Pros & Cons

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8×8 Overview—Customer Obsessed Small Businesses

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8×8 offers the X Series unified communications platform encompassing solutions for phone service, meetings, team chat, and customer engagement—the latter being its main focus, with full-featured tools to run a proficient contact center.

With deep CRM integrations, an open developer API, and partnerships with vendors like Microsoft and Poly, 8×8 consolidates multi-channel communications into a single intuitive interface.

And real-time analytics and AI-guided functionalities aim to optimize workflows and experiences.

8×8 serves over three million business users in over 150 countries across industries from financial services to manufacturing to retail. It enables modern engagement and collaboration from any device.

On top of that, its solutions promise enterprise reliability and capabilities without complexity.

Plans & Pricing

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8×8 gives you flexible voice, video, and contact center plans to equip your workforce with enterprise-grade unified communications. It offers customized packages that grow with your needs.

For essential business calling, chat, and meetings, 8×8 X2 normally starts at $25 per user monthly but is discounted to just $18.75 per user, as 8×8 runs frequent discounts. It includes unlimited users, HD video conferencing for up to 500, global dialing to 14 countries, team chat, and Microsoft Teams integration.

X4 boosts international reach to 48 countries while adding call handling features like supervisor analytics, barge, and whisper. The advanced functionality justifies the $45 per user monthly price.

There is also an unlisted Basic X1 plan at $15 per user for unlimited US/Canada calling, voicemail, and basic mobility features according to sales. It provides an affordable starter option. And, reaching out to the 8×8 sales team might earn you a discount, as we were offered the plan for $14.

Integrating its Contact Center service at the X6 tier introduces skills-based routing, call recording, and journey mapping analytics starting around $95 per agent. Expanding to X7 unites interactions like SMS and chat for about $135. Top-tier X8 is approximately $160 and adds quality management and speech analytics tools to optimize customer experiences—pricing will vary based on the number of users you have.

While not published transparently online, 8×8’s pricing tiers scale reasonably based on capabilities. The sales team provides custom quotes based on your unique users, locations, and functionality needs.

With a 30-day money back guarantee on the X2 and X4 series, it never hurts to try a software for free before deciding on any long-term investment. For growing businesses that want enterprise-caliber voice, meetings, and support options without overspending, 8×8 is worth discussing with an expert. Its offerings cater to SMB budgets without compromising on quality or flexibility.

Ease of Use

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You might be impressed by how its unified communications platform simplifies interactions across channels.

With turnkey templates, intuitive analytics, and automated workflows, 8×8 makes it easy to engage customers and monitor performance.

A major advantage is bringing all communications into one dashboard—whether phone, chat, SMS, or social. This omnichannel view allows swiftly assisting customers over their preferred medium. Unified journeys provide context from each touchpoint.

8×8’s done-for-you templates accelerate implementation for contact centers and self-service chatbots.

Its workflow blueprints enable your teams to handle inquiries confidently from day one. Out-of-the-box automation also allows building workflows in minutes. With arsenal of pre-made scripts, agents resolve requests consistently and efficiently.

The Supervisor Workspace offers one-click access to real-time insights, so you can adapt support strategies on the fly. Dynamic views of volumes, skills, and CSAT ratings keep leaders in sync.

On the analytics side, customizable reports and automatic notifications give visibility into metrics like response times, agent utilization, and customer satisfaction—easily monitor KPIs and trends.

Recording customer phone interactions is simplified through pause, resume, and redact capabilities compliant with regulations. This helps maintain quality assurance and security, while making it incredibly easy for your agents.

Between fast setup guides, dynamic supervisor tools, turnkey reporting, and built-in automation, 8×8 removes headaches for admins, agents, and customers. The platform minimizes effort required to manage communications so you can focus on fueling growth.

For organizations seeking ease of use at scale, 8×8 delivers.

Call Management Features

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Leverage its call management tools to keep customers satisfied and agents productive. From intelligent routing to detailed analytics, 8×8 provides the capabilities growing businesses need.

Right away, the business phone delivers conveniences like call blocking, do not disturb, and three-way calling to control interruptions. For contact centers, options like ring groups, call monitoring, and queues efficiently distribute inquiries.

With AI-guided workflows, 8×8 boosts every interaction. Conversational bots make navigation effortless using natural language. The Intelligent Customer Assistant creates customizable self-service to resolve common requests.

Consolidating over 20 communication channels gives agents context to personalize service. Omnichannel visibility ensures conversations stay unified across messaging, chat, email, and voice.

8×8 patented routing technology finds the optimal network path for call quality based on location. Skills-based distribution gets customers to the right agents. Automatic call distribution prevents hold times.

Staying compliant is simplified through call blocking, do not call adherence, and answering machine detection. The platform accounts for regulations across your communication workflows.

For managers, the Supervisor Workspace centralizes insights needed to lead teams. Real-time agent monitoring combines with AI-recommended actions to improve performance. With organization-wide reporting, you gain visibility into metrics like handle times, time to solution, utilization rates, and more—journey analytics reveal weak points to target across channels. When you know more, you can refine strategies to support growth.

The intuitive Agent Workspace minimizes employee ramp up through an enjoyable, easy-to-use interface where agents can manage everything from calls and texts, in one place. When agents find tools familiar, customer satisfaction sees a boost.

Between efficient routing, actionable insights, and automated workflows, 8×8 simplifies contact center communications at scale. It provides the enterprise-grade call management SMBs need to delight customers and empower employees.

Communication Tools

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8×8 brings you voice, video, and messaging tools to keep your organization collaborating seamlessly. Whether through phone, conference, or chat apps, 8×8 provides a variety of connections adapted for SMBs.

The cloud PBX phone system delivers conveniences like unlimited calling, SMS, fax, and hold music right out of the box. Quickly move or add numbers through simple porting and provisioning.  

To boost outreach, 8×8 Auto Dialer leverages predictive algorithms to help sales and support agents efficiently connect with leads. Intelligent dialing improves contact rates to drive conversions.

With 8×8 Meet video conferencing, you can collaborate face-to-face from any device. Meetings launch fast on desktop or mobile with identical robust features—consistent quality and reliability keep everyone engaged. The “Meet Now” feature lets you instantly escalate chats into audio or video conferences with one click. Streamlining spontaneous collaboration helps ideas flow freely.

For meetings, presenters can invite participants in real-time or attendees can dial-in from more than 50 countries using included toll-free numbers. Missed sessions can be recorded to the cloud for convenient playback.

You also get advanced options like live streaming meetings to YouTube for limitless viewers and sharing YouTube videos mid-meeting. These interactive features expand possibilities.

Team messaging through 8×8 consolidates one-on-one, group, and private conversations. Chat apps help distributed teams and remote employees stay connected. Real-time file sharing also simplifies tasks.

With an array of easy yet powerful voice, video, and messaging tools, 8×8 delivers unified communications designed for the modern mobile workforce. The platform allows organizations to engage and collaborate at scale.

Hardware Options

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You’ll appreciate 8×8’s Flex hardware program that lets you spread payments over time with no upfront cost. Its Extended Payment Plan also allows financing large equipment purchases over multiple years. One-time payments are accepted, too.

Through 8×8, you can outfit your office with an expansive selection of 75 desk phones, headsets, conference units, and adapters. For optimized performance, 8×8 offers top-tier voice devices from trusted brands like Poly and Yealink.

With a dozen cordless phone options, you’ll appreciate the mobility provided by handsets from Poly and Yealink. Models like Poly and Yealink suit fast-paced environments and deliver HD voice and unparalleled range.

Alternatively, 8×8 offers reliable wired desk phones for traditional setups. Poly’s VVX lineup provides crisp HD audio, multi-line capabilities, and productivity-boosting features. Straightforward Yealink models like the T46U balance quality and affordability.

For small to midsize conference rooms, Poly Trio units make speakerphone calls effortlessly collaborative. The top-end Poly Trio C60 provides exceptional room coverage for $800, while the entry-level Trio 8300 model bring great audio quality at $400.

Adapters like the Grandstream HT801 and AudioCodes MP-124 allow integrating analog gear into cloud-based phone systems. With options ranging from $60 to $1,500, 8×8 supports connecting specialty devices.

Keeping agents comfortable for long calls, 8×8 provides over 20 headset options from Poly, EPOS, and Encore. Noise-cancelling models like the Poly Savi 8220 cater to busy contact center agents.

While you can use your existing phones, 8×8’s vetted portfolio ensures top-notch voice clarity, mobility, and seamless integration out of the box. With diverse choices at varied price points, it makes equipping any workspace easy.

Integrations

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8×8 supports over 50 integrations to seamlessly connect your cloud communications with other vital business software. From CRMs to collaboration tools, 8×8 offers native connectivity to boost productivity.

By integrating leading CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Freshdesk, effortlessly manage call workflows without tedious manual entry. Screen pops automatically display customer records when calls arrive to personalize engagements.

Two-way CRM sync also pushes call logs into your platform to maintain updated journey history. This omnichannel visibility fuels more tailored experiences.

On the team collaboration front, you’ll appreciate the deep integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace. Shared channels bring relevant insights like recordings, voicemails, and agent statuses directly into your existing chat apps.

Communication APIs have also allowed integrating messaging channels like SMS and WhatsApp into workflows. Customers can reach you conveniently across their preferred platforms.

Access to the latest API developments through the 8×8 Open Lab developer community keeps it on the cutting edge—constantly refine engagement as new capabilities emerge.

With 8×8, avoiding constant app-switching and manual data entry accelerates workflows, so for organizations running multiple cloud tools, 8×8 simplifies tying them together through native integrations. Syncing platforms streamlines processes while providing broader context. If you want seamless coordination between apps, 8×8 connects them.

Customer Support

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While 8×8’s responsiveness varies, there are multiple options for troubleshooting questions and problems.

8×8 offers helpful self-service resources through its knowledge base, online community forums, and on-demand training. When tackling new capabilities or technical hurdles, its documentation and tutorials allow solving many basic issues independently.

The live chat feature on its website is available for urgent assistance needs and sales chats. However, chat support availability proved inconsistent in practice despite advertised 24/7 coverage. Directly contacting a sales or support rep by phone might be necessary.

Speaking with a knowledgeable 8×8 team member can of course provide more in-depth guidance when self-help falls short. According to numerous reviews, reaching a live person does require patience at times.

The 8×8 University platform makes it easy to skill up through webinars, quick tutorials, and even instructor-led training courses as well. Investing time into its training content helps optimize usage and troubleshoot problems.

While its library of self-service resources is deep, complex issues inevitably require escalating cases to support reps. 8×8 offers helpful materials and adequate avenues to address most questions, even if reaching knowledgeable support quickly proves hit or miss. For optimal experience as a customer, be ready to leverage its online knowledge base and training content when possible. But know that critical issues will ultimately get the close attention needed, even if requiring some persistence.

Final Thoughts

8×8 provides growing SMBs and enterprises with a feature-rich unified communications platform adapted to their budget. Between affordable pricing tiers, deep functionality from phone to chat services, top-tier hardware, and adequate support, 8×8 makes modernizing your communications achievable.

With tools bridging voice, meetings, contact center, and team chat in one intuitive interface, 8×8 enables organizations to engage at scale from anywhere. While reaching support quickly can be hit or miss, its array of self-service resources empowers solving many basic issues independently.

For an all-in-one communications solution to meet the needs of dispersed modern workforces, 8×8 provides simplified yet progressive capabilities.