PhoneBurner Overview–The Good and Unhealthy

PhoneBurner is a digital cellphone service particularly for high-volume outbound calling. It really works finest for gross sales groups that need to leverage PhoneBurner’s energy dialer software program, which automates the dialing course of. It’s highly effective, however the software program is pricey and lacks fundamental inbound call-handling capabilities that we usually see from different cellphone and name middle platforms. 

How PhoneBurner Compares to its Closest Rivals

In comparison with different cloud-based cellphone options, PhoneBurner positively has the sting for outbound dialing. If all you want is a manner on your gross sales reps or outreach crew to make extra calls with much less guide effort, PhoneBurner is price a better look.

But it surely’s not as well-rounded as different platforms and also you’ll find yourself paying much more for an inbound calling quantity and the power to ship or obtain texts than you’ll with different suppliers.

For instance, Nextiva’s contact middle comes with inbound and outbound calling capabilities with each plan, plus omnichannel communications that embrace SMS messaging, electronic mail, social, net types, and extra—all for much less cash than PhoneBurner.

Whereas PhoneBurner’s energy dialer is arguably the most effective outbound dialer on this trade, Nextiva nonetheless provides you a built-in auto dialer that delivers the same outcome. This makes Nextiva a greater match and a greater worth for many contact facilities, as PhoneBurner is simply too niche-specific. 

For bigger groups which have extra superior wants, RingCentral has an enterprise-level contact middle resolution that’s versatile sufficient to assist gross sales, assist, and different forms of name facilities. 

Additionally they have a brand new platform referred to as RingCX, which is an entry-level contact middle plan designed for gross sales groups. It’s about half the value of PhoneBurner and helps each inbound and outbound calling out-of-the-box. RingCentral additionally has preview, predictive, and progressive dialers obtainable for an additional price. We’ve got a information that breaks down the important thing variations between energy dialing and predictive dialing if this pursuits you. 

You can even get an influence dialer from Dialpad’s contact middle software program. Dialpad’s plans are cheaper than PhoneBurner and assist each inbound and outbound calling wants as nicely. There are additionally sales-specific name middle plans, plus strong AI teaching instruments that you just gained’t get with PhoneBurner. 

If PhoneBurner is just too superior or costly on your wants, you could possibly additionally go along with an entry-level contact middle resolution like CloudTalk.

It’s some of the inexpensive methods to get an influence dialer, though it’s not nice for high-volume calling as a result of outbound dialing is billed based mostly on utilization. 

Try our in-depth evaluations of the finest name middle software program to be taught extra. You can even seek advice from our Nextiva evaluation, RingCentral evaluation, Cloudtalk evaluation, or Dialpad evaluation for a better look.

PhoneBurner: The Good

PhoneBurner’s actually good at what it does, however what it does is restricted in comparison with different cellphone and name middle methods on the market. Right here’s a better have a look at what it does nicely and the place it’s missing.

The Good

Limitless outbound calling: Each PhoneBurner plan comes with limitless outbound minutes. This is among the many the reason why it’s such a superb selection for high-volume outbound gross sales reps. Your complete crew could make tons of of calls per day and also you’ll by no means have to fret about getting an costly per-minute based mostly invoice. Most name middle options available on the market cost based mostly on utilization. Whereas this might doubtlessly work for low-volume dialing, PhoneBurner is a significantly better worth if you happen to want tons of outbound minutes. 

Energy dialing with each plan: PhoneBurner’s energy dialer is its shining star. A lot in order that it’s usually branded as energy dialer software program as an alternative of a name middle resolution or enterprise cellphone system. 

This characteristic makes it simple for reps to dial wherever from 60 to 80 contacts per hour, with zero connection delays between every name. Your reps will be capable to reply immediately versus different instruments which have a clumsy pause after the recipient solutions. Your crew will profit from fewer grasp ups and finally have higher-quality conversations with individuals who reply the cellphone. 

Constructed-in CRM: PhoneBurner has its personal built-in name middle CRM constructed immediately into the software program. It’s extra of a light-weight model in comparison with a standalone CRM, but it surely nonetheless will get the job executed and works nice for brand spanking new groups that don’t but have a separate CRM.

It covers all the fundamentals you’ll want to handle your contact lists and align notes together with your outbound name campaigns. You’ll be able to shortly see the place a contact’s at in your gross sales pipeline and the steps they took to get there. Plus you’ll have entry to every contact’s complete name historical past, current name recordings, any textual content exchanges, associated paperwork, and different interactions they’ve had together with your crew.

Native presence dialing: To extend the possibilities of leads selecting up the cellphone, PhoneBurner has a neighborhood presence dialing characteristic that routinely matches the world code of your outbound quantity with the recipient’s personal space code. A gross sales rep in Boston can name individuals in Miami, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, and every time a special native space code will seem on the recipient’s display. It does price additional to set this up, as you’ll must buy extra numbers in these places that you just’re attempting to achieve. However this is a crucial characteristic, and it’s not one thing that’s at all times provided from different name middle plans. Whereas different suppliers allow you to buy extra numbers, they don’t all dynamically match the right space code to the quantity you’re dialing. 

90-day free trial: Free trials aren’t frequent within the contact middle software program house. We see them extra with conventional enterprise cellphone methods. However for contact facilities, you possibly can often get a free demo or a fast probability to verify the software program works on your setup. For cases the place trials can be found, PhoneBurner blows the competitors away with its 90-day free trial.

The trial contains free dialing minutes that you should utilize at your individual tempo all through the 90 days. You would run out of them sooner relying in your name quantity, however you possibly can take your time if you happen to select to. The trial additionally contains PhoneBurner’s energy dialer and CRM—in order that they aren’t holding again the most effective options till you pay. 

Diminished danger of getting flagged as spam: Trendy gross sales groups know that it’s powerful to get individuals to reply the cellphone, particularly for chilly calls. However PhoneBurner leverages a mixture of expertise paired with human contact to make sure extra individuals really reply. As a Tier 1 provider, PhoneBurner’s community alone reduces the probabilities that your quantity might be flagged as spam. 

They’ll additionally register your small business cellphone numbers immediately with all main carriers to make sure your status is excessive and your calls are marked as authentic numbers. It’s additionally compliant with the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN requirements to assist certify your calls as authentic and reliable. You’ll even profit from real-time spam monitoring alerts, which supplies you an opportunity to cease utilizing sure numbers or alter your profile till you possibly can treatment the state of affairs. 

Automation and crew productiveness instruments: It’s clear that PhoneBurner eliminates the necessity to manually dial cellphone numbers. However in addition they have extra automation instruments to assist enhance your crew’s productiveness. One cool characteristic is the power to go away pre-recorded voicemails with a single click on, which can assist save your gross sales reps wherever from 30-60 seconds for every name that goes unanswered. You can even arrange results-based triggers to electronic mail callers based mostly on a particular state of affairs. These messages will be customized and shortly despatched to make sure your crew spends extra time on the cellphone and fewer time on admin duties. Possibly you need to be certain that a foul cellphone quantity is routinely eliminated out of your contact checklist or {that a} busy sign will get put again into the pipeline—all of those actions and extra will be arrange with PhoneBurner. 

Streamlined onboarding and deployment: For such a strong software, PhoneBurner is surprisingly simple to arrange. All plans include complimentary one-on-one onboarding, which is often price $1,500 (in line with PhoneBurner). 

PhoneBurner’s onboarding course of is collaborative, so your entire crew can get coaching on the similar time. You’ll even have complimentary entry to PhoneBurner’s webinars for ideas and finest practices utilizing the software program. All of this actually helps cut back the educational curve and units your crew up for achievement with the brand new software program. 

Sequential gross sales cadence flows: Your crew can construct personalized multi-step follow-ups immediately inside PhoneBurner to assist maximize the worth of each lead. For instance, you set your scorching leads into a special group than individuals who don’t need to be contacted once more. PhoneBurner additionally creates sensible lists that replace routinely based mostly in your customized parameters, so your most essential calls are at all times prioritized. Should you’re on a particular PhoneBurner plan, you possibly can even add SMS follow-ups to your gross sales cadence. 

Over 100 pre-built integrations: Regardless that PhoneBurner has its personal CRM, most companies need to use their very own. You’ll be able to seamlessly sync the software program with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and extra. Past that, the software program has over 100 pre-built integrations to different third-party instruments your crew may already be utilizing—from Airtable to Wave Accounting, Fb Lead Adverts, Marketo, and extra. You’ll be able to actually develop the way in which you employ PhoneBurner.

It additionally connects with Zapier which makes it simple to arrange customized connections and automation triggers with different instruments that aren’t pre-built from PhoneBurner. With Zapier, you’ll have entry to greater than 2,000 integration prospects. So there’s an excellent probability that the majority of what you’re already utilizing is on that checklist. 

Potential Model Drawbacks

No softphone on entry-level plan: It’s arduous to imagine that you may’t make calls from PhoneBurner with out bodily {hardware} on the entry-level tier. For the overwhelming majority of contact middle options and enterprise cellphone methods, softphone entry is a fundamental characteristic and obtainable on plans that begin between $15 and $25 per 30 days. With PhoneBurner, you must pay over $150 per consumer to get it. We typically see the desktop app withheld till you attain a sure plan tier, however that’s nearly by no means the case at this value level. 

Costly: Some companies will routinely disqualify PhoneBurner based mostly on value alone. With charges beginning at $127 per consumer per 30 days billed yearly, it’ll price you over $30,000 as we speak to get PhoneBurner for a crew of 20 individuals. Month-to-month pricing is on the market, which can assist cut back your upfront prices. But it surely’s nonetheless too costly for a lot of firms to justify when there are such a lot of cheaper and extra versatile cellphone methods on the market. 

Restricted inbound call-handling options: Receiving inbound calls will not be an choice with all however certainly one of PhoneBurner’s plans. Even if you happen to join this top-tier plan, the inbound calling options are actually restricted. You’ll be able to arrange customized routing, voicemail, and name forwarding. However you’re not getting a cloud IVR system or different inbound dealing with instruments that we usually see provided by different suppliers. 

No dwell chat assist and restricted cellphone assist: Sadly, PhoneBurner doesn’t provide 24/7 assist. So if you happen to’re caught and need assistance, you’ll want to go looking the PhoneBurner information base, open a ticket, or ship them an electronic mail. Dwell chat assist will not be an choice, and dwell cellphone assist is simply obtainable on weekdays from 8 am to eight pm Jap. 

Branded caller ID prices additional: With branded caller ID, cellular customers will see the identify of your small business seem on their smartphone everytime you name them—even when they haven’t saved your cellphone quantity of their contact checklist. This helps improve the possibilities of them answering and provides a stage of each belief and professionalism to your model. Whereas this can be a nice characteristic to have, we want that PhoneBurner included it with at the least one of many plan tiers. It’s a bit irritating that you could possibly already be paying practically $200 per 30 days per consumer and nonetheless must pay additional for one thing that’s so essential.

Lack of inside communication instruments: PhoneBurner will not be an all-in-one communication platform. Whereas it really works very well for outbound gross sales groups, your gross sales reps nonetheless want to make use of one thing else to attach internally. You gained’t be capable to chat together with your crew, share information, begin a convention name, or be a part of a video chat with teammates by way of PhoneBurner. Whereas these aren’t at all times customary options in touch middle plans, we’d wish to see crew chat at an absolute minimal right here. 

SMS messaging solely obtainable on the highest plan tier: Once more, PhoneBurner is nice for outbound dialing—with emphasis dialing. You want to join the most costly plan to entry text-based communication. And even at this stage, you’re restricted to only 1,000 outbound texts per 30 days earlier than usage-based pricing kicks in. There are many cheaper options available on the market that provide limitless calling and limitless texting. 

PhoneBurner’s Plans and Pricing

PhoneBurner has three completely different plans to select from, with a 15% low cost utilized for paying yearly vs. month-to-month. 

• Commonplace — Begins at $127 per consumer per 30 days
• Skilled — Begins at $ 152 per consumer per 30 days
• Premium — $169 per consumer per 30 days

Inbound calling and SMS texting are solely obtainable with the top-tier Premium plan. In any other case, you’ll be restricted to only outbound dialing. 

It’s additionally price noting that utilizing PhoneBurner with a softphone is simply obtainable on the mid-tier Skilled plan or greater. This is among the solely merchandise at this value level that doesn’t allow you to deal with calls out of your laptop or smartphone with each plan, so that you’ll must have IP-enabled desk telephones to make use of PhoneBurner’s Commonplace plan. 

Nextiva’s new AI-powered contact middle begins at $99, which incorporates each inbound and outbound dialing capabilities. Should you go up only one tier, you’ll unlock entry to texting and omnichannel communications beginning at $119. These plans are extra feature-packed than PhoneBurner and assist extra use circumstances—good for scaling groups of all sizes.

RingCentral’s contact middle plans begin at $65 per agent per 30 days, and the added price of including outbound dialers brings it nearer to PhoneBurner’s beginning value. 

In evaluating Dialpad’s pricing to PhoneBurner, the entry-level plan begins at $60 per consumer per 30 days and comes with dwell monitoring, whisper, and barge. You’ll must pay over $150 to entry these options from PhoneBurner. However you don’t get energy dialing till you attain Dialpad’s mid-tier plan—though at $95 per 30 days, it nonetheless prices lower than PhoneBurner.

Strive PhoneBurner at no cost to see if it’s best for you, as we speak!