Customer Services & Support

5 Key Call Center Software Features and Top Products That Offer Them

Saumya Srivastava profile picture
By Saumya Srivastava

Published
6 min read

Are you juggling between customer satisfaction, round-the-clock support, and agent burnout? Call center software enhances your ability to deliver exceptional customer service. From automatic call distribution to monitoring and optimizing agent performance, the software enhances the overall customer experience while equally utilizing agent bandwidth.

However, the key to maximizing your team’s ability to serve customers lies in selecting a call center solution with features that match your unique business requirements. 

This article highlights five key call center software features based on the ratings given by verified software users. We have included the highest-rated call center software solutions for each feature. Read more.

Features comparison graphic for the blog article "5 Call Center Software Key Features and Top Products That Offer Them"

1. Call center management

Call center management feature helps manage call center operations by providing call monitoring, call recording, call answering, call transferring, etc. Additionally, the reporting and analytics abilities offer access to insights for data-driven decisions, including agent performance, customer issue resolution, and call distribution, among other key call center performance indicators.

Call center management feature graphic for the blog article "5 Call Center Software Key Features and Top Products That Offer Them"

What business problem does call center management solve?

Improper management and lack of coordination among the daily call center activities can lead to poor customer service. The call center management feature helps tackle such challenges by automating redundant tasks and tracking resource utilization, and monitoring agent performance. This reduces the wait time for customers and ensures efficient customer handling and issue resolution.

Ideal users of the call center management feature

If you are a call center manager, you can benefit from the call center management feature as it gives you holistic control over all call center activities from call handling to agent performance. You can use the tool to automate all tedious and repetitive tasks such as recording, transcribing, monitoring, and routing. You can also integrate the tool with the customer relationship management (CRM) system to sync all customer information such as name, interactions, issues, resolutions, etc. for personalized support.

Top 3 products with the highest ratings for call center management

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call center management feature rating

4.8/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call center management feature rating

4.7/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call center management feature rating

4.7/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

2. Call logging

The call logging feature of a call center software solution is dedicated to storing and managing all incoming and outgoing calls. This feature offers a centralized system for organizing and retrieving recorded calls and related information (customer phone numbers, date, time, duration, and the agent’s extension code). Agents can also add notes or comments to call logs, providing additional context or important details to evaluate performance and quality.

Call logging graphic for the blog article "5 Call Center Software Key Features and Top Products That Offer Them"

What business problem does call logging solve?

The call logging feature addresses the challenges of finding call-related information for assessment. It provides a centralized database to store call recordings with timestamps and participant details. The data can be downloaded and shared with other team members based on their roles and requirements. Additionally, this comprehensive information assists call center agents in providing personalized customer support such as identifying language and time preferences for accurate and on-time resolution. 

Ideal users of the call logging feature

If you are required to manage the call database then you can benefit from the call logging feature. It is a part of knowledge management activities for customer experience and relationship teams, which includes capturing and preserving data for decision-making. This helps improve service quality and increase revenue.

Top 3 products with the highest ratings for call logging

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call logging feature rating

4.8/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call logging feature rating

4.8/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call logging feature rating

4.7/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

3. Call monitoring

Call monitoring feature of call center software allows listening to a live agent and customer interaction for training and assessment purposes. This feature offers whisper coaching for real-time feedback and guidance to agents during a call without the customer knowing. Barge-in feature allows managers to join a customer call and call evaluation assesses and rates agent assistance based on predefined criteria.

Call monitoring graphic for the blog article "5 Call Center Software Key Features and Top Products That Offer Them"

What business problem does call monitoring solve?

The call monitoring feature facilitates consistent and quality customer support by assessing and optimizing agent performance. Additionally, live phone call monitoring ensures that the agents stay compliant with the set standards of dealing with customers and their issues, especially when resolving disputes. In situations that require immediate attention, the feature allows intervening into calls and handling customer concerns.

Ideal users of the call monitoring feature

Call center managers can use call monitoring when focusing on training and development to boost agent productivity. The feature allows you to evaluate conversations between agents and customers based on call handling time, issue type, customer behavior, feedback, adherence to quality standards, and other relevant factors. 

Top 3 products with the highest ratings for call monitoring

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call monitoring feature rating

4.8/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call monitoring feature rating

4.8/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call monitoring feature rating

4.7/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

4. Call recording

As the name suggests, this call center software feature focuses on recording and storing an inbound or outbound call between agents and customers. Call recording can also be a functionality included in call logging or offered as a stand alone feature. The feature creates a pool of all inbound and outbound calls, which can be filtered using date, time, customer details, etc.

Call recording graphic for the blog article "5 Call Center Software Key Features and Top Products That Offer Them"

What business problem does call recording solve?

The call recording feature is dedicated to solving the challenges of quality assurance and training. The recordings can be used to assess agent performance, adherence to scripts and protocols, and customer handling skills. This assessment helps identify the areas of improvement, the need to implement targeted training, and ways to improve service quality. 

Ideal users of the call recording feature

Call recording is an ideal feature for you if your job is to strategize and implement training programs for call center agents and set clear guidelines to handle customer issues and disputes. 

Top 3 products with the highest ratings for call recording

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call recording feature rating

4.9/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call recording feature rating

4.8/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Call recording feature rating

4.7/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

5. Reporting and analytics

Reporting and analytics call center software feature assists with monitoring the key performance indicators (KPIs) for all call center activities. The KPIs include call handling time, agent performance, customer feedback, training, and other relevant day-to-day operations. The feature allows creating detailed reports of an individual, team, or overall call center performance and analyzing them against the set KPIs.

Reporting and analytics graphic for the blog article "5 Call Center Software Key Features and Top Products That Offer Them"

What business problem does reporting and analytics solve?

Reporting and analytics feature assists with performance evaluation for individuals and teams. The insights from the evaluation can be utilized to solve business problems such as long wait time, poor customer feedback, or delayed issue resolution. Moreover, the feature assists in optimizing resource utilization for the customer relationship teams. By analyzing call volumes and peak hours, supervisors can adjust routing calls, scheduling breaks, and setting shifts for agents. This, in turn, boosts productivity and improves customer support service. 

Ideal users of the reporting and analytics feature

Call center managers involved in decision-making to solve business problems can benefit from reporting and analytics features. Additionally, managers involved in the training and development of agents can utilize call quality and performance metrics to identify areas of improvement and implement training programs to improve call handling.

Top 3 products with the highest ratings for reporting and analytics

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Reporting and analytics feature rating

4.6/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Reporting and analytics feature rating

4.5/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Reporting and analytics feature rating

4.4/5

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of June 2023


Methodology

Key features: To identify the key features for this article, we asked users to rate, on a scale of “low importance” to “critical,” how important different features are for call center software. The features showcased are those that the highest percentage of reviewers rated as “highly important” or “critical.”

Feature eligibility: To be included in the set of features considered, a given feature had to have at least 200 user ratings within the past two years, of which at least 20% must indicate the feature is “critical.” Eligible features were determined from two sources: 

  1. Our research team’s review of public information about call center software usage, definitions, and associated features.

  2. Reviewers’ indication of the features they use for the customer support process.

Product selection: To identify the top-rated products per feature, we evaluated user ratings for products that offer each feature. For a given product, reviewers rate each feature on a scale of one to five stars. A given product had to have at least 20 user ratings (between January 2021-23) for the feature in question to be considered.


Looking for Call Center software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Call Center software solutions.

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About the Author

Saumya Srivastava profile picture

Saumya Srivastava is a writer at Capterra. She provides expert insights and helps small businesses identify the right software for their needs by conducting primary and secondary research and analyzing user sentiment. A postgraduate in mass communication, she has worked as a content creator for an educational website and an advertising agency. Her expertise lies in social media marketing and content strategy. When not working, she can be found meditating or spending time outdoors.

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