Do you want to understand the options around call center software for your small business? With over 70% of customers contacting businesses via telephone, up-to-date call center software is essential for the success of any SME. 

Thanks to the steady demand for call center software, there’s been a proliferation of options in the market. While this is great news, it can also make choosing the right software challenging. 

It’s important to recognize what call center software can do for your business. AutoReach boosts outbound performance, increasing the speed with which your small business wins deals. The creation of automated customer service systems can streamline processes by setting up appointments or placing orders.

To help narrow your search, we've compiled a list of nine game-changing call center software solutions for small business needs. We'll cover features, pricing, and more to help you select the best software for your business.

What Needs Does Call Center Software Fulfill for Small Businesses?

Before we dive into our list of the best call center software solutions, it's important to understand the needs that these programs are designed to meet.

Cost Savings

Without call center software, additional staff is required for customer support, which is expensive. Call center software helps you save on costs by providing features like automated responses and post-call surveys, freeing time for customer service agents, and helping streamline processes.

Software for call centers also helps control costs by providing access to call analytics and customer insights. These call center metrics identify problem areas and can be used to make better decisions, resulting in improved customer service and cost savings.

Enhanced Service Quality

Call center software also provides a higher level of service quality. Many programs are equipped with features like AI, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning. This improves response times, customer service, and personalized experiences for customers.

These features also help you manage a larger volume of calls or chats in a shorter amount of time. This is especially beneficial for small businesses with limited resources, making it easier to handle more customer inquiries while maintaining quality standards.

Increased Efficiency

Efficiency is the fuel that drives any successful business, so you need to optimise processes and resources to maximize productivity. Call center software helps you do this by providing features like call routing, automated dialing, and reporting tools.

These tools reduce the time taken for each customer interaction and ensure that customers are connected to the right agent who can provide them with immediate assistance. This makes it easier to offer customers a better, more efficient experience.

Accelerate Your Teams' Productivity

Call center software helps streamline operations and reduce manual tasks. The tools make it easier for agents to access customer data, handle multiple conversations simultaneously, and even identify the best times to make cold calls. 

In addition, the reporting capabilities of these tools provide invaluable insights into how teams are performing, which helps managers target areas for improvement. They can also identify customer trends and optimize the sales mindset.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Call center software allows agents to respond quickly and address issues efficiently. The tools give agents access to comprehensive customer records, helping them have more meaningful conversations with customers.

The solutions also enable you to monitor customer satisfaction scores and analyze customer feedback to identify areas for improvement.

Increased Scalability

Call center software is designed to be scalable, so you can easily manage customer service operations as they grow. The tools helps you quickly add or remove agents from a team and manage multiple customer service channels.

This simplifies responding to changes in demand and ensures you can keep up with customer expectations. The scalability of these solutions saves time and reduces costs when managing your operations.

Improve Customer Service Management

81% of customers say good customer service boosts their chances of making another purchase. Additionally, 83% of today's consumers consider trust as a key factor for brand loyalty. Therefore, you need to provide customers with a great experience every time they interact with your business.

Call center software improves customer service management with features like call routing, automated dialing, and reporting tools. These tools save time and resources while ensuring customers get the best possible experience.

By offering quality customer service, you can build long-term relationships and foster loyalty with your customers. The tools also help teams stay organized while providing customers with the most personalized experience possible.

Build A Professional Image

Professionalism is like the cherry on top of providing quality customer service. The right call center software helps to build a professional image and stay ahead of competitors.

By using features like an auto-attendant, you can ensure that customers aren’t left waiting long before connecting with an available representative. Additionally, customers can access services through automated systems or get their inquiries answered through a live chatbot.

These features help your business establish credibility, build trust, and show customers that you’re taking their experience seriously.

Efficient Call Handling

The right call center software can also aid in handling customer calls more efficiently. With automated systems, representatives don't waste time and resources manually requesting, transferring, or collecting customer data.

The software can also help streamline the workflow by providing agents with the right information when needed. This helps them focus on personalization and making great conversation with customers instead of searching for information.

It also allows teams to handle multiple calls at once without any dropped connections and reduce wait times.

Identify Urgent Calls

Not all calls made to your business are urgent, so it’s important to identify which ones are. Call center software helps prioritize calls and ensure that urgent inquiries are handled quickly.

The software can provide insights into the customer’s needs as soon as they call, and it can route them to agents who can solve their problems. This helps reduce customer frustration and facilitates addressing issues as soon as possible by providing agents with call history and other important information.

Call Center Software for Small Business: 9 Reviews

Now that you know why you need call center software, let’s look at some of the best options available. We’ve rounded up reviews of the top call center software for small businesses.

1. AutoReach

Best For Dialing up Your Outbound Performance

AutoReach is a comprehensive cloud-based call center software designed to help your business manage customer interactions efficiently and effectively. With AutoReach, you can route calls with advanced IVR capabilities and quickly access customer data from any device. It also comes with real-time analytics to review performance metrics and evaluate agent performance.

Main Features

Some of the main features that make AutoReach stand out from the crowd include:

• Campaign management: AutoReach allows you to manage campaigns and customer contacts from a central location. This includes queuing calls and tracking interaction success. It also provides detailed reports and analytics to monitor the performance of your campaigns.
• Power Dialer: AutoReach’s power dialer boosts rep efficiency, without putting call quality at risk. Once a call is complete, the power dialer software automatically calls the next number on a rep’s list in real-time. For reps who make high volumes of calls, this saves them the time of manually logging notes into the CRM and dialing. 
• Headless CRM: A headless CRM gives agents access to customer data without having to log in. This streamlines the process of accessing customer information and makes it easier for agents to stay up-to-date with their customers.
• Lead Routing: Lead routing allows you to route calls based on customer profiles, geography, or other criteria. This ensures customers connect with the right person and ensures each inquiry is quickly answered.
• Cadence SMS: This feature enables sending text messages and automated notifications to customers. This helps keep customers informed about their inquiries and ensures they don’t wait too long for a response.
• Broadcast SMS: Broadcast SMS allows you to send promotional messages or notifications to large groups of customers with just one click. This is an effective way to reach out to your customer base and keep them informed about any changes or updates in your business.
• Chrome Extension: AutoReach also comes with a Chrome extension that allows you to perform certain tasks such as setting up callbacks or scheduling meetings without leaving your browser. This makes it easier to manage customer interactions and stay organized with minimal effort.

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2. Dialpad

Best For AI-Powered Customer Support

If phone support is a mainstay of your customer service strategy, Dialpad offers an all-in-one solution to meet those needs. This software is designed for businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises. Its scalability, reliability, and features make it an ideal solution for growing businesses.

Main Features

• AI Voice: Dialpad leverages AI to offer personalized customer service. It allows customers to quickly find the answers and solutions they need without having to wait for a human representative.
• Business phone app: Dialpad’s mobile app allows customers to make and receive calls, transfer files, set up conference calls, and more.
• Smart call routing: Smart call routing technology helps your team route calls quickly and efficiently.
• Porting numbers: Dialpad makes it easy to port existing phone numbers, so you don’t have to start from scratch when you switch to the app.
• Simultaneous Ring: You can send multiple calls to different agents at once, ensuring your customers don’t have to wait too long.

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3. Talkdesk

Best For Optimizing Critical Customer Service Processes

Talkdesk is another cloud-based call center software ideal for small businesses. It offers an easy-to-use web portal and mobile app that enables users to make and receive calls, access customer information and take notes from any location with an internet connection.

Additionally, this software features a comprehensive reporting system to help you track your performance metrics, such as average handling time and customer satisfaction. It also supports multiple channels for communication, including phone, email, web, and social media.

Main Features

• Click-to-call: This software offers a ‘click-to-call’ feature that allows agents to make calls with a single click. This makes it easy to reach out to customers quickly.
• Call routing: TalkDesk also provides advanced call routing capabilities such as skills-based routing, time-based routing, and geographic routing. This helps ensure all customer queries are directed to the right agent with the necessary skill set for faster resolution.
• CRM integration: TalkDesk can be integrated with popular CRMs like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Desk.com.
• Voicemail: Agents can also set up voicemails for different customer types and queues, so that customers are directed to the right person or department depending on their query.
• Automatic call distributor (ACD): This software also offers a powerful ACD system to help you manage customer queues more efficiently. You can set up custom rules for call routing and prioritization, which helps speed up the resolution process.
• Interactive voice response (IVR): TalkDesk also supports an automated IVR system for customer self-service, and you can create custom prompts and menus for the IVR system so that customers are directed to the right agent quickly.

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4. RingCentral Contact Center

Best For Connecting Customers Across Multiple Channels

Growing businesses need call center software to keep pace with their needs and accommodate their expanding customer base. RingCentral Contact Center is designed to do just this. It offers a fully integrated and comprehensive solution that provides various tools, from cloud-based PBX to workflow automation. These tools help small businesses manage day-to-day operations, such as setting up and managing contact queues, automating customer service processes, and providing live customer support.

Main Features

• Intelligent routing: This software offers dynamic routing capabilities, which enable businesses to optimize their customer service processes.
• IVR/self-service: Automate processes by setting up self-service options like IVR. This helps reduce wait times and improve customer satisfaction.
• Automatic callback: This feature allows customers to request a callback and get connected to an agent best suited for their inquiry.
• Workforce management and AI-driven agent assistance: These features help businesses better manage their staff and provide a more personalized experience for customers.
• Seasonal scaling: This feature helps businesses quickly scale up or down their call center operations to meet the changing demands of their customer base.

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5. Zoom Contact Center

Best For Customer Service Personalization

Zoom Contact Center is a powerful yet affordable call center software solution for small businesses. It allows small businesses to manage customer calls, emails, and chats easily. The user-friendly interface allows you to handle customer inquiries in a professional and efficient manner.

Main Features

• Contact Center Analytics: This feature helps you track customer interactions, such as call duration, caller history, and more.
• Omni-Channel Support: This allows small businesses to support their customers from any channel – voice calls, email, media, or chat. This ensures the best customer experience while they search for help and support on their own terms.
• CRM Integration: Zoom Contact Center integrates with your existing CRM platform to give you real-time customer data access. It also allows you to quickly create custom reports based on customer interactions, giving you a better understanding of your customer base.
• AI-Powered IVR: This feature allows customers to identify themselves quickly, which results in shorter wait times and improved customer service. It also helps reduce costs by automating processes like call routing and transferring.
• Call Recording: This feature allows you to monitor customer interactions, helping you identify areas where improvements can be made in customer service. It also helps protect you from potential liability claims by providing recordings of interactions.
• Analytics & Reporting: This feature allows you to track KPIs for your call center and gain insights into what areas need improvement. Additionally, it provides insights into customer behavior, helping you better understand your customers.

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6. Freshdesk Contact Center (Formerly Freshcaller)

Best For Providing Agents With an Intuitive Voice Service

One of the longest-standing customer service solutions, Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) is a comprehensive cloud-based call center solution for small businesses. It gives agents the ability to easily manage customer interactions in one place.

Main Features

• Call recording: Freshcaller lets you record incoming and outgoing calls for quality assurance. This feature comes in handy when reviewing customer interactions for training and compliance purposes.
• Multi-Level IVR: Freshdesk Contact Center enables you to create multi-level interactive voice response (IVR) menus so customers can reach the right person quickly, reducing wait times and increasing customer satisfaction and agent efficiency.
• Call routing: You can route calls to specific agents or departments based on the caller's requirements. This helps ensure that the right person is handling the call and that it’s attended to in a timely manner.
• Call Transfer: This feature allows agents to transfer calls to other teams or departments, so customers can quickly connect with the right person.
• Shared Lines: Freshcaller also allows you to set up shared lines so multiple agents can take calls from the same number. This is particularly useful for businesses with multiple locations or departments needing connection.
• Holiday routing: With holiday routing, you can route incoming calls to a recorded message during holidays or peak periods. This ensures customers are greeted with relevant information even when there is no one available to take the call.

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7. Zendesk Talk

Best For Handling Calls, Voicemails and Texts Across Multiple Channels

We can't discuss the best call center software without mentioning Zendesk Talk. This powerful and versatile platform has been around for a while and is still one of the most popular options available. It mainly focuses on customer service and support but also has features geared toward call centers.

Main Features

• Customized hold music: One outstanding feature of Zendesk Talk is the ability to customize your hold music, creating a more comfortable customer experience that lets you put your own spin on your customer service.
• Omni-channel compatibility: Zendesk Talk is fully compatible with multiple communication channels such as SMS, webchat, email, and social media. This makes using a single platform to manage all your customer communication needs easy.
• Call recording: This call center software also has a feature that enables recording incoming and outgoing calls. The recordings can be stored for later use, so you can keep track of conversations and address customer issues more promptly.
• Dashboards and reporting: Zendesk Talk provides detailed reports and dashboards to give you insights into your call center's performance. It even offers predictive analytics, making it easier to plan ahead and be prepared for any situation.
• Business Text Messaging: This feature allows businesses to send and receive text messages from customers in a secure way. It also has the ability to automate messages and appointments with customers, making communication much smoother and more efficient.

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8. LiveAgent

Best For Fueling Sales Through Multichannel Customer Service

If your business provides text-based support, this cloud-based call center software is your best bet. LiveAgent’s live chat feature offers excellent customer service, allowing agents to solve customer queries quickly and efficiently. The software also allows you to easily personalize conversations with customers based on their previous interaction history.

Main Features

• Ticketing system: This software supports ticketing, a great way to organize and prioritize customer inquiries. It works by assigning tickets to customers with their relevant information and then routing them to the appropriate agent.
• Agent collision detection: LiveAgent allows your agents to detect when two team members are working on the same ticket, thereby ensuring that only one agent is assigned to a specific task at any given time.
• Live Chat: LiveAgent offers a powerful live chat feature that allows agents to answer customer queries quickly and efficiently. It also provides detailed analytics about the performance of each agent, so you can easily identify areas for improvement.
• Audit log: The audit log feature allows you to track and monitor all customer interactions, such as emails sent and received, tickets created, etc. This helps you keep tabs on the performance of your agents.

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9. Twilio Flex

Best For Facilitating Digital Engagement with Customers

If you need a call center you can customize, Twilio Flex is the way to go. It's a cloud-based, programmable contact center platform that allows you to build custom features and tools on top of its core features. This makes it easy for businesses to create a tailored customer service experience.

Main Features

• Integrated communication channel support: Twilio Flex supports multiple forms of communication, such as voice calls, text messages, social media messaging, and web chat.
• Data-driven insights: Get detailed insights into customer interactions with advanced analytics tools. These enable you to track customer conversations and analyze performance metrics to identify areas for improvement.
• AI-powered agent assistance: This software offers AI-driven agent assistance, which helps agents address customer issues quickly and accurately.
• Custom routing logic: This feature allows you to configure your own routing logic, ensuring that customers are connected with the right agent for their query.

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Final Thoughts

All of the above call center software solutions can help small business owners meet customer service needs, so it’s essential to compare them to find the right one for your business. Consider your budget and the features that best meet your needs, then make an informed decision. 

Remember, investing in the right software can help you save money, as you won’t have to invest in additional hardware or pay for extra phone lines.

With the right call center software, you can ensure a better customer experience and improved operational efficiency. At AutoReach, we believe that the customer journey starts on the first call. Start your free trial today!