Software is inextricably interwoven into the successful operations of a call center business. It is not an afterthought but a mission-critical decision that requires an in-depth analysis. With the benefits of scalability, lower cost of ownership, and the pay-as-you-need a model that cloud-hosted applications provide, it may be the right time to think in terms of a SaaS-based solution for a Call Center.
Taking the right decision is all the more important as you could face unique challenges if for any reason you decide later on to migrate from one vendor’s platform to another.
Keeping that in mind, let us compare two excellent cloud-based call center software alternatives – Nextiva Hosted Call Center & Incontact Hosted Call Center.
Its innovative, cutting-edge functionality makes Nextiva Hosted call center a winner all through. The call center software has been chosen by Internet Telephone magazine as a four-time winner of the “Product of the Year” award. The cloud-based business phone system makes integration with different CRM applications possible.
Designed for small and medium enterprises, the software offers enterprise-level telephony features at an affordable price that can be configured to any business environment,
- streamlining communications technologies
- offering greater flexibility
- helping your business stay competitive
The Nextiva VoIP call center software includes a toolset of advanced features, including CRM/mobile integration, advanced call routing, VoIP phone systems, conference phones, caller ID, online faxing, voicemail forwarding to email, user-friendly interface, scalable PBX trunks, and hosted call centers.
Nextiva serves enterprises across industry verticals, from real estate to media, law firms, healthcare, media, and insurance, among others. Easy to set up, Nextiva Call Center is offered on a standard multi-talent platform with advanced capabilities. It is a purpose-built carrier-class solution that enables the quick delivery of full-featured hosted call centers.
The user-friendly interface of Nextiva Office Manage enables users to manage all of their options. You can even order VoIP phones if you need the hardware. Nextiva gets an edge over the competition when it comes to offering unlimited calls and fax. Contrarily, many of its competitors charge both minute charges and monthly fees, which come free with this package.
This product is best if used where a call per minute is irrelevant and just one monthly charge applies. It is not quite impressive as a call center product and needs to do a lot more to integrate all of the features. As far as Nextiva Connect is concerned, it is a standard no-frills answering service similar to what other service providers offer.
Although cloud-based systems are secure and reliable, you may hesitate to keep confidential data relating to financial or healthcare records on the cloud. Your business may have specific requirements or there could be operational constraints that may force you to think in terms of a solution hosted in-house. In either case, you may want to evaluate Nextiva as you have the flexibility to start up in-house and then later move on to the vendor’s cloud-based solution.
Nextiva is the winner of the “Product of the Year” by Internet Telephony magazine for 4 years running.
Call scripting can be beneficial in ensuring consistency in agent-customer interaction. It also provides an intelligent framework to reduce the training requirements of new agents. If you feel that this is an essential requirement of the call center software for your business, then you may want to evaluate the Incontact solution.
Your workforce may consist of both on-premise employees and virtual agents. With Nextiva that is not a problem as the software allows you to combine both types of employees seamlessly into the call center’s operational workflow.
Nextiva also provides you with the ability to forward your voicemail messages to email. This seems to be a very small feature but is big on impact. A boon for startups who need to stay in touch with their customer’s requirements no matter what the time. Just fire up your email on your mobile or desktop and get your customer’s feedback or complaint instantly.
A perfect call center solution for small and large businesses, InContact Call Center maximizes quality and minimizes cost of client interaction. With all of the standard features of call center software, this product comes in the form of an integrated suite that comprises a powerful portfolio, including support apps and customer service, used by agents worldwide to systematically manage a huge call volume.
InContact comes with a multitude of inbound call features, including Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) System, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), and Automatic Number Identification (ANI).
InContact cloud-based call center gives you a competitive edge with its portfolio of cloud-based call routing, agent optimization, and self-service,
- creating new profit pathways
- facilitating efficient functioning of the call center
- optimizing the cost and quality of interaction
- ensuring customer-centric business improvement
Incontact is used by businesses across verticals and according to estimates, it is used by 60000 agents around the globe.[/pullquote]
With scalable features, the software can seamlessly integrate with multiple technologies, providing the most productive agent arrangement and allowing you to focus on the most important processes and activities. Backed by research, this call center software is the most reliable contact solution that reduces your IT costs and has the highest product reliability.
If you invest in the inContact Hosted Call Center solution, you no longer need to make further investments in buying, maintaining, or upgrading hardware. With an in-house telecom solution, there is a significant reduction in connectivity cost and you have to pay only for what you use each month.
A feature of Incontact that definitely needs to be evaluated is workforce optimization. To put it briefly WFO allows you to analyze agent interaction with customers and improve both customer satisfaction and employee performance levels. A novel and very useful application are WFO is creating event rules to automate routing calls of certain categories of customers to employees with consistently high-performance levels.
Both companies are constantly striving and innovating to bring advanced technology, features, and benefits to their customers.
Nextiva provides businesses with the option of hosting their call center solutions in-house, whereas Incontact provides users with only a cloud-based hosting option.
Your final choice may depend upon which platform meets your specific requirements. Taking a final decision will require careful evaluation of each option. As a user, either way, you will be spoilt for choice.