Dear Skype, the race is over.

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

Somewhere between settling for a popular phone system and identifying the need to find a scalable call center software, your business grows.  

Skype being the popular kid that it is, it isn’t surprising that it has a huge customer base among personal users and budding businesses. The free Skype to Skype calls, video capability and other features might seem just enough, to begin with, through the lens of superficial evaluation. But that doesn’t necessarily make it an ideal solution for your growing business and hence demand a better Skype alternative

At the end of the day, all businesses want to choose the right phone solution that gives them the freedom to stride up their growth curve.

This is precisely why you are right on track if you’re looking for an alternative to Skype for your growing business. Now that brings us to the first question — what are these essential and liberating features of a business phone system?

Basic capabilities of a great business phone system

All growing business call centers are certain to face a tough time handling the incessant flow of calls, a constant shortage of agents to handle them, and the sorry face you’ll have to cut in front of unhappy customers. A smart way to take these challenges head-on is to go for a call center software with at least the basic features. Opt for one with,

  1. An easy and intuitive setup to get started right away
  2. Easy onboarding and accessibility for all members of your phone team
  3. The ability to handle a large volume of calls through a simple, customizable IVR
  4. Live monitoring for a bird’s-eye view of your call center operations

These are just some of the many basic ones that a growing business needs from a business phone system.

So then, does Skype solve these?

Well, honestly not; not with just the call capabilities that Skype has. It certainly works for an individual user, but falls short when it comes to managing a team of call center agents. And that’s why we at Freshdesk Contact Center have made conscious efforts to not miss out any of these features. Freshdesk Contact Center is a call center software built for small businesses, that’s easy to set up and tuned to suit growing teams.

What does Freshdesk Contact Center have that Skype doesn’t?

We’ve all heard enough of the phrase ‘No one size fits all.’ As true as it may be, it’s not an excuse for a product to play down its inadequacies. Similarly, it’s okay for a call center software to not have some above the line, luxury features. But, it certainly needs to have the bare-minimum ones that make a huge difference for a small business that depends on the call center software to run its support or sales front.

FeaturesSkypeFreshcaller
Calls to mobiles and landlinesYesYes
Group calls
Yes Yes
Caller IDYesYes
Call Forwarding
YesYes
Voice messagesYesYes
Multilevel IVRNoYes
Call recordingNoYes
Call BargingNoYes
Live DashboardNoYes
Smart EscalationsNoYes
Call MaskingNoYes
Business HoursNoYes
Wait queuesNoYes
Call routing to groupsNoYes
Call notesNoYes
Agent presence statusNoYes
Call metricsNoYes
Video chatYesNo
Send textsYesNo
Screen sharingYesNo

Let’s look at some of the key features in detail.

Multi-level IVR or Phone Trees

Not every customer who calls your business looks for help from the same department. Let’s say you are an e-commerce business. When one customer might come to you with a billing-related issue, another customer might need help with delivery-related delay. Now, imagine if both these callers dial the same number, are attended to by an agent who then transfers their call to the respective departments. In the worst case, sometimes, such transfers may also demand the customer to repeat their issue all over again to the new agent. Ugh! This certainly annoys your customer, slows down your agent’s productivity, thereby wasting both the customer’s and agent’s time. With an IVR setup, listing the different departments — 1 for billing related queries, 2 for shipping related queries, 3 for delivery related ones and so on, you’ll make sure that your customers can reach the most relevant department the very first time. You’ll also save your customers the trouble of having to repeat their problem to multiple agents. This way you’ll be able to save up a lot of time and resources too. And any business handling numerous calls per day will benefit a great deal from an IVR.

Multi-level IVR or phone trees_Skype alternative

Multi-level IVR in Freshdesk Contact Center

Call recording

Every call that an agent handles is a treasure trove to learn from. And the questions asked, the way it’s handled, and the solutions given can be useful for the entire team of agents to make use of when faced with a similar scenario. That’s why, being able to record calls, listen to them whenever possible and assimilate some top-notch takeaways is a huge way forward for any growing call center. It doesn’t stop with the learning aspect alone. In cases of some dispute on a misunderstood conversation, factually incorrect information and the likes, call recordings always come to one’s rescue.

Call recordings help improve the transparency of the call center team and help each one learn from one other’s experience and improve with peer feedback.

Call recording_Skype alternative

Call recording in Freshdesk Contact Center

Smart Escalations

Not every call that comes your call center’s way can be attended promptly. But does that mean you can afford to miss out on a few calls? Every customer call is a brilliant opportunity to build your brand and its reputation on top of solving your customer’s problems. So, to ensure that you handle every call scenario to its very best, you can set smart escalation rules to make sure that no calls are missed out. If it’s an exceptionally busy day around, the overflowing calls being escalated to another team will help you make up to the callers in some way or the other. Or even directing the call to a voicemail with the promise of getting back to them as soon as possible would be reassuring. And when you promptly get back as promised, you’ll come by as a trustworthy brand to your customers. This way, you can use your resources wisely and also serve your customers to your very best.

Smart Escalations_Skype alternative

Smart escalations in Freshdesk Contact Center

Call barging using the Live Dashboard

For a call center agent, it’s common to come across different kind of callers and a range of questions and doubts. Let’s say, a particular caller is being a little too curious or the agent has been trying to explain the solution for quite some time, but in vain. There is a high possibility that the caller gets annoyed and they might lose their patience.

As a supervisor, it’s important for you to keep track of live calls and listen to the conversations that might seem a bit off track. You can then clearly take a call on whether or not to barge in and straighten things up before it’s too late.

Proactively stepping up and fixing a conversation before it goes out of control will eventually help grow your brand’s reputation in the long run.  

call barging_skype alternative

Call barging in Freshdesk Contact Center

Even though these are some top of the head features that are extremely important for a call center to be efficient, it’s not all that’s there. And when we took a closer look at the granular comparison on the features of Skype and Freshdesk Contact Center, we had a clearer picture on why Freshdesk Contact Center might be a better Skype alternative. Here’s the comparison for you to understand from as well.

Why moving to Freshdesk Contact Center can’t be any easier

If you are already using Skype you might also be wondering about the ease of transition and the extent to which you can retain your existing data while wanting to move to a new one. With us, you can

  • Port your numbers and contacts from any call center system with the help of our support. All you need to do is drop a mail to support@freshcaller.com and you’ll have our team handle the process.
  • Access supporting materials to get onboard quickly. Freshdesk Contact Center is a product that requires zero tech help to set up and maintain. We’ve also put together a bunch of user guides and videos apart from a detailed knowledge base. It’s all yours to get up and running with it now. 🙂

So, is Freshdesk Contact Center your best Skype alternative?

With Freshdesk Contact Center you can do exactly all that Skype lacks. It is designed to best fit the requirements of an SMB with basic but vital features that helps you grow seamlessly.

1. Security and privacy has never been faulty with Freshdesk Contact Center

A serious business will always look for a call center solution with zero security breach and eavesdropping on customer conversations. Unfortunately, Skype has been in the news for all the wrong reasons with respect to security and privacy.  

With enough issues to already take care of, a call center having to worry about the security and privacy of their data is not really a good option. Freshdesk Contact Center has built its system with really well-rounded security and privacy policy. And, to top it all, it’s GDPR compliant too.

2. Freshdesk Contact Center has the basic and most relevant features to get your business’s call center up and running

Skype is quite lean on some of the most essential features needed for a business to scale up using a call center software. So it might not really be an ideal choice if you want to get the most out a call center setup. On the other hand, Freshdesk Contact Center has been designed to include basic features like IVR, call recording, real-time monitoring, business hours and much more to ensure every business makes the best use of a call center solution.  

3. With our 24/7 support, you can always reach out and get answers instantly

Time-sensitive issues are often the deal breakers in whether or not your day is productive. And knowing that help is always a call or an email away is certainly a huge advantage in ensuring a seamless flow of operations for your business.

We often do not realize what we’re missing out on while trying to maximize results from products we’re already using. It always takes an informed leap of faith to switch to another and seize the freedom your business badly needs, to reach the next level. Sign up for our trial if you’re ready to get a taste of this said freedom.

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Illustrations by Nikhil Kanda 🙂