Step into the competition: 8x8 vs. Phone.com. Discover the supreme communication contender for your business. Let the duel commence!
Discover 8x8: Empowering business communication with cloud-based solutions. Integrate voice, video, text on a unified platform. Access unlimited calling, team messaging, call monitoring, analytics. Explore 3 business communication plans and 3 contact center options.
Now, let's direct our attention to the contender in the other corner and discover Phone.com: Your business phone transformation. Make calls, video, conferences, messages, and faxes affordable and seamless, perfect for small businesses. Experience call management, productivity features, and more through three monthly plans.
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Internal and external calls can be made and received through the 8x8 desktop app, IP desk phones or a web browser.
As with 8x8, a supported deskphone or desktop app on a laptop or desktop can be used by Phone.com subscribers to make and receive calls.
Remote communication and collaboration become easier with the 8x8 smartphone app.
Like 8x8, Phone.com offers a smartphone app for subscribers to make and receive calls.
With both the X2 and X4 plans, users can customize a multi-level auto attendant and establish call flows based on location, customer size, and other criterias.
Call routing options available with 8x8 and Phone.com plans are comparable.
Calls from customers can be routed through responses to an IVR menu.
Caller greetings can be customized by account admins from the admin console.
Step 1. Click Auto Attendants > Edit.
Step 2. Choose one of the 3 Call Handling menu options; Weekdays/ Holidays/ Alternate.
Step 3. Choose one of the 3 hour brackets; Open Hours Menu/ Closed Hours Menu/ Lunch Hours Menu.
Step 4. Click Create Audio Files.
You can call a number to record a live message or upload a prerecorded message.
As compared to 8x8, Phone.com offers fewer categories for custom call greetings.
There are 2 options available to create custom greetings. Subscribers can upload a recorded message or use the text to voice feature.
Step 1: Click on Voicemail from the Settings menu.
Step 2: Upload your recording or enter the text and use the text to speech option.
Even though team supervisors cannot monitor or record calls, they can assess agent productivity by studying analytical reports. These reports tell supervisors when and how agents are logging in to their accounts.
With the X2 plan, supervisors can read status reports to know which agents can answer a call and who can’t as well as who is away from their desks. They can also access voicemail transcripts to see which calls need to be responded to first. When agents participate in audio or video conference calls, supervisors can exercise advanced moderator controls to maintain order.
When you upgrade to the X4 plan, your team supervisors can access all the monitoring features of the Express and X2 plans as well as advanced reports on call analytics and live call monitoring. The latter gives supervisors the ability to listen to agents on live calls, whisper to agents, join calls or takeover calls.
The difference in call monitoring between 8x8 and Phone.com becomes apparent in the more advanced plans.
Subscribing to the Basic plan gives agents the ability to transfer and forward calls to other agents or to a supervisor. They can also add a third person to the call and make it a conference call. Email notifications are available for all voicemails. Further, supervisors can study call log reports and exercise moderator controls over all incoming and outgoing calls.
Upgrading to the Plus plan gives subscribers access to all the Basic plan features as well as transcribed voicemail messages from their email inbox. This makes it easier to access the messages and prioritize follow-ups.
Detailed call analytics are an exclusive feature of the Pro plan. This snapshot of all new and returning calls includes inputs on call duration, direction, etc. It is important for call routing as well as identifying top performers and the busiest hours of working days. Calls can also be recorded and studied later. In addition, subscribers get access to the Basic and Plus plan features too.
Call recording is included in the X2 and X4 plans.
Call recording is missing from both 8x8 and Phone.com starter plans.
Only the Pro plan is inclusive of call recording. That said, the feature is available to Basic and Plus plan subscribers by paying an additional $8 each month.
Making international calls can attract additional billing depending on the location and the plan chosen. For example, the X4 plan includes unlimited calls to India while the X2 plan doesn't. Hence, X2 subscribers are billed at $0.06 per minute rate for these calls.
8x8 and Phone.com follow similar billing procedures for international calls.
Subscribing to the Basic plan gives businesses access to 500 minutes of free calling to numbers in the USA and parts of Canada. After this, calls are billed at a $0.039 per minute. Calls to international locations are billed on a per-minute basis at country-specific rates. The Plus and Pro plans include unlimited calls to numbers in the USA and Canada. As with the Basic plan, international calls made by Plus and Pro subscribers are billed at country-specific per-minute rates.
You can create an 8x8 account online with your email address or speak to a sales representative to go through the registration process. Next, you can define user roles online and download smartphone and desktop applications to access 8x8 services. 8x8 offers applications for Android, iOS, MAC and Windows devices. Alternatively, you can use IP desk phones as listed on the 8x8 website.
Account creation is easy with Phone.com and similar to the 8x8 account creation process.
Accounts can be set up from the desktop application or a web browser. People with admin roles can add and manage user roles from the account dashboard. Users can then make and receive calls from smartphone or desktop apps, web browser extensions or supported VoIP phones. A pre-provisioned, ready-to-use VoIP phones are available through Phone.com.
