Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
NICE inContact
1997
Salt Lake City, UT
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
25,000+
Cloud
No
CXone At A Glance
Product Overview
NICE inContact’s CXone is a cloud-based customer experience platform that empowers companies to build better relationships with their customers. It’s built on the Open Cloud Foundation, which means the client’s developer team can fully customize the software based on its needs (e.g., integration with third-party applications). CXone gives global enterprises flexibility with multinational options, such as a localized user interface, accommodation with a country’s local numbers and the ability to comply with country-specific data laws.
Some of the software’s most notable benefits are:
- Lower total cost of ownership than on-premised deployment (i.e., no need to purchase hardware)
- The ability to access all features from a single platform
- Omnichannel capability that allows agents to communicate in the customer’s preferred channel
- Robust tools to help call center supervisors manage their agents’ performance
- Ability to help small businesses grow their operations
CXone’s features are grouped under three main modules, which are:
- Omnichannel routing
- CXone analytics
- Workforce engagement
We talk more about the features in each module in our Features section below.
The software also has prebuilt integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) solutions (e.g., Zendesk, SugarCRM, Salesforce), telephony providers and unified communications platforms.
Features
Here are some of the key features of CXone.
Omnichannel routing
My Agent eXperience (agent portal) – The My Agent eXperience portal allows agents to communicate with customers across multiple channels in real time. They can also see their schedules, swap shifts, put in requests for time off and get feedback on their performance. What’s more, the portal can show contextual data on each customer, such as sentiment or interaction history, so agents can personalize the call.
Interaction channels – CXone supports over 30 channels in six distinct categories: voice, email, chat, social media, messaging and social monitoring. This allows customers to engage with the company in their preferred channel, which leads to better service.
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) – The ACD routing engine connects the customer to an appropriate agent. It uses an AI-powered chatbot and natural language processing to recognize customer sentiment or predictive behavior. Call center supervisors can use a drag-and-drop interface to create routing workflows with predefined criteria (e.g., skills-based criteria, business rules), and they can change workflows in just a few clicks.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – This feature provides self-service options for customers, such as paying bills or checking their accounts. Call center supervisors can set up an IVR menu, and because it integrates with the ACD, the customer can then be routed to the appropriate agent. The IVR also supports touch-tone, text-to-speech and advanced speech recognition demands.
Predictive dialer – The predictive dialer improves the efficiency of outbound centers by dialing a list of numbers, and it reduces hang-ups and awkward pauses. The dialer also helps companies stay in regulatory compliance, as it complies with the Do Not Call List by identifying and verifying cell phone numbers. Agents can also manually dial outside the software to avoid any Automatic Telephone Dialing System issues. Additional features of the predictive dialer include preview dialing, serial record delivery and the ability to create new call campaigns.
CXone analytics
Reporting and analytics – Supervisors can track operational and performance metrics with real-time dashboards. They can use prebuilt reporting templates or create their own with a point-and-click interface, and reports can be exported to other systems for further analysis.
Customer analytics – There’s a separate analytics feature that helps supervisors proactively identify and resolve customer issues. It uses machine learning to detect a customer’s sentiment by analyzing voice recording, speech and text messages. Supervisors can create categories to see the data, filter it (by date/time, call duration or other criteria) and search for specific words or phrases.
Workforce engagement
Workforce management – Machine learning can help supervisors create accurate labor forecasts and meet Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards with over 40 algorithms. Supervisors can create schedules based on forecast data and other business needs, then deploy the schedules to the agent portal. They can also generate intraday plans to track call volume and change a schedule on the fly if the volume suddenly changes.
Quality monitoring and performance management – With the quality monitoring feature, supervisors can achieve their NPS, CSAT and other objectives by proactively seeking customer feedback (e.g., surveys, custom forms). They can create surveys with the Form Designer has a built-in question bank, and the Quality Planner can automate the evaluation process. CXone also has performance management features, such as goal setting, continuous feedback and gamification.
Target Market
CXone is intended for contact center operations of any size in a variety of industries, such as finance, health care and retail. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.
- Alphanumeric Systems Inc.
- Coast Capital Savings
- Expivia Interaction Marketing Group Inc.
- Honeywell
- LPL Financial
- OrthoBanc LLC
- SeaWorld
- Teleflora
- United Way of Connecticut
- Vera Bradley
Implementation/Integration
The implementation process uses a project management methodology that includes a dedicated Implementation Manager, up to three hours spent gathering clients’ requirements, up to two hours spent reviewing the software configurations, and user acceptance testing.
The timeline can vary depending on the client’s needs, but they can expect to go live within three to four months. Expedited deployment is available for clients that need faster implementation.
NICE inContact provides complimentary training sessions for administrators and agents, as well as training specifically on reports and call flow administration. Clients can opt to have the sessions at their site, at the vendor’s educational facility, remotely or via self-paced eLearning.
Customer Service & Support
Users can access the Customer Community forum to browse articles, learn about new features, post questions or chat with other users. They can also contact tech support by phone, email or chat.
For additional cost, NICE inContact offers Enhanced Success packages that include priority call routing and access to a designated Customer Success Advisor.
Pricing
NICE inContact offers five scalable packages:
- Call Center – The Call Center package has many of CXOne’s key features and is intended for voice-only inbound call center operations.
- Contact Center Core – The Contact Center Core package includes the features of the Call Center package, plus omnichannel and outbound features.
- Contact Center Essentials – The Contact Center Essentials package includes the features of the Contact Center Core package, plus quality management features.
- Contact Center Advanced – The Contact Center Advanced package includes the features of the Contact Center Essentials package, plus workforce management features.
- Contact Center Complete – The Contact Center Complete package includes the features of the Contact Center package, plus customer analytics features.
Note that there are additional fees for implementation and premium support. Pricing is not publicly available, so please contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Shortcomings
Some users have experienced call quality issues, such as delays or dropped calls. In addition, they mentioned that the reporting features could be more user-friendly.
Screenshots
About
NICE inContact’s mission is to help contact centers provide exceptional customer service with its unified customer experience platform, team of experts and consultants, and partner network of integration and implementation companies. Founded in 1997, it supports 430,000 customer service agents from 25,000 organizations in over 100 countries. NICE inContact is a part of NICE, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions.
The company has received widespread recognition over the years, including Gartner’s 2019 Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, the 2019 Silver Stevie Awards in the Cloud Platform Category and CRM Magazine‘s 2019 Service Leader Award. It’s headquartered in Salt Lake City and has offices in London, Sydney and the Philippines.
