RingCentral Contact Center review

Powerful helpdesk software backed by advanced features

RingCentral Contact Center
(Image: © RingCentral)

TechRadar Verdict

There are numerous helpdesk solutions on the market, but the cloud-based power of the RingCentral Contact Center is hard to ignore.

Pros

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    Powerful platform

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    Advanced features

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    Intuitive interface

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    Leading security features

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    Wide range of integrations

Cons

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    RingCentral Contact Center is a powerful program designed to streamline customer service and aid rapid resolutions for any issues—and it’s certainly up there with the best helpdesk software available. It can integrate with a range of popular third-party programs such as Salesforce and Zendesk, and it has a number of powerful features to help your service team.

    In our RingCentral Contact Center review, we’ve analyzed every aspect of this program, including its plans and pricing, main features, ease of use, and customer support.

    RingCentral Contact Center pricing

    (Image credit: RingCentral)

    RingCentral Contact Center: Plans and pricing

    There are three RingCentral Contact Center plans available for businesses with various needs.

    The 'Core' price tier starts at $20 per user per month if you pay annually or $30 if you pay monthly. It's touted as 'a reliable system to get your business up and running.' This seems like a fair assessment, given the core plan includes both unlimited domestic calls as well as SMS/MMS. 

    Other features of the core plan include IVR (Interactive Voice Response), which can be integrated with RingCentral Office. Other features include SSO (Single Sign On) as well as analytics for IT Administrators such as call logs and interactive Qos Reports.

    The 'Advanced' plan is RingCentral's most popular tier. Prices start at $25 per user per month if paid annually or £35 per user if you pay monthly. 'Advanced' includes all the benefits of Core as well as more advanced features.

    These included optional automatic recording of both outbound and inbound calls. There are also superior call handling and monitoring features. These allow Managers to discreetly listen in on calls and even take over if necessary.

    The 'Advanced Plan' is also more useful for companies with multiple sites, as it can provide features like individualized outbound caller ID per name per site. This tier is also best for CRM Integration as it provides access to over 300 popular apps including Salesforce and Zendesk. If your business is still kicking it old school there's even support for Internet Fax.

    RingCentral cites its highest-priced "Ultra" plan as being the best value option. Subscriptions start at £35 per user per month if paid annually or £45 per user if paid monthly. The plan includes everything in the 'Advanced' Tier but probably the biggest perk of 'Ultra' is unlimited, enterprise-grade video conferencing, whiteboards, messaging and file sharing. Those who can afford 'Ultra' also benefit from unlimited cloud storage for files and recordings, as well as enhanced business intelligence analytics. 

    There are also a number of optional bolt-ons, such as vanity numbers which you can set up for a $30 one-off fee. There are also special pricing plans for educational institutions, though you'll need to contact RingCentral directly for more information on these pricing packages.

    There's a 14-day free trial available to new customers for all plans, during which time you'll receive support for up to 20 phone lines. You can use up to two RingCentral Desktop Phones or just install the app. (Available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS). SMS doesn't form part of the free trial.

    RingCentral Contact Center: Features

    As one of the most powerful helpdesk programs available, RingCentral Contact Center is naturally backed by advanced features. For starters, it includes everything that you need to receive incoming calls, use various support channels, and streamline the entire customer service process.

    Additionally, it has a range of integrations with powerful CRM platforms and other software. You can also create custom integrations with the platform’s advanced APIs.

    On the usability front, RingCentral includes management features to help you control your team and their performance. For example, silent monitoring and whisper coaching will help you train new staff, and the in-depth analytics tools can aid performance monitoring. 

    There are also numerous intelligent routing features designed to help customers find relevant information as fast as possible. For instance, it's easy to route customers with friendly IVR and easily manageable call queues. This is also facilitated by 'Virtual PBX', which provides advanced features like virtual extensions without the space and expense of physical hardware like routing switches. 

    If you go for the 'Advanced' or 'Ultra' subscription you can also manage multiple sites, making it easier to tailor your services to callers' needs. The use of Cloud VoIP also makes it extremely simple for customers to reach your fellow workers, given that calls can be managed by a single unified app which can be used anywhere there's a connection. 

    This ease of use extends to employees as well, as it's extremely simple for managers to add, change and move employees between sites on the go. RingCentral is also trialing a "Push to Talk" feature for the app, which will allow real-time communication between workers.

    Depending on your subscription plan, you can see more in-depth IT business analytics too. Dashboards can be customized to generate detailed QoS reports as well as provide information useful for maintenance. 

    RingCentral also boasts some impressive automation capabilities, offering virtual assistants that can manage up to 70% of interactions. This means that you can leverage RingCentral to supercharge the productivity of your customer service team. 

    The platform's automation capabilities include AI-enabled virtual agents. This is an AI tool that enables the simplest queries to be resolved without the need for manual input. Instead, AI chatbots gather the relevant information and will pass on customer issues to a human agent only if necessary.  

    Overall, the features on offer here are extremely impressive.

    RingCentral Contact Center 2

    There are numerous powerful features. (Image credit: RingCentral)

    RingCentral Contact Center: Interface and in use

    The RingCentral Contact Center user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. It has a menu on the left of the screen for quick navigation, as well as advanced tools to help you get the most out of your customer interactions.

    On top of this, the program is available on both desktop and mobile devices. Although the desktop version is slightly more advanced, the mobile apps still boast a selection of powerful tools.

    All service staff have to be added to the system through the Central web dashboard before they can begin working.

    RingCentral Contact Center support

    The RingCentral Contact Center user interface has a range of customer service tools. (Image credit: RingCentralct Center)

    RingCentral Contact Center: Support

    RingCentral Contact Center is backed by self-help and live support streams. Solutions to common problems can be found in the RingCentral knowledge base, which includes tutorials, guides, video resources, and full documentation outlining how the program works.

    There is also a selection of live support options for those with more complex issues. Live chat, email, and phone support are available, and there’s even an active community forum where users discuss their problems.

    RingCentral Contact Center 4

    There are numerous support streams available. (Image credit: RingCentral)

    RingCentral Contact Center: Security

    RingCentral Contact Center is backed by security features designed to keep sensitive data safe and to keep your service staff working efficiently in all situations.

    For starters, certain parts of your Contact Center can be controlled with permission-based access restrictions. With this, you can give users access to the tools that they need to do their job. The platform is built on the cloud, and RingCentral guarantees at least 99.99% uptime. 

    RingCentral boasts full compliance with numerous security standards, including HIPAA, CPNI, SOX, and PCI.  The platform uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) encryption for transmitting data, similar to Microsoft Teams.  Their data centers also have a number of onsite engineers and security guards.

    In case you don't want to take RingCentral's word for all of this, the company claims to submit to regular independent audits to make sure they're compliant with all security standards. For instance, RingCentral MVP has earned the Skyhigh’s CloudTrust rating of 'Enterprise-Ready' - their highest rating.

    The rating system measures 66 types of risk and then awards top marks only to those providers with the very best data protection, identity verification, service security, business practices, and legal protection methods. 

    RingCentral Contact Center 5

    There are various security features protecting the program. (Image credit: RingCentral)

    RingCentral Contact Center: The competition

    Although RingCentral Contact Center is a great choice, there are other options on the market worth considering. Freshcaller is a popular program that is tailored specifically for small businesses. You don’t need to have any special hardware to use it, and the cheapest plan only requires that you pay for call charges.

    RingCentral Contact Center: Final verdict

    Ultimately, RingCentral Contact Center is one of the most powerful helpdesk programs in the world. It has a range of advanced features, an intuitive user interface, and the tools to help you manage large teams of customer service specialists. 

    On top of this, RingCentral Contact Center is backed by leading safety features, as it's compliant with all relevant industry standards and uses advanced encryption for data transmission. 

    There's also a wide range of pre-coded third-party integrations, including popular apps like Salesforce and Microsoft Teams. We were also impressed to see that RingCentral isn't resting on its laurels but is also testing new features like "Push to Talk".

    Customer Support is also impressive: there's an extensive knowledge base with an overhauled UI, not to mention a dedicated live chat for customers. 

    We were also very pleased to see since our last review in October 2022 that RingCentral is now much more transparent about subscriptions: pricing plans are available to view on their website without users needing to enquire first. 

    We've listed the best contact center as a service (CCaaS).

    Daniel Blechynden

    Daniel is a freelance copywriter with over six years experience writing for publications such as TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, and Hosting Review. He specializes in B2B and B2C tech and finance, with a particular focus on VoIP, website building, web hosting, and other related fields.

    With contributions from