8×8 Cloud-based Phone Systems Review

8×8 is one of the largest and most reputable phone system providers, with over a million business users, and customers including Netsuite and McDonald's.

Best-in-class customer service, industry-leading technology, and competitive pricing has won 8×8 a host of high-profile awards, including the Tolly award for Superior Voice Quality and the Gartner award for Unified Communications as a Service. In 2013 it was named in Forbes’ list of the 25 Best Small Companies and spotlighted as one of 20 Fast-Growing Tech Stars.

In the years since, 8×8 has gone from strength to strength, rapidly expanding into a global market and filing over 140 patents for communication innovations along the way. But as the company grows, it remains committed to providing outstanding service. So whether your company is a large multinational or a small business startup, you can be certain of a world-class experience with 8×8.

What does 8×8 provide?

8×8's core product is the 8×8 eXperience Communications Platform: a cloud-based system with phone, unified communications, and contact centre features. But is it the best platform to carry your business's comms?

To find the answers, let's explore the three tenets of this platform:

• Cloud phone system
• Unified communications suite
• Contact centre features

8×8's cloud phone system

The eXperience Communications Platform provides a powerful, modern, and easy-to-use phone system, designed to enable better inter-business communication and customer experience. It’s mobile- and tablet-friendly, and works with a simple administration programme that allows you to easily modify settings, add users, and view reports on the fly.

The system's key features and benefits include:

• Unlimited calling: unlimited calling, SMS, and fax, supporting calls to and from up to 45 countries.
• Enhanced customer experience: multilevel auto attendant directs your callers to the right place, while on-hold music keeps them entertained. HD voice quality means your customers can always hear you.
• Good communication between colleagues: host multiple callers with personal audio conferencing bridges for every user, and update your presence settings to let coworkers know if you're available.
• Easy call handling: efficiently process high volumes of calls with the operator switchboard. Each user can use call forwarding, transfer, waiting, and parking to manage their calls appropriately. Set up ring groups and call queues to make sure calls aren't missed – and if they are, voicemails can be accessed vis your desk phone, computer, or smartphone.
• Accessible hybrid or remote working: your team can work from anywhere with 8×8's feature-rich mobile and desktop apps on their devices.
• Comprehensive analytics: Select from reporting options to get insights into the metrics that matter to you. View performance and usage information dashboards.
• Simple administration: access user provisioning, system configuration, and management settings via a single interface.
• Secure voice: industry standard TLS/SRTP encryption ensures that your calls remain private.

Of course, it's worth remembering that the full breadth of these features won't be available on every 8×8 eXperience package. The sophistication of your system will depend on which pricing tier you plump for.

8×8's unified communications features

8×8 eXperience also includes unified communications functions – most notably video conferencing and team chat.

Video conferencing

Compared to other systems, 8×8 eXperience offers a super generous video conferencing package. You can run as many HD video calls as you need and, depending on the price plan you choose, invite up to 500 participants. In comparison, lots of other providers limit you to a certain number of video calls per month, and/or cap your calls at around 250 participants.

The key features of 8×8's video conferencing include:

• Moderation controls including meeting lock,
• The ability to record meetings and save them to the cloud
• Access via desktop and mobile
• The ability to invite people from outside the business using a browser link
• Meeting screens that can be customised with your own branding
• Secure end-to-end encryption

Team chat

8×8's team chat platform comes with the features you'd expect from a modern messaging platform, including:

• One-to-one instant messaging
• Private, invite-only, and public group chat rooms
• Document and file sharing in one-to-one chats and group chats
• One-click voice or video calls
• Mobile access via the 8×8 Work app

8×8's team chat also comes with a few business-minded features that you wouldn't find on something like Whatsapp:

• Integration with your global directory to automatically add all your staff
• Integration with other popular chat platforms, such as Slack and Skype
• The ability to reply to messages directly from your smartphone notification screen, without having to open the app

8×8's contact centre software

8×8’s unique Call Centre Software (CCS) simultaneously increases business productivity and enhances the customer experience.

Key features include:

• Multi-channel compatibility – the web is the first point of contact for most customers. 8×8’s CCS allows you to easily integrate telephony, email and web chat channels to streamline the sales process and boost conversion
• Smart routing – skills-based routing matches callers with the agent who can best meet their needs. Qued callback allows waiting callers to opt-out of the queue without losing their place in line
• Reporting and monitoring – spot trends and monitor employee performance against key metrics
• Agent tools – arm yourself with important customer information before answering calls to provide a personalised service. Centralise knowledge with an FAQ knowledge base
• CRM integration – CCS is compatible with a number of major CRM platforms, including Zendesk, NetSuite and Salesforce
• Disaster recovery – duplicate your business operations and continue taking calls in the event of natural disaster, regional pandemic, or human-error-related outage

How much does 8×8 cost?

8×8's eXperience starter packages are reasonably priced, but it has to be said that the X6, X7, and X8 packages are expensive. That said, these packages do come with extensive contact and call centre features, and you do get plenty of bang for your buck.

Let's take a look at its packages and prices:

So, how do these figures compare to the pricing offered by 8×8's competitors? Let's compare:

As you can see, 8×8 eXperience is not the cheapest VoIP phone system out there. However, it is a very comprehensive system that offers a generous array of features that will empower you to scale up your business.