Do you know what you really need from your phone system CRM? Before you can choose the best platform for your business, you should be able to answer that question. After all, CRMs and phone systems aren’t just about building and maintaining relationships with your clients and customers. Today’s platforms are designed to help you work smarter to streamline your processes and help you close more deals.
But they’re not all created the same. That’s why it’s so helpful to look at all the options and the different features and benefits they bring to the table. In that spirit, we’re comparing 8×8, 3CX and CRMDialer, one of the newer options in the market.
5 Reasons to Choose CRMDialer
It’s easy to set up, easy to use and jam-packed with ground-breaking tools designed with your business in mind. Ask any current customers what they love about this platform, and you’re likely to hear some variation of that statement.
Before we get into comparing the features and prices of all three platforms, let’s take a moment to consider why this might just be the platform for you. It all boils down to this: You want more than just a phone system; you want an all-in-one solution to move your business forward. Here are five more compelling reasons:
1. You want a platform that offers scalability.
Agility is a big buzzword in the modern business world. Many experts contend that flexibility and the ability to easily scale up or down as needed aren’t limited to startups. They’re necessary qualities for businesses of all sizes. As an executive at a Fortune 500 company once said in a Huffington Post article, “Dinosaurs must learn to become pumas.” To survive this ever-increasingly complex business world, you need to be able to adapt to market changes and business changes.
That’s why CRMDialer makes it easy to scale up or down as needed. Change your plan at any time, cancel it if you need to — this platform is all about working smarter and giving you the flexibility you need to stay agile.
2. You want to enhance your team’s collaboration.
Another essential element to any successful business is a culture built around collaboration. You know that saying, “Two heads are better than one?” It’s true. That’s why this platform includes an innovative chat function to make it easier for everyone on the team to share files, images and information all in one place. It includes a search function that lets you find exactly what you need quickly. Plus, you can create different groups and channels so your team can keep up with information on specific projects or topics.
3. Two words: bounce rate
Because email is a primary communication channel for businesses and consumers, email marketing is a big business. But here’s the danger of sending emails without validating them: They bounce back. The more dead-end emails you send, the higher your bounce rate. The higher your bounce rate, the more likely your business could end up with the dreaded “spammer” label. And even if things don’t go that far, you could be throwing money right down the drain.
That’s where email validation comes into play. CRMDialer offers email validation with ZeroBounce, an award-winning, leading email validation service. With it, you can validate emails in three areas: the Lead email field, Quick Email pop-up and the Lead importer, which provides bulk email validation.
4. You want to provide outstanding customer service.
Unlike many CRMs out there, this platform includes a built-in helpdesk that lets you track tickets from the time they come in until the time they’re resolved. You know why? Because providing stellar customer service is one of your business’s best weapons in this competitive world we live in. Entrepreneur points out that providing next-level service is important for so many key reasons, including:
- The cost of customer retention is far less than acquiring new ones.
- Your current customers are more likely to buy new stuff from you than new customers.
- Outstanding customer service reduces the problems and legal issues you could otherwise face while strengthening your brand.
5. You want to understand your customers and prospects better.
Having a great website is important. It’s a great opportunity to capture more business, but for many businesses, roughly 95% of their visitors slip right through their hands. To boost your conversions and get the information you need to have meaningful conversations with your leads, website visitor tracking is a must. It’s the single tool that can help you transform your website from a leaky faucet to a clever net that captures your prospects and improves your lead quality.
Even better, CRMDialer’s version gives you real time visitor tracking right within the system. No need to log into a different platform — it’s all right there at your fingertips. Cool, right?.
CRMDialer vs. 8×8 vs. 3CX: Comparing Features
When it comes down to it, you should choose the system that best meets your needs. To help you understand which one might be in the best position to do so, we’ve rounded up the main features of each platform.
CRMDialer Features
Those are some of the reasons you should be considering this platform. Now, let’s look at the features you get with this call center cloud and CRM:
- Built-in helpdesk
- Chat
- Real-time visitor tracking
- Email validation
- SMS to help you connect with even more prospects, leads, and clients
- Power Dialer with click-to-call and local presence dialing
- Speech Recognition for highly accurate transcription of spoken words into text
- Dialer Metrics with real-time monitoring and reporting
- Lead management
- Electronic signature
8×8 Features
8×8 is designed to give you a business phone system with cloud-based software that makes it easy to use. It also gives your business mobility and reliability while making it easier for your team to collaborate and stay up to date. This platform is a call center cloud with features like:
- Self-service configuration
- Unlimited calling
- Mobile and desktop apps
- HD voice
- Instant messaging
- Chat
- SMS
- Visual voicemail
- Operator switchboard
- Secure voice
- Audio conferencing
- Virtual meetings
3CX Features
3CX is designed to meet your business’s daily communication needs while saving your business money and increasing your mobility. It runs on your standard servers, so your existing IT team can manage it, and it offers innovative features like its office extension, which lets you work from home with seamless operations. This software-based open IP PBX delivers complete Unified Communications with features like:
- Click2Call
- Web Conferencing
- CRM Integration
- Free calling to teleworkers
- Take your office number with you on your mobile phone
- Replace desk phones with the ability to control the IP phone on a Windows or Mac computer
- Unified Communications with voicemail, Instant Chat, and fax to email
CRMDialer vs. 8×8 vs. 3CX: Comparing Prices
Now that you have a good feel for the different features each one offers, let’s consider the costs. In addition to choosing a platform with the features you need, you also want one that meets your budget.
CRMDialer Pricing
| Essential $149 Per User Per Month | Growth $499 Per Month Unlimited Users | Enterprise $899 Per Month |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 Voice Minutes | 15,000 Voice Minutes | 30,000 Voice Minutes |
| 1,000 SMS Credits | 3,000 SMS Credits | 6,000 SMS Credits |
| 500 Email Validation | 500 Email Validation | 500 Email Validation |
| 5 E-Signature | 5 E-Signature | 5 E-Signature |
| Unlimited Sales Leads | Unlimited Customer Invoices | International Calling |
| Unlimited Emails & Events | Unlimited Voicemail Drops | Email Validation |
| Unlimited Visitor Tracking | 1 Application Mapped for E-Sign | Custom SMS Credits |
| 2 Hours of Client Success | Collect Customer Payments | Source Code Licening |
| Free Gmail Extension | Open API & Zapier Integration | Single Sign On (SSO) |
With no long-term commitments and simple, easy-to-understand packages, this platform really sets itself apart from the rest.
8×8 Pricing
8×8 offers three different plans, each with simple terms. Choosing the right plan depends on a variety of factors, including the features you want, the countries you typically call and the amount of storage you need. Here are the basics:
| Virtual Office X2 Edition ($25/month/user) | Virtual Office X5 Edition ($35/month/user) | Virtual Office X8 Edition ($55/month/user) |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited calling to 14 countries | Unlimited calling to 32 countries | Unlimited calling to 46 countries |
| 1 GB media storage | 5 GB media storage | 10 GB media storage |
| Virtual office analytics | Virtual office analytics | Virtual office analytics |
| Business SMS | Business SMS | Business SMS |
| Instant messaging and presence | Instant messaging and presence | Instant messaging and presence |
| Auto attendant | Auto attendant | Auto attendant |
| Call queueing | Call queueing | Call queueing |
| Salesforce, Zendesk & Netsuite CRM Integration | Salesforce, Zendesk & Netsuite CRM Integration | Salesforce, Zendesk & Netsuite CRM Integration |
| Audio/video conferencing for up to 5 participants | Audio/video conferencing for up to 25 participants | Audio/video conferencing for up to 50 participants |
| Call recording | Call recording | |
| Operator switchboard | Operator switchboard | |
| Salesforce analytics | ||
| Virtual office call quality reporting | ||
| Inbound/outbound contact center | ||
| Visual IVR |
3CX Pricing
3CX offers a version that you can try for free for a full year. They have three types of plans, with a complicated pricing structure based on the number of simultaneous calls your business needs to make. In general, one call for every three to four extensions works well. So, if you have 50 extensions, you would need a license for 16 simultaneous calls. If you have 100 extensions, you would need one for 32 simultaneous calls. Here’s a snapshot of how that looks:
| Number of Simultaneous Calls | Standard | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Free | 188 | 255 |
| 8 | $295 (free first year) | 369 | 443 |
| 16 | $675 (free first year) | 844 | 1013 |
| 32 | 1295 | 1619 | 1943 |
| 64 | 2595 | 3244 | 3893 |
| 128 | 4995 | 6244 | 7493 |
| $256-$1,024 | $8,500-$23,995 | $10,625-$29,994 | $12,750-$35,993 |
After reviewing the features and prices that each platform has to offer, it’s clear that they’re three very different options. Ultimately, you should choose the one that gives you the functionality you need at a price you can afford. If you’re looking for more than just a call center, we think the choice is clear. CRMDialer is designed to replace your phone system and your CRM. You get a power-packed platform that streamlines your business tasks and helps you get more done, contact more people and close more deals.
In the end, it’s all about working smarter and boosting your bottom line.