also clues your team into the moods of prospects and customers. Real-time alerts from conversations help you predict which customers require immediate attention, fostering a proactive approach to customer happiness.

Improved customer retention

An effective customer engagement solution enhances customer loyalty and reduces churn. Continuous personalized interactions and prompt issue resolutions build stronger customer relationships.

That may be why companies with strong omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for those with weak omnichannel strategies. While this data point is 10 years old, we can only speculate it’s even higher today. 

George Deglin from OneSignal says that increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by up to 95%. All this translates to significantly lower customer acquisition costs for your business, increased customer lifetime value, and a higher, more predictable revenue stream.

Increased revenue

CEPs are money-printing machines.

First, they help your team provide targeted content and automate follow-ups to nurture leads and skyrocket conversion rates. Second, personalized product recommendations, relevant offers, and promotions drive repeat business and increase sales. Third, your loyal customer base becomes brand advocates, sharing positive reviews to expand your reach.

Stats show that companies with the strongest customer engagement strategies enjoy:

Operational efficiency

A CEP consolidates customer data into a single platform, eliminating the need to manage multiple systems and reducing administrative burdens. 

It’s the ideal addition to your unified communications as a service solution, blending internet-based phone and messaging into a full-featured communications and engagement platform.

With AI-powered automations and workflows, your agents save time and resources while upgrading their productivity. They provide a higher quality of service and focus more on high-value interactions.

Your business also scores unmatched, budget-friendly scalability. Chatbots handle surges in customer inquiries, acting as a virtual extension of your support team, so you don’t need to increase headcount during peak hours. 

Data-driven decisions

The right customer engagement tools unlock valuable insights hidden across your communication channels. A CEP becomes a central hub for analyzing and translating this data into actionable strategies. This centralized approach allows you to measure the ROI of your customer interactions over time. 

You can see:

These insights equip your team to optimize strategies that maximize engagement with minimal risk.

Streamline Customer Engagement Channels With Nextiva

Customers expect seamless, personalized interactions across every touchpoint. A disjointed approach with isolated communication channels leads to frustration and missed opportunities.

CEPs unlock the highest levels of customer engagement and loyalty. This single, user-friendly dashboard connects your communication channels and provides a holistic view of your customers throughout their lifecycle.

Its benefits are not to be overlooked: increased agent productivity and stronger customer relationships that result in more revenue. 

Stop settling for a fragmented customer experience. Tap into the full potential of your customer interactions with Nextiva.

Skyrocket customer satisfaction!

Maximize loyalty and revenue with Nextiva’s CX software.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken McMahon

Ken McMahon leads Customer Success for Nextiva. His 25 years of experience leading various aspects of the customer experience including professional services, customer success, customer care, national operations, and sales. Before Nextiva, he held senior leadership roles with TPx, Vonage, and CenturyLink. He lives in Phoenix with his wife and two children.

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GoTo Connect Pricing & Plans: Is It Worth It?

April 29, 2024 8 min read

Devin Pickell

Devin Pickell

GoTo Connect is a cloud-based communication service offering voice, video, and messaging capabilities for businesses. The platform is designed to manage all your communications in a single platform, much like other conferencing solutions.

With features such as customizable call routing, multi-level auto attendants, and integrations with popular business apps, GoTo Connect provides a straightforward option for businesses requiring basic communications and functionality.

When researching a business communications platform, pricing, and plan structures will likely be among the first items you’ll look at.

In this article, we’ll dissect GoTo Connect’s pricing, plans, and features to see if it’s the right fit for your business needs. Let’s dive in.

GoTo Connect Pricing Plans

GoTo Connect offers a variety of pricing plans to cater to different team sizes and feature preferences. Here’s a breakdown of its core plans:

GoTo Connect Pricing Plans

Basic plan — $29.00/user/month (billed annually)

Ideal for startups, solopreneurs, or small teams with simple communication needs.

Features of the Basic plan:

Standard plan — $39.00/user/month (billed annually)

Suitable for growing businesses looking for scalability and advanced features.

This plan offers everything in the Basic plan, plus the following features:

FeatureBasicStandard
Price Per User/Month$29$39
Unlimited Calls (US & Canada)YesYes
Toll-free minutes03/minute 1000 Included per account
(.019/minute after)
International CallingNoYes
Business SMSLimitedYes
Video ConferencingUp to 150 participantsUp to 250 participants
Online Meetings & Screen SharingYesYes
Cloud PBXYesYes
Call RecordingNoYes
Call Analytics & ReportingBasicAdvanced
Mobile App (iOS & Android)YesYes
IntegrationsLimited (Outlook and G Suite)Popular and vertical-specific integrations
24/7 Customer SupportSelf-service onlyYes

Additional Cost Considerations With GoTo Connect Plans

While the core GoTo Connect plans offer a comprehensive feature set, there are some additional costs to keep in mind:

It’s important to carefully evaluate your business needs and weigh the additional costs of toll-free numbers, international calling, add-on features, and potential hardware purchases before finalizing your GoTo Connect plan.

Pro Tip: Contact the GoTo Connect sales team and inquire about bundled packages that might combine your desired features and hardware at a discounted rate.

Choosing the Right Plan for Your Business

Selecting the optimal GoTo Connect plan depends on several factors:

If you’re a small business with basic communication needs, the Basic Plan may be sufficient. However, if you need more advanced features like call recording and analytics, you’ll likely need the Standard Plan or a custom quote from GoTo.

Comparing GoTo Connect with competitors and weighing alternatives is a good way to see whether its pricing is comparable with the features offered. Here’s a Nextiva vs. GoTo Connect comparison to help you weigh the alternative.

How Do Nextiva Pricing Plans Compare?

Nextiva offers tiered pricing plans to cater to businesses of various sizes and communication needs. Let’s break down each plan and its key features:

nextiva pricing plans

Essential plan — $18.95/user/month (billed annually)

Ideal for startups, consultants, or local small businesses with basic communication needs. 

Notable features of the Essential plan include:

Professional plan — $22.95/user/month (billed annually)

Ideal for growing businesses with increased communication needs and collaboration demands, for example, marketing agencies, e-commerce stores, and customer support teams. 

This includes everything in the Essential plan, plus the following features:

Enterprise plan — $32.95/user/month (billed annually)

Suitable for large businesses with complex communication workflows and high-volume activities, for example, large contact centers, healthcare providers, and financial institutions. 

This includes everything in the Professional plan, plus the following features:

If we compare GoTo Connect and Nextiva plans in a scenario where a business may require 20 or 100 users, here’s an estimate of how that pricing would stack up.

Service ProviderPlan20 Users100 Users
GoTo ConnectBasic$580.00Unavailable
GoTo ConnectStandard$780.00$3900.00
NextivaEssential$379.00$1895.00
NextivaProfessional$459.00$2295.00
NextivaEnterprise$659.00$3295.00

As you can see, Nextiva offers competitive pricing, especially for businesses with more users.

Core Features of GoTo Connect & Nextiva

GoTo Connect business conferencing & calling features

GoTo Meeting Software Screenshot

Nextiva business conferencing & calling features

Nextiva video meeting software

Comprehensive Feature Comparison

Feature or functionalityNextiva EssentialNextiva EnterpriseGoTo Connect BasicGoTo Connect Standard
Monthly price (billed annually)$18.95$22.95$29.00$39.00
User capacityUnlimitedUnlimitedUp to 20 usersUnlimited
Unlimited voice & video calling (U.S. & Canada)
Mobile apps (iOS & Android)
Toll-free minutes1,50012,5001,000 shared1,000
Video conference duration limit45 min45 minUnlimitedUnlimited
Video conferencing participantsUnlimitedUp to 150Up to 250
Video meeting recording
Meeting scheduling and calendar integrations
Team messaging
Voicemail to email
Toll-free numbers
Unlimited internet fax
Auto attendant
SMS/MMS
Call recording
Multi-level auto attendant
Salesforce/HubSpot integrations
Call queues1
Voicemail transcription
Advanced analytics and reporting
Microsoft Teams integration
Single sign-on

Overall, Nextiva seems to be a more cost-effective solution with a broader range of features, especially for businesses that need more than basic communication functionalities.

Nextiva offers generally cheaper plans, especially for businesses with more users (20 or 100 in the provided example).

It offers a wider range of features even in their Essential plan compared to GoToConnect’s Basic plan. For example, Nextiva includes unlimited internet fax, voicemail to email, and toll-free numbers, whereas GoToConnect requires a higher-tier plan for these features.

Nextiva also offers some features entirely missing from GoToConnect’s base plans, such as CRM integration, call recording, voicemail transcription, and advanced analytics.

Nextiva’srofessional setup assistance can be helpful for businesses that don’t have the IT resources to configure a new communication system themselves.

Which Provider Is Right for Your Business?

Choosing between GoTo Connect and Nextiva involves a nuanced consideration of your business’s communication needs, budget constraints, and growth plans.

Nextiva is a great fit for

GoTo Connect may be a good fit for

The Final Verdict

While GoTo Connect caters to businesses that are focused on large-scale video communications and straightforward service tiers, Nextiva emerges as a cost-effective, robust solution, as broken down in our comparison.

Nextiva’s comprehensive feature set, coupled with its transparent pricing structure, provides businesses with the flexibility and scalability necessary to grow and adapt.

For businesses weighing their options, Nextiva’s business phone system stands out as a well-rounded solution that aligns affordability with a breadth of features, making it an attractive choice for businesses seeking a balance between cost and functionality. And if you require phone number porting from an existing provider to Nextiva, we can help with that process!

GoTo Connect Pricing FAQs

Does GoTo Connect offer a free trial?

Yes, GoTo Connect offers a free trial so you can try out the service before you commit to a paid plan.

What is the difference between GoTo Connect and GoTo Meeting?

GoTo Meeting is a separate product from GoTo Connect that focuses specifically on video conferencing. While GoTo Connect includes video conferencing functionality, it also offers a wider range of features like cloud PBX, call center, and messaging.

Does the GoTo app cost money?

There isn’t a single “GoTo app” that encompasses all of GoTo’s offerings. GoTo Connect has a mobile app, but since it’s part of the overall GoTo Connect service, it would follow the pricing plan you have for GoTo Connect (free with trial, or paid subscription).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Devin Pickell

Devin Pickell was a growth marketer at Nextiva. He combines his skills in content marketing, SEO, data analysis, and marketing strategy to meet audiences in their journey. He has helped scale SaaS brands like G2 and Sphere Software and contributed to G2's traffic growth. You can find him tweeting about e-commerce, sports, gaming, and business.

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Ooma Business Pricing: Is it Worth it?

April 29, 2024 8 min read

Alex Doan

Alex Doan

Ooma Office offers a cloud-based VoIP phone system designed to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

It’s a feature-rich alternative to traditional phone lines at a competitive price point. But does Ooma measure up and meet your business needs?

This article will break down Ooma’s business pricing structure against call quality, features, and value your business needs, helping you decide if it’s the right fit for your company.

Ooma Business Pricing & Plans

Ooma Office offers three tiered plans: Essentials, Pro, and Pro Plus. Each plan caters to businesses with varying needs and budgets.

Here’s a table outlining the key features and pricing:

FeatureEssentials ($19.95/user/month)Pro ($24.95/user/month)Pro Plus ($29.95/user/month)
UsersUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Phone Numbers (1st per user)IncludedIncludedIncluded
Additional Local Phone Numbers$9.95/month (US)$9.95/month (US)$9.95/month (US)
Text MessagingUp to 250 texts/monthUp to 1000 texts/month
Video ConferencingUp to 25 participantsUp to 100 participants
Call RecordingStandardEnhanced (always-on and ad hoc)
Voicemail Transcription
CRM IntegrationMicrosoft Office 365 and Google IntegrationAdvanced CRM Integration
Business Analytics

As you can see, the higher tiers offer additional features like enhanced call recording, voicemail transcription, CRM integration, and business analytics.

Let’s look at each plan in detail.

1. Essentials plan — $19.95/user/month

The Essentials plan offers the smallest assortment of features and is a suite of basic call management and business communication functionalities.

The Essentials plan includes basic features such as:

The Essentials plan focuses primarily on calling. Features such as text messaging and video conferencing aren’t available on this plan, which is unusual for a communications platform.

For users in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, Ooma offers unlimited calling and call coverage without any additional charge.

Additionally, Ooma’s mobile app allows users to access their business phone system from their cell phones. However, it does not allow desktop access; that’s only available on the higher plan levels.

2. Pro plan — $24.95/user/month

For customers willing to spend a bit more for more advanced features, Ooma offers a Pro plan. This plan offers everything in the Essentials plan, plus several other features.

For starters, the Pro plan allows access to Ooma’s system through its desktop application, allowing users to make softphone calls from their computers as they would from their office phones.

The Pro plan includes advanced features such as:

3. Pro Plus plan — $29.95/user/month

The Ooma Office Pro Plus plan is the highest of the options in terms of both pricing and features. Pro Plus includes everything in the Pro plan, with some additions.

For instance, the Pro Plus plan enables more integrations, allowing Ooma to connect with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, as well as deeper integration capabilities with the Microsoft 365 suite of services. It expands Ooma Meetings videoconferencing to up to 100 participants, allowing for larger meetings.

The Pro Plus Plan also adds:

Additional Costs for Ooma Office

While the per-user fee covers most features, there are a few additional costs to consider:

Ooma Business vs. Nextiva Pricing

Now that you know what Ooma provides and what it costs, let’s compare it to Nextiva to see how it stacks up against the competition.

Here’s a comprehensive comparison of Ooma Business and Nextiva, highlighting their pricing, plans, and key features to help you choose the best fit for your small business.

Features & FunctionalityNextiva EssentialNextiva EnterpriseOoma Office EssentialsOoma Office Pro Plus
Monthly price (billed annually)$18.95$32.95$19.95$29.95
User capacityUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Unlimited voice and video calling (US and Canada)
Mobile apps (iOS and Android)
Toll-free minutes1,50012,500500500
Video conferencing participantsUnlimited100
Video meeting recording
Meeting scheduling and calendar integrations
Team messaging
Voicemail-to-email
Toll-free numbers
Unlimited internet fax
Auto attendant
SMS/MMS
Call recording
Multi-level auto attendant
Salesforce and HubSpot integrations
Call queues
Voicemail transcription
Advanced analytics and reporting
Microsoft Teams integration
Single sign-on

Essential plan — $18.95/user/month

Nextiva has an Essential plan that is slightly cheaper than Ooma’s and provides many features that Ooma reserves for its Pro and Pro Plus plans.

With Nextiva’s Essential plan, you get:

Professional plan — $22.95/user/month

The next level of Nextiva’s offerings is the Professional plan, which includes everything in the Essential plan, with some additions and improvements.

With Nextiva’s Professional plan, you get:

Nextiva integrations

Enterprise plan — $32.95/user/month

Finally, Nextiva’s Enterprise plan is designed to meet the communications needs of large organizations. The Enterprise plan enhances the Professional plan by adding even more features and flexibility.

With Nextiva’s Enterprise plan, you get:

All these features can be accessed through a single sign-on, saving users time and hassle as they go about their work.

Essential Small Business Phone System Features

While a wide variety of features is great, it can also be overwhelming and can overshadow the most essential features. Do you really need everything offered in each plan? What are the most essential features that Ooma and Nextiva have to offer?

Ooma Office for small businesses 

Ooma offers dozens of features on its Essentials plan, but which features are the most useful for small businesses? Ooma’s most important features are:

Nextiva for small businesses

Let’s compare Ooma’s essential features to Nextiva’s and see what else Nextiva can provide. Some key features from Nextiva’s platform include:

Mobile and desktop softphone

Is Ooma or Nextiva Right for Your Business?

When to choose Ooma

Ooma is a fine option for small businesses, as its straightforward plans are geared toward smaller teams. It’s a cost-effective option for businesses with basic phone needs, which many smaller organizations with minimal call center needs will find appealing.

It’s also a good option for remote workers and solo entrepreneurs, as it’s easy to set up and is reliable. Businesses with limited internet connections will also find Ooma’s Essentials Plan doesn’t drain much bandwidth, as it lacks bandwidth-intensive features like video conferencing.

When to choose Nextiva

Nextiva’s ease of use, scalable plans, and feature-rich platform make it a great choice for growing businesses, as it can accommodate their changing needs.

Additionally, businesses with teams that frequently collaborate and communicate will benefit from Nextiva’s video conferencing, file sharing, and messaging features, enabling seamless collaboration.

For businesses that frequently make international phone calls, Nextiva offers far more international calling options than Ooma, making it the preferred choice for many organizations.

Get a second opinion from VoIP expert Prince Rich on what he thinks of Nextiva. 

Getting Started With Nextiva Is Easy

When looking at Ooma and Nextiva, it’s clear that Nextiva is a cost-effective, user-friendly choice for small business owners with aspirations to grow. Nextiva offers a wider range of business phone features, particularly when it comes to communication and collaboration.

Nextiva is easy to scale, so it can grow as your business expands, whereas Ooma’s lack of flexibility might become limiting. Additionally, Nextiva consistently receives higher customer support ratings, so customers can rest easy knowing they’ll have 24/7 support along the way.

Learn more about Nextiva small business phone systems.

The call center solution teams love

See why top brands use Nextiva to handle calls at scale. Easy to use. Fast setup.

Ooma Pricing FAQs

Are there any contracts with Ooma Office?

No, Ooma Office plans are month-to-month with no contracts. You can cancel anytime.

What’s included in the different Ooma Office plans?

All Ooma Office plans include basic features like a desktop app, voicemail, and auto-attendant. As you move up in tiers, you get additional features like video conferencing, enhanced call recording, and CRM integration.

What are some limitations of Ooma Office?


– Call quality concerns: Some users report occasional issues with call quality, including dropped calls or connection problems.
– Limited features in the basic package: Features like voicemail-to-text transcription are not available in the most basic plan.
Potential pricing concerns: While Ooma Office is generally considered cost-effective, some users feel it can get expensive depending on the features needed and the number of users.
– Scalability limitations: Ooma Office might not be ideal for large businesses due to reported difficulties transferring calls within complex setups.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Doan

Alex Doan is an experienced senior marketing professional specializing in propelling growth for both B2B and B2C companies. Proficient in streamlining marketing operations for seamless sales transitions, utilizing analytics and consumer insights to achieve measurable outcomes. Committed to enhancing lead and customer experiences through effective journey mapping.

Posts from this author

Vonage Pricing: Is It Worth It for Small Businesses?

April 29, 2024 7 min read

Danny Grainger

Danny Grainger

For businesses, Vonage offers a cloud-based phone system that integrates calling, messaging, video conferencing, and other features.

Vonage is likely on the radar for small business owners and managers evaluating business phone systems. Known for its developer-focused APIs and unified communications platform, Vonage offers advanced functionality for companies needing customizable tools.

But with its wide array of plans and add-ons, is Vonage cost-effective for budget-conscious small businesses? Or does its pricing ultimately call its value into question?

We’ll analyze its pricing structure and core features to determine if Vonage is a good fit for SMBs. We’ll also compare it to Nextiva, an industry leader Vonage alternative known for affordable pricing and stellar customer and tech support.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear sense of whether Vonage is worth the investment for your small business needs.

Vonage Pricing & Plans

Vonage offers three main plans for small businesses: Mobile, Premium, and Advanced.

Vonage pricing plans: Mobile, Premium, Advanced

Pricing scales based on the number of users. For companies with 20–99 users:

Here’s a table outlining the core features and estimated monthly costs per user (based on tiers with 20-99 users):

FeatureMobile (Starting at)Premium (Starting at)Advanced (Starting at)
Price$10.49 per user/month
(Billed annually)
$17.49 per user/month
(Billed annually)
$24.49 per user/month
(Billed annually)
Unlimited domestic calling
SMS/MMS messaging
Desktop & mobile apps
Unlimited video meetings✅ (up to 200 participants)✅ (up to 250 participants)
VoIP desk phone support
Virtual receptionist
Call recording On-demand (15 hours per month)
Team messaging
App integrations
Call analytics

Additional Monthly Costs of Vonage Business

While the base Vonage plans seem attractively priced, many desired business communication features come with extra fees. These add-ons can substantially increase your total monthly costs. They are priced as follows:

FeatureMonthly Cost
AI virtual assistant$4.99
Business call recording service$49.99
Business inbox$9.99
Call queue$14.99
Conference bridge$14.99
International phone number$9.99
IP phone paging system$4.99
Local business phone number$4.99
Local paperless fax$14.99
On-demand call recording$4.99
Secondary line appearance$14.99
Toll-free company number$39.99
Virtual extension$14.99
Virtual mailbox$4.99
Virtual phone extensions$24.99
VolusionCustom
Vonage Support PLUS$9.99
VonageReachCustom

With essential functionality such as call forwarding, call queuing, call recording, and advanced call routing requiring add-ons, Vonage’s total monthly cost rises quickly.

Contract length and per-minute rates

Vonage typically requires a one-year contract for new accounts. While base plans offer unlimited domestic calling, international calls and exceeding included minutes (if applicable) may incur per-minute charges. Be sure to check Vonage’s rate sheet for specific international rates.

Free trial/guarantee

While Vonage doesn’t currently advertise a free trial, they may offer promotional trials from time to time. It’s best to check their website or contact sales for current offers.

Vonage Business Pricing vs. Competitors

When evaluating Vonage Business, it’s helpful to consider its competitors in the business phone system market. Here’s a brief comparison with Nextiva, one of Vonage’s top comeptitors to give you a perspective and alternatives to Vonage.

Comparing Vonage and Nextiva side by side reveals that Nextiva offers a similar plan for $22.95 per user/month, with a broader range of capabilities like intelligent call routing, CRM integrations, and customizable analytics.

Let’s take a loser look at Nextiva’s pricing:

Nextiva pricing & plans

Nextiva is a cloud-based VoIP alternative to Vonage, offering three plans that scale to meet growing business needs: Essential, Professional, and Enterprise.

Nextiva pricing plans: Essential, Professional, Enterprise

For companies with 20–99 users, Nextiva provides greater value compared to similarly priced Vonage plans:

Nextiva delivers more comprehensive features, enterprise-grade reliability, and greater long-term value at each plan level compared to Vonage’s offerings. Plus, Nextiva is better equipped to support business growth than Vonage’s limited plans.

Core UCaaS Features of Vonage & Nextiva

Let’s compare the two platforms’ core unified communications capabilities:

FunctionVonageNextiva
Voice and video callingStandard voice and video calling capabilities as offered by most UCaaS platforms.Exceptional voice and video quality and 100+ video meeting participants from the entry-level plan.
Team messaging and collaborationBasic collaboration features such as file sharing and document collaboration.Advanced team messaging and real-time collaboration tools included in Professional and Enterprise plans (Vonage charges extra).
Mobile integrationMobile integrations to make and receive VoIP calls, send and receive messages, and access team messages on personal mobile devices.Mobile and desktop apps (with higher ratings than Vonage’s app) for simple communication from anywhere.
Conference calling and online meetingsMulti-participant online meetings and conference calls with add-ons required to expand participants.Easy, reliable conferencing for up to 500 participants with no add-ons required.
Auto attendant and IVRCall queues and advanced call flows (available as an add-on). Advanced call routing included in plans and easy to customize.

Expanded comparison table

FeatureVonageNextiva
Ease of useVonage requires more expertise to manage advanced features and settings.Nextiva is intuitive and easy to use for non-technical users.
ScalabilityOffers scalable plans and pricing for growing businesses.Scales exceptionally well, from small businesses to enterprises.
Customer supportCustomer service receives mixed reviews and is lacking for smaller customers.Nextiva is renowned for stellar 24/7 customer support.
CRM integrationsIntegrates with some CRMs but has fewer native integrations than Nextiva.Seamlessly integrates with many popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics.
International callingOffers competitive international calling rates to certain countries.Offers global calling to 40+ countries starting at $0.01 per minute. 
CustomizationHas high customization through its APIs and development platform.Nextiva offers a no-code communication platform for businesses to use instantly.
ReliabilityVonage touts strong network uptime and reliability.Nextiva delivers exceptional 99.999% uptime on its network.
Add-ons and upsellsVonage’s base plans lack some essentials, pushing businesses into add-ons.Nextiva’s plans are transparent with few surprises.

Of particular note is the number of customer reviews for each platform, with Nextiva garnering more than double the number of reviews with similar customer satisfaction ratings. 

vonage-vs-nextiva-gartner-peerinsights

Which Provider Is Right for Your Business?

Choosing between Vonage and Nextiva depends on your company’s specific needs and priorities.

Vonage is a strong fit for:

Nextiva is best for:

The Verdict

When choosing a business phone system, you want a solution that’s easy to set up, packed with essential features, and ready to scale as your company grows.

Nextiva delivers on all counts.

Right out of the box, Nextiva’s base plans come loaded with must-have capabilities, including intelligent call routing, CRM integrations, and mobile apps. You don’t have to pay extra for add-ons just to get started. And Nextiva’s award-winning customer support makes setup and management simple for non-technical users.

Take a peek at the top features that Nextiva provides in this exclusive interview with Prince Rich:

Vonage charges businesses extra for otherwise standard features. Nextiva gives you complete unified communications from day one. As your team expands, Nextiva grows smoothly with your needs without requiring major system overhauls.

For most small and mid-sized businesses, Nextiva provides the ideal combination of affordability, ease of use, and enterprise-grade power. The transparent pricing and robust features included from the start allow your team to perform at their best across voice, video, messaging, and more.

A complete call center solution.

Ready to upgrade your business VoIP phone system and take your communication capabilities to the next level?

FAQs about Vonage Business Pricing

How much is Vonage per month?

Vonage Business pricing depends on the plan you choose and the number of users. Prices typically decrease per user as your user count goes up.

The three main plans range from $14.99 to $34.99 per user per month (for 20-99 users, billed monthly) with the price decreasing for larger teams and annual subscriptions. There are also potential additional fees for features and contracts. You need to request a quote from Vonage’s sales team for more than 99 users.


Is Vonage worth the money?

Whether Vonage is worth the money depends on your needs and budget. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide:

Pros: Affordable plans, good call quality, feature-rich business plans.
Cons: Requires contracts for some plans, limited features in the basic plan.

Vonage alternatives like Nextiva might be worth considering depending on your specific needs.

What is the best alternative to Vonage?

The best alternative depends on what features are most important to you. Here are a few popular options:

– Nextiva: Feature-rich, ideal for small teams and enterprise communication alike, offering advanced customer interaction management and internal collaboration capabilities.
– GoTo Connect: Value for money, good for globally distributed teams with video conferencing needs.
– Ooma Office: Simple and affordable, best for small businesses with basic phone requirements.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Danny Grainger

Danny Grainger is a seasoned copywriter who specializes in helping brands build awareness and effectively communicate their value to both businesses and clients. With a focus on business marketing, advertising, and SaaS, he has a knack for translating the intrinsic worth of products and services into compelling narratives.

Posts from this author

How Call Center Recording Software Is Changing

April 26, 2024 6 min read

Alex Doan

Alex Doan

Traditional call recording has long been the bread and butter of call centers. It enables them to accurately capture conversations, allowing for quality management and monitoring, improved dispute resolution, and targeted agent training.

However, sifting through those audio files can take hours, draining valuable contact center resources. Manual evaluation of call records can also make it difficult to identify trends in customer sentiment, agent performance, or call resolutions — especially given the high volume of calls that contact centers regularly manage.

Fortunately, many recent innovations in call center recording make it easier to observe the interactions between agents and customers.

What Call Center Recording Looks Like Today

Call center recording and analysis historically involved manually recording calls and then reviewing them as needed. Fortunately, call center recording has come a long way and now goes beyond audio to provide a richer picture for both inbound and outbound calls.

Screen recording

In addition to the audio recording, modern call center solutions capture the agent’s desktop screen, showing what they see during the phone call, which potentially includes the customer experience software and the client’s CRM.

Screen recording can be invaluable for the following purposes:

Integrated data capture

Today, many contact centers use VoIP technology, which offers plenty of advanced functionality, including integrated data capture as part of audio recordings.

In addition to the audio file, and potentially the screen recording, advanced call recording systems also collect additional data points, like the following:

The Shift to Conversational Intelligence

Many businesses and contact centers have recorded customer service calls for quality assurance and dispute resolution. Now, though, businesses can learn so much more from both customer service and sales calls, thanks to conversational intelligence (CI) features.

Speech analytics

Speech analytics uses AI to turn live calls into text via call center telephony, enabling authorized users to efficiently review interactions. This call monitoring technology enhances several key areas:

Conversational intelligence

CI is a call recording feature that can provide significant insight into the messaging during your customer calls. It can help call centers detect where they can make improvements at all points of the customer experience and then implement them accordingly.

Examples include:

Benefits of Integrated Call Center Recording Software

Some contact centers rely on standalone call recording solutions like Calabrio or Sybil. These can be effective, but they’re also clunky and inefficient.

Today’s advanced call center solutions offer extensive call recording capabilities within their suite of tools. Multiple benefits come with this integration, whether you’re recording sales calls or customer support calls.

Automatic call recording

Some separate call recording software requires manual processes, resulting in IT obstacles and potentially high-cost API integrations, but native recording features often include the option for automatic recording.

Nextiva’s VoIP phone system, for example, allows call centers and businesses to choose between the following options for call recording:

  • Always on: Always automatically record calls.
  • Always on, user-controlled: Always automatically record calls with the option to pause and resume recording.
  • On-demand call recording: Agents and supervisors can trigger call recording remotely or with their softphone app.

You can also set up automated announcements to inform the caller that their call is being recorded.

Seamless user experience

When using an advanced contact center solution, recording controls are part of the agent’s interface, eliminating the need to switch between applications. This can improve workflow efficiency and reduce errors, enhancing the customer experience.

Cloud contact center software makes it easier to manage customer calls in real time, even leveraging CRM integrations to provide agents with more advanced customer data. The ability to record calls — including pausing and resuming them — is at their fingertips as they deliver the best customer service possible.

Enhanced data management

Automatically linking call recordings to call data (including phone number and call duration) within the contact center platform allows for effortless real-time search and retrieval based on various criteria. This delivers more personalized experiences for each individual customer.

Improved reporting & analytics

Integrated call recording data provides a comprehensive view of call center performance and customer interactions. This empowers data-driven decision-making to optimize agent training, improve customer satisfaction, and boost overall call center effectiveness.

Call center managers can use call monitoring and customer support metrics to better understand the true customer experience, agent performance, and customer sentiment.

Security & compliance

All call centers need to consider data security and compliance with privacy regulations. Integration with specialized contact center solutions can offer advanced security and built-in privacy compliance features.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), for example, regulates over-the-phone payment processing. Businesses cannot store card validation codes, even if they’re encrypted, so it’s vital to be able to pause recordings while customers share payment data.

The healthcare industry must also take special care regarding HIPAA compliance. Nextiva has specialized HIPAA-compliant services for healthcare organizations, automatically removing some functions, like voicemail-to-text transcription.

Finally, businesses with customers in European territories should consider GDPR, which requires that all participants consent to call recording. Leveraging automatic call recording announcements at the beginning of each incoming or outbound call can help maintain compliance, and you can also include the disclosures in agent prompts for good measure.

Nextiva: Your All-in-One Call Center Recording Solution

More contact centers are moving away from traditional call center recording tools and opting instead for an integrated, well-rounded solution with advanced features. So, if you’re looking for the best call center software with an all-in-one recording solution, look for integrated platforms like Nextiva.

Take advantage of Nextiva’s call center solutions, which include the following benefits:

Nextiva offers dedicated contact center solutions, which include AI-powered features for inbound, outbound, and omnichannel customer interactions. Our software is scalable for call centers of all sizes.

Your complete call center solution.

See why top brands use Nextiva to handle calls at scale. Easy to use. Fast setup.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Doan

Alex Doan is an experienced senior marketing professional specializing in propelling growth for both B2B and B2C companies. Proficient in streamlining marketing operations for seamless sales transitions, utilizing analytics and consumer insights to achieve measurable outcomes. Committed to enhancing lead and customer experiences through effective journey mapping.

Posts from this author

The Buyer’s Guide to Outbound Call Center Software

April 26, 2024 14 min read

Alex Doan

Alex Doan

If you’re running large-scale sales and marketing campaigns, you need outbound call center software. It will provide all the tools and features required to coordinate call center campaigns across multiple channels to ensure efficiency and consistently deliver the best customer experience. 

What Is Outbound Call Center Software?

Outbound call center software is a specialized tool designed to facilitate and manage the outgoing communication activities of a call center. It automates and streamlines the process of making calls to customers or prospects for various purposes such as sales, customer updates, appointment setting, or market research. 

A key function of this software is to improve the productivity of an outbound call center. It achieves this by utilizing features such as auto-dialers and intelligent call routing systems, which help connect call center agents to customers or prospects quickly. 

Call center software provides tools for real-time performance monitoring, helping managers make data-driven decisions to enhance operations.

Unlike inbound call center software, which fields customer inquiries, outbound call center solutions are commonly used for sales, customer service, and other call center campaigns

Key Features to Look for in an Outbound Call Center Software

The best outbound call center solutions offer the following capabilities:

1. Automated dialing systems

Automated dialing systems are core features of an outbound call center software. They optimize the calling process by automating the dialing sequence, significantly increasing efficiency by reducing agent idle time. 

There are three primary types of dialers:

predictive-vs-automated-auto-dialer

2. Call scripting

Outbound call centers have built-in call scripting software to guide conversations with customers. 

The software lets you create pre-written templates for different customer conversation contexts, such as cold calling, responding to customer inquiries, troubleshooting issues, and de-escalating frustrating situations. Agents can use these scripts as they are or tweak them to match the specific customer interaction. 

For example, in industries where regulatory compliance is mandatory, scripts ensure that all the necessary information is conveyed correctly and that legal guidelines are followed. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and potential legal issues.

Call scripts ensure a consistent delivery no matter which agent customers interact with, enhancing the overall customer experience. 

3. Call recording and monitoring

When selecting outbound call center software, prioritize advanced call recording and monitoring features that offer real-time tracking of agent-customer interactions. 

Screenshot of call recording and monitoring screen

This functionality is essential for supervising call quality and ensuring agents provide a consistently high-quality customer experience. It also plays a crucial role in compliance, allowing managers to verify that conversations adhere to industry regulations and company policies.

Furthermore, the recorded calls serve as useful training material. By reviewing real-life interactions, new and existing agents can learn effective communication strategies and quickly rectify any shortcomings in their approaches, thereby enhancing their overall performance

This is also applicable to sales teams, as it allows them to analyze conversations as they happen, identifying key customer cues that may signal new sales opportunities or areas where additional product training is needed. These immediate insights help sales professionals adapt their strategies on the fly, significantly increasing the likelihood of closing deals.

4. Reporting and analytics 

Choose call center software with robust reporting and analytics features. At the very least, the software should allow you to monitor key metrics, such as the number of inbound, outbound, abandoned, and missed calls throughout each day.

You’ll use this information to optimize your call center operations. For example, if you notice you’re receiving many inbound calls during a particular time of the day, you can assign more agents to cover that period.

However, to truly leverage the power of analytics, look for features that go beyond simple metrics. Advanced software solutions offer detailed insights into call durations, wait times, and resolution rates. They also provide tools for deeper analysis, including trend detection, peak load forecasting, and behavior segmentation. 

5. CRM integration

A good call center software integrates with your customer relationship management (CRM) tool for seamless data exchange. This integration facilitates the smooth exchange of data between the two systems, ensuring that agents have immediate access to comprehensive, up-to-date customer profiles, including purchase history, customer preferences, service records, and health scores.

With CRM integration, every interaction within the outbound call center is instantly updated in the CRM, maintaining a consistent and current view of the customer’s status. This synchronization helps in personalizing customer interactions, as agents are always informed about the latest developments in each customer’s journey. It also prevents the duplication of efforts and reduces the chance of errors, which can occur when agents need to switch between multiple platforms.

Customer-journey

Customer updates in the outbound call center are automatically reflected in the CRM tool. Agents can also use the embedded click-to-dial button to initiate customer calls from the CRM tool without switching to the outbound call center software.

Plus, integrated CRM systems typically include productivity-enhancing features such as click-to-dial functionality. This feature allows agents to initiate calls directly from within the CRM by simply clicking on a customer’s phone number, which eliminates the need for manually dialing or switching applications. This not only speeds up the response time but also ensures a smoother workflow, allowing agents to spend more time engaging with customers.

6. Omnichannel communication

Coordinating customer communications across channels can be challenging. That’s why good outbound call center software lets you centralize all your customer touchpoints — from email to social media and live chat — in one place. 

The key benefit of omnichannel communication is that it ensures consistency in customer interactions. For example, if a potential customer first reaches out through email and then follows up with a phone call, the agent handling the call will have immediate access to the email conversation. This continuity eliminates the need for customers to repeat information, thereby enhancing the customer experience and reducing the time spent on each interaction.

omnichannel-cx-benefits

This integrated approach allows for personalized customer service. With full visibility into the customer’s journey across channels, agents can proactively address concerns, anticipate needs, and offer tailored solutions informed by previous interactions. 

Outbound Call Center Software Use Cases

An outbound call center solution has several business applications, including:

1. Sales and lead generation

Outbound sales software provides end-to-end telemarketing solutions, such as CRM integration, predictive dialing, and performance tracking, for large-scale sales and lead generation campaigns.

CRM integrations give agents access to up-to-date customer and prospect information, including contact details, previous interactions, and purchase history, to tailor sales pitches and improve the chance of success. 

Agents can initiate calls from the CRM or outbound calling software via a click-to-call button instead of manual dialing. You can also set up predictive dialers to auto-dial numbers and route the answered calls to available agents for increased call center efficiency. 

The software tracks and analyzes performance metrics, such as call volume, conversion rates, and average call duration, helping managers optimize their sales and lead generation campaigns and improve results over time.

Average-Handle-Time-calculation

2. Customer satisfaction surveys 

Outbound contact centers have embedded survey tools for measuring customers’ feelings after every interaction with your business. 

You can build customer satisfaction and net promoter score surveys and automatically administer them at the end of every customer interaction via email, live chat, or SMS. Then, you can filter the results by the most positive and most negative responses. 

What is a net promotor score

Agents can call the customers in these categories to better understand their perspectives and gather in-depth feedback in real time. 

3. Market research

Outbound call center software solutions are useful for gathering first-party data for market research. First-party data refers to data a company collects directly from its customers, usually through surveys, polls, and one-on-one conversations. 

For large-scale quantitative data collection, you can use the software’s built-in survey tools to administer polls and surveys across all customer touchpoints, including social media, emails, and live chatbots. Consider organizing direct telephone conversations with small-sized focus groups by customer segment for qualitative feedback.

Nextiva built-in customer survey tool

4. Debt collection

Outbound call center software can help you streamline debt recovery through call scripts and automated follow-up messaging. 

You can create Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)-compliant call scripts to guide your reps through debt recovery conversations. This ensures that all calls comply with FDCPA rules. 

An automatic message can play before connecting calls to a live agent, informing recipients that the call is an attempt to collect a debt. 

Instead of manually following up on payments, you can program the call center software to send pre-recorded messages or emails to debtors who have missed payments on specific schedules, making debt collection more efficient.

5. Appointment setting

Outbound call center software can double as a centralized scheduling system. For example, you can block standard business hours for appointments so your customers know when agents or salespeople are available for meetings. You can set up autoresponders for appointment requests made outside business hours and reroute these requests to live agents. 

Once an appointment is confirmed, the software will send customers reminders via email or text message at specific intervals so they don’t miss it. Multiple agents can view and manage the same schedule, limiting double bookings or scheduling conflicts.

Best Outbound Call Center Providers

Here are the top outbound call center solutions for your organization. Read on to see which features and pricing stand out for outbound calling. 

1. Nextiva 

Nextiva call center

Nextiva is a robust cloud-based call center solution with outbound capabilities. Unlike traditional call centers, which are restricted to a specific location, Nextiva handles all calls via the internet, enabling flexible and distributed communication. This means your agents can deliver the same customer experience from anywhere, whether on-premise or remotely.

Top features

Why choose Nextiva?

Enterprise-grade mobility

Nextiva’s VoIP systems provide unmatched enterprise-grade mobility, allowing you to conduct business seamlessly, whether you’re working remotely or from the office. 

With the NextivaONE App, your business gains a robust, secure solution for full mobility. This technology ensures that you can always stay connected and manage business operations from any location, enhancing flexibility and efficiency. 

The app facilitates reliable communication and integrates various business functions into a single platform, streamlining processes and boosting productivity. By adopting Nextiva, you are equipping your business with a powerful tool that supports a dynamic, modern workforce. 

Security and reliability designed for enterprises

Nextiva’s security and reliability are specifically engineered for enterprise needs, ensuring your communications infrastructure never lets you down. Boasting eight points of presence and carrier-grade data centers, Nextiva offers an impressive 99.999% uptime

This means you can consistently maintain flawless communication with your customers without interruption. By leveraging one of the world’s most dependable enterprise-ready voice networks, Nextiva provides you with a seamless, secure, and robust platform that can handle any business demands. 

This high level of reliability and security ensures that every interaction is safeguarded, giving you the peace of mind to focus on growing your business and enhancing customer relations. 

Actionable voice and business analytics

With customizable dashboards and wallboards, Nextiva enables you to tailor your monitoring tools to meet the needs of your organization, enhancing oversight and driving performance at all levels. 

Ready-to-use analytics ensures you can make informed decisions quickly, optimize operations, and boost productivity throughout your company. By leveraging these powerful analytics, you position your business to excel by continuously improving strategies and achieving key performance targets. 

Your enterprise communications partner

Nextiva stands out as your premier enterprise communications partner backed by award-winning customer service. Nextiva has garnered top ratings from industry-leading authorities such as Gartner and Frost & Sullivan. 

To show our commitment to excellence, Nextiva ensures you have 24/7 access to our customer support team, which is ready to assist you at any time. Additionally, you can enhance your experience with our Professional Services add-ons, which offer hands-on consultations tailored to your specific communications needs.

By choosing Nextiva, you are selecting a partner recognized for its dedication to quality and customer satisfaction, ensuring your enterprise communications are in expert hands.

Track and analyze your entire pipeline for valuable hidden business insights

By monitoring the complete customer journey — from initial lead generation to the end of the lifecycle — you can capture every interaction along the way. This comprehensive tracking and analysis offer a detailed view of your customer engagements, allowing you to refine strategies, enhance customer relationships, and drive business growth.

With Nextiva, you gain the tools to understand the nuances of your operations and make data-driven decisions that propel your company forward. 

Pricing 

Nextiva’s call center plan starts at $50 per user/month. With this, you get unlimited call queues, intelligent call distribution, and up to 500 queued calls. 

2. Five9

Five9 call center

Five9 is a call and contact center solution that mostly caters to mid-sized and enterprise businesses with complex needs. It offers AI-powered predictive dialing, omnichannel communication, and advanced analytics to improve customer engagement and optimize agent productivity.

Top features 

Pricing

Five9’s voice-only plan costs $175/month and offers blended calling features (inbound and outbound), call recording, and 24/7 customer support. To access more features and platforms, you’ll need to upgrade to its higher-tiered plans.

3. Genesys 

Genesys call center

Genesys is a highly customizable contact center platform that offers outbound calling solutions, including workforce engagement and automation tools. It’s also hosted on the cloud, delivering call center flexibility for enterprise businesses. 

Top features

Pricing

Genesys’s voice-only plan costs $75/month and offers voice outbound campaigns, performance dashboards, and speech-enabled interactive voice response. 

What to Consider When Choosing Outbound Call Center Software 

Beyond features, you should consider scalability, pricing, ease of use, and security when choosing a call center software solution. Let’s examine these criteria further.

1. Pricing 

Choose outbound call center software that offers the best value for your budget. If you’re a small business, consider choosing a call center provider that offers flexible pricing plans without locking you into expensive long-term contracts. 

You should also check for ad-hoc costs outside monthly subscription fees, such as the maintenance and license fees, as they can rack up quickly. An outbound call center solution might have a low base fee, but adding all the other fees may blow your budget, so be sure that you can comfortably cover all its costs long-term before investing.

2. Scalability 

Choose a call center solution that scales with your organization. It should be able to expand its bandwidth to accommodate business changes, such as an increase in customers, agents, and channels. 

Switching call center software every few months makes your team inefficient. Each time a new software is implemented, the team must learn the ins and outs of the new system, which can be time-consuming and confusing. This learning curve can reduce productivity as team members struggle to navigate the software and adapt to its features.

3. Ease of use

Ensure that the call center software is easy to set up and use. Ideally, you shouldn’t require any advanced technical skills and knowledge to implement the software for your call center. 

It should have self-service resources for troubleshooting issues independently. A responsive support team should also be on standby to answer your questions and help as needed.

4. Security

Ensure the software has robust security features to protect sensitive customer data. It should offer voice call encryption to protect the information exchanged during outbound and inbound calls. 

It should also meet global security standards like SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI to guarantee data security across all channels. 

Make Outbound a Breeze With Nextiva

You don’t need to invest in separate call center software for inbound and outbound campaigns. You can enjoy the best of both worlds with Nextiva. 

Nextiva offers a robust platform with outbound capabilities for lead generation, sales and market research, and inbound calling features for fielding customer inquiries. It’s affordable, easy to use, and scales with your business. 

Learn more about Nextiva’s comprehensive contact center solutions for your business.

Your complete call center solution.

See why top brands use Nextiva to handle calls at scale. Easy to use. Fast setup.

Outbound Call Center FAQs

Can I use an outbound call center for customer service?

Yes, an outbound call center can be used for customer service. Outbound call centers are typically associated with proactive customer outreach like sales and product updates, but they’re also effective for service follow-ups, satisfaction surveys, and proactive support. This approach helps businesses address issues before customers initiate contact.

For example, Nextiva’s outbound solutions offer many useful contact center integrations with CRM tools, allowing agents to access detailed customer histories and past purchases. This personalization enhances the customer service experience, improving satisfaction and retention.

How can I improve the reputation of our outbound dials?

To enhance the reputation of your outbound calls, use a STIR/SHAKEN-compliant VoIP provider. This helps inform other telephone companies that your calls are safe, secure, and trusted. Also, ensure your outbound calls last longer than 30 seconds, effectively reducing perceptions of spam and improving response rates. Additionally, training agents to handle calls professionally boosts your campaign’s reputation.

Nextiva offers features like predictive dialers and call scripting to improve call quality. These tools ensure calls are timed well and that conversations are TCPA-compliant.

Can I distribute outbound and inbound calls to the same agents?

Yes, through blended call center operations, both outbound and inbound calls can be distributed to the same agents. This strategy increases flexibility and efficiency, optimizes staffing, and reduces downtime by balancing the workload among agents.

Solutions like those from Nextiva support blended environments, allowing agents to switch seamlessly between inbound and outbound calls. This setup not only boosts efficiency but also enhances agent skills across various customer interactions, building a more adaptable workforce.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Doan

Alex Doan is an experienced senior marketing professional specializing in propelling growth for both B2B and B2C companies. Proficient in streamlining marketing operations for seamless sales transitions, utilizing analytics and consumer insights to achieve measurable outcomes. Committed to enhancing lead and customer experiences through effective journey mapping.

Posts from this author

The way we communicate with others is so ingrained in our daily lives that we seldom pause to think about its significance. This is especially true when it comes to business communication. After all, organizations aren’t faceless entities — they’re composed of real people working together as a team.

Effective communication influences every aspect of a company, from processes and efficiency to employee morale and customer satisfaction, which significantly enhances decision-making and problem-solving capabilities.

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know to establish a robust business communication process that will benefit your company.

What Is Business Communication?

Business communication is the process of sharing information between people within the workplace and outside a company.

Effective business communication is how employees and management interact to reach organizational goals. Its purpose is to improve organizational practices and reduce errors. It’s important to work on both your communication skills and communication processes to achieve effective business communication. 

The importance of business communication also lies in:

All organized activity in a company relies on the process of business communication and your communication strategy. This could be anything from managerial communication to technical communication with vendors.

And once communication becomes unclear, the company’s core systems risk falling apart. Data shows that 60% of internal communications professionals do not measure internal communications. Potential reasons include not knowing where to start, the next steps, or how to calculate ROI.

See why 100K+ brands use Nextiva.

Get your business phone, messages, video meetings, contact management and notes – integrated in ONE powerful app.

Why is business communication important?

Voice solutions like VoIP (Nextiva or other alternatives) will likely result in higher employee engagement. And companies with connected employees in the workplace have seen a spike in productivity of up to 25%.

Companies with an engaged workforce see a 19.2% growth in operating income over a 12-month period. Those with low engagement scores earn 32.7% less.

Graphic showing why is business communication important

How much more successful would you be if you had better employee engagement? And how can you create a business communication process that will make it possible?

What Are the Four Types of Business Communication?

Let’s first differentiate the four main types of communication in a typical organization:

Business Communication vs. Business Communication Services

Business communication typically refers to the act of communicating in your business. On the other hand, business communication services refer to the types of software solutions you could use to help facilitate communication and collaboration across your business. 

Business communication services include: 

  • Voice solutions like VoIP
  • Software that allows you to conduct video meetings
  • Email services
  • Contact center software that manages communication with your customers
  • Small business VoIP that let you take calls and communicate from anywhere

Which Business Communication Services Does My Business Need?

The answer largely depends on the size and preferences of your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. But one thing is for sure: You will set yourself up for success by only using the business communication services you actually need.

For example: You want a forum board, so you and your staff spend weeks finding the best solution and setting it up. After a while, you learn that no one is using it because they get their answers faster from their team or documents. An unnecessary solution has cost you valuable time and money.

Or you install a quality video conferencing system, when in reality you only need a reliable business phone system to run your remote meetings. Every business will use web-based communication. 

All the other methods, however, will depend on individual company circumstances. Take the time to mindfully consider the value of each for your unique situation.

Problems That Effective Business Communication Can Solve

Clear and effective business communication is critical for teams, employees, managers, and executives to perform their jobs and fulfill their responsibilities.

Without the right processes and tools in place, the flow of information is interrupted and people are left in the dark. This can lead to serious consequences for the company, from unsatisfied employees and customers to lost profits.

The transparent flow of information is an obvious overarching goal of a business communication process. 

Here are some deeper problems that successful business communication solves.

1. Email overload and lack of everyday productivity and clarity

In many workplaces, people are simply overwhelmed by the number of messages they receive in a single day. In his book Message Not Received, Phil Simon said the average person receives 120-150 emails per day.

Because of this, we can easily misplace or completely overlook a crucial piece of information in our inboxes. But with a business communication system in place, companies can reduce digital distractions and create space for ideas and thinking.

2. Horizontal and vertical communication silos

Teams and departments don’t always exchange essential information. Sometimes there’s no direct way of reaching out to a department manager when there’s an issue inside a team. These silos form easily and often without anyone noticing but can easily be remedied with a business communication plan in place.

3. Poor communication with remote employees

Remote work is here to stay. The State of Remote Work report from Buffer shows that 98% of employees would like to work remotely for at least some of the time:

Graphic showing that 98% of employees prefer to work remotely

Among the struggles when it comes to working remotely are collaboration and communication, which indicates the value of the right communication systems in place.

4. Employee turnover/low employee engagement

When the best workers from your organization leave, it puts your ability to serve customers at risk. It’s also expensive. Losing an employee can cost the business:

  • One to two times an employee’s yearly salary
  • $1,500 for an hourly worker
  • 100% to 150% of an employee’s annual salary for technical positions
  • Up to 213% of an employee’s annual salary for C-suite positions

But when companies communicate effectively, they are 50% more likely to report turnover levels below the industry average.

5. Poor customer service

If there’s poor communication in an organization, two things happen when it comes to customer service: 

  • First, employees in customer-facing roles won’t have the information they need. 
  • Second, customers will sense low employee morale and have a negative experience.

In fact, one study found that employee attitude improvement impacts customer satisfaction, which then results in an increase in revenue.

The importance of non-verbal communication in business 

Non-verbal communication covers so much ground – from your facial expressions to your tone in an email. Considering that the vast majority of external business communication happens asynchronously (meaning anything other than a 1-1, face-to-face meeting) via email, project management task boards, or chats…almost all of our business communication can be considered non-verbal. 

Therefore, it’s incredibly important to work on both verbal (face-to-face conversations, telephone calls) and non-verbal (facial expressions, body language, written) communication. 

Empathetic-customer-service

Top tip? Read something out loud before you hit “send.” This is a good gut check to hear how your message is coming across. 

5 Steps to Set Up Your Business Communication Process

A solid business communication process is essential for the happiness of your employees and customers. Ultimately, this leads to financial stability.

About 29% of employees say their current internal business communication tools do not work effectively. Some of the reasons include lack of transparency, organizational silos, information overload, or the absence of an appropriate communication channel.

And according to Apollo Technical, 86% of employees and executives consider inefficient communication to be the reason behind workplace failures.

It’s clear that we can no longer ignore the importance of improving business communications, both internal and external. Here are five steps you can follow to ensure a successful business communication process.

1. Audit your current state of business communication and set goals

No matter what stage your company is in, you need a business communication plan in place. However, to ensure effective communication, you need to focus on the areas that require the biggest improvement right now and work your way to other areas later.

For example, these might be some of the reasons your communication needs revisiting:

You might experience more than one of these or a completely different scenario. Identify it and set goals for your business communication process based on it. For example, your goals can include:

  • A specific employee turnover or satisfaction rate
  • Customer satisfaction rate
  • Number of projects completed
  • Number of interactions between departments

2. Identify core groups in your organization and their relationships with each other

Look into the structure of your organization and all the groups involved in its ability to function. Take note of every group that requires information to function. This should include:

From here, evaluate the work they do on an ongoing basis and the results expected of them, and then map out the way they need to communicate in order for their jobs to get done, as well as the appropriate communication tools required.

Depending on your company size, this might be a large task, so give yourself plenty of time. Some of the main questions to ask are:

  • Which teams and people have to talk to whom on a daily basis? What about weekly, biweekly, and monthly?
  • What communication happens only when there’s an ongoing crisis?
  • How are managers and team leaders maintaining progress in their departments? How does reporting work?
  • Is there a knowledge library that has the potential to reduce unnecessary meetings and conversations?
  • Which projects and processes need approvals from other people in the company? How are approvals requested and facilitated?

At a minimum, the answers to these questions should give you an insight into the necessary amount of emails, messages, calls, meetings, and documents required for everything to happen in the designated time frame.

3. Define methods of communication

Next, choose the best methods of effective business communication that align with your goals, as well as the interactions between core groups in your company. Review the list of communication tools and technologies mentioned earlier and make sure to add any unique ones to your company:

Which of these are essential for your organization to reach its goals? What’s optional and might see resistance in adoption? Which ones create the risk of overwhelming employees with too many tools and should be simplified?

Be realistic about your specific needs. For example, a five-person startup where everyone works in the same office will likely focus on:

  • Web-based communication
  • Face-to-face meetings
  • Customer management

And a 50-person company that is fully remote will invest more resources into:

  • Phone and video conferencing
  • Document organization to be able to diligently track their processes

A large global enterprise will probably use all of the listed methods of communication and have dedicated teams for many of them.

4. Choose the right communication tools

There’s no handbook that defines which tools are absolutely best for each purpose. Gmail versus Outlook. Google Drive versus Dropbox. Slack versus Nextiva Chat. The battles go on, but your choice is entirely up to the preference of you and your workforce.

Here are some tips when it comes to selecting the right tools:

5. Document the process

Finally, take note of everything you do throughout this setup and turn in into a shared document that’s accessible to the entire organization. This way, each employee can refer to an intentionally developed communication plan and decide on the best action for the situation they’re in.

The document will also help newly on-boarded employees easily grasp all the tools and best communication practices.

You can create a recurring calendar reminder for yourself and your team to revisit the document once a quarter. This way, you can make sure the plan is still serving its best purpose and update it if necessary.

Business Communication Channels

Business communication takes place in many forms – verbal or written, in-person or remotely  –  but it is critical to the happiness and, thus, productivity of your employees in the workplace.

There is no one perfect channel for any particular company; it entirely depends on the context.

Written communication is great for keeping a paper trail of decisions and actions made as well as for putting strategies and plans in place. Verbal interactions enable instantaneous idea generation and a more open flow of thoughts.

Let’s take a look at the best methods of business communication applicable to some or all of the above scenarios.

Asynchronous vs synchronous communication in remote teams

1. Web-based communication

This includes everyday communication channels like email and instant messaging applications (such as Slack, Hangouts, or even Nextiva Chat). The benefits of email and messaging lie in the ability to have private conversations in a busy office environment, as well as sharing a message with many people all at once.

2. Telephone meetings

Phone conversations remove the location barrier to running productive, fast-moving meetings. It allows for better idea exchange thanks to the non-verbal communication (tone of voice) compared to written communication. Cloud phone systems can accelerate onboarding and overall team collaboration.

Nextiva's Cloud phone system

3. Video conferencing

Great video conferencing systems enable people at remote locations to run meetings that feel as close to in-person meetings as possible. They take phone meetings one step up.

4. Face-to-face meetings

In-person meetings can help a business move forward with ideas quickly. Research shows that face-to-face meetings generate 15-20% more ideas than virtual meetings.

However, having a rock-solid meeting agenda is essential for effective meetings because 46% of employees rarely leave a meeting knowing what they’re supposed to do next:

46% of employees rarely leave a meeting knowing what they’re supposed to do next

5. Reports and official documents

Documenting activities that impact other people and departments is a crucial part of a well-oiled business communication system. The ability to refer to a written document at any moment reduces the chance for confusion or disagreement and provides extra clarity in communication.

6. Presentations

Presentations supported by reports and PowerPoint slide decks are often how meetings with larger groups are conducted. These are great for sharing new ideas in a visual way that creates space for questions and any clarifications.

7. Forum boards and FAQs

Having an internal area for employees to refer to frequently asked questions on various departmental topics and ask new ones will make them more productive and up-to-date on any matters they deal with regularly.

8. Surveys

Both internal and customer surveys are ideal ways to gather feedback and ratings on important topics. Surveys facilitate a healthy cycle of feedback-supported improvements and open a communication channel between all levels inside an organization.

Nextiva's customer survey software

9. Customer management activities

This can include any customer relations activity, such as live chat support, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, customer onboarding processes, and customer reviews.

Your Company Success Starts With Communication

Poor communication in business carries too many risks to be overlooked.

Great communication, however, brings an opportunity for outstanding employee and customer engagement. It creates clarity, more significant outputs, and growth in revenue and profit.

Whether you have a business communication system in place or are yet to establish one, remember to:

As a result, you’ll see happy, productive people excited to work on projects and create meaningful results for the benefit of everyone involved.

Ready to Improve Your Business Communication? 

Nextiva’s business communications platform organizes your team’s communication by bringing it all into a single platform. No more shuffling around to find what you need, no more frustration flipping between screens. It’s all here in a single platform. This tool makes your work life more efficient and helps bring all your business communication into one simple view. 

Talk to an expert today to see how we can help simplify your business communication. 

See why 100K+ brands use Nextiva.

Get your business phone, messages, video meetings, contact management and notes – integrated in ONE powerful app.

Business Communication FAQs

What is business communication?

Business communication refers to the sharing of information between people within and outside of an organization to promote an effective and efficient business environment. It involves the constant flow of information and encompasses a variety of modes of communication, including verbal, written, and non-verbal.

What are the 7 Cs of business communication?

The seven Cs of business communication are:

Clarity: Being clear about the message you want to convey.
Conciseness: Using fewer words without sacrificing the quality of the information.
Consideration: Understanding the audience’s perspectives and tailoring the message accordingly.
Concreteness: Being specific, definitive, and vivid rather than vague and general.
Correctness: The information should be factually and grammatically accurate.
Courtesy: Being polite, respectful, and considerate in communication.
Completeness: Providing all necessary information for the recipient to make informed decisions.

What are business communication skills?

Business communication skills include:

Verbal Communication: The ability to convey information to others effectively and efficiently.
Written Communication: Skills for writing clear, concise, and actionable messages.
Non-verbal Communication: Using body language, facial expressions, and gestures to convey messages without words.
Listening: The ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
Presentation Skills: Effectively presenting information to a group.
Negotiation: Reaching agreements that benefit all parties through effective dialogue.
Conflict Resolution: Addressing disagreements and finding solutions diplomatically.

Why is communication important for a business?

The importance of communication for business ensures that information is accurately conveyed between stakeholders, facilitates operations, and aids in decision-making processes. Effective communication improves efficiency, builds stronger relationships, and supports problem-solving, innovation, and growth within the company.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Doan

Alex Doan is an experienced senior marketing professional specializing in propelling growth for both B2B and B2C companies. Proficient in streamlining marketing operations for seamless sales transitions, utilizing analytics and consumer insights to achieve measurable outcomes. Committed to enhancing lead and customer experiences through effective journey mapping.

Posts from this author
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