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21 Best Call Queue Software In 2023

Best Call Queue Software Shortlist

Here are the top 10 call queue software I’d like to highlight out of the 21 I cover in this article:

  1. 1. Talkdesk — Best for call center overflow
  2. 2. Aircall — Best for customizable call queue formatting
  3. 3. Freshdesk Contact Center — Best for call queue management
  4. 4. Five9 — Best for workflow automation
  5. 5. Zendesk Talk — Best for intelligent routing
  6. 6. Genesys Cloud CX — Best for intelligent voice assistance
  7. 7. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express — Best for workforce optimization
  8. 8. 8x8 Contact Center — Best for personalized self-service experiences
  9. 9. Avaya Experience Platform — Best for AI speech analytics
  10. 10. NICE CXone — Best for journey orchestration

Call queue software will help your business manage the enormous number of customer calls it receives daily. Many people still prefer to interact with a business over the phone even though they also have access to an organization via social media, email, and live chat. As a matter of fact, 42% of people will contact a business over the phone at least once a week, and 65% of people prefer to interact with a company by calling them on the phone.

Providing an excellent customer experience is crucial to your business’s survival. However, even your best employees and customer support reps will fail if you’re not implementing good call queue software. So, I’m here to help you find the best call queue software for your business, no matter what industry you’re in, and share insights into what each one can do for you.

What is Call Queue Software?

Call queue software works by answering incoming calls and routing them to employees within your organization who can handle issues or answer questions. The way the call is routed will usually depend on selections the caller makes in a menu during their first contact. These platforms allow your customer to call and put them into a waiting state where the call remains connected until a staff member is available.

Overviews Of The 21 Best Call Queue Software

You can use the simple overviews of each tool below to understand how each tool stands out from other call queue software.

1

Talkdesk

Best for call center overflow

Talkdesk helps businesses route overflow calls to another phone number when all team members are busy to ensure they meet all customers’ needs.

Why I picked Talkdesk: The platform’s call center overflow capabilities ensure that customers in your call queue will receive the support they need. Talkdesk will allow your business to take the necessary measures to handle an overflow in your call queue by routing calls to a backup department or team. This ensures that your customers are taken care of when your team members are busy so you don’t disappoint them.

Talkdesk helps businesses searching for an automation-first customer experience solution that will optimize their customer service processes. Your team leaders and representatives can use Talkdesk to make crucial data-driven decisions through its call recording, call monitoring, and real-time reporting insights. The system will display the information your customer support reps need, such as the caller’s name, contact details, and purchase history, to ensure your teams can personalize their conversations.

Talkdesk Standout Features and Integrations

Features include omnichannel engagement, employee collaboration tools, customer experience analytics, workforce engagement management, self-service experience, flexible deployment, and an AI platform.

Integrations include Salesforce, Olark, LiveChat, Nimble, Intercom, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Help Scout, Highrise, Front, Freshdesk, Contactually, BigCommerce, Zendesk, Pipedrive, Slack, and Outreach.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 2439

Free demo available

From $75/user/month

Pros

  • Easy to monitor inbound calls
  • Simple user interface
  • Straightforward to use

Cons

  • Slow to load
  • It has a few bugs
2

Aircall

Best for customizable call queue formatting

Aircall is a cloud-based phone system that enables businesses to make and receive calls and customize the call queue experience.

Why I picked Aircall: Aircall is a popular virtual call center solution that enables your business to customize call queues with tailored messages, on-hold music, or by giving customers the option to ask for a callback. Aircall’s call queue features will help your business keep up with large call numbers and provide the best customer experience. These features include choosing how long you want calls to stay in the queue before they’re directed to your voicemail and ensuring the customer’s call goes to the right employee via intelligent call routing.

Aircall is an ideal option for small and medium businesses that need call center software that will allow them to make the call queue experience pleasant for customers. The platform can make your call queue tolerable by letting inbound callers know what they can expect while waiting to speak with your reps and agents. Aircall’s call queue system will provide your customers with an exact number of minutes remaining before your team members will attend to the call, allowing the customer to handle other tasks while holding their place in your queue.

Aircall Standout Features and Integrations

Features include real-time modifications, call queues, ring groups, parallel calls, queue callback, unlimited concurrent calls, time-based routing, call recording, pause-resume recording, and a real-time activity feed.

Integrations include monday.com, Zendesk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Intercom, Salesforce, Hiver, ActiveCampaign, Odoo CRM, Zoho CRM, Zapier, Copper, eDesk, Microsoft Dynamics, and Integrately.

Aircall costs from $40/user/month for a minimum of three users. Aircall offers a free 7-day trial for new subscribers.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 650

7-day free trial

From $30/user/month

Pros

  • Improves overall communications and efficiency
  • Accessible on desktop and mobile
  • Provides deep, real-time analytics

Cons

  • Customer support needs improvement
  • Could use better call history analytics
3

Freshdesk Contact Center

Best for call queue management

Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) provides queue management solutions that won’t frustrate customers.

Why I picked Freshdesk Contact Center: With Freshdesk Contact Center, you can develop special call queues for each team in your organization. Freshdesk Contact Center’s call queues will work together with an interactive voice recognition menu that will work to ensure your customers are sent to the right team in your company. You can use the platform to create queue-based routing rules for your teams. You can also create fallback options for any scenario and quickly send customers from one call queue to another.

Freshdesk Contact Center works well for businesses that need a platform that will enable them to affordably connect with customers. You can use Freshdesk Contact Center to ensure call queues improve customers’ experiences across your organization. It also uses real-time data to make it easier for you and your leadership teams to evaluate performance.

Freshdesk Contact Center Standout Features and Integrations

Features include call queue management, contact importing, automated call distribution, voice bots, call routing automation, real-time call center dashboard, live call monitoring, call barging, call recording, and service level monitoring.

Integrations include FrontApp, Zoho CRM, Infusionsoft, Copper CRM, Pipedrive, PipelineDeals CRM, Agile CRM, Nimble CRM, Zendesk Sell, Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Zapier, WooCommerce, and Shopify.

Freshdesk Contact Center costs from $18/user/month plus $0.13/minute. Freshdesk Contact Center offers a free 21-day trial for new subscribers and a free forever subscription tier with limited features.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.1 120

21-day free trial

From $18/user/month

Pros

  • Simple to navigate
  • Easy to implement and use
  • Excellent user interface

Cons

  • Technical support isn’t up to par
  • Pricing can add up quickly
4

Five9

Best for workflow automation

Five9 helps businesses visualize and create automated workflows, including call queues, that enhance customers’ experiences.

Why I picked Five9: You can use Five9’s workflow automation capabilities to create exceptional experiences for your customers. The platform’s workflow automation feature enables your business to act on customer data when they’re in your call queues and automate their experience. Creating automated workflows within the Five9 platform to react efficiently to your call queue and deliver consistent outcomes.

Five9 is an excellent option for medium and large-sized businesses that need a reliable call queue software solution. It’s a cloud-based option that’s feature-rich and enables your teams to manage customers’ lifecycles. Five9 provides practical AI capabilities that will increase your reps’ effectiveness and create excellent customer experiences, regardless of the communication channels your customers use.

Five9 Standout Features and Integrations

Features include artificial intelligence, reporting and analytics, interaction analytics, performance management, quality management, workforce optimization, workflow automation, intelligent virtual agents, and sentiment analysis.

Integrations include Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk, Freshdesk, LumenVox, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Gong.io, SugarCRM, ValidSoft, and MindTouch.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.1 418

Free demo

Plans start at $149/month; Custom plans are also available

Pros

  • User-friendly interactive voice response mapping
  • Easy to learn and use
  • Customizable reports

Cons

  • The platform can be slow
  • Some integrations are problematic
5

Zendesk Talk

Best for intelligent routing

Zendesk Talk uses intelligent routing to ensure callers reach the right agent after waiting in a call queue at the right time.

Why I picked Zendesk Talk: You can use Zendesk Talk to leverage built-in intelligent routing to escalate issues to your best reps. Like many call queue platforms, Zendesk Talk will enable your business to set maximum queue size and wait times and offer customers the option to request a callback. You and your leadership team can quickly create scalable routing models, such as request type or conversation priority, to ensure your call queue software routes calls correctly based on your company.

Zendesk Talk is an excellent option for organizations searching for a unique and productive solution for their call centers. It’s a cloud-based tool that is built directly within the Zendesk Support ticketing system. Current Zendesk users or those considering implementing the system in their business can implement intelligent call queuing capabilities from the platform.

Zendesk Talk Standout Features and Integrations

Features include queue management, reporting and analytics, interactive voice response, escalation management, call recording, and voice recognition.

Integrations include Dialpad, Aircall, Trello, Zoho CRM, CloudTalk, Intercom, Mailchimp, Nutshell, Shopify, Recurly, Salesforce, PrestaShop, ClickUp, and Slack.

Zendesk Talk costs from $25/user/month for five users. Zendesk Talk offers a free 14-day trial.

14-day free trial

From $25/user/month for five users

Pros

  • Excellent permission capabilities
  • Efficient routing triggers and automation
  • Very robust features

Cons

  • Large learning curve
  • Customer support is lacking
6

Genesys Cloud CX

Best for intelligent voice assistance

Genesys Cloud helps businesses simplify customer journeys with voice bot assistants that handle interactions.

Why I picked Genesys Cloud: You can use the voice bot assistance capabilities within Genesys Cloud to manage, unify, and orchestrate your bots across multiple interaction channels. Genesys Cloud’s voice bots will answer calls with zero delays 24/7. When customers enter your call queue, you can lessen hold times by making your contact center more accessible with the software’s automated virtual agents. In the event that a customer wants to speak with a human, the voice bot will pass the customer, along with all relevant details, to your team for a straightforward experience.

Genesys Cloud is suitable for businesses of any size and in any industry searching for a solution that will improve services. The tool is capable of handling incoming calls and provides your teams with standard call centers technologies such as interactive voice response and intelligent call routing. Genesys Cloud is a composable platform, meaning you can arrange and rearrange your system to meet customers’ requirements and scale when necessary.

Genesys Standout Features and Integrations

Features include speech-enabled interactive voice response, chatbots, natural language understanding, inbound voice routing, voicemail, callback scheduling, predictive routing, employee performance, resource management, and quality assurance.

Integrations include Salesforce, Freshdesk, Zendesk, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesloft, SugarCRM, Bitbucket, OneLogin, Trello, Okta, and Brightmetrics.

Contact sales for trial and demo options

From $75/user/month

Pros

  • Agents can work from anywhere
  • Reporting dashboards are easy to use
  • Effective performance views

Cons

  • The user interface needs work
  • Change history is complex
7

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express

Best for workforce optimization

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express provides enhanced workforce optimization tools that equip team leads to ensure everyone delivers exceptional experiences.

Why I picked Cisco Unified Contact Center Express: To help your supervisors provide efficient, effective service that focuses on your customers, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express provides the data and tools they need to manage their team’s performance. The tool’s workforce analytics capabilities provide data-driven insights from speech and desktop action analysis that will help improve experiences. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express also provides call quality management tools that increase call queue resolutions and team productivity.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is an excellent fit for call centers and enterprises that need a solution to improve team productivity. The platform will provide your business with a flexible and agile system that simplifies customer segmentation and resource activity monitoring. Your teams can use the software to engage with customers across multiple contact channels from a single source.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Standout Features and Integrations

Features include customizable tools and applications, customer experience insights, omnichannel communications, performance insights, and software licensing.

Integrations include Variphy, Google Cloud Agent Assist, 2Ring, Yellow.ai, Webex Workforce Optimization, and an API that allows businesses to create custom connections.

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

Pros

  • A well-documented solution
  • Efficient for daily use
  • Affordable call routing and queues

Cons

  • Challenging to manage
  • Limited native system integrations
8

8x8 Contact Center

Best for personalized self-service experiences

8x8 Contact Center helps businesses deliver self-service that is personalized to their customers and enables them to get the information they need without agent involvement.

Why I picked 8x8 Contact Center: The platform’s intelligent customer assistant capabilities will help your business create effective first impressions via its personalized self-service features. 8x8 Contact Center provides an intelligent customer assistant tool that instantly accesses engaging conversations through a bi-directional sync with your CRM system. This allows your teams to focus on more valuable tasks because the software’s conversational AI will deliver human-like interactions for simple, high-level engagement.

8x8 Contact Center is designed to help businesses of any size provide an excellent customer experience. The software’s customizability ensures your call queue will meet the needs of all your departments. The queue optimization capabilities make it relatively simple to establish 24/7 availability, even if you’re operating a phone-heavy consumer business.

 8x8 Contact Center Standout Features and Integrations

Features include interactive voice response, omnichannel routing, virtual agents, customer experience analytics, contact center analytics, quality management, call recording, multi-level auto attendant, call handling, voicemail transcription, and call queues.

Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Google Workspace, 1CRM, Copper, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Zoho, Okta, Slack, and SugarCRM.

8x8 Contact Center costs from $85/user/month. 8x8 Contact Center offers a free demo to help you understand whether the platform is right for you.

Free demo

From $85/user/month

Pros

  • Unifies operational systems quickly
  • Easy to use
  • Excellent call routing

Cons

  • Finding recorded calls is complex
  • Configuration has a learning curve
9

Avaya Experience Platform

Best for AI speech analytics

Avaya Experience Platform helps customer support representatives, and customers discover a faster path to resolve issues with AI speech analytics.

Why I picked Avaya Experience Platform: The software will help everyone involved in a call get on the same page, thanks to Avaya Experience Platform’s artificial intelligence speech analytics. You can use the tool’s real-time customer data and AI-powered guidance to eliminate guesswork. The AI within the Avaya Experience Platform will help your teams anticipate what’s next within your call queue and fine-tune conversations.

Avaya Experience Platform offers businesses the tools to manage interactions from their call queues, especially for mid-sized companies and large enterprises. The software helps your teams deliver personalized customer experiences through data integration, smart call routing, and resource selection capabilities. Regardless of where your teams are located, Avaya Experience Platform helps route calls from your call queues to the best agent based on customer value, skill level, and business campaigns.

Avaya Experience Platform Standout Features and Integrations

Features include artificial intelligence, AI noise removal, real-time customer data, automatic call recording, live interaction monitoring, performance management, intelligent call routing, customer self-service options, and AI-powered guidance.

Integrations include Dynamics Telephony, Empirix, Video RTC, Daisee, Sapling AI Writing Assistant, IBM Watson Assistant, Google Cloud Agent Assist, Mindful, Yellow.ai, and Nectar DXP.

Pricing upon request

Pros

  • Provides a straightforward experience
  • Easy to use
  • Integrates directly into desktop computers

Cons

  • It’s not very scalable
  • Takes time to integrate with third-party apps
10

NICE CXone

Best for journey orchestration

NICE CXone allows businesses to provide intelligent customer journeys that enable straightforward guidance across multiple channels.

Why I picked NICE CXone: The platform allows you to create personalized interaction journeys that enable your business to ensure customers have positive experiences. NICE CXone will help you offer intelligent and proven service across multiple channels after customers go through your call queues. The tool’s automatic contact distribution capabilities will ensure your customers speak with the most qualified customer support rep after waiting in your queues.

NICE CXone is suitable for businesses of any size that need a solution for creating extraordinary experiences that will enhance brand loyalty and customer relationships. The software provides automatic callback capabilities for customers that don’t want to wait in your call queues. You can also schedule callbacks within NICE CXone at the time the customer wants.

NICE CXone Standout Features and Integrations

Features include omnichannel routing, customer analytics, workforce optimization, artificial intelligence, open cloud foundation, digital self-service, and journey orchestration.

Integrations include Softil, TrustID, Slash DB, Reveal Labs, Liferay, Kratos, Citrix, and Dialogic.

No trial or demo information

Contact sales for pricing

Pros

  • Excellent real-time monitoring
  • Fast to implement
  • East to operate

Cons

  • Software sometimes crashes
  • Reporting feature is complex

The Best Call Queue Software Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
Talkdesk

Best for call center overflow

Free demo available

From $75/user/month Visit Website
2
Aircall

Best for customizable call queue formatting

7-day free trial

From $30/user/month Visit Website
3
Freshdesk Contact Center

Best for call queue management

21-day free trial

From $18/user/month Visit Website
4
Five9

Best for workflow automation

Free demo

Plans start at $149/month; Custom plans are also available Visit Website
5
Zendesk Talk

Best for intelligent routing

14-day free trial

From $25/user/month for five users Visit Website
6
Genesys Cloud CX

Best for intelligent voice assistance

Contact sales for trial and demo options

From $75/user/month Visit Website
7
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express

Best for workforce optimization

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
8
8x8 Contact Center

Best for personalized self-service experiences

Free demo

From $85/user/month Visit Website
9
Avaya Experience Platform

Best for AI speech analytics

Not available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
10
NICE CXone

Best for journey orchestration

No trial or demo information

Contact sales for pricing Visit Website

Other Options

Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best call queue software list:

  1. RingCentral Contact Center

    Best for tracking performance

  2. Twilio Flex

    Best for customizability

  3. Zoho Desk

    Best for centralizing customer communications.

  4. Salesforce Service Cloud

    Best for complete customer visibility.

  5. Q-flow

    Best for rule-based customer queuing.

  6. Mitel MiCloud Connect Contact Center

    Best for team collaboration.

  7. Enghouse Interactive

    Best for streamlining call center operations.

  8. Voximplant

    Best for embedding audio communications in a contact center app.

  9. QueueMetrics-Live

    Best for creating real-time data dashboards.

  10. Vocalcom

    Best for mobile customer experience.

How I Selected the Best Call Queue Software

Perhaps you're wondering how I selected the best call queue software for this list? To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of call queue software with positive user ratings.

After determining my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by using the selection criteria below to see how each platform stacked up against the next one. I also drew on my years of CX experience to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.

If you have general questions about call queue strategy or how to pick the best call queue software for your organization, take a look at our frequently asked questions section below. Or, you can skip directly to my detailed software summaries, if that's what you need the most.

Selection Criteria

Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best call queue software for this article:

Usability:

High-quality call queue software should be easy for your teams to use so they can provide efficient customer service. The last thing you want is to discover that the call queue tool that looks like the perfect choice is difficult to use. I look for solutions so that your teams can become proficient in navigating the tool in a few hours.

Customer Service: 

Things can go wrong when using new software, especially when you’re starting out with something brand new. When this happens, you should know whether the vendor providing your call queue software will be there to resolve any issues. I look for call queue software that has good reviews about the vendor’s customer service, specifically focusing on reviews that discuss how the customer service team sticks by the customers’ side through thick and thin.

Software Integrations: 

Your call queue software isn’t going to be a stand-alone system - it needs to interact with other aspects of your call center. The last thing you want to experience is a disconnect that causes a drop in productivity. I look for platforms that can connect with other vital business systems that you’re likely already using.

Pricing:

The final price you’ll pay for the call queue software of your choice will be essential. Some vendors require set-up fees in addition to monthly charges. Also, the vendor might offer multiple pricing options based on certain factors. For example, a call queue solution can be a pay-as-you-go tool, or you might have the choice of different subscription tiers that differ depending on the features you get. I look for software vendors that provide a clear understanding of the final price to ensure everyone is on the same page.

People Also Ask

Here are a few popular questions answered for your convenience!

Organizing Calls with Call Queue Software that Suits Your Business

Evaluating all of the call queue software options available for your organization can be overwhelming. Narrowing down your options can be as simple as choosing the platform that fits your business size and industry with the features you need. You should also consider comparing multiple options side-by-side to understand which is suitable for your requirements. Hopefully, this list does just that.

Investing in the right tools and learning the latest customer experience advice can significantly improve your company’s operations. If you need help getting the latest customer experience details, sign up for The CX Lead newsletter to discover the latest and greatest software recommendations and customer experience advice from the top leaders in this field.

By Hannah Clark

Hannah Clark is the Editor of The CX Lead. After serving over 12 years working in front-line customer experience for major brands, Hannah pivoted to a career in digital publishing and media production. Having gained a holistic view of the challenges and intricacies of delivering exceptional experiences, Hannah aims to help CX practitioners 'level up' their skills by amplifying the voices of today's thought leaders in the space.

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