Item: NICE CXone
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

NICE inContact CXone is being used by virtual call centers in four divisions of our organization across four time zones in the US & Canada for inbound & outbound call routing. I do not know total volume but my guess is 30,000 - 100,000 calls daily (M-F 8a-8p EDT).

Pros and Cons

Scalability. Cloud-based = nothing to install. Can be deployed to dozens or thousands of users anywhere in the world within hours.
Track KPI's. Many dashboard options, including showing multiple call queues in the same dashboard, and developing custom dashboards for specific users or groups.
Spin up (or down) call queues quickly & efficiently.

Call Quality. At various times, both inbound and outbound calls may randomly have very poor connection on only one end; caller's connection may be crystal clear while recipient hears a very distressed connection/static/choppy/etc.
MAX agent tries and fails to match friendly usability of flash-based agent (retired by my organization). Interface is more technical than friendly, and is not customizable.
More GUI/buttons & fewer words.
Salesforce agent & click-to-dial is extremely helpful, but added functionality would be a fantastic improvement, such as: When logging an Activity in SFDC for the outbound call, allowing the user to customize before logging it (adding notes, outcome, etc.). Additionally, at least for my organization (or perhaps my division or user ID) I can only track such calls at the Salesforce account and contact-level. If I click-to-dial from another entity (such as a SFDC Opportunity or Case), the Activity is logged against the Contact & Account, but nowhere else. This level is not "refined"/specific enough to allow my team to track outbound calls using this feature. **Disclaimer: I do not know if these features may possibly exist but are simply not enabled/configured for me or my team.

Return on Investment

Allowed office-based teams to rapidly migrate to work-from-home due to COVID19 restrictions.
Works on my personal laptop; company did not need to provide me with hardware to run the program. (Just the website and a login ID.)

Customization

I do not have the ability to customize this platform.

Usability

I've learned this product--often through trial & error--despite its less-than-stellar user interface. I frequently receive transferred calls in which the other employee of my company is unsure if they are completing the transfer correctly. This is such a foundational function of call center software that making it anything other than dummy-proof seems "dummy" to me. Settings, features, & reports are accessible from within the MAX agent, but are difficult to find and even more difficult to understand. Better labels, tooltips, and improved guidance when actually using the MAX agent would improve its usability significantly. The system crashes from time to time (monthly, not weekly) though is typically back up relatively quickly. During this time you may lose the ability to make and/or receive calls, and may be powerless/at-the-mercy of the vendor to restore functionality. Personally, I would prefer to invest more resources into a system I could fully control internally. Additionally, the seemingly random occurrence of poor outbound connections on the recipient's end has been concerning.

Reporting Capabilities

Dashboards are sufficient, if simple. I do not know if this product offers more complex & refined dashboards that allow managers to track multiple call queues simultaneously in just one graphic, or perhaps a small number of them. (Versus the only item I have seen, which is multiple graphics on the same dash, resulting in some very large, very cluttered dashboards with 10+ graphics displayed in a tile-fashion: side-by-side, row by row.)

Products Replaced

Not Sure

Other Software Used

NetSuite, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Meetings

Likelihood to Recommend

NICE inContact CXone is well-suited for virtual call centers which may need to scale extremely rapidly with minimal IT support.

In my experience, it is NOT ideal for business cases in which the entity wishes to consistently provide callers with an extremely positive & reliable experience. If callers may not mind hanging up and calling back because of a poor connection or because a user misunderstood the program controls and hung up on a caller rather than transferring them (which is NOT a training issue if the product is intuitively designed), I would suggest being cautious about utilizing this product. I cannot imagine that Ritz-Carlton, for instance, would implement this program (at least based on my experience). My feeling is that it may be more suited to B2B than B2C.

Scalability at the Expense of Customer & User Experience

Overall Satisfaction with NICE CXone (formerly NICE inContact)