Best Customer Service Ever!!!!!!!

Connect First has been a strong partner of ours for over the past 4 years. As our business has grown, the platform has grown with us and we continue to see the CF team innovate to ensure that we have the best possible tool for our future. The Customer Service (Customer Success Managers) and Technical Support Desk (Customer Service) is the best I have ever experienced. I know the majority of the team on a first name basis, and when I call I get to speak to someone "live" without having to wait and without having to go through an obnoxious IVR selection. This company takes Customer Experience to the next level. Great leadership and support all around.

Pros

The software continues to evolve and adapt to different industry needs while providing a cloud based VoiP set-up for our business. We have worked with Connect First for the past 4 years and have seen continuous improvements both in design and functionality with the end users in mind.

Cons

There are a few elements that work differently with Connect First which sometimes is frustrating. The system has a lot of robust tools and options, functions and features but does require a proper set-up to take full advantage of the platforms value. There is nothing wrong with the way Connect First functions, its simply different which requires a bit of a learning curve to know what set-up needs to be created in order to get the outcome and performance you come to expect from the system.

Good outbould dialer

it has been a good experience a few bumps during the implementation but it has been getting more stable.

Pros

we acquired the ring central blended solution and its a very easy platform to configure, it's very intuitive and the management portal it's very stable and reliable.

Cons

shared username database amongst all their clients, lack of documentation of the product for those who like to learn on their own, integrations can take time.

Good Support, Poor Product

Having used a variety of phone platforms in the past, I would have to say ConnectFirst has been one of the most frustrating. Doing the simplest of tasks is incredibly convoluted, non-intuitive , and needlessly complex. When the platform is working, it is great, it just takes far more work than it should to set up. Custom reporting is by far the most frustrating part of the system. There is virtually zero documentation to any part of the system and the metrics are often confusing, or inaccurate based on the database they're being pulled from. This is a problem that could easily be eliminated with good documentation. Fortunately, support is generally quick to respond and helpful, but the fact that I have to contact support so frequently is telling. Documentation is needed. Considering setup and management of the system is not intuitive, I would think documentation would be a priority, it is disappoint that it isn't.

Pros

I do not find any redeeming qualities in the software.

Cons

The custom reporting is severely lacking, to the point of ridiculous. It is not in real time, building anything requires comparing it with the live pre-built reports in the management platform just to make sure it is accurate. Using a platform that cannot do much in the way of bulk editing has wasted a lot of time. Live telemetry has a significant latency, stats are often reported inaccurately.

There is nothing better than working with a forward thinking company that provides great service!

Working with a forward thinking company like Connect First as an integrator allowed us to build our business utilizing their underlying technologies. The software allows us to manage multiple customers within the call center and lead management space.

Pros

Connect First has been a solid partner for us, providing our customers with an innovative diverse product suite. With our customers demanding more real time data, their open API offerings rise to the challenge to meet these demands. The new admin and agent UI are intuitive and allow for the customization of campaigns and security features allowing management to provide views and alerts of real time campaigns and data to the appropriate managers. List management is intuitive and allows for a good workforce management flow. The IVR and Scripting drag and drop solutions allows our customers to easily make real time changes to their solutions without generating additional customer service requests. Web service integrations are easy to setup and manage allowing us to pass the requested data to multiple endpoints. Easy configurations to manage all aspects of campaign, audio , email tfn , did and scheduled tasks. Tons of canned reporting, with the ability to customize and schedule ad hoc reporting to manage any business case.

Cons

CRM integration could be made more intuitive. Integration with some pre integrated a third party marketing apps would bring some additional value. Would like to see add ons for some AI and channel integration.

Incredible Support for an Intricate Product

Overall the support and reporting data is what keeps me loyal to Connect First. They are an amazing company with wonderful employees.

Pros

Connect First's ability to create customized changeable experiences for customers by phone line is revolutionary. Emergency flooding that causes your company to shut down its phone lines? No problem. Remotely you can access their system and quickly change your greetings with the upload of a recording. You can change hours, messaging, hold times, etc. very easy. Connect First's dashboard feature is fantastic for agencies. You can create a real-time view of the amount of calls received by agent, amount in queue, and show flashing alerts for your team. As a manager it makes your job seamless because it provides a real-time view of how long your agents have been logged in as well as their status. This takes the burden of questioning work off of my hands.

Cons

While the reporting is abundant, it is all self-analyzed. You can download the data but will need to know how to interpret it. These files are extremely large, so it can be frustrating not being able to pick and choose your column values. Creating new agents and lines can be very cumbersome. It requires contacting support and one wrong switch can skew the entire process. A guided process or a functionality that allowed it to be "tested" would be fantastic. For example, if the user had not been switched to active on the main page, or if you answered questions in the beginning, it would be helpful.