The Sarasota Police Department is currently running a criminal investigation over allegations of sexual battery against Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler.
As of Thursday, police confirmed that investigators have not charged Ziegler with any crimes yet.
Police released a heavily redacted report, obscuring details about the accusations, but claiming it involved a rape allegation against Ziegler.
The complaint was filed Oct. 4, and stated that the alleged sexual battery occurred inside a woman’s Sarasota home on Oct. 2, according to the report. Among words not redacted in the report are “rape” and “sexual assault complaint.”
Earlier on Thursday, Ziegler’s attorney, Derek Byrd, released a statement to FOX 13 Tampa Bay acknowledging the reports of the investigation, saying that Ziegler has fully cooperated with the police requests.
“We are confident that once the police investigation is concluded that no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be completely exonerated,” Byrd said in a statement.
“We are shocked and disappointed to hear of the reports concerning Republican Party of Florida Chair and Sarasota County State Committeeman Christian Ziegler, and his wife, Sarasota County School Board Member Bridget Ziegler. The Republican Party takes all such allegations of potential criminal conduct very seriously and will fully cooperate with investigators.”
“Bridget was an original founder of Moms for Liberty, but she stepped back from the organization’s board in 2021. We have learned long ago to not believe everything we read online, and we are confident she will get to tell her side of things to those who are interested in more than clickbait,” Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, Moms for Liberty Founders told Fox News Digital.
According to the Florida Center for Government Accountability, Christian Ziegler has deep-rooted ties to both Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Trump, who called out Ziegler’s name in a recent speech earlier this month during the “Florida Freedom Summit” in Kissimmee, and said he was doing a “fantastic job.”
A controversial foul call on the Kings’ De’Aaron Fox with 3.1 seconds left in a tie game gave Lakers guard Dennis Schroder two free throws, which ended up deciding the contest.
Sarah Ferguson was joined by Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie for an emotional call with cancer patients. Ferguson has supported the Teenager Cancer Trust for three decades.
Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning is headed to Oregon as the Ducks’ new head coach, but he’ll first call defensive plays for the Bulldogs in Friday’s game against Michigan in a College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl.
Minnesota Timberwolves youngster Anthony Edwards could emerge as one of the next big stars in the NBA and on Wednesday, at the start of his sophomore season, he already was making a name for himself.
Dagen McDowell and the panel on “The Five” Thursday discussed President Biden’s July call with former Afghan President Ghani to portray the situation in Afghanistan as better than the reality on the ground.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
Call recording software is a useful tool for businesses and individual users alike.
From quality assurance to employee training, compliance, record-keeping, dispute resolution, and more, there are dozens of reasons why organizations can benefit from recording calls.
But there are so many different call recording solutions on the market today. It can be a challenge to find one that fits into your workday. You don’t want to have to re-do everything just to record calls.
And you also don’t want to pay for a million features you’re never going to use.
Use this guide to learn more about my top picks and methodology for finding the best call recording software for you.
#1 – Talkdesk Review — The Best For Voice and Screen Recording
Talkdesk is a modern cloud contact center solution. One of the main benefits of using this platform for business communication is the built-in call recording capabilities.
With Talkdesk, you’ll gain deeper customer insights with encrypted screen and voice recordings.
By synchronizing the playback of voice and screen recordings, you’ll have more context for evaluating customer interactions with your support team. This also makes it easier to ensure compliance and provide your agents with in-depth feedback on their performance.
The software has a feature called Talkdesk Speech Analytics. The tool is perfect for analyzing calls based on customer sentiment, keywords, topics, and more.
Some of the other key features and benefits of using Talkdesk for call recordings include:
Inbound and outbound call recording
Custom storage options
Ability to pause and resume live recordings
Store recordings for as long as you need
Storage available on Talkdesk’s cloud storage or use your own storage system
Talkdesk even has tools for quality assurance. Admins can add time-stamped annotations to recorded calls and fill out scorecards to improve agent performance. All of this can be managed from a simple and intuitive interface.
Request a demo to get started. Pricing for this contact center solution is based on the number of agents on your team.
#2 – Cube ACR Review — The Best Call Recorder For Android
Cube ACR is a smartphone app designed specifically for Android devices. It has 10+ million installs worldwide.
In addition to cell phone calls, this simple tool makes it easy to automatically record calls from VoIP platforms like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, WeChat, LINE, Slack, Hangouts, and more.
For such a basic app, Cube ACR has surprisingly good recording quality, and you can clearly hear both sides of the conversation. Just customize your settings to enable VoIP calls, automatic recordings, and control storage backups via Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
Cube ACR is always coming out with new updates to ensure recordings are stable and reliable.
Other noteworthy features and highlights of Cube ACR include:
Cloud backups
Silent mode
Geotagging to see where calls take place on a map view
Data security with a PIN lock
Automatically remove old recordings to free up storage
If you want to mark an important part of the conversation, simply shake your phone, and Cube ACR will highlight that part of the call so that it’s easy to find later.
While the app is popular for individual use, the software has business-specific features as well. It integrates with certain business tools, has custom development, and offers special business licensing options.
The app is free and has a 4.3/5-star rating with 510,000+ reviews on the Google Play Store.
#3 – Callcap Review — The Best For Call Monitoring
Callcap is a bit unique compared to some of the other software on my list. It’s not really a standalone call recording tool. This platform is branded as a call tracking and monitoring solution, but it does have call recording capabilities.
Marketers leverage Callcap to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior. Any business seeking an advanced solution beyond basic call recording should consider Callcap.
Callcap will automatically record all of your business calls. These recordings are available at any time. You can use them for agent training, employee recognition, lost opportunity analysis, disputes, and more.
All recordings are stored in the cloud and accessible from anywhere, and it is easy to share recordings with team members.
But Callcap takes these recordings to the next level with third-party monitoring services. Their trained analysts provide unbiased scoring for all inbound and outbound calls. The data from Callcap allows agents to improve, close more deals, and increase customer satisfaction.
Other benefits of Callcap include:
Catalog item tracking reports
Track revenue by campaign or employee
Secure and PCI compliant recording and monitoring
Manual pausing and automated scrubbing
Call tracking
Call recovery
Callcap is not for everyone. If you just need a basic solution for recording calls, look elsewhere. But if you want one of the most advanced call recording and monitoring services on the market today, Callcap should be at the top of your list.
#4 – Rev Call Recorder Review — The Best Call Recording App For iPhones
Rev is best known for its online audio transcription and video captioning services. It’s trusted by more than 170,000 customers worldwide, across industries like marketing, legal, media, education, and more.
But they also have an excellent iPhone app for recording calls.
This is a simple and straightforward solution for call recording. It’s a viable option for both personal and business use cases.
Here’s a quick overview of Rev’s key features:
Automatically record incoming and outgoing calls
Free and unlimited call recording
Convert any recording to text with the in-app transcription feature
Easy to share recordings and transcriptions via Dropbox, email, and more
Aside from the ability to transcribe and share, Rev is a no-frills solution for call recordings. It’s perfect for anyone who wants a free and simple way to record calls on their iPhone.
#5 – Aircall Review — The Best Call Center Solution
Aircall is more than just call recording software. It’s a complete cloud-based call center solution made for business teams.
You can set it up in seconds without any hardware, downloads, or headaches associated with traditional phone systems. Best of all, every Aircall plan comes with call recording capability.
If you just need a way to record calls on your existing phone system, Aircall probably won’t be a viable option. This software is designed for businesses that need a completely new phone system. The call recording features are just some of the many perks you’ll get with an Aircall subscription.
Some features of Aircall include:
Automatically record inbound and outbound calls
Customize recording settings at any time
On-demand playbacks
CRM integrations
Clear recording quality
Unlimited calls in the US and Canada
Aircall has additional services for things like call monitoring, call whispering, and call analytics. These advanced features are not available on the entry-level plan.
Pricing starts at $30 per month per user, and you can try it for free for seven days.
#6 – Kixie PowerCall Review — The Best Chrome Extension For Call Recording
Kixie PowerCall is another all-in-one business phone solution. It’s a top choice for remote teams looking for a simple way to manage calls.
This robust Chrome extension can be installed in seconds on Mac, Windows, and Chromebook devices. All Kixie PowerCall plans come with call recording capabilities.
As a Chrome browser extension, it’s easy for agents to make and receive calls from anywhere. Recordings can be managed with a single click, and the software is ready to use out of the box.
Since Kixie PowerCall is an all-in-one phone system, you’ll also benefit from features like:
Single-click voicemail drop
Local presence phone numbers
Click-to-call dialing
Live call coaching
Call reporting insights
Like some of the other software on our list, Kixie PowerCall is better for teams that need a complete business phone solution. If you just want basic call recording features on your existing phone service, you’ll find other options more suitable for your needs.
You get 300 free minutes when you try Kixie PowerCall free for seven days.
#7 – Ooma Office Pro Review — The Best Price for the Total Package
A lot of the best call recording options available come as part of wider business phone solutions. When it comes to getting voice and video with all the features you’d need—including call recording—you can’t beat Ooma Office Pro.
I usually save the pricing information for towards the end of these reviews, but here it’s lede: Ooma Office Pro is just $24.95/user per month.
That sort of pricing for the feature set you get usually requires you to have 20 or more users. Ooma offers just one flat price, which makes it great for teams of any size to update their calling capabilities.
Here’s just a sampling of that feature set:
Virtual receptionist
Virtual extensions
Multi-device ring and ring groups
SMS messaging included
Desktop calling app
Voicemail transcription
Call logs
Call parking
Plus, call recording is adaptable for automatic and on-demand recording. And they’re all stored in your call logs automatically.
Keep in mind, you’ll need to sign up for Ooma Office Pro, as the standard Ooma Office plan does not come with recording features.
If you need a more customizability and analytical capability in the form of a full UCaaS solution, you can step up to Ooma Enterprise for just a few bucks more—$27.99/user per month.
Ooma also offers device flexibility—their mobile app allows you to call from anywhere, but they also sell equipment like traditional desk phones and base stations.
For customer service, sales, or even the legal and medical fields, Ooma Office Pro is a modern business phone solution that will give you the call recording features you need for compliance and improvement.
#8 – Nextiva Review — The Best Call Recording for Massive Organizations
In a large company, a lot of different people need to use call recording for a lot of different reasons. And Nextiva is the business calling solution built to handle the strain.
Think of a huge customer service team—dozens of people need to touch the software, from the reps recording their calls to the customer service and HR managers who will use them to run quality assurance, employee evaluations, and training.
Multiply that by the number departments in your office, then again by the number of offices in your organization…
You can see how call recording frequency and storage needs add up quickly.
With the Enterprise and Ultimate plans of Nextiva One (their voice and video service), you get unlimited recording of both calls and video conferences. Plus, both plans accommodate an unlimited number of users, so everyone can utilize the recording features and access (if you grant it) saved recordings.
Plus, you unlock advanced features of Nextiva’s overall calling service, like advanced voice call analytics, and custom productivity reporting.
When you think about it, it all comes together nicely. Call recording for anything from training to stakeholder meetings can be used in tandem with the analytics, reporting, and Nextiva’s built-in team messaging and collaboration tools to spur improvement everywhere in your organization. And at scale.
What seals the deal for Nextiva is the price point for large teams. The Enterprise plan—which includes everything I’ve described above—is $31.95/user per month for 100 or more users.
That’s a better value and feature set for teams that large than just about anybody else out there.
#9 – RingCentral Review — The Best Archiving and Storage for Recordings
Whether you’re using recordings for training, posterity, note-taking, or anything else, what good are they if you can’t access and store them easily?
If you choose RingCentral Office for your team messaging, video conferencing, and phone system, you get generous call recording limits and an excellent dashboard for managing them.
You get the full suite of communication tools, plus features like:
Call whisper and barge
Hot desking
Real-time call analytics
Open API
Single sign-on
Dozens of integrations
RingCentral allows storage of 100,000 call recordings per account, kept for up to 90 days. That’s a nice allowance without even getting into their tool for organizing and storing recordings.
That would be the RingCentral Archiver, a clean, easy-to-use dashboard for viewing and accessing all call recordings in your organization.
In it, you can see recordings, voicemails, and SMS messages all at once, see the numbers they came from, and when they were made or received.
You can easily connect the Archiver to Dropbox, Smarsh, or Google Drive, allowing you to easily sync and backup recordings on your cloud storage. That way you can save any recordings that may be about to hit the 90-day expiration date.
Automatic call recording and the Archiver only come on RingCentral’s Premium and Ultimate plans. You can utilize on-demand call recording on the Standard plan, but you won’t have many options for accessing, storing, or downloading them.
RingCentral Premium is the best plan for most businesses wanting voice, video, messaging, recording, and easy archiving. Pricing for that package scales based on the number of users:
What I Looked at to Find the Best Call Recording Software
There are certain factors that I looked for while narrowing down the top recommendations on my list. You can use this methodology as well when shopping around comparing different tools side-by-side. Consider this as your buying guide for call recording software.
Use Cases
Why are you seeking a call recording solution?
The answer to this question will help narrow down your options. Some tools are better for sales and marketing, while others are better for training, management, monitoring, and quality assurance.
There are smartphone apps for call recording for personal use and full-scale business phone solutions with built-in call recording features.
The type of calls you’re recording will impact your decision as well. Some solutions only support traditional calls, while others support WhatsApp call recording, Skype call recording, and other third-party platforms.
On-Demand vs. Automatic Recording
Do you want every inbound and outbound call to be recorded automatically? Or would you prefer to control if and when a recording starts and stops?
The ability to choose between on-demand and automated recording is definitely something to keep in mind as you’re shopping around.
For large-scale business use, automatic recording will probably be your best option. It’s one less step your staff has to think about during a call. But for personal use, you probably don’t need to record every single call you make or receive.
Live Monitoring and Call Evaluation
Live monitoring is a crucial tool for call centers. In addition to recording the call, this feature allows managers or admins to listen in on calls in real-time.
Overall, this is a proactive way to improve quality assurance.
Some software takes QA one step further by providing call evaluation metrics. There are tools out there that can use recordings for sentiment analysis, conversion insights, and more to provide advanced scoring grades for each call.
Security and Compliance
Security needs to be a top priority for conversations that include sensitive information. Examples include credit card information, medical information, personal details, and more.
Certain businesses must follow industry-wide regulations to ensure compliance. Make sure the software you’re considering meets all necessary regulations, even if it’s something as simple as notifying the caller about the recording and giving them the option to opt-out.
Storage
Another factor to consider is to assess the way recorded calls are stored and accessed from platform to platform.
What type of storage restrictions does each plan have? How easy is it to access, organize, and listen to those recordings at a later time?
For example, let’s say you’re dealing with a customer dispute. A customer claims that they never gave your staff permission to charge their credit card over the phone. Can you quickly locate that recorded call to find out what happened?
The best call recording storage systems are searchable and well-organized.
Conclusion
Call recording software comes in different shapes and sizes. The best option for you will depend on your unique wants and needs.
I’ve made suggestions in my reviews of the top products:
RingCentral — Best archiving and storage for recordings
Consider a smartphone app or standalone call recording tool for simple call recordings. More advanced call recording software will come with features for screen recordings, call monitoring, and customer insights. Choose an all-in-one business phone system to get features that go above and beyond just call recording.
Regardless of your call recording needs, you can find what you’re looking for using my recommendations listed in this guide.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
What would it be like for your business to never miss another call?
Nothing scares away new business like hard-to-reach customer service or disorganized sales calls. Adopt the best call center software and you will outfit your teams with the tools they need to communicate effectively.
Today, an affordable call center is within reach of any business with an internet connection.
Forget about the requirements of a physical office space, infrastructure, or even a business phone system.
Modern call center software is all you need to get up and running. You still have the hard work of engaging your customers and clients, but all the heavy lifting associated with maintaining a call center is off your plate.
How to Choose The Best Call Center Software For You
I make calls when I’m thinking about committing to a new product or service. Lots of people do.
The human connection is real, intimate, and—unfortunately—easy to mess up.
One dropped call. One mistaken name from an agent who’s spoken to 35 other people within the hour.
It doesn’t take much to lose a lead or earn a 1-star review carved in digital stone on the internet.
You’re looking for a system that establishes trust with customers because they know they can call and speak with the right person quickly.
It must also come with an interface that empowers agents by giving them insight into calls, client histories, and any other information they need to resolve issues in real-time.
Customers need prompt answers from helpful agents. End of story.
The best call center software comes with everything you need to meet these two fundamental call center objectives, and much more.
Let’s go through the core call center features that help businesses make their customers happier and their agents more productive.
Calling Capabilities
Blended call center software will let the same agent receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls. This isn’t the case with every product, as some are limited to a single direction: inbound or outbound.
This can work to your advantage.
If you only need one or the other, you may be able to get a less expensive plan that’s easier to secure and manage. A helpdesk might only need inbound and a sales team might be fine with outbound calls only.
Dialing Capabilities
For outbound call centers, having the right dialing capabilities can make a huge difference in terms of agent productivity (and sanity). The four types you are likely to see are:
Preview dialer: Lets an agent review contact information before they call
Progressive dialer: Automatically dials one contact per available agent
Power dialer: Automatically dials multiple contacts per available agents
Predictive dialer: Automatically dials based on predicted agent availability
Dialers decrease an agent’s down-time considerably and completely eliminate the manual grind process of making calls from their cognitive workload.
Channels
Call center software should be able to accommodate every channel you currently use or plan to use in the future. If you see something billed as omnichannel, it should cover:
Phone
VoIP
Email
SMS
Chat
Social
Video
Ensure that whatever product you choose will let customers interact seamlessly with agents across all supported company channels.
Call Routing
Call center software comes with routing features that segment and direct incoming calls, potentially automating the processes which connect callers with the expert or agent they seek.
Some of the popular call routing features explained:
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): Greets customers and allows them to select from a main menu or enter extension to route themselves.
Automated attendant: Takes calls when all agents are busy, plays hold music, relays wait times, and reminds callers that their time is valuable.
Intelligent call routing: Uses automation, AI, or interactive voice response to route customers to the most appropriate agent.
Mobile device routing: Allows calls to be routed to mobile devices.
Omnichannel routing: Allows calls to be routed across any channel.
Virtual hold: Gives customers the option to receive a call back when an agent is ready, instead of waiting on the phone.
Warm transfer: Lets customers speak to a new agent before the call is transferred, and allows the previous agent to explain any ground that’s already been covered.
If call center software comes with intelligent call routing, it’s safe to assume it can handle most, if not all, of the capabilities listed above.
Interactive Voice Response
Interactive voice response (IVR) enables customers to use a phone system to access information from a connected database. This could be someone calling to find out their checking balance, hear the status of their order, or pay a bill.
If you have customers routinely calling to access information, you can free up a lot of phone time simply by implementing IVR. It’s a truly self-service solution that helps people get what they want, without ever talking to an agent.
Call Recording
You have probably heard a thousand times that “this call is being recorded for safety, security, or training purposes.” Well it’s all true.
Call recording is extremely important. Supervisors can listen back to trainee calls and give advice about how to improve. In the event of a legal or compliance issue, call recording will cover your bases.
Good call center software makes it as easy as possible to save and store every call in a highly organized, searchable database. If you integrate your CRM, every recording can also be tied to the appropriate customer or client account.
One advanced call recording feature that can be really useful for sales teams is voicemail-to-email. This sends an email with an audio attachment or transcription of the voicemail to the account owner who missed the call. This is a huge time saver, especially for agents who are remote and on the go.
Workforce Management
How efficient is your call center? How do you know?
Reporting and analytics are important features of modern call center software. Look for products with both historical and real-time reporting capabilities to support workforce management and optimization.
By tracking key metrics about calls, wait times, and first contact resolution, among others, those in supervisory roles are better able to forecast staffing needs to fit fluctuating demand.
Integrations, APIs, and SDKs
Put key customer data in front of your agents by integrating customer data sources with your call center software. The top products come with seamless integrations that work out of the box with leading CRMs like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
Many top call center software options have APIs and software development kits (SDKs) that allow you to build out custom solutions.
The better connectivity you can provide, the richer the customer information your call center will collect.
Done right, you’ll provide marketing, sales, and customer service with data-driven insights to steer their efforts.
Security
Even if your customers aren’t giving their social security number over the phone, they’re sharing personal and potentially sensitive information. It’s unpleasant to imagine how much havoc an attacker could cause with full access to a database of client conversations.
Consider potential vulnerabilities that come with deploying call center software. Does it integrate with your current security stack? If not, be sure to add the cost of securing your new IT perimeter to the total cost of ownership.
The Different Types of Call Center Software
It’s getting less and less important for call center solutions to offer traditional business phone systems. Some do, but most are focused on helping companies migrate gradually to a centralized, cloud-based, multi-channel interface.
As important as the phone is, the reality is that customers are reaching out on more and more channels.
This is why you’ll see the name “call center” being dropped in favor of “contact center.”
It simply reflects that companies have to be able to respond however they are contacted: phone, chat, email, and so on.
Whether you are starting from zero or looking to modernize your existing system, picking the right type of call center software is the first step.
On-Premises Call Center Software
Many companies still maintain their own call centers and it can be important to keep everything in house for compliance reasons.
If this is a concern, make sure you choose an option that supports your infrastructure needs.
Cloud Call Center Software
Cloud-based call center software provides the same capabilities as a traditional call center, but it’s delivered as a service. Companies don’t have to manage any of the hardware or software.
A SaaS call center can be deployed in just a few hours or days, since there isn’t much required beyond headsets and devices to work from.
It’s very easy to run a distributed or work-from-home call center with a cloud-based solution, which is another reason these solutions are so popular.
CCaaS
Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) centralizes all of the channels your teams use to communicate externally.
Whereas a cloud call center may only give you VoIP, a CCaaS solution is going to loop in text, chat, social, and video as well.
UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) has all the capabilities of a CCaaS, with an additional focus of integrating legacy communication technology like fax and teleconferencing.
These products truly unify all forms of communication, helping companies adopt future-proof solutions as they phase out old equipment.
#1 – Five9 — Best For Blended Call Centers
Five9 empowers call center agents to deliver the best possible experience to their customers by providing true omnichannel functionality from anywhere within an intuitive interface.
Agents can switch between chat, email, mobile, social, video, or voice to maintain seamless customer interactions.
Plus, integrations with top CRM platforms mean that all data is captured, providing an end-to-end contact center solution. Whether agents are reaching out or picking up a call, they always have current information about who they’re speaking with.
There are also built-in workforce management tools that make accurate forecasting and scheduling much easier.
For all the power of Five9 call center software, it’s not overwhelming, and people can quickly master the tools at their disposal, such as:
Predictive, power, progressive, and preview dialers
Intelligent omnichannel routing
IVR
Historic and real-time analytics dashboards
Six built-in CRM integrations
Cloud APIs and SDKs
Blended call centers will definitely notice increased efficiency using Five9. Active blending, one of the intelligent routing features, automatically sends inbound calls to agents working outbound campaigns when call volume is high.
Five9 pricing is based on whether you want inbound, outbound, or blended service. You’ll have to get in touch with sales, but there are three options for how to pay:
Monthly on-demand
Per-minute fees
Annual contracts
The lowest price will come with an annual contract, but companies can scale quickly at low cost with on-demand pricing if need be.
As sleek as it is, Five9 is one of the top call center solutions for companies that need to integrate legacy technology. If you’re thinking about using a cloud-based solution for your blended call center, Five9 can help no matter where you are starting from.
The VoIP quality is great, calls don’t drop, and agents can work from anywhere on their laptop or personal mobile device. It’s a great solution for virtual cloud call centers because of the built-in security, workforce management, and collaborative features.
Customers can leave voicemails which can be quickly assigned to the right person. New hires can listen into calls to hear what good service sounds like. In fact, you can host up to five people on the same live call.
One of the biggest perks for teams is the ability to assign, tag, and comment on calls. This is so helpful—assign the call to an individual, tag it to a specific department, and leave a short explanation about what’s going on.
It’s not that other call center software can’t do this—it’s just easier in Aircall.
For all the ease of using Aircall, it is a complete CCaaS that provides
Automatic call-back
Intelligent call routing
IVR
Power dialer
One-click CRM integrations
Call center analytics
Aircall pricing is broken down into three tiers:
Essentials: starting at $30 per user/month
Professional: starting at $50 per user/month
Custom: contact sales
One quick thing: Salesforce integration only comes at the Professional tier, whereas integrations for Pipedrive, Zendesk, Hubspot, Slack and more than 60 others come with Essentials.
Aircall still supports traditional phone systems, which makes it an attractive option for companies that want to expand their call center operations to the cloud at their own pace.
#3 – 8×8 Contact Center — Best For Enterprise
8×8 Contact Center is one of the more robust tools on the market. 8×8 has been around for a long time and can fully support migration to a UCaaS call center.
It’s a powerful solution that can help large organizations in particular. Build out complex IVR paths, optimize a large workforce, and process payments all within a navigable interface.
There may be a little more of a learning curve with 8×8 than with other call center software simply because the platform is so feature rich.
That said, once you have everything set up, the support and online documentation is enough to help people take advantage of 8×8’s advanced features, including:
Call and screen recording
Predictive dialer
Drag-and-drop IVR designer
Speech analytics
Customer surveys
Native CRM and integrations with top products
The pricing for 8×8 Contact Center breaks down into three tiers:
Contact Center – Voice
Contact Center – Omnichannel
Contact Center – Advanced
8×8 is not going to be the most budget-friendly option, even at its voice-only tier.
To include digital channels, you will need the Omnichannel plan. For speech analytics and screen recording, you will need Advanced.
For voice-only call centers, other options from this list will meet your needs at a lower cost. If you are trying to build out an omnichannel contact center, however, 8×8 will give you a level of visibility and control that lighter products can’t.
#4 – Dialpad — Best For Startups
Dialpad is a next-generation UCaaS that completely supports today’s on-the-go, distributed workplace. Choose Dialpad for agile, constantly improving call center software.
You can add agents via the web client or Dialpad app. Both are updated frequently for security and to add new features.
For all the flexibility provided to end-users, Dialpad doesn’t skimp on the backend reporting, recording, or monitoring features. This is huge for companies that are still trying to figure out what’s important.
With Dialpad, your team can assess KPIs and discover meaningful trends in real-time. Simply integrate your CRM and watch as Dialpad surfaces the most important metrics from calls on clean dashboards or highly-visible leaderboards.
Some of the other great capabilities of Dialpad include:
IVR
Seamless mobile routing
Call/Voicemail transcription
Warm transfer
APIs and webhooks
Integrations with top SSOs, CRMs, G Suite, and Microsoft 365,
There are two plan options for Dialpad Contact Center:
Pro: starting at $225/month for 3 agents
Enterprise: contact sales, 100 agent minimum
Businesses thrive with Dialpad because of its efficiency. Deployment is simple, integrations are tight, and it performs extremely well for organizations with many remote workers.
#5 – Talkdesk CX Cloud — Best For Salesforce Integration
Talkdesk is a leading CCaaS product that works well for large organizations who need to scale their contact center operations. Quickly provision new agents and securely connect them to sensitive customer data, no matter where they are.
It’s a feature-rich, yet very approachable, solution. People who have never used Talkdesk can sit down and start taking calls.
Talkdesk has more than 60 integrations ready to go, but the seamless connection with Salesforce CRM is definitely a key selling point. Agents can see a rich history of who they are talking to and all calls are automatically recorded in the proper place.
When agents forget call details, they can listen back with a few clicks.
Some tasks, like creating new IVRs, take some getting used to, but for the most part, non-technical users are going to be able to get the most out of every feature, including:
Intelligent routing
Warm transfer
Customer sentiment surveys
Real-time dashboards for workforce management
Custom IVR
Guardian Standard fraud prevention
Talkdesk also offers AI-driven add-ons for speech analytics, workforce management, and quality control.
Talkdesk has rolled out affordable solutions for SMB call centers. Adopting something this powerful early on will deliver superior customer engagement, and may even cut down on costs by increasing agent productivity.
Summary
Ten years ago, setting up a call center took months. Today, you can deploy one over the weekend.
To make your choice, focus on how the feature set of each product will:
Enable customers connect to the right agent quickly
Empower agents serve customers and connect with clients
While every option on this list is fairly easy to get set up, Dialpad or Aircall are exceptionally easy in this regard. Aircall will better accommodate legacy technology than Dialpad, if that’s a consideration, and the collaborative features are more mature.
Then again, it depends how you collaborate. The ease of routing calls between devices on Dialpad is phenomenal, which is critical for distrubed call centers.
Five9 has the edge on many other full-scale contact center software when it comes to outbound dialing capabilities. Sales teams can automatically ramp up their call volume without increasing call abandonment numbers. As the inbound call functionality is comparatively rich, Five9 is a great option for a blended call center.
Companies using Salesforce CRM will enjoy using Talkdesk. The integration works with ease and employee familiarity with the Salesforce interface makes adopting Talkdesk that much easier.
Choose 8×8 if your company is going to benefit from building out complex IVR pathways. It’s easy to design customer journeys in the visual, drag-and-drop editor, which really stands out from the crowd.
Additionally, the security in 8×8 is payment card industry compliant, so you can rest assured that connecting customers to sensitive information via IVR won’t cause problems down the line.
It’s that time of year when you’re thinking about spooky things lurking behind every corner. But your business credit score doesn’t have to be one of those things that goes bump in the night. You can call on these bad small business credit score busters to rescue you.
5 Bad Small Business Credit Score Busters
When it comes to a small business credit score, no score is the same as a bad score. So, whether you actually have bad small business credit, or you don’t have a small business credit score at all, you are in the same boat. The best place to start is at the beginning.
Bad Small Business Credit Score Buster #1: A Properly Established Business Credit File
No business credit is the same as bad business credit. The trick is, most people miss out on all the treats credit in the name of their business has to offer because they think they have a business credit score. They think that if they have a business and pay all the business bills on time, they’re golden. This is a trick indeed.
The truth is, while you do need to know how to build your business credit score, you have to do some pre-work, so to speak. The problem is, business credit does not develop the same way personal credit does. You have to actively establish business credit before you can build a small business score.
How to Establish Business Credit
The key to establishing business credit is to set up your business to be a separate, fundable entity apart from you the owner. This ensures that payments on business accounts are on your business credit rather than your personal credit. Here’s how.
Check out our trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. Conquer any recession!
Contact Information
You need separate business contact information. That doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line or a separate location. You can run your business from your home or on your computer.
Actually, you can get abusiness phone number easily that works over the internet instead of phone lines ( this is called VOIP, or voice over internet protocol). Even better, it will forward to any phone you want it to so you can use your personal cell phone or landline. Calls to your business number will ring straight to you.
In addition, you can use a virtual office for abusiness address. This is a business that offers a physical address for a fee, and sometimes they even offer mail service and live receptionist services. Furthermore, some offer meeting spaces for those times you may need to meet a client or customer in person.
EIN
You also need an EIN. This is an identifying number for your business that is similar to your personal SSN. You can get one for free from theIRS.
Incorporate
Incorporating your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation is necessary to fundability. It not only offers liability protection, but it is vital in separating a business from its owner.
Business Bank Account
You have to open a separate, dedicated business bank account. First, it will help you keep track of business finances. It will also help you keep them separate from personal finances for tax purposes.
Also, several types of funding are not available without a business bank account. Many lenders and credit cards want to see one with a minimum average balance. Another reason is, you cannot get a merchant account without a business account at a bank. That means, you cannot take credit card payments. Even more important, a lot of lenders consider the date a business starts to be the date the business bank account opens. Time in business is an important factor in business credit.
Best Bank Accounts for Small Businesses
So, what are the best bank accounts for small businesses? There are tons out there, and each business’s needs are different. However, there are a few things you should consider when trying to find the best bank account for your business.
Fees
This is first because it’s the most obvious, but it isn’t necessarily the most important, at least not in the way you may think. You do not necessarily want the account with the lowest fee. While there are probably free bank accounts out there, those may not actually be the best bank accounts for small businesses. Why? Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Which leads to the next thing you need to consider.
Number of Allowed Transactions
You need to consider the number of transactions allowed per month before you are charged additional fees. Many free accounts allow a very small number of transactions. This is fine for some small businesses, but you also need to consider growth when determining how many transactions per month you need.
Even business bank accounts that are not free do not usually offer an unlimited number of transactions. Many have a transaction limit, and if you go over, will they charge additional fees. The key is to figure out not only how many transactions you need currently, but how many you may need as you grow.
Also, make sure you can upgrade your account if you see you are consistently going over the allowed number of transactions. Find out what is entailed in doing so. You don’t want to be in a situation where you have to get a whole new account if you can help it. That’s a pain. Just be sure to keep an eye on how many transactions you do each month.
Required Cash Deposits
Take a look at the deposit amounts allowed or required each month. Make sure you can meet them.
Minimum Balance Requirements
Are you required to keep a minimum balance in the account to avoid additional fees? If so, make sure you can meet that requirement.
Extras
If you find more than one account that is perfect for your business, take a look at the extras to break the tie. Do they offer mobile banking? Will they waive fees if you hit a certain number of a specific type of transaction? Do they offer an app or text banking?
Finding the best bank accounts for small businesses takes a little finesse, because what works best for one business may not be what’s best for yours. This should get you started.
Licenses
For a business to be legitimate it has to have all of the necessary licenses it needs to run. If it doesn’t, red flags are going to fly up all over the place. Do the research you need to do to ensure you have all of the licenses necessary to legitimately run your business at the federal, state, and local levels.
D-U-N-S Number
This is a number issued by Dun & Bradstreet. They are the largest and most commonly used business credit reporting agency. You cannot be in their system without this number. Get one for free on theirwebsite.
Check out our trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. Conquer any recession!
Bad Small Business Credit Score Buster #2: Continuity in Business Information
While this buster does not directly affect your business credit score, a lack of it can definitely get you denied, even with a stellar credit score. Here’s the deal. Fraud is rampant, and lenders do not like to take chances. If they see one document with your business name that has an ampersand and one that uses the word “and” in place of the ampersand, it will set off fraud concerns and they will deny the loan. This can happen even if you have a good business credit score. Your business name has to be exactly the same everywhere.
The same is true for addresses and phone numbers. If you have one address on your website and a different one on insurance papers, it’s going to be a problem. All information related to your business has to be the same on all documents across the board.
Bad Small Business Credit Score Buster #3: Credit Line Hybrid
A credit line hybrid allows you to fund your business without putting up collateral, and you only pay back what you use. Qualifying is not as hard as you may think. You do need good personal credit, at least 685. In addition, you can’t have any liens, judgments, bankruptcies or late payments. Also, in the past 6 months you should have fewer than 5 credit inquiries, and you should have less than a 45% balance on all business and personal credit cards. It’s also preferred that you have established business credit as well as personal credit.
But how is it a bad business credit score buster? Here’s how. If you do not meet the qualifications, you can take on a credit partner that does meet them. Since it reports to the business credit reporting agencies in the business’s name, you can build credit for your business without having good credit to begin with.
Bad Small Business Credit Score Buster #3: Vendor Credit
Obviously small business lenders are not going to approve applications for loans based on a business credit score if there is no business credit score. Thus, you need a way to build a score without already having a score. This is the time when you need to know how to build your business credit score. Vendor credit is where you start after your business is set up properly.
Vendor credit is offered by what we like to refer to as “starter vendors.” These are companies that will extend net terms on invoices without a credit check. Then, when you pay the invoice, they report your payment to the business credit reporting agencies.
This helps you build business credit without already having business credit. However, for it to work, you have to have your business set up as outlined above. Also, since they do not check credit, they do have other ways of reducing risk. These vary by vendor, but some general things they look at include:
Length of time in business
Average balance in business bank account
Revenues
Usually it is some combination of these factors and others that starter vendors are looking for when it comes to extending net terms.
Bad Small Business Credit Score Buster #3: Responsible Use of Store Credit and Fleet Credit
Once you have some starter vendors reporting your payments, you will start to build a small business credit score. At that point, you will be eligible to get approval from some store credit cards. These are cards from retailers that are meant to be used at their store only. Apply with your business name, EIN, and contact information so they will report to your business credit report and not your personal credit report, thus building strong business credit.
As they report payments, your business credit score will continue to grow, and you can apply for fleet credit. These cards are meant to be used for auto repair and maintenance and fuel costs. However, after you get enough of them reporting payments, your score will grow to the point you can apply for cash credit, meaning cards that can be used anywhere on anything, in your business name.
The key to this is, you have to handle the credit responsibly. If you do not make consistent, on-time payments, you will achieve the opposite effect.
Call on These Bad Small Business Credit Score Busters and Never be Haunted Again
Whether you need to establish a small business credit score or annihilate a bad one, at least one of these tips should help. If your business isn’t already set up properly, do that now. Even if you do know how to build your business credit score, it will not matter if your business is not set up properly. The longer you wait the harder it gets.
After that, be sure anytime you make changes you make them everywhere, and start working on vendor credit. Small business lenders take all of this into account, so starting as soon as possible to get everything in line is vital.
Check out our trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. Conquer any recession!
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
