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Freshdesk Contact Center Reviews

VoIP service for contact centres at a reasonable price

PROS

+ Configuration is simple.

+ For a low-cost call centre system, this feature set is fantastic.

+ Reporting that is detailed and personalised.

CONS

- Physical devices have limited support.

- Not for general commercial use, but for call centre operations.

- Depending on call volume, per-minute rates could become prohibitively expensive.

Freshdesk Contact Center (previously Freshcaller) falls into the general category of commercial voice over IP (VoIP) providers, but it is largely geared toward call centre operations rather than general business use. For firms with a large number of employees, this means an internal IT help desk, or a customer-facing service desk for product-oriented businesses. Freshdesk Contact Center offers a variety of features to help customers meet those needs, one of which is that its primary focus is on a softphone experience (though since we last tested the service, Freshworks has added the ability to use a SIP-compliant handset).

Softphones are popular in call centres and sales operations because they make high-volume call handling easier, call intervention by service desk supervisors is easier, and the softphone and back-end software are better integrated. They're especially useful now that remote work is becoming more widespread, because they let employees to access the service from any Internet-enabled network (such as their home network) with the same extension and features.

While Freshdesk Contact Center may definitely be made to work for a small business, you'll be paying for a lot of call centre capabilities you don't need, such as help desk ticket-to-customer relationship management (CRM) conversion and connectivity with a variety of e-commerce systems. Perhaps you don't mind because the product's price (below) is low enough, but why add the extra learning curve for users? If you're seeking for a call centre, this is worth looking into; but, if you're looking for an all-purpose cloud PBX, one of our Editors' Choices in the VoIP category, such as RingCentral Office for bigger enterprises or Intermedia Unite for smaller firms, is likely a better choice.

Pricing and Plans for Freshdesk Contact Center

Freshworks is well renowned for its Freshdesk (help desk) and Freshsales cloud services (CRM). Freshdesk Contact Center, like the rest of Freshworks' portfolio, is noted for its robust feature sets and affordable price. Freshdesk Contact Center has undergone several pricing changes in addition to its recent brand change.

Outbound calls are charged per the minute in all tiers, while Freshworks still offers a free tier, formerly known as Sprout but now known simply as "Free." You can add an infinite number of agents for free (not "users," another nod to call centers). That's a wonderful advantage, but the remainder of Free is a tiny fraction of the paying levels' features.

When billed annually, the lowest paid tier (formerly known as Blossom, now known as Growth) stays at $15 per agent per month, but now includes 2,000 inbound minutes each month, up from 1,000. As you'd expect from an entry-level product, this tier's features are rather limited. The next grade merges two formerly separate tiers, Garden and Estate, into a single Pro tier. This tier provides 3,000 inbound minutes and costs $39 per agent per month when invoiced annually ($47 month to month). It includes all of Garden's cloud PBX features as well as Estate's call center-specific features, such as agent status, routing automation, and more.

The Forest tier has now been dubbed "Enterprise." Aside from that, it's largely unchanged, with a monthly fee of $69 per agent and 5,000 incoming minutes. It also includes advanced features such as omnichannel call routing, a speech-capable IVR, and service level monitoring, in addition to the functionality found in the previous tiers. All levels are available for purchase and configuration via the web, and they all come with a three-week free trial.

A User Interface for Softphones

The first step is to test your internet connection to ensure that it can handle the required bandwidth. Unfortunately, this should include all of the new home networks that so many users are adopting these days, which can pose a challenge for your company's IT staff. However, that isn't exclusive to this service, and at the higher subscription tiers, you can get help from the company's professional service arm.

Under the hood, Freshworks uses Twilio APIs to give security to all communications, which is a useful feature these days. Added security, on the other hand, can have an impact on overall performance. Because Freshdesk Contact Center is a customer-facing help desk solution, it's a good idea to test how it works on your network before adopting it, or you risk getting distorted speech or dropping an already unhappy customer's call.

After that, you'll need to submit your credit card information for minutes and purchase a phone number, which will cost you only $1. After that, you should be able to make and receive phone calls.

The softphone works totally through a web browser, which is a wonderful feature for ordinary business VoIP users (though we question its wisdom for contact centre users). There is no need to download an Apple macOS or Microsoft Windows application because the mobile apps are the only ones that may be downloaded. The online client, on the other hand, performs effectively and provides a responsive interface to all features, including management tools.

Making a phone call entails either selecting a contact or entering a phone number. On a system with many audio devices, we had a problem, but we were able to address it by switching to a wired headset and turning off Bluetooth. For the short duration of our calls, call quality was adequate.

Both Apple iOS and Google Android are supported by the aforementioned mobile apps. They allow you to conduct business from your phone or tablet, but they don't have all of the features of the full web client. Only the Android app had a Contacts tab that allowed you to add, modify, and browse contacts at the time of this review. Freshworks is working on an iOS upgrade, which will be released soon, according to the business. When you close a call on the Android app, you immediately get a dialogue popup allowing you to write any call notes at that moment, again a call center-oriented function, though it may also work for many sales applications.

Freshdesk Contact Center Administration

Admins will see a dashboard panel with a list of call analytics, including all In Queue and In Conversation calls. The average and longest wait times, average handle and speak time, and average time to answer are all displayed on the same screen. These aren't measures that would be really valuable to any firm other than a service desk, so don't expect them to be. The My Performance tab displays data about personal calls, including a list of recent calls. A call metrics page provides information on single calls, as well as rapid access to a recording and the "call lifecycle," which is a full explanation of the many phases of a conversation, including routing and cost.

The platform's reporting stands out beyond many of the other tools we've tested, owing to its help desk approach, with both out-of-the-box reports and the flexibility to edit or create a completely new report. This is accomplished using the report editor, which allows you to quickly build a bespoke report by changing an existing template. Basic textual reports and visual charts are included in these templates. To satisfy whatever reporting requirements you require, you can mix and match chart types and add custom data filters.

Integrations and Call Routing

A function called Voicemail Drop is available for applications where agents make rather than receive calls. When a call goes to voicemail, an agent can record a message that will be played automatically. This allows agents to move on to the next call swiftly. Many robocall systems have this capability, and it normally activates automatically if the preceding IVR menu indicates that the prospect should be handled automatically or by a specialised agent.

Freshdesk Contact Center has a number of connectors aimed at helping customers and call centre managers. On the CRM front, Salesforce integration leads the way, followed by Agile CRM and, of course, Freshworks' own CRM, Freshsales. Several ecommerce platforms, as well as several team communication tools, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, are supported.

The Freshworks REST API and developer portal can be used to integrate custom apps. The Freshworks Developer Forum is a website where other developers and platform specialists may assist anyone interested in building or integrating their own bespoke application with any Freshworks service.

If you run a call centre, you'll like these features.

This product is clearly intended towards call centre applications, and it appears to do a good job of filling that niche. While we only tested the softphone feature, most consumers will utilise the service in this manner, particularly now that many employees, particularly help desk staff, work from home. Call quality was more than satisfactory for this use case in our tests. While the reporting capabilities are excellent, they reflect the call centre focus and provide more information and flexibility than other systems, such as Mitel MiCloud, which caters to a broader business audience.

The only other disadvantage of Freshdesk Contact Center, which call centres are likely to dislike, is that the pay-by-the-minute plans can become costly for operations with high call volumes.

THE LAST WORDS: This softphone-centric service is an excellent choice for call centres with several locations. However, if you're searching for a phone system for general company use, you'll almost certainly be overpaying for services you won't use.