Dear Grasshopper phone, we’ll always ‘love’ you.

Compare Grasshopper vs Freshdesk Contact Center. Find out what freedom feels like.

Among companies selling outside the U.S., 80% say revenues are greater compared to one year ago, and on average, one quarter (26%) of their revenue growth can be linked to international sales alone. – The American Express Grow Global survey

When selling internationally introduces the possibility of bringing in a fortune for your business, it’s only natural that most of us want to expand. Such an expansion is a big step and a daring experiment that involves a lot of effort from the business’s end. And when a call center software like Grasshopper curbs this possibility, looking out for a Grasshopper phone alternative makes sense for a growing business.

On top of these constraints, imagine if the call center software you’ve been currently using lacks the capability of supporting this expansion — the possibility of using international numbers, for instance. Oops! Surely a bummer. And, to top this, what if it lacks even the basic capabilities like call recording, monitoring, and call routing.

Grasshopper falls behind in both these aspects. If you want to expand your business and grow with a feature-rich call center software, then you need to look for an alternative to Grasshopper before it’s too late.  And how better to start looking for an alternative than knowing what makes up a good business phone system. 

Basic capabilities of a business phone system

An effective business phone system must have the following features:

  • Easy to set up and configure: An intuitive user interface and quick-to-traverse screens are an uncompromisable aspect of any call center software.
  • Managing a fleet of calls every day: Having basic features like IVR and call routing helps tremendously in handling every call that comes your call center’s way.
  • Close follow-up with a live dashboard: Being able to monitor what’s going on in your call center at any given instance is important for your team’s growth and performance, especially when they are torn between different geographies.
  • Light on your pocket with minimum call costs: When you have to make and receive calls across different countries, ensure that you choose a call center solution that charges less and helps you save big.

These are clearly the bare minimum features without which a business cannot seamlessly scale up over the years. And Grasshopper falls short of even the ones listed above, to begin with. There is a serious dearth of basic features like IVR, call recording and routing amongst many more that demands a need for an alternative.

Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) – a refreshing Grasshopper phone alternative is a feature-rich call center solution that’s designed to help growing businesses get started quickly. All these basic features along at affordable pricing which can accommodate the growth of an SMB is what Freshdesk Contact Center provides. Also, an added perk is it having the option of being able to trial Freshdesk Contact Center for free, for a span of two weeks before making a decision.

So, let’s get to the specifics of how different Freshdesk Contact Center is from Grasshopper and help you make a well-informed choice.

Grasshopper vs Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller)

There are a lot of features that Grasshopper lacks as compared to Freshdesk Contact Center. But to begin with, let’s see if Freshdesk Contact Center has feature parity with Grasshopper, and then let’s move to the differences.

Feature parity between Freshdesk Contact Center and Grasshopper phone

FeaturesGrasshopperFreshcaller

Toll free numbers
YesYes

Local Numbers
YesYes

Custom main greeting
YesYes

Music On Hold
YesYes

Conference calling
YesYes

Call forwarding
YesYes

Voicemail
YesYes

Features of difference between Freshdesk Contact Center and Grasshopper phone

FeaturesGrasshopperFreshcaller

Multi-level IVR

No

Yes

Automatic call recording

No

Yes

Manual call recording

No

Yes

Call routing after store hours

No

Yes

Call routing if agents unavailable

No

Yes

Call Monitoring

No

Yes

Call Barging

No

Yes

Call Masking

No

Yes

Call Transfer to a different agent

No

Yes

Live dashboard

No

Yes

Business SMS

Yes

No

Fax on demand

Yes

No

Voice Studio

Yes

No

Let’s highlight some of the key features that Freshdesk Contact Center has that Grasshopper phone lacks.

Call Recording

Being able to record calls and refer to them as and when needed is the least that’s expected from a call center solution. By having the capability to record calls, the team can have transparency as to how calls are being managed, and the newbies in the team can also learn from these calls. Also, recordings make it easier to pass on some genuine, constructive feedback as to how to handle a given problem better. Not only that, with the option of manually being able to record calls, you can come by as a flexible and trustworthy business that lets the customers choose if they want their conversations to be recorded or not.

Call recording_Grasshopper phone alternative

                  Call recording in Freshdesk Contact Center
Call barging and monitoring using Live Dashboard

For keeping track of ongoing calls, callers in wait queues, or agent status, a live dashboard is your best bet. The actual luxury of these options comes into play when you are faced with a situation where an agent is unable to help a customer with the best solution possible. With the live dashboard, you can spot the call, listen in, and take over before the situation goes out of hand and the customer gets annoyed.

It does not stop just with the call barging advantage. By being able to monitor live calls, you can also reorganize the call queue and ensure that no one agent faces an unfair share of calls.

Call barging_ Grasshopper phone alternative

                   Call barging in Freshdesk Contact Center
Call Transfer  

No one likes to be kept on hold for a long time. When an agent is faced with a customer query that’s beyond his expertise, the best way to go about is to be smart about it and transfer the call to a colleague who might handle it better. With a timely transfer, the agent can save both his and the customer’s time. Also, this would ensure an apt and helpful support experience for the customer, creating a sense of trust and satisfaction with your business.

Multi-level IVR

Time is one of the most priceless assets for anyone. And if your business saves customers their time by smartly setting up your support process, they are sure to come back and feel happy doing business with you. And, multi-level IVR is easily one of the features that help you nail this. Every customer calls your business so as to quickly get their questions answered and their problems sorted out. Any process that’s intermediate to this is nothing short of an annoying delay. So, instead of burdening your customers through a drill of multiple call transfers before they reach the relevant department, set up an IVR, where all they need to do is choose the most suitable department with a keypress. This will help your business go a long way.

Multi-level IVR or phone trees_Grasshopper phone alternative

                 Multi-level IVR in Freshdesk Contact Center

Why moving to Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) can’t get any easier

Getting to know the pros and cons of Grasshopper and why Freshdesk Contact Center is a better alternative, should have given you a fair idea as to what your business needs best. One of your inhibitions to make the switch might be around the ease of transition. And of course, it’s a pretty genuine concern.

We, at Freshdesk Contact Center —a refreshing Grasshopper phone alternative have put together a bunch of collaterals—videos, user guides, and the knowledge base to support this transition and help your team of support agents get on board easily. Not just that, we have our whole support force ready to help you port your existing numbers into Freshdesk Contact Center. All you need to do is drop an email to support@freshcaller.com.

Is Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller)your best Grasshopper phone alternative?

Grasshopper phone might be a famous name in certain geographies. Yet, it being lean on even the most basic of features is sure to take a toll on a business’s growth and expansion in the future. From the comparison that we made between the two call center solutions, it’s quite evident that Grasshopper needs to add more features—the bare minimum ones to make some significant difference for a growing business looking at saving costs and managing calls in the best possible way. Lacking features like multi-level IVR, call recording, call transfer and monitoring is sure to be a bottleneck while a business tries to scale its support team or even while looking at the efficiency of its support model. And additionally, the constraint of not having international numbers is in itself a dreadful thought when a business wants to become global.

Knowing these blatant shortcomings of Grasshopper, if you want to give us a try, you can trial Freshdesk Contact Center for free. Don’t let the lack of something define your business’s dreams. Dream big, step up and show the world what you are capable of as a business.

Illustrations by Nikhil Kanda 🙂

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