If your business is in need of a cloud-based contact center solution that prioritizes both customer experience and agent empowerment—while also leveraging AI to automate workflows—then Five9 could be just what the doctor ordered. This CCaaS (Call Center as a Service) provider is well known for its omnichannel capabilities, AI-powered intelligence, and data-rich insights—all of which it delivers in spades.
Compare Five9 to the Best Call Center Solutions
Five9 isn’t on our list of the best call center solutions, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great option. It’s excellent if you need a ton of power, AI-features, insights, and omnichannel tools. But it’s overkill for many businesses.
Nextiva is our top choice for most–it starts at $50 per month per user, has no hidden fees, and balances advanced features with ease of use.
RingCentral and Vonage round out our top three. RingCentral lands right in between Nextiva and Five9 in terms of advanced capabilities, while Vonage is on the basic side but has a modular setup.
Five9: The Good and The Bad
Five9’s strengths are impressive. If you run a large, blended contact center and can afford it, the included functionalities and features are some of the best on the market.
That said, if you run a smaller contact center, it may be too much too soon. In other words, the extra features can be both expensive and overwhelming for upstart businesses. Plus, the pricing differences on the lower-priced plans (Core and Digital) can be a little tricky to grasp.
The Good
Conversational AI Solutions: It seems like every company is calling itself an AI company these days, but Five9’s AI capabilities earn that distinction. Its Intelligent Virtual Agent and Agent Assist features deliver measurable outcomes that reduce costs and enhance productivity.
The IVA is a chatbot that can already handle many routine customer interactions. This frees up your human agents to handle more complex issues. It also improves job satisfaction and efficiency rates over time, as your agents won’t be stuck answering the same rote questions over and over again.
Five9 Agent Assist: Like the IVA, Agent Assist is also AI-powered, but it’s geared specifically toward agents. It gives them real-time guidance and access to knowledge bases, allowing them to reach quick, accurate resolutions without the extra work of note-taking and post-call summaries.
With automatic reminders, guidance cards, and checklists that suggest their next best actions during live calls, agents can navigate conversations with more confidence.
Another big advantage of Agent Assist is its ability to automate follow-up tasks and after-call work. It has real-time call transcription and summary capabilities that can help agents wrap up mundane administrative tasks faster and get back to addressing customer concerns.
Global Voice and VoIP: If you run a global contact center, you want to give your customers a high-quality experience when interacting with your agents, regardless of their geographic location. Five9’s VoIP solutions can help with that. By leveraging regional Points of Presence (PoP), Five9 guarantees crystal-clear conversations with zero delays, setting a new standard for carrier-grade voice quality at a global scale.
With Five9’s Global Voice, you’re able to manage a single virtual contact center that spans continents and offers uniform service around the clock. Five9 makes this possible by enabling contact center managers to craft an omnipresent IVR, ensuring a consistent customer experience no matter when or where.
Lastly, compliance with stringent standards like PCI, HIPAA, and GDPR is also built-in thanks to encrypted local PoP recordings.
Full Omnichannel Support: Five9 is a truly omnichannel solution, meaning you can seamlessly integrate voice, email, SMS, web chat, video, and social messaging into one platform. This makes things great for your agents, but it also offers your customers a continuous experience regardless of their preferred contact method.
That said, if your customer ever decides to pick up the phone and call, they’ll be impressed when the AI-powered routing connects them to the best-equipped agent for their issue.
Gamification for Agents: Call center gamification is a great way to boost engagement, motivate agents, and reduce churn with Five9, but very few people have time to halt business operations and come up with a gamification strategy from scratch.
Five9 gives you all the advantages of gamification while also making it a breeze to implement and get started. It’ll turn your contact center into a fun, competitive environment where healthy rivalry drives high performance and team spirit. Additional capabilities include a variety of games, diverse rewards, simulated testing, and customizable avatars.
Aside from gamification, Five9 offers a full suite of workforce management tools.
Inbound and Outbound Functionality: Whether you run an inbound, outbound, or blended call center, Five9 has the tools and features to help you connect, engage, and deliver exceptional service. For inbound calls, you’ll enjoy seamless automatic call distribution, advanced IVR, and real-time insights into agent productivity. For outbound, you’ll get predictive dialing, campaign management, and compliance assurance.
If you run a blended call center, Five9 also offers a solution that eliminates the need for separate inbound and outbound systems. Instead, agents will be able to switch between handling inbound calls and initiating outbound campaigns without any friction.
Workflow Automations: Five9 doesn’t just aim to make your call center’s customer experience better. It also aims to make it faster. By connecting your Five9 platform with other business systems, you can automatically trigger certain actions based on real-time data. This workflow automation saves time, reduces costs, and boosts efficiency across all roles.
Data-Driven Insights: Great customer service is about understanding the calls just as much as it is about managing them. With Five9, you can move beyond basic data analytics and turn it into actionable insights. It offers real-time and historical data that paint a complete picture of your contact center. Meanwhile, it also has customizable dashboards and reports that let you focus on the success metrics that matter most.
Other capabilities include setting custom metrics and a unified, curated data repository. You can even use pre-built reports to get started quickly until you need something more specific.
Open API and Integrations: You can connect Five9 with your existing business applications for streamlined workflows and enhanced data sharing. It integrates with most of the popular CRM solutions and has an open API for custom implementations.
Top-Tier Customer Service: You can designate up to three employees for direct communication with Five9 support. These individuals receive product training and act as your primary point of contact. They’ll have 24/7 access to support via phone, email, or the online portal. If you need help from technical specialists, that’s no problem. They’ll work directly with your designated contacts to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve issues efficiently.
Five9 is very responsive and utilizes a priority-based support system. Issues are categorized based on severity level, so critical problems will receive immediate attention. You’ll also receive regular status updates throughout the resolution process—and, while working on permanent fixes, Five9 strives to identify and implement temporary solutions.
The Bad
Pricing Complexity: Despite offering flexible plans, Five9’s pricing structure can be intricate. The Core and Digital plans require a choice between voice and digital (chat, text, social media), or you can pay more for access to omnichannel.
Implementation Time: Depending on your needs and integration complexity, the initial setup can require more than a modest time investment. The feature set is also a bit beefy, so it may take some time to figure out as well.
Limited Analytics and Reporting for Basic Plans: The most basic plans lack advanced analytics and reporting features, which could be a big deal for data-driven decision-makers at larger organizations.
Steep Learning Curve: The interface is generally intuitive and user-friendly, but the advanced features might require more in-depth training to get up and running, leading to a lot of redundancy when onboarding new employees.
Five9 Plans and Pricing
Five9 has a range of plans at different price points. The right one for your business depends on what you’re looking for in terms of customer experience and agent productivity.
Digital and Core Plans
Priced at $149 per month each, the Digital and Core plans are designed to give you the essential tools required for managing a global team of agents.
One key difference is that the Digital plan only offers digital support, which means it includes chat, email, SMS/MMS, and social messaging—but no voice.
Meanwhile, the Core plan only offers voice support, with none of the digital options.
If you need both digital and voice functionality, you’ll have to upgrade.
Premium Plan
At $169 per month, the Premium plan gives you the best of both worlds from the Digital and Core plans. In other words, you’ll have omnichannel support in the form of voice, chat, and email.
Additionally, this tier includes an Essentials Quality Management feature that helps with evaluating customer interactions so you can get deeper insights into calls and trends.
Optimum Plan
The Optimum plan, at $199 per month, includes everything from Premium but also adds what Five9 calls Workforce Optimization capabilities.
This plan is ideal if you need to manage and motivate both onsite and remote teams, improve staffing accuracy, or enhance performance with some of Five9’s more robust quality management tools.
It’s also good for proactive customer outreach, which can reduce inbound traffic and improve the overall customer experience.
Ultimate Plan
The highest-end plan, Ultimate, costs $229 per month and offers all the benefits of the Optimum plan with the addition of advanced analytics and some workflow automation tools.
With this plan, your contact center can identify repetitive tasks for automation, utilize pre-packaged workflow apps like Proactive Notifications. This saves time both for agents and supervisors, allowing them to focus on delivering exceptional customer service.
How We Review Call Center Software
To review Five9 and other contact center solutions, the following factors were considered.
- Implementation: Is the setup straightforward and time-saving or is it a complex resource juggle?
- Ease of Use: Can your team easily navigate the platform or will it face a steep learning curve?
- Supported Channels: Does it handle all your communication channels (voice, email, chat) or do certain channels get left out?
- Call Handling: Are calls routed and managed efficiently or is it a confusing scramble?
- Agent Engagement: Does it keep agents motivated and engaged or does it leave them feeling uninspired?
- Coaching and Training: Do you have the tools to coach and train your team effectively or are they left to fend for themselves?
- Automations: Can you automate repetitive tasks to streamline operations or are you stuck in manual mode?
- Analytics and Reporting: Does it provide deep insights into performance or does it leave you with insufficient data?
- Customer Service: Is the client support team responsive and helpful or are you left waiting and frustrated?
- Price: Does it offer good value for your money or is it an expensive gamble?
Check out our full list of the best call center solutions to learn more about our top picks if Five9 isn’t right for you. If you want a quicker answer, Nextiva is our top pick for most people.
Five9 FAQs
What are the advantages of Five9?
Five9 excels at a few features. Omnichannel support, AI for smart routing and automation, and workforce optimization solutions are a few standouts. Its reporting and analytics tools are great for diving deeper into agent performance. Five9 also prioritizes customer support, giving you peace of mind.
How much does Five9 cost?
Five9 offers a range of pricing plans. The Core plan starts at $149 per month and includes all the essential tools for managing a global team of agents. The Premium plan adds omnichannel support and quality management for $169 per month. The Optimum plan includes additional workforce optimization capabilities for $199 per month. The top-tier Ultimate plan offers advanced analytics and workflow automation tools for $229 per month.
Which companies use Five9?
Renowned brands across many industries trust Five9, including Papa John’s, Panera Bread, Omaha Steaks, Alaska Airlines, and many others. The diverse clientele is a testament to Five9’s scalability and effectiveness for businesses of all sizes.
Does Five9 integrate with other tools?
Yes, Five9 seamlessly integrates with various popular business applications. You can connect it with CRM systems like Salesforce, marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, business intelligence tools like Tableau, and even payment processors like Stripe.
Is Five9 a CRM system?
While Five9 offers some CRM functionalities and integrations within its platform, it’s not a dedicated CRM. Its focus lies within contact center operations, as well as features like call routing, agent management, and analytics specific to those needs. If you require CRM features to manage your sales pipeline and automate your marketing, consider pairing Five9 with a dedicated CRM solution.
