Top 5 inbound call center software in 2021

Call centers are most often backed by several software companies to ensure a smoother workflow. Just like any other businesses that existed within the digital era, they are reliant on these external service providers.

What is a call center, anyway?

Otherwise known as contact centers, they primarily function as a hub for customers and clients to call in (if the agency functions as an inbound call center) or an outreach facility for approaching leads and prospects, qualifying and quantifying them based on the gathered information.

That being said, not all call center software serves the same purpose and delivers the output that they need to see. This is why genuine reviews and feedback are important to software manufacturers and such.

Let your external provider know what they lack and what they do right in order to serve your company better.

Why do call centers need inbound calling software?

Short answer: to make a call center agent’s day-to-day responsibilities easier and better.

To elaborate on that, the call centers actually need their software to run the production floor. Without these applications, an agent’s workday would be not as productive and as efficient as it should be. Can you imagine running or working in a call center hub without a work structure?

Before listing off our top five inbound call center software for this year, let’s take a refresher about what makes up an inbound calling application. According to a Zendesk blog post, call center software is an application that regulates and automates incoming calls from customers and prospects.

Keep in mind that even outbound agents can get incoming calls from people who missed their calls and have left them a voicemail.

RingCentral

RingCentral has a 4.8 out of 5-star rating and a whopping 16 thousand-something reviews on their own website. A valid response when the software delivers the output it promises.

RingCentral has been a household name for several companies spanning across different industries. From multinational business process outsourcing companies to local organizations, it seems like most gravitate towards this provider.

With its user-friendly system and hardware components—desk phones, both wired and wireless, and headsets—businesses have never seen a service provider with this wide range.

The application and the entire platform are perfect for vast enterprises that service multiple clients within different time zones, accounts that span from non-voice tasks to client and customer-facing responsibilities. The environment allows the agent to multitask without risking losing focus on any of the activities on the screen.

On the other hand, it also allows managers and team leaders to check on anyone’s productivity and Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

Five9

Five9 is a top cloud-based service provider. According to a well-known review website G2, the software has ranked with 3.9 out of 5 stars. As of writing, there are 238 mixed reviews of the company.

The company itself has been around since 2003, providing cloud-based applications and software to contact hubs in and out of the States. With the company’s easy-to-navigate applications with 99.99% uptime, various call center hubs have worked with Five9.

Since the company’s conception in 2001, it has been on a mission to eliminate the need for on-site and on-premise contact centers. To some, it may sound ambitious and far-fetched, but upon closer inspection (and because of the recent events), it’s a goal that companies should get behind with.

Remote contact centers have seen an upward trend since executives realized that companies need not have a physical office to deliver great service.

Zendesk

Zendesk has one of the largest range of software-as-a-service platforms. From ticketing to managing social media channels, Zendesk has an online environment for you and your agents. The environment encourages focus and task delegation in between the activities and windows displayed on the agent’s screen.

More often than not, Zendesk is popular amongst e-commerce platforms and has an interface and features that focus on customer service and social media channels. 

That being said, Zendesk is a great and innovative platform to use when taking inbound calls with tickets. An example of an inbound activity can be an inquiry from a customer, asking questions about a service or product.

The agent can then see the ticket on their screen and reach out to the customer with the answers to their questions.

Zoho

From PCMag, a well-known review website rated Zoho with a high 4.5 rating out of 5. As of writing, Zoho already has established and distributed over 45 SaaS platforms that are designed to help businesses and companies run their production floor.

Zoho’s interface focuses on the apps that agents can utilize to make their day-to-day operations easier and more productive. The automation of sending out emails, replies, and responses to clients and customers has never been this effortless. All thanks to Zoho’s user-friendly platform.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent has been on Capterra’s radar with a 4.7 rating, all paired with 987 (and counting) reviews. The help desk application has 13 call center features that range from alerts and escalation to real-time chat (for non-voice agents).

If you’re more into color-coded tags and side-tabs, you’ll find the LiveAgent interface fun, productive, and organized. With these features, your agents will be able to discern tickets that are urgent but aren’t active and threads with recent activities.

The ticketing feature also tells the user from where the ticket originated from, direct email, from a social media channel, through a chatbot, and so on.

On top of it all, the user can organize the tickets—both existing and new—by priority or urgency.

Outsourcing inbound services

It’s not a surprise that most call center hubs in the West had outsourced their services, both inbound and outbound, to external agencies situated in developing countries such as the Philippines, India, and Mexico.

These countries have a bottomless pool of professionals who are ready to take on work responsibilities. Not to mention that outsourcing introduces you to lower labor costs and the chance of eliminating, or at the very least, diminishing your overhead expenditures.

Keep in mind that when working with external outsourcing companies, you will be sharing control with your partners—namely account managers, team leaders, and supervisors. So keep an eye out for outsourcing companies that align with your company’s mission, vision, and core values.