Learn about the best automotive CRM software options and their primary use cases in our independent editorial review for automotive companies.
A call center CRM is software that combines inbound and outbound calling features with sales pipeline management tools that better support your customers or leads. Included are features such as built-in dialers, call tracking, support ticket routing, workflow automation, and more. To help you choose the best, we reviewed dozens of options to determine the top six call center CRMs.
Here are the six best CRMs for call centers:
The above options scored the six in our review of the top call center CRMs. However, some industry-specific options lack the robust general features you'd expect out of a standard CRM. If a general CRM sounds more right for you, check out our article on the best overall CRM software.
To determine the best call center CRM software, we reviewed both general CRMs with calling capabilities as well as business phone systems and help desks with CRM features. To rank the top options, we identified six weighted categories and used them to assign each option an overall score out of five, including the identification of primary use cases. Check out our specific evaluation criteria below:
Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless noted.
Once the results were tallied, one solution scored the best overall. That CRM was Freshsales, which also scored the highest for pricing and general features and near the top in other categories. Now learn how all the graded CRMs fared as the best for call centers.
Freshsales offers a built-in dialer that tracks and log sales calls as well as robust pipeline features and help desk integration.
Price Range: Free to $69 per user, per month (21-day free trial)
Freshsales is a general CRM offering a wealth of relationship management features and customizations for call centers — you can tailor visual pipelines, reports, and follow-up activities according to your needs. It also offers a built-in dialer with call recording and voicemail drops as well as integrates with Freshsales’ call center software, Freshdesk, for even more calling features. It's rated our top overall CRM software and a good option for call centers.
While Freshsales scored the best, it doesn't offer a complete business phone system and is missing some marketing features. For a business phone system and CRM in one, check out Nextiva, and for marketing features like social media management, try Zoho CRM.
Pipedrive offers an intutitive sales pipeline tool with call center features like call routing and workflow automations.
Price Range: $14.90 to $99 per user, per month (14-day free trial)
Pipedrive is an easy-to-use sales CRM offering a wealth of pipeline management functionality as well as calling features like automatic call recording, call routing, and communication history. You can set up robust workflow automations that automatically route or assign incoming calls to the best agent as well as automatically input important data into contact records. You can even schedule follow up activities based on the outcome of your last interaction.
Even though Pipedrive is a solid call center CRM option with a la cart upgrades, it's missing some native sales and marketing features in its standard plans. For better out of the box sales features, visit Freshsales, and for more marketing features try Zoho CRM.
A combination of voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone service and CRM that features sales and service tools.
Price Range: $17.95 to $67.95 per user, per month plus monthly add-on for sales CRM (7-day free trial)
Nextiva is a robust VoIP business phone system that includes a customer service CRM and offers additional sales CRM features for an add-on fee. In addition to being a complete phone system for teams, it has advanced AI customer service automations that respond to customer inquiries via voice and text by reading their mood, interpreting their needs, and acting on their insight. Include the sales CRM for deal management and ongoing account management.
Even though Nextiva provides the best mix of CRM features with a complete business phone system, there are better sales pipeline management tools available. If interested in a more usable and robust general CRM for your call center, check out Freshsales.
Provides robust telephony for salespeople as well as integrates with Zoho Desk for added service features.
Price Range: Free to $52 per user, per month (15+ day free trial)
Zoho CRM is a robust CRM offering built in telephony that helps salespeople close deals with features like one-click dialing, call reminders, call analytics, and more. One of its defining use cases, however, is team collaboration, with a call roster that helps team members coordinate calls as well as tools to help managers track active calls. Integrate with Zoho Desk for even more call management and service features, such as ticket resolution and more.
Zoho offers a wealth of call center features as well as advanced digital marketing tools like social media management. However, its interface can be hard to use, and there may be better sales pipeline tools available. Check out Freshsales for an easy-to-use, robust sales CRM.
Helps facilitate sales and service in call centers via workforce management tools, dialers, and contextual customer data.
Price Range: $149 to $229 per month (free trial upon request)
Five9 is a call center solution with tools for incoming and outgoing sales and support calls. Though it’s not a CRM, it offers customer management tools as well as outbound calling features like a robust predictive dialer that helps sales agents increase the number of calls and scripts for providing support and upselling. Because of this, Five9 is good for enterprise-level call centers with many sales reps making a large number of outbound sales calls.
While Five9 is great for large or multi-location call centers, its likely not right for smaller firms. Instead, try Freshsales if you need a robust sales pipeline CRM or Nextiva if you need a complete yet smaller business phone system with CRM capabilities.
The best relationship manager that tracks outbound sales calls and integrates with HubSpot's help desk.
Price Range: Free to $1,200 per month (Sales Hub)
HubSpot is rated our top free CRM offering a robust free tier that integrates with the free tiers of HubSpot's marketing and service platforms for added features. However, you must upgrade to its paid tiers for telephony, where you can unlock VoIP and call tracking features like outbound call prioritization, automatic call logging, call recording, and conversational intelligence that provides keyword-driven transcriptions for call analysis.
While HubSpot is a good option, it can be pricey for smaller teams or solo users, and is missing some marketing features. For a better priced and robust sales CRM, check out Freshsales, and for more marketing features try Zoho CRM.
Because call centers are where vital customer interaction occurs, you need a CRM to manage the conversations. Your CRM should also work with your phone provider for the most seamless experience possible. Many CRMs claim to function in this capacity, but only the software that tracks activity, manages tickets, and automates marketing will excel. Let our list of the best industry-specific CRMs for call center software guide you.
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