When customers call a call center, they expect immediate solutions. Quick and seamless communication, without keeping the customer waiting, are gospels on which call centers operate. Customer support and call centers are supposed to be operational 24/7 without disruption.
How can the best phone systems for call centers help your business? Call centers deal with several challenges - too many tools, agents not retaining information, performance issues, and attrition.
Knowing what the market offers is essential when choosing the best call center phone system, as too many tools can confuse your employees, leading to a dip in your service levels. As call center phone systems are abundant, selecting the best one might be challenging.
Switch to Community Phone, the best call center phone system in 2023. With features like automated answering services, call routing, live call transfer, and voicemail-to-email, Community Phone is what your call center needs!
Read on to learn more!
Essential Call Center Phone System Features
Knowing your call center’s requirements is the best way to get the ultimate phone system for your business. Being mindful of your budget and the essential features you need will help you zero in on the right phone system for your business.
1. Automatic Call Distribution
Call routing is the first important feature you should look for when choosing phone system software.
It works like a filter that automatically routes the call to the relevant department or agent based on predetermined conditions. ACD is considered the foundation for the other significant features of phone systems software.
2. Call Forwarding and Skill-Based Routing
Skill-based routing is the best feature of a call center phone system. It filters out the inbound calls based on predefined conditions and forwards them to the relevant department. It helps save time and resources by routing calls to the appropriate department or agent.
3. Voicemail Capabilities
Voicemail-to-email and voicemail-to-text are necessary features that bring ease when dealing with high call volume. Voicemail-to-text transcripts the content into text form, making it easy to know the call’s content without actually listening.
4. Call Recording and Analytics
Recording calls can help set quality parameters and coach agents. Call analyses help analyze the performance and course-correct to achieve goals and objectives.
5. Interactive Voice Response
The best phone system must contain an Interactive Voice Response unit allowing you to route calls to the relevant department. It should provide the option to create a custom design to route processes to meet the desired goals.
The Best Phone Systems For Call Centers
1. Community Phone
Community Phone is the best call center telephone system in the U.S that works off of cell towers, eliminating the need for an internet and copper connection. Substantial coverage in rural and low-reception areas, cost-effective plans, business calling features, and 24/7 reliable customer service make Community Phone stand out from competitors.
Features
Here are some Community Phone features specific to your call center:
Automatic Call Distribution and Call Routing
Community Phone ensures you don’t miss calls, improving your overall response rate. You can program set rules to ensure your route customer calls to the appropriate agent or department.
You can also program your phone system to ring several phones concurrently, enabling the next available representative to answer the call. Or, if any of your lines are busy or no one’s answering a call, Community Phone’s innovative system will ring the second line to ensure the call gets responded to on time.
Live Transfer
Never ask your customer to hold the line while you get the right guy on the line. With the Community Phone live call transfer feature, you can transfer the call to the right person in the team without any delay to ensure your agents answer your customer’s query.
Custom Dial Menu
You can set up a recorded greeting or a welcome message for your customers when they call in. You can share relevant information regarding your company or department, set business hours, and route the calls to voicemail during peak or off-business hours.
Voicemail-to-email
With this feature, you can access voicemails as audio files or transcripts in your email, enabling you to access them at your convenience and respond to them.
How To Setup Community Phone in Your Call Center
Setting up a Community Phone in a call center is convenient. Community Phone uses an advanced technological framework that uses a landline base, a device used to connect your landline phones with cell towers in your area without the hassle of any wiring. Plug your phone into the base and the device into an outlet, and enjoy unlimited nationwide calls.
Requirements
All you need is a Community Phone’s landline base to start. With other brands, you have to buy expensive hardware and fancy gadgets to start making calls. The landline base of Community Phone is smartly optimized in a way that it works with every single phone model, so you don’t have to buy any new phone.
Most phone services depend on the availability of the internet, so when the internet is out, your phone services are out too. Since Community Phone does not require an internet connection, you can enjoy the reliability of a landline, features like that of a VoIP phone, and wireless access all in one.
Pricing
Community Phone offers various affordable plans customized to suit your business's specific needs. Your account manager should be happy to understand your requirements and get you the best deal for your business.
Talk to Community Phone’s business specialist today to get your custom quote!
The Verdict
With Community Phone, you won’t have to worry about any interruption in the network due to an internet outage, bad weather, or a power outage. You can continue with business as usual as Community Phone eliminates the need for an internet or copper connection.
You can contact Community Phone’s customer support via chat, email, or phone. They offer unlimited nationwide calling to help you stay connected with your customers across the states! The best part is that you get real, active customer support (not just a few bots) that helps.
2. AirCall
Aircall offers cloud-based call center services to make outbound and receive inbound calls. The AirCall phone system doesn’t require special equipment.
It works with all modern tools you'll need to integrate according to your business plan. It’s a good cloud-based phone system for contemporary businesses to connect with, such as sales teams, support teams, and growing companies.
Features
- Virtual call centers based.
- Call recording, call routing, and Voicemail
- Analytics such as call whispering and call center analytics
- Advanced level of CRM integrations.
Requirements
Aircall requires only one thing to set up and be functional; a stable internet connection. No expensive equipment is needed.
Pricing
Aircall phone system provides two packages; Essential for $30 and Professional for $50. Other than that, you can also go for the custom price packages.
3. CallHippo
CallHippo is an ideal choice for the sales and support teams in small and large business organizations. Regardless of how big or small a business you're running, it caters to serve from small start-ups to enterprises.
Features
- Skill-based routing
- Paid Add-ons
- Call Scripting
- Power dialer
Requirements
- Requires 64Kbps upstream and downstream speed for each concurrent call
- Plus, a minimum of 1 Mbps of internet connection for each person handling calls.
Pricing
CallHippo offers 10 days of free trials, and the paid subscription plans start from $16 for bronze to $24 for silver and go up to $40 for platinum, depending on the features and offerings.
4. Ooma Business
Ooma business is the cheapest VoIP service available in the market. Its offerings are limited, missing some advanced features - Artificial Intelligence, an intuitive User Interface, and Integration with other tools.
However, it’s the perfect phone system for startups and mid-size enterprises emerging on a small scale.
Features
- Video Conference
- SMS Messaging Support
- Functional with Analog phones
- Low International calling rates
Requirements
- Stable internet connection
- Home phone
Pricing
- Ooma Office of $19.95/User
- Ooma Office Pro of $24.95/User
- Ooma Enterprise Package of $27.99/User
5. Verizon
Contact Center solutions from Verizon provides cloud-based call center services like many other modern phone system software, and you can integrate it with multiple tools.
It gives the consumers plenty of options to reach out to the agents via phone, SMS, and email.
Features
- Premium Integrations (CRM)
- Meeting Host
- Blue Jeans Guests Access
Requirements
- High Bandwidth Internet Connection
- Low Latency
Pricing
- One Talk Standard of $15/month
- One Talk Plus of $19/month
- One Talk Pro of $29/month
6. AT&T
AT&T is the giant in the industry and is not behind any competitor providing call center telephone systems. AT&T offers a phone system that converts your typical analog phone into one device – killing the hassle of connecting too many wires in the different devices.
The subscription plans favor startup small businesses to midsize companies.
Features
- Call Recording
- eFax
- Smart Integrations
- Works with the Microsoft Team
Requirements
- Special Equipment
- Wires to Connect Devices
Pricing
- Basic Unlimited Starter of $35
- Unlimited Performance of $40
- Unlimited Elite of $50
7. Nextiva
Nextiva is a reliable call center telephony system compatible with small businesses to large-scale organizations. Other than the conventional and necessary VoIP feature, it offers multiple other features, such as faxing, team chat, and deep tool integration. The ultimate automation makes the high volume call handling more manageable and saves employees' expenses.
Features
- Custom Integrations
- Integrations with Microsoft Teams
- Call Recording
- Video Conference Recording
Requirements
100 Kbps (Mpbs 0.1) Bandwidth
Low Latency of 70 Milliseconds
Pricing
- Basic Plan of $18.95
- Pro Plan of $22.95
- Premium Plan of $32.95
8. RingCentral
RingCentral has been rated the No.3 VoIP call center telephony system software among its competitors. Its extensive offerings cater to the needs of small businesses and large enterprises. Apart from the primary VoIP offerings, it offers multiple other premium features.
Features
- Real-time Analytics
- Audio Conference Recording
- Deep Integration with Microsoft 365 and Google Workplace
Requirements
- 1.0 Mbps Upload and Download speed
- 1.0 Mbps speed for one Video conference
- 1.5 Mbps speed for more than one Participant
Pricing
- Basic Plan of $19.99
- The standard of $27.99
- The premium of $34.99
- Ultimate of $49.99
9. 8x8
If you want to incorporate the call center telephony system into your business model without dealing with the hassle of wires, 8x8 is the one you should be looking for. It offers a hassle-free installation of the phone system and all the necessary features for providing the best customer service.
8x8 has a reliable and user-friendly interface that’s easy to get used to within no time.
Features
- Automatic Call Routing
- Advanced Call Management
- Call Analytics
Requirements
- Desk Phone
- Stable Internet Connection
Pricing
- Basic Plan of $14
- Custom Plans
10. Spectrum
Spectrum is known for its cloud-based VoIP services across the world. It’s a reliable solution to avoid dealing with wires. Apart from the accessible installation spectrum offers, the pricing plans are good.
Features
- Video Conference
- Contact Center
- Available for plenty of platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android
- Real-time Messaging and File sharing Requirements
- Minimum Bandwidth Requirements are 1.5 Mbps down and 384 Kbps up
- Phone desk, Headset, and Computer
Pricing
- Basic Plan of $15
- Pro Plan of $24
- Premium Plan of $44 10.
Spectrum offers a custom pricing plan that suits your business operations requirements.
VoIP vs. Landline Phones: What’s Better For Call Centers?
Deciding between VoIP and a Landline phone system isn’t an easy thing. Both provide unique features and benefits and meet the needs of various businesses.
Requirements
Call center system requirements are critical in selecting the best phone system. Installing the landline phone system requires plenty of hardware equipment, such as switches, copper wires, fiber optics, and phones at each end.
Moreover, VoIP needs an internet connection to be functional to send and receive information from one end to another. Call drops, latency, and jitter are common issues with phone lines going down with internet or power outages.
Community Phone is among the best call center telephony systems as it does not require copper wires or internet. Get VoIP-like features, without the problems, with the Community Phone business landline service.
Security
When deciding on the phone system, it’s essential to figure out if it’s safe and secure. The VoIP connection uses the internet, which is vulnerable to hacks and breaches.
A landline system like Community phone is known to be safer and more secure since it isn’t susceptible to hacks and breaches.
Packages
Cost is always the first factor to lock the decision on phone systems for call centers. VoIP packages are a bit cheaper than the landline phone system. However, Community Phone offers affordable packages that are cheaper than VoIP.
Sound Quality and Reliability
Landline phone systems like Community Phone offer high-quality sound and are reliable. In contrast, VoIP phones depend on the strength of your internet connection. The sound quality will be disrupted if the internet speed isn’t stable.
Conclusion
When choosing the best phone system for your call center, you may have to research as the market is flooded with systems providing unique features and benefits. Community Phone is the leading phone system for small, mid-sized, and large-scale businesses.