RingCentral Omnichannel CX Review and Pricing

Why We Chose RingCentral RingCX for Inbound Customer Service Teams

Screenshots of the RingCentral app video function. Source: RingCentral

RingCentral’s RingCX functionality makes it ideal for inbound customer services and technical support teams. However, the system can do much more if you want it to. Its impressive range of features and tools has everything a supervisor needs to get the best out of their team, including the ability to listen in and help out on a call when needed.

The system’s AI, which can help agents resolve issues in real time, is very well executed. Team members receive tips and advice from the AI assistant on a call-by-call basis so they are always learning and improving.

RingCentral has skilfully integrated SMS, email, social media messaging and more into its clean, user-friendly interface. Out of all the platforms we reviewed, RingCentral has the most intelligent inbound call and message routing options. This practice increases the chance of first-call resolutions and decreases customer frustration.

We loved the call blending on the platform. Your team can make more outbound calls during quieter times to generate new sales leads and orders. When the volume of customer service calls picks up, RingCX keeps more agents on standby.

RingCX customers must also subscribe to RingEX, meaning they benefit from unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada. If your teams are very busy, callers can leave their numbers and RingCentral will call them back when it’s their turn in the queue. So, that keeps customers happy by not having to listen to elevator music, and the call costs you nothing.

Ease of Use

Responding to a ticket on RingCentral RingCX. Source: RingCentral

RingCX is built upon RingEX, RingCentral’s phone service. As mentioned, you must subscribe to RingEX if you want access to RingCX. Users can access both services via a web-based dashboard or downloadable apps. Desktop apps are available for Windows and Mac and mobile apps for Android and iOS. There are also pre-built apps for Outlook, Microsoft 365, Chrome, Salesforce and Zendesk.

There are three separate interfaces: one for agents, one for supervisors and one for admins. Each is elegantly and minimally designed, while switching between features is fast.

On the agent dashboard, colleagues can click on “All Messages” to view the overall volume of customer interactions. When an agent picks up a case from “All Messages,” it becomes live and moves to their “My Messages” tab, alongside other active conversations in their queue. There is a live chat section for interactions via SMS, WhatsApp and other digital channels. They can also click into their own call history, call backs, scripts and interaction stats.

The supervisor dashboard provides easy access to coaching tools, analytics and reports, and supervisor functionality like live monitoring and call barging. Supervisors can also customize the data that appears on their dashboard, such as which agents are available, their current interactions, average time per call, talk time, state duration and so on. If they need to jump in to help the team handle cases, they can.

The admin dashboard is far more in-depth. It provides controls over communication channels, workflows and automations, conversation categories, message routing, agent and AI tool access, and more. From here, admins can manage groups as well as add to, view and edit groups.

We were impressed by how each dashboard was designed to be easy to use. Even members of your team who are not confident with IT should pick up how to operate it very quickly.

Features and Services

RingCentral offers a number of standout call center features and services.

Quality Analytics and Reporting Tools

RingCentral’s supervisor portal constantly tracks activity and interaction quality. Source: RingCentral

RingCentral’s emphasis in RingCX is helping users secure the highest chance of getting a first-call resolution with their customers. To do this, the system:

• Tracks quality over time: RingCX analyzes phone and message-based interactions against key performance indicators to assess agent performance and quality. You can keep historical data for up to 25 months to monitor progress over time.
• Uses AI: We love how RingCX generates real-time AI summaries of each agent’s phone calls and digital interactions. Managers and agents can review and edit those summaries to give their points of view and highlight important details. The system appends these summaries to customer histories; this way, reps dealing with them in the future get a broader overview of past conversations and inquiries.
• Provides access to interaction data: Access all your interaction details using RingCX Analytics. Download auto-generated summaries, agent-edited summaries, full transcripts and call recordings of conversations. This makes it simple for managers to check for quality and troubleshoot issues.
• Offers real-time analytics: Live dashboard widgets show key metrics like agent availability, call queue status and engagement levels. We were impressed at the volume of data that managers and reps can analyze on metrics as broad as average talk time, agent utilization rates, busy signals and lead statuses.
• Integrates with external BI tools: Connect RingCX data to platforms like Tableau, Power BI and more. This way, you can gain a broader view of how well your contact center team is functioning and where improvements can be made.

Building reports in RingCX Analytics is simple. Table charts allow you to create granular reports with up to 20 attribute columns. We were also impressed by the range of data visualizations available, including column charts, bar charts, line charts, stacked area charts and 14 others.

The depth and accuracy of RingCX’s data give reps the insights they need to improve and managers the knowledge they need to get the most out of their teams.

Agent Training and Support

Supervisors can listen to, whisper in, barge or take over agent calls from their RingCX app. Source: RingCentral

In addition to listening in on calls, supervisors can also “whisper” during a live call to pass advice onto an agent without the customer hearing them. Alternatively, they can “barge” the call so both parties can listen in. Hearing how supervisors deal with customer situations is very important in an agent’s development, and RingCentral does this well.

We like how supervisors can create scripts for each part of the call that their agents can follow when they’re speaking with a customer. The system also allows you to create different scripts for different types of calls, so agents can provide more customized support to customers.

We really appreciate RingCentral’s Intelligent Virtual Agent — an AI-powered chatbot that converses with your customers like a human. It answers their frequently asked questions and can handle routine tasks very effectively. The bots try to solve the issue they’re presented with first and pass the query onto an agent if it becomes too complex or triggers an escalation rule. This greatly reduces case volumes for customer service reps. So, they have more time to spend on complex issues that require a deeper understanding and more nuanced decision-making.

Just as impressive is the AI Assist feature, which offers smart suggestions to your service reps during calls and post-call insights. This supports your agents in real time with customer issues by offering insights after the call and smart suggestions during the call. AI Assist essentially trains your reps on each call to improve their performance, which will lead to an even better customer experience.

Workforce Management and Engagement

RingCentral features a full suite of workforce management and engagement tools. We were impressed by the following tools:

• Quality management: Managers get AI-powered automated scorecards, real-time call summaries and detailed conversation analytics. They can use this information to spot performance gaps quickly and identify agents who need extra training and support.
• Conversational insights: Track customer sentiment to gain a broader view of how well your team is handling client interactions to find opportunities for improvement.
• Vacation requests: Your agents can request the shifts they work, bid for shifts or even trade shifts with each other via RingCX’s self-service platform.
• Staff demand forecasting: You can also predict which staff you’ll need and how many should be on particular shifts if you integrate historic CRM and calling data into RingCentral. This functionality is becoming more common on call center software platforms, as we found in our review of Five9.

Omnichannel Call and Message Routing

RingCentral integrates with SMS/MMS, messaging apps (like Facebook Messenger), social media, video chat and email.

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We were impressed with the functionality of the platform’s omnichannel routing. For example, supervisors can assign agents to different teams and groups. With this, you can tell RingCentral that an agent is an expert in a specific product. When customers call in and use the interactive voice response (IVR) to request help on that product, the system automatically routes calls to agents with that skill. In times of extreme demand, you can temporarily opt agents into different dial groups to keep response times down. By integrating your CRM to RingCentral’s APIs, you can route calls directly to a customer’s dedicated point of contact, if they have one. However, this feature may require custom coding.

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And it’s not just phone calls. Different routing patterns can be set to make sure that the right operator speaks to a customer no matter how they get in touch. RingCentral’s AI routing, which factors in email metadata, message types and semantic analysis, is also impressive.

RingCentral also offers queue callbacks. Rather than waiting to speak to an agent, a caller can leave their number via the interactive voice response (IVR) system and keep their place in line. When it’s their turn, the IVR sends the caller’s details to the most appropriate agent, who then calls them back.

Outbound Calling and Call Blending

We singled out RingCX for the way it supports inbound service teams. But, you can also use it to win customers over the phone on outbound telemarketing campaigns.

Does your team make outgoing calls to customers to secure appointments or complete sales? Then you can launch effective and organized campaigns through RingCX. We particularly liked the inclusion of predictive dialing, which can greatly improve rep productivity.

Some companies require their sales and service teams to mix outbound and inbound calls on every shift. If you do, then you’ll really appreciate the call blending on RingCX. If you experience a sudden surge of inbound calls, the system will initiate call blending to make sure everybody is served. On the other hand, if inbound volumes are low, you can switch more reps onto outbound calling.

We also like how you can easily build customizable call scripts for reps without the need for coding. This will be particularly useful for companies operating in more regulated industries, where calls need to be recorded for compliance purposes.

Third-Party Integrations

There are over 400 natively integrated apps available for RingCentral via its marketplace; they range from real-time AI assistants to noise-dampening software to make agents’ voices clearer over the phone. Here are a few of the integrations we think users will find valuable.

• Agent Real-Time Assistant app: This integration presents pop-up training notes based on what a customer is saying during a live call.
• Cognitive View app: This app assists in compliance, risk and fraud detection.
• Noise Firewall app: In case an agent and customer are having a hard time hearing each other on a call, this integration quiets background noise.

Apps are grouped into 20 different classifications from analytics and automations to speech and storage. There is also a developer section for companies wanting to build their own apps using the platform’s API.

RingCentral Call Center Pricing

RingCentral’s integration with Salesforce High Velocity Sales. Source: RingCentral

RingCentral offers two service plans: RingCX and RingCentral Contact Center.

RingCX costs $65 per agent, per month (annual payment required) and comes with:

• Unlimited domestic inbound and manually dialed outbound minutes
• Automatic call distribution
• IVR system
• Skills-based routing
• Queue callback
• Call records
• Surveys
• Reports (real time and historic)

Sadly, all of the platform’s AI enhancements — as well as many useful features like quality management, screen recording and workforce management — cost extra.

You must contact the company for customized pricing on the RingCentral Contact Center plan. This service includes advanced data analytics, virtual agents for IVR, digital, voice, keyword tracking and deeper AI integration.

Please remember that you need a RingEX account to access RingCX. The minimum monthly user subscription for RingEX is $20, and RingCX is $65, meaning an actual per-seat cost of $85.

The company currently does not offer a free trial, so make sure you ask for a free demo.

Implementation and Onboarding

Once you’ve signed up for the service, you need to activate your RingCentral account by clicking on the link in the setup email RingCentral sends you. Source: RingCentral

We love how quick and easy it is to get up and running with the platform. First, log into RingCentral and navigate to the “Select New Account” option. Then, configure settings like how many people can be logged into the system at the same time and how long you want to retain recordings. You can also decide which email address you receive notifications at, your caller ID, time zone and language. In addition, you can choose agent break and lunchtime minimums as well as the audio file for people on hold.

After that, create your users. There are three types of users: agents, supervisors and admins, all of whom have different levels of access to data and features. Now, assign each manager and agent to their team.

Next, set up the channels through which you can communicate with customers, e.g., voice, text, chatbot and social media. Tell the system how you want messages to be distributed. For example, if the word “compliant” appears in a message, it gets sent to the customer service team. Use the intuitive interface to create workflows that control how the IVR functions, how to manage queues, and how to process sales and customer service inquiries.

You can choose to configure other settings — e.g., agent actions and scripting, analytics, audit logs, and quality management — now or later. Companies also have the opportunity to link to your CRM or create custom integrations with the platform’s webhooks and tools.

Customer Support

We appreciate RingCentral’s approach to providing 24/7 customer service by phone, live chat and a ticketing system. Customer service and technical support are included in your service, unlike what we found in our review of Twilio Flex, which charges extra for it.

RingCentral offers an extensive knowledge base. We like the inclusion of online courses and demos, including a series of live and recorded lessons and webinars. There is also a range of user guides on topics such as how to set up phones, how to connect to Salesforce and training plans for agents.

Limitations

While it’s great that supervisors can temporarily assign agents to different skills and calling groups in times of demand, agents can’t do that themselves. If this ability is important to you, check out our review of GoTo Contact Center, which lets agents manage their own statuses in queues and log themselves into queues to help out. Also, if a customer remains unassigned because their call doesn’t fit into a particular category, agents can assign themselves to receive those calls and messages too.

We also would have preferred if RingCentral shared more of its pricing information — similar to what we found in our review of RingCentral MVP, its top-rated business system. A better idea of pricing is helpful to business owners so they know whether or not the service will fit into their budget.

It’s also disappointing that many of the platform’s myriad excellent features that add real value cost extra in addition to the RingEX and RingCX subscriptions. Such add-ons include the AI functionality and advanced reporting.

Methodology

To help small businesses choose call center software, we examined the top products on the market. In each case, we evaluated the system’s usability, features and setup process, along with the vendor’s pricing structure and customer support options. We took into account inbound call center and outbound communication functionality, the availability of integrations, reporting tools and self-service capabilities. We participated in demos and free trials whenever possible to better understand the software. How did we find the best call center system for inbound customer service teams? We looked specifically at tools available for agent training, the available reports and analytics, and available customer service integrations.

Bottom line

We recommend RingCentral RingCX for …

• Companies that want an easy-to-use “out-of-the-box” call center with an emphasis on customer services and agent training.
• Businesses already active on social media and MMS that want to be able to see all customer interactions in one place.
• Organizations that want inbound and outbound capabilities for a fixed price every month, regardless of calls made.

We don’t recommend RingCentral RingCX for …

• Companies looking for a communications platform on which they can build their own call center system, as access to RingCX requires selecting RingEX.
• Businesses unwilling to pay additional charges, on top of call center software and CRM fees, for an adaptor to get them to integrate.