Effective, easy to configure software for mid-sized contact centres

PureCloud has helped us modernize and improve how we interact with our customers. It has opened new channels to connect with us, and allows us to continue updating and improving the client experience. For the business, our Agents have a clean interface that lets them focus on the clients, our Supervisors are empowered to monitor and manage their teams, and our Administrators can respond quickly to changing demands.

Pros

The software was easy to configure, but powerful enough to handle significant customization for our groups. Interface is intuitive for our agents, and the features for call routing have allowed us to streamline the call-handling process. We have a half-dozen different teams using the platform, and each has unique features to meet their needs.

As an administrator, changes can be made quickly to almost any aspect of the configuration allowing me to rapidly respond to any requests. The interface to make changes is entirely web-based, so only an internet connection is needed to do so.

Further, having a cloud-based service has allowed us to quickly respond to service outages of our internet and phone systems. Situations that might have otherwise stopped operations entirely now require only a brief outage before agents can begin working again in a new location or with new devices.

The provided API is flexible and powerful, which has allowed for further automation and functionality to be built in.

Cons

Supervisor and administrator interfaces are not as well designed as the agent experience. Simple and common tasks are often inconvenient, or difficult to find.

Reporting capabilities are sufficient but inflexible. A relatively small number of out-of-box reports are available, and there are some key measures missing from those provided. Access of the raw data through the API allows more flexibility, but with significant additional work.

External chat (customer to agent) is currently poor, with a very basic and limited experience. The internal chat is much more feature-rich, but is only used between system users.

Support response is quick for Tier 1, but complex issues requiring escalation can be slow to be resolved, this is partially helped by the availability of a priority line for emergencies.

PureCloud is easy to navigate and I appreciate that there are continuous improvements being made.

Ease of connecting all my agents and the ability to easily move agents as needs changed. Adding customers quickly and being able to provide dedicated, specific customer service for their customers. Also, being able to have control of changing messages. In my previous software I was supposed to provide 24 hours notice if I wanted the inclement weather message played because we needed to close - we are in Wisconsin - we don't really decide to just close 24 hours in advance, we wait and see if it is really necessary and then proceed. Having that ability to change with changing/time sensitive situations also extremely helpful.

Pros

Hands down - ease of training new agents and getting them up and running is my number one. Also, I have transitioned from 3 separate systems for Outbound, Email/Chat and IVR and now all of my agents are in 1 system AND can communicate with each other! We have a much more customer-centric experience for our customers with better flow and getting them to the person who can help them the most without asking them to call back a different number. We are also able to house all supporting documents within the software - so we have cleared cubicles (which, let's be honest, are already small to begin with) of training binders, updates, FAQs, scripts and other resources. We were also able to move to USB headsets, further saving monthly land line expenses as well as improving sound quality for both the agents and our customers. Ease of scalability is one of the reasons we went with PureCloud as we were maxing out and having a difficult time going up/down in seats and be agile about it previously easy to add, difficult to remove. I find the Resource Center helpful and I am able to add or change things within PureCloud through the step-by-step directives. I also really like that there are improvements being made daily to PureCloud (weekly release notes) and it shows the proactive stance that Genesys takes with the product and not waiting to make annual overhauls to the product.

Cons

I would have to say my greatest pain point is reporting. Canned reporting within PureCloud is limited and there have been minimal modifications made here. The data is available through the API but without having that resource internally, I rely heavily on running my own data for the operation from contact center stats to generating information for invoicing clients that we provide 3rd party contact center services for. This is a sticking point for me. Additionally, the script writer is a bit cumbersome - improvements are coming on this one, but at this point I don't load a full script, I only screen pop information regarding the account because it is difficult to build and have it make sense for what I need it for. Biggest issue? Everything is plain text so all my bold, colorized, hyperlinked etc. all disabled.

The Purecloud platform has assisted us in revolutionizing the way we do business.

Pros

The user interface reminds me of Apple software in it's simplicity of design and features. The flow of options is easy for new agents to adopt and creates an inviting environment for customer support. The reporting tools are fantastic and the "live" queue overviews is a nice touch. The ability to make changes, publish, and "go-live" all in one screen streamlines call center operations and improves efficiencies and productivity. The overview of user profiles, showing availability, background. skillset, and more improvise time needed to support customers as we have a birds eye view of where everyone on the organization is.

Cons

I hope in time reporting mechanisms can be changes. When pulling queue specific reports i.e. queue summary for a specific week can become challenging if month end is included in that week; example - if pulling a weekly report for week of November 30, 2017 the end of week is December 3, 2017. The report will not show you summary information for the whole week as it breaks it apart into November and January (by month). This make is a manual process to see weekly service levels, abandon rates, and offered calls amongst any other metrics needed. Also, another area for improvement is real time agent performance - you cannot currently see how long an agent has been sitting in after-call-work. Additionally, the availability to have voicemails auto-routes like calls would be a nice feature.

99% Sunny and Hot with the odd occasional downpour

The overall experience we have had is a great one with a few niggles I would say to describe the downsides. The main experience moving past the building and testing stage into full BAU was another great experience as the support during the early stages was nothing less than exemplary. The issues that abounded with our previous dialler software supplier have now been remedied by our decision to align our business with the Genesys product Purecloud. We are now investing our time and efforts to implement Pureclouds growing functionality to unify our communications Chat, Email, SMS and Social and integrate these with the voice channel to improve the customer journey everytime they wish to communicate with us.

Pros

The ease of use when building the infrastructure to run all the different brands and departments here at Grove & Dean, the stability of the Platform as we are open 24/7 and have only a small team in support of the system. The ease of use, for the agent with the simple yet full featured agent interface and desktop environment. The roll out of new features or improvement of existing ones, the visionary updates from the Genesys senior team and the ability for the users to influence the shape of the platform through the ideas Lab and the fact that they "LISTEN" to the users. Lastly, which is not really a software benefit, the community of users that are sharing their experiences for the greater good for all.

Cons

The support post "LIVE" - Processes too long, lack of knowledge and experience in the first line support team, no immediacy, solutions not always valid and some of the Self Service referral techniques support attempt to use to justify their solutions.

Genesys service & product review

Its providing and outsourced to the bank which we can rollout new call centre very quickly

Pros

Pros:
Pure cloud now does what it was design to do and provide cloud based telephone outsources services to the bank,
We moved to a third part for 1-2 line support service ( Kaptec) to provide a good all around support services.

Cons

Pure cloud now does what it was design to do and provide cloud based telephone outsources services to the bank, but I was not resilient for the first year or so,
The service rap was also very poor, with Genesys SDM not flexible in dealing with major incident and provided root cause of these issues back to the customer, If we want any changes customisation to the product everything was a project and prolong delivery timescales with genesys consultants.
The license model for the agents is quite confusing and the license model for the genesis product is expensive and at time hard to understand

PureCloud - Great for OmniChannel, but not Voice

It is an overall great new system, in which I know in time will only get better! Even though Spoken IVR is not available right now, I know it will be in the future. Once it is in place, the PureCloud will be impossible to beat!

Pros

Genesys PureCloud offers some great ways to streamline and modernize your Call Center and its performance. The ability to supply your customers with multiple contact channels (email, chat, text, voice) is a huge benefit to the customer, along with opening new revenue paths (whether it be Customer Satisfaction or new Sales Opportunities) for your company. To have all this without having to have an on premise environment is amazing!

Cons

Unfortunately, there is one major hurdle when it comes to Genesys PureCloud. If a customer is using a voice channel to reach your call center, there are some limitations. Currently, PureCloud does not allow for Spoken IVR. So, if your company has one main phone line that houses all the support for all the products and services it offers, the customer can't just speak the word or phrase that best describes the services they need and get routed to the right agent/department. The only option for the customer is to go through a list of options in a phone menu and wait until it offers the option they need and press the corresponding number. For our company, that would mean 50-100 different menu items! If this is a must, then PureEngage is the way to go!

Not a bad product, but not easy

It's more powerful than our Cisco system but we've had much more administrative overhead. A phone should be a phone and software based phones aren't reliable

Pros

Great soft phone support, very tweakable, phone logs are easy to access for every call you don't have to dig for them. It's very customizable. Great for call centers.

Cons

Here are the biggest issues, unlike Cisco hard phones and soft phones are totally separate in how they integrate with the system. You can't run a hard phone and a sip phone and have them both ring. This also means that sharing lines is difficult for users like executive receptionists who deals with some executives on soft and some on hard phones. The phone tree has a few glitches to be aware of, and is difficult to learn so mistakes are inevitable if you make changes in house. Biggest issue is that the soft phone does not automatically change network adapters when connecting to a VPN. This is a big pain point for users who have to constantly switch SIP settings on their toolbar every time they move about.

We switched to PureCloud 15 months ago. It has been great for us. We love how reliable it is.

Pros

We love that it is reliable. We haven't had an outage in our 15 months of usage, which is something we experienced a lot with our previous software. We also like the user interface and the unified desktop.

Cons

The reporting section is what I was disappointed me. Part of that has to do my naivety. I thought reporting was the same in all software and did not pay much attention to the reporting section prior to selecting this. We only use the reports provided and do anything additional with APIs available, since we don't have the personnel or budget for that. We make what is there work, and knowing what I know now, I would still select PureCloud again. If I were doing it again today, I would have a better plan for data and reports and how to meet our unique needs for that. For other industries, I am sure the reports are great.

Genesys PureCloud review

Maximum utilization of manpower productivity. atomizing the contact center workflow & saving supervision cost.

Pros

The Ultimate Security Control, High Availability, Business Continuity & System Flexibility. such as managing the workgroups & locations for different lines of business & modules using single interface. compatibility with most CRM apps & workforce management systems, live-time system, workgroup & user reporting & forecasting.

Cons

Knowledge base & FAQ does not cover all software features, real time dashboards needs more developments & hotfixes including social media & web chat features (looking forward for the new software upgrade that will fix most of this issues).

I have been very pleased with the Purecloud product. The product is very easy to use.

We have seen a huge benefit with our ability to use the data to support our business case for our Call Centre. Integration has been easy and we have been able to improve our use of the system on a daily basis.

Pros

The ease of use for our Team Members to use the product has been very beneficial for us. Training our Team with the product is very minimal as they are able to answer calls with a simple click of the button.

Cons

We have been starting our Call Centre for the benefit of our Customers and our Retail Store locations. Due to the shopping patterns of our customers, we are finding the pricing model requiring some attention as we do not have employees working full time. Some of our employees will work 1 day a week and the return on an employee for working such minimal time is difficult to see how the Agent pricing model works for us.