ShoreTel Reviews

Pros

This product has a lot of great features that make it worthwhile to businesses:

- the lowest price on the market (they guarantee the lowest price for their service)
- option to "barge" calls (3-way the call without being transferred in)
- option to silent monitor reps (monitor the reps with your phone on mute)
- option to silent coach reps (talk to or coach your reps without the customer hearing)
- see who is not on the phone, on a call, or has their phone set to do not disturb/busy/etc.

Cons

Mono recordings for calls; this is especially limiting for my job function (Call Center Quality Assurance), as to transcribe conversations you need dual stereo recordings to be able to differentiate your customer service rep from the consumer/customer. It is also such an old platform that it's difficult to find any 3rd Party Quality Assurance programs that are compatible with daily monitoring of our businesses customer service/sales reps.

Pros

This was quite an upgrade from our previous telephone software, so many of the features are an upgrade from what we had before. The software that each employee uses on a daily basis for their individual phones is helpful. It gives you minimal information, but is helpful in connection with each user and desk phone.

Cons

As an administrator I do not feel like the software is user friendly. Half of the symbols that represent functions on the phone system, don't even make sense to me. I end up going through each and every "main menu" item to get to every sub menu item searching for what I need. The purchase of this type of phone system (and the subsequent software) would have been optimal maybe 3-5 years ago, but doesn't function exactly as was told to us by the sales team. We were quite interested in the instant message and conference features available on the software, only to find out that the instant message feature is separate and requires its own dedicated server and separate installation. The tele-conference features were out of date and are much better met with a software like GoTo Meeting.

Pros

Pros:
* It is fully cloud based
* Ability to rent equipment so no excess inventory is required
* they try... but fail

Cons

Cons:
* inconsistent reporting/call history
* long hold time for support and if the issue is complicated, it takes several days to get resolved
* the datacenter / database backend is constantly breaking; causing issues logging in or getting the phone(s) to work at all
* the mobility app (application on smartphone) is antiquated and constantly dropping
* Price is extremely high compared to the poor quality of service received

Pros

I found this product to have a user-friendly interface when managing the phones in our organization. What I liked the most about the product is the ease in knowing which phone blocks are available for use, as well as the number of phone numbers available in that specific block. Additionally (unlike Cisco Call Manager) it shows the full phone number. This is VERY useful if you are forced to have different call blocks with different prefixes. Not to mention, the call communicator for each user was AMAZING. We could easily make calls to other extensions (or outside numbers) from our desktop using the communicator. Also, if you wanted to call someone in your organization, it will indicate if the person is available (green) or on a call (red). Also great for our call center that had a call queue available.

Cons

Nothing that I could think of that I liked least about the product. I think this is a very user friendly interface and we had no complaints when using.

Pros

There doesn't seem to be any problem with their billing service as they always make sure they get paid on time. Besides that it is really difficult to find anything this system does well.

Cons

The up time as they like to measure it is closer to 75% not the 99% they advertise. What does it matter if your system is working from 9pm-7am when most businesses are not operating. Call recording is always a mystery if it will actually record the call or not. We needed a specific function of the phones to operate our business. We made this perfectly clear from the first business meeting to the last. When we began setup they told us that the system did not have that feature. They eventually created a work around, but our contract is up this fall and cannot wait to get off of this system.

Pros

The ability to set states (in a meeting, vacation, available, etc) is the primary perk. I also like the ability to download voicemail files for record-keeping or forwarding to other ShoreTel users in my office.

Cons

The functionality of certain features is unstable. Call forwarding works with hit or miss accuracy. I've had issues with calls being forwarded, but are unanswerable once the other line rings. Additionally, the ease of use for many of the phone options are clunky. My phone has the color display, yet I have to use the numeric keypad to select features on and off like older legacy style phones. I'm also frustrated I get notified of voicemails in Outlook when off my network, but I'm unable to play the file from the cloud.

Pros

The product is very easy for supervisors or managers in your call center to use. You are able to manage several calls groups and CSR's easily by looking at one screen. Its very easy to add new agents using the contact center director. The agent toolbar is very easy to configure at the agents workstations as long as you know the IP address. You are able to easily move agents in and out of the contact center groups. The reports are easy to access, create, and modify to obtain the data that you need to analyze daily.

Cons

In order to do a required system upgrade the contact center had to be closed and we were a 24 hour call center at the time.

Pros

ShoreTel Connect integrates seamlessly with our Salesforce databases, allowing me to quickly call candidates and clients by simply clicking the number on the screen. When making 100+ calls per day, this small quality of life assist is very welcome.

Cons

I have experienced some issues while attempting to use ShoreTel when not connected to our company's network. When connected via home/public Wi-Fi, there will be intermittent issues with maintaining a connection to ShoreTel.

Pros

I rarely actually use my voicemail, but I understand that it's a necessary part of doing business with some. I appreciate that when I'm on the go, Shoretel's transcription allows me to still read voicemails, and the IM function is so necessary for intra-office communication. I love that I can access my voicemails via email and I never have to call in!

Cons

I think Shoretel could benefit from a few more user-friendly benefits like recording of chats. Once the window closes, it's gone. However, at its core, what it does best is the availability of voicemail across other platforms. That happens very well.

Also, I think that the interface that allows you to switch between the functions (calls, IMs, etc.) could be a little better organized. I've had complaints from colleagues that have been unable to figure out how to add contacts. When they try to set it up, they end up accidentally calling people.

Pros

There was not very much configuration necessary on the part of the end user. When I place a call from my phone, it records and logs it.

Cons

It takes a very long time for a call to be recognized and downloadable, meaning you might have to wait several hours to be able to download the call you just had. There was a period of time a few months ago that the call downloading simply stopped working. There was no fix that anyone at our organization was aware of. Then it randomly started working again with no indication of what the original problem was.

Pros

I like that it integrates with Salesforce and the click to dial functionality is awesome. It allows for easy dialing without the worry of mis-clicking the wrong number. I also like that it ties a call to a contact and case and allows you to easily take notes while you're on the phone.

Cons

The biggest problem with this software is that it's very unreliable. Call notes regularly get lost. Calls won't attach to cases and the notes will get deleted. I also don't like that there is no way to handle extensions.

Pros

When we first switched to Shoretel several years ago the features and functionality were mostly in line with what was out there. The user training was decent, cutting over to the new system was super simple, and everything like porting DIDs and getting the equipment installed was really easy. Unfortunately Shoretel basically hit a wall and never progressed any further.

Cons

We were promised a number of integrations and new functionality and it just never happened.

Pros

usually on most days it works great, the call quality is good and their are no issues.
i like the ease of use and it connects instantly. I like how it gives us options to break, without having to log out and the timer helps me know how long i have been on my break or lunch break,

Cons

sometimes we have issues with the phone still rings while we are still on a call with the customer and sometimes the customer cannot hear us when we are answering the phone and vice versa, the support people keep blaming it on our computers but it is clearly not our computers when we havent had these issues with our older system.

Pros

Pros: You are able to check call history, check your length of calls, run reports, check statistics, works well with the phone itself and virtual system (application) on the computer.

Visual of who left voicemails and caller id.

Cons

Cons, If the virtual system to log in off ect. goes down it is cumbersome to use the phone to log in and out and check history.

Pros

I highly recommend this product. I use the Shore Tel phone system everyday and till now very satisfied with its performance. I like the ease of recording any incoming or outgoing calls. You get a copy of the recordings to your email as well. It got the caller id feature which is really helpful too.

Cons

None, Very satisfied with its functionality and performance.

Pros

Well designed product and made to last. The integration with all the other products, chat system, desktop and the different phone's models.

Cons

Needs a marketing plan for the rest of the world, not well know on latin america. Along with that not all the functions are in native language.

Pros

ShoreTel's TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is the lowest in the industry, and part of that reason is because so many ShoreTel features come right out of the box. With other phone systems, you have to buy a different package or have to pay individually for features to be used. Not with ShoreTel. Also, I like the fact that ShoreTel is just a phone company. All of their R&D budget goes into making their system better, not just supporting what part of their product line is making the most revenue.

Cons

There is nothing I do not like about ShoreTel. It is the best business phone system on the market, and I highly recommend it.

Pros

It does it's job, you can make calls and I do appreciate the integration with Salesforce. Compared to other systems this is one of the few systems that logs incoming calls which is really helpful.

Cons

Its a bare bone phone operating system. The interface could be a lot more sleek and they can somehow streamline the steps it takes to find a call and download the call you need. The system is always crashing, not very useful when you're in sales.

Pros

The thing I like most about the software is how user friendly it is. Maybe its because what we had previously was so bad and old but this is a light and day difference!

Cons

I would say the thing I probably least like about the software is maybe the price. Its not the most expensive option out there but it isn't the cheapest. But overall we are very pleased

Pros

There are a lot of great features for conferencing phone calls and have a simple to use call tree. Love the customization.

Cons

There are quite a few glitches that I experience. For example, I will go to put a call on hold and it will display an error. Eventually I can put the call on hold, but it can get frustrating if I have a customer waiting.

Pros

Easy to make a call using computer keyboard and never to reach out the phone itself. Also good to track all voice mail and phone history.

Cons

Many functions are hidden on the phone and you will need to learn how to use them using manual. Buying phone accessories like headset is not directly from ShoreTel but their third party dealer.

Pros

Phone software that allows us to integrate calls into our email and has been easy to use for even our least tech-savvy employees.

Cons

Updates time-to-time has been problematic, but I feel that maybe more due to our tech side vs software issues. If your system isn't set up in a conventional manner it could potentially cause headaches

Pros

-easy to type in numbers to make calls (or paste in numbers)
-easy reporting to see how many calls were made
-FWD calls to cell phone is very handy when working remotely

Cons

-calls do not always FWD to cell (could this be a VPN issue? possibly)
-voicemail sometimes plays on computer or calls cell (Inconsistent)

Pros

We have been using these phones and phone system for awhile. It is a vast improvement over our old phone system. They provide a lot of functionality.

Cons

It does seem like system issues take awhile to fix. It is easy to accidently press an incorrect button/function.

Pros

Mitel phones are in plenty of stable deployments around the country. They're generally great at getting out of the way and letting you do your work.

Cons

Make sure you have someone in a support role who is fully trained on the phones, or support may have an end user confusedly poking away at a phone to troubleshoot an issue.