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Decision Factors: How to Choose the Right Contact Center Software

Decision Factors: How to Choose the Right Contact Center Software

The contact center is one of your organization’s major connection points with your customers. Choosing the best contact center software to manage your operations is key to increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. But with so many options on the market, it can be hard to know where to start comparing products.

We’ve surfaced real user feedback to help you narrow in on the features and attributes with the most variable scores across contact center products. These are the areas where real software users like you say some products perform significantly better than others, so they’re important areas to keep in mind as you create your shortlist.

Contact Center Specific Features

Good contact center software should have a variety of features to support your organization’s customer-facing needs. From sophisticated call, message, and email routing and monitoring to workforce management and analytics to AI chatbots and agents, it can be hard to know how to evaluate the long list of features most vendors offer.

These five features vary the most in score across products on TrustRadius. If any of them are important to your company, it’s worth evaluating how well your top choices perform in these areas.

A list of high, low, and average scores for five key Contact Center features, as follows.
Live reporting: Low - 2.0, Average - 7.7, High - 9.9.
Multichannel integration: Low - 3.9, Average - 7.8, High - 9.9.
Customer interaction analytics: Low - 3.0, Average - 8.0, High - 9.9.
Outbound response: Low - 5.0, Average - 8.1, High - 10.0.
Historical reporting: Low - 4.0, Average - 7.9, High - 9.9.

Live Reporting

Live reporting allows you to monitor agent performance and customer interactions in real-time, providing immediate insights into call volumes, agent availability, and service levels. Good, functional live reporting is necessary if you want your managers to be able to monitor and, if needed, intervene in calls in real time. 

The average score for this feature is 7.7, with products scoring from a low of 2.0 to a high of 9.9. CloudTalk is the highest-rated product for this feature, with a score of 9.9/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Live reporting feature: Low - 2.0, Average - 7.7, High - 9.9.

CloudTalk’s live reporting helps this company enable their sales team.

“We use CloudTalk as our key sales call tool for tracking calls, making outbound calls, and managing inbound as well. For us, this is a key and important tool because we must always enable and monitor the sales and lead management of our sales team.”

Jordan Snider | CTO (Chief Technical Officer) | Token Creative Services | Marketing & Advertising, 11-50 employees

Multichannel Integration

Multichannel integration enables seamless communication across various channels like phone, email, chat, and social media, offering a unified view of customer interactions. Multichannel capabilities improve customer experience, allowing customers to continue conversations in one channel where they left off in another, and make tracking customer interaction data easier.

Scores for multichannel integration range from 3.9 to 9.9, with an average of 7.8. CloudTalk leads again for this feature with a 9.9/10 rating.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Multichannel integration feature: Low - 3.9, Average - 7.8, High - 9.9.

Customer Interaction Analytics

Customer interaction analytics provides tools to analyze customer conversations, identify trends, and gain deeper insights into customer sentiment and behavior. Turning all that noise of hundreds or thousands of customer interactions a day into signal that your company can learn something from can be challenging. If done well, though, it can help you figure out what to change to level up your customer communications.

Products on TrustRadius receive an average score of 8.0 for customer interaction analytics. Scores range from a low of 3.0 to a high of 9.9. CloudTalk once again takes the crown with a 9.9/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Customer interaction analytics feature: Low - 3.0, Average - 8.0, High - 9.9.

CloudTalk’s real-time customer interaction analytics make this team’s jobs easier.

“Our previous dialing platform was antiquated and difficult to use and consistently delivered skewed reporting numbers. With CloudTalk, our data and analytics are updated in real-time, the appointment setters have all the ‘bells and whistles’ they deserve in a dialing platform to make their jobs easier and more efficient.”

Bobbe Marvin | Setter Team Manager | Quest Education LLC | Education Management, 11-50 employees

Outbound Response

Outbound response features facilitate proactive customer outreach through automated calls, messages, or campaigns, enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction. Reaching out to customers before they reach out to support is critical for sales-heavy contact centers and businesses that use their contact center for outreach to existing customers.

Scores for this feature vary from 5.0 to 10.0. The average score is 8.1. Zendesk Talk is the top performer here with a perfect score of 10.0/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Outbound response feature: Low - 5.0, Average - 8.1, High - 10.0.

Historical Reporting

Historical reporting provides past performance data, allowing you to track trends over time, identify areas for improvement, and optimize resource allocation. Just as important for workforce management as live reporting, historical reporting allows your organization to view trends over time, improving scheduling and increasing efficiency.

The lowest score for this feature is 4.0, while the highest is 9.9. Products average a 7.9 for historical reporting. CloudTalk scores the highest once again, nearly sweeping the whole contact center category for features, with a score of 9.9.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Historical reporting feature: Low - 4.0, Average - 7.9, High - 9.9.

Contact Center Product Functionality and Vendor Relationship

Specific features aren’t the only important thing to evaluate when selecting a contact center software provider. Attribute ratings account for broader aspects of software products, like the quality of customer support or overall performance. These attributes can really impact your experience with contact center software, but can be hard to evaluate and select for during the buying process.

At TrustRadius, we ask users to rate these attributes on a scale of 1-10, just like product features. These five attributes are the ones with the highest variance in ratings for contact center software products. Better overall functionality or responsiveness from the vendor can be the deciding factor between two products with similar feature sets.

A list of high, low, and average scores for five key Contact Center attributes, as follows.
Support: Low - 3.6, Average - 7.8, High - 9.5.
Likelihood to renew: Low - 5.9, Average - 8.0, High - 10.0.
Implementation: Low - 5.8, Average - 7.5, High - 9.0.
Scalability: Low - 7.6, Average - 8.9, High - 10.0.
Performance: Low - 7.9, Average - 8.7, High - 10.0.

Support

When choosing contact center software, the quality of vendor support is a critical factor. Issues can arise at any time, whether it’s a technical glitch, a question about a feature, or a need for assistance with configuration. Reliable and responsive support ensures that any disruptions to your contact center operations are minimized, allowing your agents to continue serving customers effectively and preventing potential revenue loss or damage to customer satisfaction. Good support is also vital for successful onboarding and ongoing optimization, helping your team leverage the software’s full potential.

The Support attribute for contact center software products has an average score of 7.8, with a range of scores from 3.6 to 9.5. The highest-rated product for support is Bright Pattern Contact Center, which has achieved a score of 9.5/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Support attribute: Low - 3.6, Average - 7.8, High - 9.5.

This product management executive has always had positive experiences with Bright Pattern’s customer support.

“The requirements and high-level incidents that are escalated to Bright Pattern are resolved promptly; they follow up on everything with sessions for each client, they care about the stability of the platform and their clients, and they generate significant value for our company.”

Verified User | Executive in Product Management | Telecommunications Company

Likelihood to Renew

A high likelihood to renew rating suggests that existing users are highly satisfied with the product’s performance, features, and the vendor’s support, and are likely to continue their subscription. This not only signifies a reliable and effective solution but also implies a stable partnership with the vendor, reducing the risk of disruptive transitions and the associated costs of switching software. Selecting a product with high customer loyalty can help you achieve your long-term operational goals and ensure continued success in customer engagement.

For contact center software, the Likelihood to Renew attribute has an average score of 8.0. Scores for this attribute vary, with the lowest rating being 5.9, and the highest rating reaching a perfect 10.0. Nice CXone Mpower is the highest rated product, scoring 10.0/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Likelihood to renew attribute: Low - 5.9, Average - 8.0, High - 10.0.

This user has found Nice CXone Mpower to be reliable and well supported.

“The product is extremely reliable. If there are any issues, they are resolved quickly. I feel fully supported by our TAM.”

Jean Pichler | Manager | Streamline Brands | Recreational Facilities & Services | 201-500 employees

Implementation

Effective implementation directly impacts a contact center system’s usability and the team’s ability to leverage its full potential. A smooth implementation process ensures that the software is correctly configured, integrated with existing systems, and that agents are properly trained. Poor implementation can lead to significant disruptions, wasted resources, and a failure to achieve the desired improvements in customer service and operational efficiency. It’s the foundational step that determines whether your investment in new software translates into tangible benefits.

For the Implementation attribute in contact center software, the average score is 7.5. The scores range from a low of 5.8 to a high of 9.0. This high score of 9.0/10 is achieved by 8×8 Contact Center.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Implementation attribute: Low - 5.8, Average - 7.8, High - 9.0.

This user experienced great support from 8×8 Contact Center throughout the implementation process.

“The transition from Mitel to 8 x 8 was smooth and no ‘hiccups’. The support was one of the best that we had received. No surprises except what 8 x 8 is actually capable of doing! Support remained available throughout the transition! Co-workers were amazed at what they were able to do with 8 x 8.”

Darlene Downs Jones | Credentialing Specialist | Pinnacle GI Partners PC | Medical Practice | 5001-10,000 employees

Scalability

Scalability in contact center software ensures the system can adapt to your business’s evolving needs, whether that means handling increased call volumes during peak seasons, expanding operations, or adding more agents. A scalable solution prevents performance bottlenecks and costly overhauls, allowing your contact center to grow efficiently without compromising service quality. It ensures that as your customer base expands or your service offerings diversify, your communication infrastructure can keep pace, maintaining seamless customer interactions and operational continuity.

For the Scalability attribute, the average score is 8.9. Scores for this attribute range from a low of 7.6 to a perfect high of 10.0. Talkdesk achieves the highest rating, scoring 10.0/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Likelihood to renew attribute: Low - 7.6, Average - 8.9, High - 10.0.

This customer service executive says that Talkdesk has grown with them.

“This is a system that can and has grown with us. We are in the process of adding an additional 100+ seats.”

Verified User | Executive in Customer Service | Hospital & Health Care Company | 201-500 employees

Performance

Contact center software performance directly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of your operations. A high-performing system ensures minimal latency, quick response times, and stable connections, which are all vital for seamless customer interactions. Poor performance can lead to dropped calls, slow data retrieval, and system crashes, ultimately frustrating both agents and customers, and leading to decreased productivity and customer satisfaction.

For the Performance attribute, the average score is 8.7. Scores for this attribute range from a low of 7.9 to a high of 10.0. Talkdesk is the highest-rated product again, scoring a perfect 10.0/10.

High, low, and average scores for Contact Center systems for the Performance attribute: Low - 7.9, Average - 8.7, High - 10.0.

This engineer says that Talkdesk performs as expected without issues.

“Pages and general operations work seamlessly and without issue.”

Vasilios Christides | Technical Support Engineer | Shipbob | Logistics & Supply Chain | 501-1,000 employees

Key Takeaways

Now that you know some key areas to pay attention to, you can start diving deeper into real user feedback and product feature lists on TrustRadius. Whether you’re looking for the best AI-enabled product to enable your customer support operations or a product to level up your outbound sales calls, our Contact Center software category page has lists of products that fit your requirements.

Methodology

The data in this article is derived from vetted user feedback on the TrustRadius platform, offering authentic insights into the strengths and weaknesses of various contact center software products. The scores listed are accurate as of July 2, 2025. Vendors cannot pay for placement, or to remove negative reviews. Learn more about how we ensure we’re providing the most helpful content possible in our Promise to Buyers.

About the Author

TrustRadius Insights are created using our proprietary review data, and vendor-provided product data to provide software buyers like you with insights into both product features and functionality, as well as real user sentiment. It is our mission is to provide you with the best information possible to make confident and trusted technology decisions. If you feel something is missing or incorrect, please let us know.

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