Cloud phone system & contact center software & services
4.3/5 (188 reviews)ShoreTel is an all-in-one telephony cloud solution that offers a range of products covering a business phone system, VoIP, cloud PBX, hosted contact center, and unified communications. There are also a number of optional add-on features for conferencing, automated attendant services, calling, business intelligence, and more. All products and add-ons can be integrated together for additional capability.
ShoreTel's hosted contect center offers all of the expected features of an app of this nature, such as ACD skills-based routing, hold options, call recording, agent monitoring, and business performance reporting. This product integrates with the business phone system product enabling employees outside of the call center to take calls from agents. This integration also ensures all call data and customer interactions are recorded and logged in one system.
ShoreTel offers a highly configurable solution with the ability to decipher queuing rules, agent & supervisor permissions, call work flows, evaluation forms, and more. You can also decide on the type of hold treatment you'd like to implement, uploading audio files to an audio library for use during hold treatment. Screen pops show agents all relevant caller and call information, with the ability to add custom fields and notes. ShoreTel also integrates with Salesforce to sync call center data with accounts.
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.
This software was an upgrade to our previous system, so the functionality of being able to perform changes /additions/deletions on line through a browser was very helpful.
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.
This is about Shoretel's new "Connect" system. We were on Shoretel Sky, and had no issues at all. We were told Shoretel Connect had better reporting and integration with our CRM. The switch from Sky to Connect was a nightmare and filled with issues. Four months after the transition and we still have issues pop up every week. As far as support, prior to 2016 Shoretel had one of the best support departments we had the pleasure of interacting with. Sometime during 2016, however, the hold times started getting longer and longer, and the support reps newer. The current hold time, we are experiencing, averages about 45 minutes.. just to get someone on the phone.
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.
ShoreTel offers tailored pricing to meet your needs. Contact ShoreTel to get a quote.
Below are some frequently asked questions for ShoreTel.
ShoreTel offers the following pricing plans:
Free Trial: Not Available
ShoreTel offers tailored pricing to meet your needs. Contact ShoreTel to get a quote.
ShoreTel offers the following features:
ShoreTel has the following typical customers:
Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business
ShoreTel supports the following languages:
English
We do not have any information about what ShoreTel pricing plans
ShoreTel supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
ShoreTel integrates with the following applications:
AuguTech, Bitium, JobDiva, Klipfolio, Logicbox, Oreka TR, SpitFire, Tigerpaw, VPI Capture
ShoreTel offers the following support options:
FAQs, Knowledge Base, Online Support, Phone Support, Video Tutorials
If you are a business who is not concerned about Quality Assurance for their call center, or if cost is an immediate issue, then this is a great, affordable option for you with some awesome features (silent monitor, silent coaching, call barging) that some other business VOIP systems don't allow/offer (note: costs may be an issue right away, but it can be more costly to have to switch your businesses entire VOIP system later).
If you're concerned about the quality of your customer service or sales reps for your call center, or plan to grow big enough to have the need for a Quality Assurance department, it would be wise to look into other options that will streamline that department and work in tandem with your customer service/sales telephony system.