Top 10 Cloud Contact Center Solutions in 2024

~80% of contact center executives are investing in AI ¹.As contact centers continue to focus on artificial intelligence (AI), technologies such as interactive voice response (IVR), automatic call distribution (ACD), and intelligent chatbots come into prominence.

Without knowing AI-powered cloud contact center software technologies, leaders fail to gain momentum on their digitalization journey. Thus, executives must understand these technologies and their AI applications while evaluating vendors’ capabilities.

In this article, we will examine the top 10 cloud contact centers outlining their key technologies, features, user rating, and pricing.

Top 10 cloud contact centers

The comparison table is based on data retrieved from publicly available company-specific websites and industry-leading peer review sites, including Capterra, G2, and Trustradius.

Table 1: Cloud contact center comparison table

*Based on the total number of employees on LinkedIn as of 10/26/2023.

**Based on the total number of reviews and average ratings on the Capterra, G2, and Trustradius software review platforms as of 11/10/2023. With Salesforce Service Cloud (sponsored) at the top, the rest is sorted by total number of reviews in descending order.

***Based on G2’s ease of use and quality support ratings.

Table 2: Cloud contact center features table

Vendor selection criteria

Considering there are numerous cloud contact center vendors, the lists (above) are narrowed down based on the given criteria below

• Number of reviews: 900+ total reviews on Capterra, G2, and Trustradius. 
• Average rating: Above 4.0/5 on Capterra, G2 and Trustradius.
• Employee size: 20+ employees on LinkedIn

What is a cloud contact center?

A cloud contact center solution, also known as Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), is a centralized digital communication area that is hosted and maintained on external servers by an external vendor. It enables organizations to oversee, manage, and organize customer interactions across many channels (e.g., calls and messages, chat, emails, and social networks).

Top 10 cloud contact centers

1- Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is a cloud-based customer service solution with contact center technology. 

It can maintain customer relationships across a variety of communication channels, including texting, live chat, email, and social media with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, allowing service representatives to respond to customer inquiries.

Salesforce Service Cloud offers cloud contact center technologies such as:

• Embedded telephony: With its embedded telephony feature when your phone channel can operate natively within Service Cloud, you can connect your customers to the correct representative at the right time while integrating your software with Amazon Connect or AppExchange partners.
• Contact center integrations: Talkdesk for Salesforce is one of the integrations offered by Salesforce that can transform Talkdesk’s contact center capability (cloud contact center platform, CTI, IVR, ACD, and analytics) on Service Cloud.
• Omni-channel customer service: Salesforce omni-channel customer service technology can route cases from any channel to the appropriate agent depending on the agent’s expertise or availability. It can also configure routing rules to foster seamless inside flow across all channels, including communication, email, chat, or speech. 

Service Cloud has numerous tools that can integrate with contact center technologies starting from $50 per user per month.²Service Cloud Einstein is one of the add-on products that can be connected to Salesforce’s cloud contact center system for a monthly membership fee. 

Einstein uses customer service AI to assist cloud contact centers on:

• Personalized customer service: Einstein can increase agent efficiency while providing more customized and effective customer service interactions with AI. 
• Next best actions: Einsteins provides agents guidance with AI-generated suggestions, to do this it uses historical user data to refine the suggestions and organize them in categories with characteristic attributes such as returned goods, maintenance, or discounted items.
• Case classification: Einstein can evaluate prior months’ instances and streamline data input for new cases, classifying them correctly, and routing them to the relevant agent or queue. 
• Multilingual chatbots: Einstein can communicate with consumers in their preferred language and employ natural language understanding (NLU) to recognize speech and local information such as dates, currencies, and numerical formatting.
• Building a knowledge base: Einstein summarizes case outcomes automatically and creates a knowledge base to educate agents.
• Analytics with AI: You may assist agents in working more effectively by presenting key actions on a conversation intelligence using Einstein Conversation Insights.

Figure 1: Einstein customer service tool chatting with a customer

Source: Salesforce³

Pros

Customer loyalty: Users claim that Service Cloud has helped them to leverage survey analytics for customer feedback by increasing their  CSAT (customer satisfaction) / NPS (net promoter score)score.⁴

No-code customization: Learning to customize objects is simple with no-code capabilities.⁵

Ease-of-use (contact center): Users say that they can simply switch between case records, contact records, and actions associated with the customer interaction while maintaining all of this information visible on a single screen.⁶

Cloud contact center integration for CTI: CTI capability functions well with Talkdesk integration.⁷

Cons

CTI (computer telephony integration): Pre-built CTI offering is not available.⁸

Learning curve: Some users find it difficult to get started with Service Cloud because of the steep learning curve, however, they also state that after investing in effective training and onboarding they have quickly adapted to the software.⁹

Pricing: The operating expenses can be high for tight-budget businesses.¹⁰

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.4/5
• G2: 4.3/5
• Trustradius: 8.8/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month, billed annually)

• Starter: $25.00¹¹
• Professional: $80.00¹²
• Enterprise: $165.00¹³
• Unlimited: $330.00¹⁴
• A 30-day free trial is available.

2- Talkdesk

Talkdesk is a cloud contact center AI platform for assisting customer service operations by combining interactive voice response (IVR), automatic call distribution (ACD), and call routing with AI solutions. 

Talkdesk’s cloud capabilities (self-service, workforce engagement, omnichannel engagement, employee collaboration, and CX analytics) are dynamically connected with its CX platform that offers: Low code – no code and custom-code tools, 60+ pre-built integrations, 30+ security certifications, 80+ AppConnect solution marketplace.¹⁵

Pros

ACD: The automatic call distributor enables users to immediately connect with related agents.¹⁶

IVR generator: Users agree that the IVR generator has powerful customization capabilities that can produce detailed charts or data about their calls.¹⁷

Voice biometrics for self-service: Users appreciated the fact that Talkdesk uses voice biometrics for the self-service authentication procedure, which speeds up identity validation.¹⁸

Cons

Call routing: Advanced routing options are limited, for example, skill-based routing is not available.¹⁹

IVR connection via APIs: According to some users, for companies that expect different IVRs for each number, scaling might be problematic. Some users have encountered issues with uptime and data transmission through their API.²⁰

Phone calls: A few users stated that the phone feature is slow, and lacking functionality since it does not display call history or voice messages on the screen.²¹

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.5/5
• G2: 4.4/5
• Trustradius: 8.5/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month)

• Essentials: $75.00²²
• Elevate:  $95.00²³
• Elite:  $125.00²⁴
• Enterprise: Contact Talkdesk
• A 30-day free trial is available.

For more information about Talkdesk and its alternatives please check out our data-driven and transparent article on Talkdesk Alternatives.

3- NICE CXone

NICE CXone is a cloud-based contact center platform used by 1+ million service agents and 85 Fortune 100 customers that can interracial with customers over 30+ channels.²⁵

The software can leverage conversational bots and chatbots/voicebots to provide consumer self-service via multiple channels such as both inbound and outbound phone calls, live chat, and voicemail. The platform also employs AI-engineered low code – no code technologies to achieve optimized processes with high customer satisfaction (CSAT) output. 

Pros

Phone calls: Users can properly direct calls and route them to the most competent agents to deliver effective service.²⁶

IVR: Some users state that it is easy to script and debug the IVR.²⁷

Integrations: Users state that NICE CXone is functional since they were able to successfully integrate 11 different products (ACD, Performance management, feedback management, WFO, real-time monitoring, and more) under a single structure.²⁸

Inbound and outbound contracting: Users point out that the inbound and outbound contracting process is efficient; since callers can request a callback or agents can create a callback schedule.²⁹

Cons

Pre-built report customization: Users think that it would be ideal if the prebuilt reports could be customized.³⁰

Reporting: Actual hold time per attempt cannot be measured.³¹

App launches: Users have experienced connection issues and had trouble launching the software.³²

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.2/5
• G2: 4.3/5
• TrustRadius: 8.2/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month)

• Digital agent: $71.00³³
• Voice agent: $94.00³⁴
• Omni-channel agent: $110.00³⁵
• Essential suite: $135.00³⁶
• Core suite: $169.00³⁷
• Complete suite: $209.00³⁸
• A 60-day free trial is available.

4- Genesys Cloud CX

Genesys Cloud CX is an omnichannel cloud contact center as a service platform for enterprise-level communications, collaboration, and customer experience management. The platform includes numerous features such as IVR, call routing, chatbot, AI, virtual assistant, native workforce engagement management (WEM), speech and text analytics, real-time reporting, and analytics. 

The software is available in a single centralized desktop and mobile interface for managing phone, chat, mobile, and online interactions.

Pros

Call routing: Genesys Cloud CX’s call routing algorithms are appreciated by users, increasing their first-contact resolution rates.³⁹

Performance: Some users highlight that Genesys Cloud CX provides bug-free operation with consistent functionality.⁴⁰

Functionality: Supervisors find it easy to adjust and update agent queues and skills without the need for CTI interaction.⁴¹

Cons

Analytics: Few users think that the analytics aspect of the program can be more detailed, and employee reports could be improved (a user states that the dashboards are limited and they are restricted to 100 queues per report).⁴³

Voicebot reporting: According to some users, voicebot reporting is one of the areas where Genesys Cloud CX falls short.⁴⁴

Future development: Genesys Cloud CX could consider offering custom API development channels for users to escalate and handle issues more efficiently.⁴⁵

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.4/5
• Gartner: 4.5/5
• G2: 4.3/5

Pricing (starting price per seat/month, billed annually)

• Genesys Cloud CX 1 (Voice plan): $75.00⁴⁶
• Genesys Cloud CX 2 (Digital plan): $95.00⁴⁷
• Genesys Cloud CX 2 (Digital + Voice plan): $115.00⁴⁸
• Genesys Cloud CX 3 (Digital + WEM plan): $135.00⁴⁹
• Genesys Cloud CX 3 (Digital + WEM + Voice plan): $155.00⁵⁰
• A 30-day free trial is available.

5- CallRail

CallRail is an AI-powered call monitoring and marketing analytics tool that assists organizations in determining which campaigns are generating inbound leads through calls, texts, forms, and/or chats.

CallRaill’s conversation intelligence capability has AI-trained voice data of over 650,000 hours, and automatically interprets and analyzes all of your inbound and outgoing phone calls. The software can use artificial intelligence to examine the number of phone calls, communication patterns and trends, length, subjects, and pay-per-click (PPC) landing pages, identifying which contacts are delivering the most leads for your organization.

Pros

Ease-of-use: The learning curve is said to be short for new staff.⁵¹

Call routing and lead flows: Users liked the fact that the call routing and lead flows function seamlessly, enabling them to track lead data and lead sources accurately.⁵²

User interface: CallRail’s UI is considered to be simple to use, especially when connecting to reporting systems.⁵³

Cons

Customer support: Some users have had inefficient customer support.⁵⁴

Business phone system: Users say that the business phone system was not competitive with other options on the market and has limited functionality.⁵⁵

Reporting: According to some users, the reporting dashboard has room to improve.⁵⁶

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.5/5
• G2: 4.6/5
• TrustRadius: 6.3/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month)

• Call Tracking: $45.00⁵⁷
• Call tracking + form tracking: $95.00⁵⁸
• Call tracking + conversational intelligence: $95.00⁵⁹
• Call tracking complete: $145.00⁶⁰
• A 14-day free trial is available.

For more information about CallRail and its alternatives please check out our data-driven and transparent article on CallRail Alternatives.

6- Aircall

Aircall is a cloud-based contact solution for businesses of all sizes offering 100+ software integrations and used by over 15,000 businesses globally.⁶¹

With Aircall’s desktop and mobile apps, users can receive calls from anywhere, access phone numbers in 100+ countries, and route calls with IVR/ACD technologies. Aircall can also leverage AI-powered call and voicemail transcription features, such as AI conversation analysis to report call summaries, talk-to-listen ratios, and key conversation topics.

Pros

Call monitoring: The call monitoring function is quite beneficial in terms of sales, retention, and account management.⁶²

Virtual call center: Users were able to efficiently establish and adjust a virtual call center, ensuring that calls were only routed to available staff.⁶³

Phone system: Users give positive credit to Aircall’s inbound/outbound VOIP****.⁶⁴

****(Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that makes voice calls using an internet connection instead of an analog phone line system. 

Cons

Call history: According to some users, more efficient call history analysis can be provided.⁶⁵

Call routing: Users remark that call routing to mobile devices might be complex.⁶⁶

Functioning: Some users had to exit and re-launch Aircall to use it properly, stating that the software sometimes operates slowly.⁶⁷

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.3/5
• G2: 4.3/5
• TrustRadius: 6.3/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month)

• Essentials: $40.00 (minimum purchase includes 4 licenses)⁶⁸
• Professional:  $70.00 (minimum purchase includes 4 licenses)⁶⁹
• A 7-day free trial is available.

For more information about Aircall and its alternatives please check out our data-driven and transparent article on Aircall Alternatives.

7- CloudTalk

CloudTalk is a VoIP business calling platform for customer support and sales teams with its AI, data analytics, automation, sentiment analytics, and CRM integration capabilities with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive.

CloudTalk assists businesses with collecting, centralizing, and processing all contact center data, with its 70 features.⁷⁰

Pros

Contact management: Users highlight that contact resolution with CloudTalk is easy and they can effectively track KPIs in real-time.⁷¹

Phone lines: The phone lines have a low wait time.⁷²

Integrations: Users claim that synchronization of data with existing CRM is robust.⁷³

Cons

Call recording: Some calls might not get recorded, since the system logs out even while the app is open.⁷⁵

Callbacks: The callback can be added so that users can get connected into a call flow rather than simply hanging up to get a callback, which can lead to a decrease in the number of wasted callbacks.⁷⁶

Connectivity: Some users experienced variable sound quality during calls, stating that call quality didn’t meet their expectations, resulting in communication challenges. were logged out of their accounts.⁷⁷

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.4/5
• G2: 4.3/5
• TrustRadius: 9.6/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month, billed annually)

• Starter: $25.00 ⁷⁸
• Essential: $30.00 ⁷⁹
• Expert: $50.00 ⁸⁰
• Custom: Contact CloudTalk
• A 14-day free trial is available.

8- UJET

UJET is an AI-powered real-time communication technology that allows customers and companies to rapidly interact and solve disputes. Ujet’s Virtual Agent offers conversational AI for more realistic, human-like conversations across voice and text channels. 

Through context-aware solutions for phone, chat, picture, video, and speech, the UJET platform engages end users 24/7. The UJET platform is also SOC2 Type II and HIPAA-compliant, making it suitable for enterprise use. 

Pros

Call management: UJET is considered a simple-to-use solution, users say that they can position, mute, or hold, and mute easily during the calls.⁸¹

Ease-of-use: UJET’s web portal is simple and easy to use for controlling account settings and features.⁸²

Auto-tagging: The auto-tagging system feature in UJET is considered to be fast and efficient by users, allowing them to engage with several contacts simultaneously.⁸³

Cons

Reporting: Some users believe that the reporting system does not provide detailed data.⁸⁴

Flexibility: Users think that it would be beneficial if consumers could text or message agents and ask for callbacks.⁸⁵

Connection: Some users have experienced unstable connections while using the app.⁸⁶

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.5/5
• G2: 4.7/5
• TrustRadius: 9.4/10

Pricing 

• Pricing information is not publicly available on UJET’s website, get a quote from UJET for detailed pricing information.
• A free trial is available.

9- Gladly

Gladly is a contact-center software that differentiates itself with its no-ticket platform that maintains customer interactions as historical conversation flows rather than cases or tickets.

The software mainly serves companies in various industries including retailers, e-commerce, and financial services with its phone, IVR, chat, and self-service solutions across the B2B and B2C space.

Pros

Omni-channel service: Users indicate that they can work seamlessly through all channels and understand how everything is performing.⁸⁷

Customization: Users appreciate the fact that they can tag and set due dates on tasks.⁸⁸

Response times: Users claim that they have improved their response times and quality with Gladly.⁸⁹

Cons

Customer communications: Some users think that the system needs functionality improvements since customers do not see the sent text messages after they are sent.⁹⁰

Account management: Users say that it would be better if the inbox could notify the users about the finished tasks so that they can track account history more efficiently.⁹¹

Pricing: A better pricing structure for a middle-size business can be provided.⁹²

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.6/5
• TrustRadius: 9.4/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month, billed annually)

• Hero: $180.00 (requires minimum 10 users) ⁹³
• Superhero: $210.00 (requires minimum 45 users) ⁹⁴
• A free trial is not available.

10- Five9 

Five9 is a cloud contact center software, founded in 2001, and has over 2,500 customers and 293,000+ concurrent agents globally as of December 2022.⁹⁵

The software has intelligent AI automation capabilities with voice recognition and visual remote assistance features that allow business owners to manage both inbound and outgoing conversations in one location. 

Pros

Call quality: Some users claim that Five9 can record audio crystal clear for later playback.⁹⁶

IVR: The IVR path planning tool is said to be simple to use with its drag-and-drop feature.⁹⁷

Functionality: Users find Five9 ideal for cases such as Salesforce connection (ability to log each call received), auto-responding, and employee statistics management.⁹⁸

Cons

Call quality: While some users agree that the software has clear call quality (see above pros section), a few of them denote that Five9’s call quality might be low sometimes.⁹⁹

Phone line dial: Since Five9 lacks a phone line dial add-on, users must use another app to receive calls.¹⁰⁰
Learning curve: The onboarding and learning process is said to be difficult for some users.¹⁰¹

User Ratings

• Capterra: 4.2/5
• G2: 3.9/5
• TrustRadius: 8.1/10

Pricing (starting price per seat/month)

• Digital: $149.00 ¹⁰²
• Core: $149.00 ¹⁰³
• Premium: $169.00 ¹⁰⁴
• Optimum: $199.00 ¹⁰⁵
• Ultimate: $229.00 ¹⁰⁶
• A free trial is not available.

Cloud contact center solution technologies

Core functionalities

1- CTI

Computer telephony integration (CTI) is the process of connecting a call center’s phone systems to its company apps, often to provide the company’s apps with more control over call handling. Agents do not need an actual physical phone leveraging CTI because they may execute all phone operations on their personal computers with on-screen telephony controls.

The CTI system is used to control interactive voice response (IVR), call routing, and automatic call distribution (ACD) functions (see below).

Figure 2: CTI integration process

Source:GetVoIP¹⁰⁷

2- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems

Figure 3: IVR system workflow

~60% of customers prefer individualized interactions with IVR systems.¹⁰⁸IVR, or interactive voice response, is a computerized telephone system that engages callers by combining automated messages or text-to-speech technology, redirecting callers to the proper contact center agent for support. 

IVRs may be also upgraded into conversational IVRs by integrating natural language processing and AI features, allowing users to engage with a self-service options menu using their natural language. 

Figure 4: IVR menu

Source: VoiceSpin¹⁰⁹

Three major IVR types can be listed as follows:

• Directed conversation: This sort of IVR offers callers customized voice suggestions based on their questions such as “Are you interested in working hours or store location information?” 
• Touch-tone: To retrieve information, this system encourages callers to use a touch-tone keypad option. For example, an automated audio recording may say, “Press one for order status information”. 
• Natural language: To better comprehend user demands, this AI-powered IVR system can employ speech recognition. For example, the system might request, “How can I help you today?” and the caller would respond, “You can help me with my payment status”.

 A cloud contact center can derive value from IVR systems in a variety of ways, including:

• Reducing the number of callers on the call queue.
• Providing menu options to customers to increase first-call resolution.
• Empowering personalized customer service. 
• Enabling callers to access the knowledge base, allowing agents to focus on more essential issues.

3-Call routing

Call routing is a contact center feature that reacts, queues, and distributes calls according to factors such as call session topics and contact attributes, the customer’s native language, or agent accessibility.

Figure 5: Call routing flow

Three major call-routing practices in contact centers are:

• Agent-based routing: This model is based on transferring the call to the next available agent. It works by routing inbound calls to service representatives who have been waiting the longest. If all the agents are busy with ongoing customer communications, calls are queued until an agent becomes free.

• Skill-based routing: Skill-based routing is a call routing approach in which customers are sent to agents who have the most appropriate abilities to handle their problems according to agent expertise, the customer’s native language, or the topic of the session. For example, a customer who speaks Spanish and asks to learn about the product pricing is directed to specific agents who are knowledgeable about the pricing topics and who can speak Spanish.
• Predictive routing: Predictive routing is a call routing approach that examines each conversation based on a customer’s previous behavior, buying habits, or identity type. For example, buyers of a specific product or service category can be routed to a representative of that category.

4- Automatic call distribution (ACD)

An automated call distribution (ACD) system, or an automatic call dispatcher, is a telecommunication technology that answers and distributes incoming calls to a predefined set of endpoints or agents inside a business.

When a customer calls a phone number and requests a human agent, the ACD technology will use computer telephony integration (CTI), interactive voice response (IVR), or conversational AI-powered chat to direct the call to the best agent possible based on

• Agent knowledge or ability
• Caller identification (to eliminate spam or unnecessary calls)
• Number of received calls
• Behavioral profiles of the user analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI)

When a cloud contact center receives a call the ACD system functions as follows (see below):

Figure 6: Call flow with ACD transfer

1. The call is routed over a SIP* trunk to the SBC**.
2. The SBC remains in the call path while the call is routed to the self-service gateway.
3. A conversation session gets started with an ACD assistant, and the caller starts the conversation with the voice assistant.
4. ACD service requests a call transfer.
5. The self-service voice gateway transfers the conversation back to the SBC.
6. The call is forwarded by the SBC to the contact center’s ACD.
7. The call gets routed to an agent. 

*SIP trunking is a voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) method that provides Internet telephony services to deliver phone services. 

**A session border controller (SBC) is a hardware device or software application that manages how phone calls are managed on a (VoIP) network. It functions as a gateway between a network and a carrier service, allowing only approved sessions to flow across the connection point.

5-Chatbots / Voicebots

Chatbots provide a conversational experience by imitating real-life discussions with artificial intelligence and natural language processing.

Cloud contact center chatbots can serve for multiple purposes:

• Automate repetitive tasks: Contact center chatbots can automate repetitive tasks, which helps free up skilled service agents to perform more value-added jobs. For example, chatbots can assist with customer service questions, appointment scheduling, and hotel bookings. The bot may search out a customer’s chosen schedule and time, verify availability, and finalize the appointment or booking information during a chat conversation.
• Assisting with the sales process: Contact center chatbots can assist with lead qualifying by acquiring essential information from customers. For example, if someone needs help with a product, the chatbot can ask questions to categorize and define the customer type by directing questions such as “Which product are you interested in?”. This would enable a company to route the lead to the appropriate sales team.
• Answer simple questions: Chatbots are frequently used as the front end of live chat sessions to reply to basic questions. They can also collect customer information- customer name, order quantity, type of the issue – and transfer it to an operator on live chat if the problem is complex.

GIF: A chatbot answering customer questions

Source: Freshworks¹¹⁰

6- Call recording

A call recorder, often known as call recording software, is a contact center tool that archives phone calls and captures an agent’s screen during the interaction between an agent and the customer. The conversation recordings are then retained in the contact center and may be accessed whenever necessary for legal protection, agent performance evaluation, and agent training.

Call recording can be used for:

• Legal protection: Call records might offer legal protection. For example, an agent (on behalf of the corporation) and a customer may enter into an informal agreement that is legally enforceable as an obligation, which can be challenging to prove, however, a recording may assist in resolving a case.
• Agent performance measurement: Call records provide insights about an agent’s performance Managers who examine the records can evaluate the agent’s strengths and weaknesses, communication abilities, and soft skills such as patience and empathy.
• Agent training: Pre-recorded calls can be used to teach new agents, empowering them to deal with various situations or customer characteristics.

Additional functionalities

7- Omnichannel case routing

Omnichannel case routing is a customer service method that guides customers across a continuous and interconnected network of devices and engagements. For example, a customer service session may start on Instagram, then move to text messaging, and finally to an email—all in a connected journey.

Figure 7: Channels used to engage with companies

Source: Salesforce¹¹¹

~70% of the customers say that they expect a consistent experience across any channel.¹¹²Businesses can manage interactions across multiple channels such as contact centers, email, SMS/text, messaging, video chat, and social media.

Benefits of omnichannel case routing include:

• Enhancing awareness among customers
• Increasing the likelihood of purchase
• Maximizing your customer service agents’ performance and job satisfaction

8-Next best action recommendations

According to a recent McKinsey survey, ~70% of customers demand a personalized experience, but businesses’ efforts are not adequate to meet these demands.¹¹³Next-best action is a technique that predicts the next step a company should take with customers based on data-driven insights. For example, an agent might be automatically asked to follow-up email to send post-interaction.

Contact center management functionalities

9- Low-code /no-code development

Data discovery is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process, and even non-analytics experts require access to data-driven outcomes. Our research implies that “ease of use” is the most searched (11%) positive term for low code – no code development platforms.

Low-code / no-code development approach enables both technical and non-technical (“citizen developer“) staff to construct dashboards and gain insights with simple drag-and-drop options.

• Low-code: Little need for traditional coding.
• No-code: No need for coding.

If you are looking for no-code or low-code software, check out our benchmark studies on the available vendors in the market. 

10- Workforce engagement management (WEM)

80% of leaders agree that improving employee satisfaction is critical for the success of their organization.¹¹⁴WEM, with its employee-centric orientation, can help businesses achieve success by improving employee productivity as well as controlling payroll costs.

To orchestrate a WEM strategy organization can leverage:

• Workforce forecasting and scheduling
• Quality assurance by leveraging voice of customer (VOC) insights
• Speech and text analytics
• Gamification

11- Analytics

Analytics is crucial to evaluate data from the contact center and convert it into meaningful insights l, and surveyed CX leaders agree since:

• ~80% of leaders think that collecting additional business intelligence and analytics from the contact center is critical¹¹⁵
• ~70% of executives say that they are experiencing an increased demand for customer data analytics¹¹⁶
• ~65% of executives state that gathering deeper customer knowledge is a top priority¹¹⁷

11.1 Omni-channel analytics

Omni-channel analytics analyzes all of the information on how your customers engage with you and presents it as meaningful statistics. With omni-channels analytics users may review CSAT (customer satisfaction score), handling time, or case numbers by channel. Users may also examine agent statistics such as agent workload and average response time. 

Figure 8: Omnichannel reporting on a cloud-based contact center (showing impression, engagement, post link click, audience, and video data across multiple channels)

Source: Sprout Social¹¹⁸

11.2 Predictive analytics

Predictive analytics is the use of mathematical and statistical methods, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. It assists in the identification and resolution of problems that may arise in the future. For example,  with predictive analytics users can determine the amount of employees needed to manage high call levels over December. 

11.3 Self-service analytics

Self-service analytics help you determine how well communication channels serve your agents and customers.

With self-service analytics users can:

• Examine case deflection scores to determine if there are any downturns or issues with the experience. 
• Review typical searches with self-service analytics to spot any new patterns in customer inquiries. 
• Utilize data to enhance self-service automation by updating knowledge base articles that answer frequently asked questions.

11.4 Speech analytics

Speech analytics is a technology that interprets, translates (speech-to-text), and analyzes audio interactions between customers and agents using voice recognition. Cloud contact center speech analytics tools may detect phrases and topics or analyze the behavioral state, mood, tone, and degree of stress in an audio voice using sentiment analysis.

11.5 Voice analytics

Voice analytics is the process of recording voice calls, translating speech to text, and analyzing the discussions (and also the speaker’s emotions with sentiment analysis) by leveraging natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, and  AI technologies.

Note: Speech analytics analyzes what was said, but voice analytics solutions such as can analyze how it was expressed as well (and can distinguish more complex things such as pronunciation with audio sentiment analysis).

Benefits of cloud contact center solutions

1- Lowering setup and ongoing costs

Businesses that use the cloud benefit from increased security, lower costs, and increased productivity.

• ~95% of small firms have reported increased security by shifting to the cloud¹¹⁹
• ~80% of surveyed companies reduced costs as a result of utilizing cloud technology.¹²⁰
• 30% of small companies who have yet to use cloud services report substantial productivity gains from IT.¹²¹

2- Enhancing remote working

~80% of employers now feel the migration to outsourced digital workplaces has been positive for their organization.¹²²With many businesses now working in an online setting, cloud contact centers provide unmatched flexibility, since they are accessible from any place and on any device with an internet connection. Businesses may use CCaaS solutions to easily create remote work teams, offer support to customers from multiple places, and rapidly grow operations.

3- Empowering employees

Less than 30% of agents believe they are empowered to execute their jobs properly, therefore providing an optimal agent experience is critical in improving the customer experience.¹²³

When service agents have instruments that make their work simpler, the service they deliver to clients improves. For example, cloud contact centers that combine information in one location may save agents time between apps, making them more focused. 

Transparency statement

AIMultiple serves numerous tech companies, including Salesforce.

Further reading

Please, read our transparent, up-to-date articles to learn more about cloud contact centers.

• Top 7 Contact Center AI Applications: A Holistic Approach
• Contact Center CRM: Benefits & Core Features
• Contact Center AI Software: Top 10 Vendors
• Top 7 Contact Center Software
• Top 10 Tools For Contact Center Automation
• 4 Ways To Gain Competitive Edge With Intelligent Call Routing
• Customer Service Chatbot: Top 7 Vendors & 10 Use Cases

Please check our transparent and data-driven software list of our contact center vendors.

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