NICE CXone Pricing, Features, User Experience, and More

As an eight-time Gartner Magic Quadrant leader in the CCaaS space, NICE CXone from NICE inContact certainly has a strong record of reliability and innovation.

But is its five-pillar approach to customer experience the right fit for your contact center?

This in-depth NICE CXone pricing review outlines the cloud customer experience platform’s advanced features and functionalities, user experience, plans structure, and more.

• What is NICE CXone?
• Pricing and Plans
• Features
• Security and Reliability
• Pros & Cons
• Who Should Use It?
• Alternatives

What Is NICE CXone?

NICE CXone is an open cloud contact center software designed to create a frictionless customer experience across voice and digital channels.

NICE CXone optimizes all Customer eXperience interactions (CXi) thanks to Enlighten AI-powered customer self-service and in-conversation agent assistance, workforce management and workflow optimization tools, and detailed live and historical monitoring.

NICE CXone takes a five-pillar approach to business process efficiency and streamlined CX:

• Digital Entry Points: A digital-first, proactive approach to omnichannel customer service via 40+channels including desktop/mobile website chat, social media messaging, SMS texting, email, and inbound/outbound voice calling
• Smart Self-Service: CXone Enlighten XO offers a data-driven approach to customer self-service by leveraging conversational AI and machine learning to optimize voice/digital contact flows. In addition to manually updating automated conversation flows within the Virtual Agent Hub, CXone users can bring their own bots, configure CXone Smart Assist, or build their own virtual agents in the CXone BotBuilder
• Journey Orchestration: Allows agents and customers to seamlessly move between all native and integrated third-party communication channels during a single customer interaction or throughout the entire customer journey. The CXone Studio interface lets admins create and optimize conversation flow paths via advanced digital and call routing strategies, standard IVR, pre-built “if-then” actions, and more. Agents can manage simultaneous omnichannel conversations, access customer history to provide a personalized customer experience, use omnichannel routing features, and more.
• Empowered Agents: The NICE CXone Agent Assist Hub provides automated in-conversation Agent Assistance by pulling data from integrated CRM software and internal knowledge bases. In-conversation personalized coaching, call monitoring, and call barge are also available. Real-time customer sentiment analysis, guidance scoring, and recommended phrases are included. CXone mobile Employee Engagement Manager provides shift bidding, PTO with auto-approvals, contact center gamification, and other tools to decrease employee turnover rates.
• Complete Performance: CXone Quality Management features like searchable omnichannel recordings, Interaction Analytics, and automated evaluation scoring provide high-level insight into agent performance. Smart coaching assignments, live contact center activity dashboards, dynamic filtering, and topic clustering help admins identify the root cause of issues. AI-powered trend and customer sentiment analysis, schedule adherence monitoring, forecasting, Feedback Management, and more are also included.

NICE CXone Pricing and Plans

NICE Cxone offers six contact center plans that range from $71 to $209 monthly per user. Each higher-tier plan builds on the features and functionality of the tiers below it.

Basic Channel Plans

• Digital Agent ($71 monthly per user): A digital-only package with 30+ channels including SMS, email, live chat, social messaging apps like WhatsApp, and social media. Includes a dedicated agent and supervisor workspace on desktop and mobile, data visualization dashboards and analytics, and inbound routing across all channels.
• Voice Agent ($94 monthly per user): Voice-only package with desktop and mobile apps featuring admin and agent interface. Universal queue with interaction handline, self-service IVR with no-code configuration, data analytics dashboard, and voice recording.
• Omnichannel Agent ($110 monthly per user): Combines digital and voice channels with universal queueing across channels

Plans with Optimization, Automations, and Analytics

• Essential Suite ($135 monthly per user): Adds quality management features. Screen recording for agent desktop, quality management workflows for coaching and evaluation, supervisor workspace for real-time monitoring, and analytics with agent performance reports.
• Core Suite ($169 monthly per user): Adds workforce management and performance reporting. Omnichannel AI staffing forecasting and scheduling, agent mobile scheduling app, adherence insights, and enhanced performance insights with an in-depth view of agent KPIs and metrics.
• Complete Suite ($209 monthly per user): Adds analytics and voice of the customer (VOC) analytics. AI-driven omnichannel analytics across all interactions, which identify insights and customer sentiment. Contextual and conversational customer feedback.

Top NICE CXone Features 

Because NICE CXone is designed to maintain a seamless customer journey across channels, its automation, AI, recording, analytics, routing, and agent experience tools work together to create a universal experience for customers and team members alike.

Below, we’ll examine these core NICE CXone features:

• Interaction channels
• Agent assistance
• Enlighten AI customer self-service
• Workforce engagement suite
• Integrations

Interaction Channels 

NICE CXone offers over 30 native and integrated third-party business communication channels, including:

• CXone Voice as a Service (VaaS) in 130+ countries, inbound/outbound voice calling, voicemail, Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, LinkedIn
• Bring Your Own Channel (BYOC) functionality to integrate your custom business app or more targeted/industry-specific communication channels
• SMS and MMS messaging
• Live website chat messaging and automated chatbots
• Email

CXone’s asynchronous digital inbox, My Agent eXperience (MAX) facilitates personalized, friction-free cross-channel communication. MAX provides agents with interaction history, CRM customer data, customer sentiment analysis, and consolidated smart routing for every interaction.

Agents are automatically assigned cases within their digital inbox queue, which allows for:

• Single Channel Handling: Agents manage interactions on a case-by-case basis, one at a time
• Multichannel Handling: Agents manage multiple interactions simultaneously, but all within the same channel
• True Omnichannel Handling: Agents manage multiple interactions simultaneously across multiple channels

Cases are automatically assigned according to customized digital routing rules like data-driving routing, skills-based routing, agent proficiency routing, or via current agent presence (status.)

Within the MAX interface and digital inbox, agents can:

• Update case status (resolved, pending, etc.)
• Unassign and reassign cases
• Transition a digital interaction to a voice call, switch between channels
• View and send quick replies
• Set customer disposition
• Access AI-powered Agent Assist IVAs
• Initiate the escalation matrix
• Send conversation transcripts to customers
• Review Customer Card (customer contact information, prior cases and interactions, customer sentiment and CSAT scores, account history, agent notes, etc.)

Agent Assistance

The CCaaS solution features several AI-based tools that help agents provide more insightful customer service across all channels.

• Omnichannel dashboard
• Enlighten CoPilot and AuoSummary
• Knowledge management

Omnichannel Dashboard

The CXone desktop dashboard gives agents a view of all channels at once. The top-left-hand corner has a task inbox, where all new conversations and messages gather. When an agents clicks on a conversation, they have access to the interaction history, plus relevant customer information like the reason for their contact, recent events and context, and any notes left by teammates. Agents can mark tasks as complete or assign them to teammates.

Enlighten Copilot and AutoSummary

Enlighten Copilot is built into the agent's interface to provide AI-based guidance and suggestions during real-time interactions. The AI engine provides live response suggestions, excerpts from knowledge-base articles, and scours the web for relevant websites and actions like reservations. The AI tool also automatically summarizes each interaction, so agents can quickly revisit a customer's interaction history.

Real-Time Agent and Supervisor Guidance

Use CXone to build a knowledge base, including articles and relevant social media posts, to provide a self-service resource for your customers and agents. Integrate your articles and content across several touchpoints, including web pages, SEO and Google search, and chatbots. Empower IVAs and self-service chatbots with capabilities like scheduling, order status, and purchase status.

When agents take over a customer interaction, they can see the customer's recent searches for a fuller context.

Enlighten AI Customer Self-Service

CXone offers a variety of omnichannel self-service tools and options, all powered by Enlighten AI, the platform’s customer engagement conversational AI solution.

Enlighten AI measures 100% of customer interactions in real time, providing prescriptive and predictive insights into consumer and agent behavior.

It makes it easier to identify agent struggles and strengths, learn what your customers like and dislike about your sales and customer support processes, optimize omnichannel routing strategies, and give agents access to in-conversation assistance powered by Artificial Intelligence.

Enlighten AI focuses on:

• Customer Satisfaction: Automated soft skill scoring, instant feedback, coaching suggestions, etc.
• Sales Effectiveness: Automated intelligent routing, in-conversation agent assistance, proactive chatbot and auto dialer tools
• Complaint Management: Uses automation to identify risks, report compliance status, recognize agent behavior and actions that lead to frequent complaints

Enlighten XO 

Enlighten XO is an AI-powered customer service solution that analyzes past voice and text conversation data to recognize future automation opportunities. It then automatically generates self-service scripts and menu options accordingly, relying on intent analysis and machine learning to continually improve over time.

Enlighten XO anticipates customer questions based on predictive algorithms, then routes customers to the best possible digital or voice automated menu.

This optimizes chatbot and IVR menu interactions and automated conversation flows, keeping them brief and to the point.

Enlighten XO automates numerous business processes and customer service actions, such as:

• Account verification and authentication
• Escalation matrix initiation
• Bill payment
• Account maintenance
• Service outage updates
• Order updates/processing
• Complaint management

CXone Guide

CXone Guide is a digital self-service feature that provides proactive real-time customer service via IVA-powered or live agent chat and messaging support across web-based and mobile digital applications.

It uses machine learning and AI to engage at the best possible point of the customer journey, proactively sharing live chat invitations, email messages, automated chatbot conversations, knowledge base articles, and relevant links with customers.

 Guide is a no-code application that uses CXone’s patented Engagement Manager to:

• Conduct engagement and customer journey mapping
• Re-engage customers at multiple key touchpoints
• Evaluate customer data, customer behavior/engagement across digital channels, customer forms, campaign data, etc.
• Conduct A/B testing
• Display relevant KPIs and interactive performance/engagement reports

Self-Service Analytics 

CXone self-service analytics help managers identify blocks in the self-service journey, optimizing call flows, chatbots, and automated support options.

It alerts admins to common points in self-service interactions when customers ask to be transferred to a live agent. It also shows the most popular IVR and auto attendant menu options and identifies common opt-outs/abandonment points.

Self-service analytics also monitor call duration, the percentage of calls transferred to live agents, omnichannel routing paths, and CSAT scores specifically related to agent-free interactions.

Workforce Engagement Suite

The CXone Workforce Engagement Suite is made up of several key components:

• Workforce Management and Workforce Optimization
• Quality Management
• Interaction and Screen Recording
• Performance Management
• AI forecasting
• Performance gamification
• Learning and coaching

Quality Management

Quality Management features rely on custom omnichannel KPIs and analytics, agent leaderboards and gamification, real-time coaching and feedback, performance scorecards, and dashboards to increase employee engagement while providing maximum transparency into contact center activity.

Admins can set performance management objectives and receive alerts when agent performance dips below a certain threshold. Customizable quality management dashboards contain key analytics and performance optimization tools (“modules”) like coaching options or agent status updates on a single pane of glass.

Modules and dashboards display analytics and employee resources related to: 

• Agent coaching sessions, agent proficiencies, and agent scorecards
• Real-time and historical agent/group performance metrics (AHT, average customer sentiment, seconds saved per call, average call volume, etc.)
• Employee surveys and responses

Admins can access over 250 omnichannel analytics, completely customizing their reports or choosing from one of the 90+ pre-made reporting templates. These reports can be filtered by date, keyword, topic, agent, agent group, contact duration, and more.

Workforce Management

CXone Workforce Management (WFM) leverages AI, machine learning, and 40 unique algorithms to provide unparalleled omnichannel forecasting and a fully optimized agent scheduling process.

NICE Workforce Management includes the following features:

• Automated schedule adjustments: Multi-criteria schedule assignments ensure a variety of agent skill sets and qualifications are represented every shift
• Best Pick technology: Examines historical data to automatically select the best possible scheduling plan according to current agent availability and skillset
• Real-time adherence monitoring: Keeps agents accountable by tracking active hours and customer-service performance. Time Utilization Reports provide high-level insights into agent workday activity, helping managers address performance or staffing issues.
• Mobile and self-service scheduling: A NICE CXone mobile app enables agents to request shifts, set time off, trade shifts, access schedules, and examine performance reviews

CXone Interaction Recording

Admins can record omnichannel conversations and agent screens for a more holistic view of customer interactions, agent performance and process adherence, and customer satisfaction levels. Recording rules, custom data retention policies, and user permissions keep recordings private and secure. Agents and admins alike can share recordings via email, download or export recording files, annotate, tag, and add virtual sticky notes to call recordings for more detailed analysis and review. Recordings are encrypted and HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI compliant.

CXone Integrations

NICE CXone offers a variety of pre-built CRM (Customer Relationship Management) integrations alongside RESTful APIs, SDKs, and an open platform–making it easy to customize your contact center.

Top UCaaS and CRM integrations include:

• Salesforce
• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom
• LogMeIn (GoToConnect, etc.)
• Microsoft365
• RingCentral
• Zendesk
• Sugar CRM
• ServiceNow
• Bullhorn
• Oracle
• NetSuite
• Fuze

CXOne Security and Reliability 

NICE CXone has high-level security and compliance standards befitting its enterprise, international corporation-level clientele.

CXone security standards and certifications include:

• 99.99% uptime with full redundancy via data centers in North America, Europe, and Australia
• HIPAA, TCPA, IRAP, FedRAMP, GDPR, and AICPA SOC 2 TYPE 2+HITRUST compliance
• Annual SOX auditing
• Cyber Essentials Certification
• CCPA compliance
• 24/7/365 network monitoring
• PCI DSS Compliance (Levels I and II)
• Regular automated data/system backups
• Disaster Recovery Plans with failover strategies

NICE CXone Pros & Cons

Who Should Use NICE CXone?

Though new or small businesses can get excellent customer insights from the NICE CXone, it’s best suited for enterprise-level companies with a high daily call volume or heavy contact across multiple channels.

Common use cases include telemarketing, healthcare providers, financial services, and government agencies.

Healthcare providers use the software to automatically collect patient billing information, send automated appointment reminders, and manage EHRs.

Lending companies and banks use it to contact customers in the event of potential credit card theft, provide account balance updates, and collect customer loan qualification information.

Within the government sector, NICE inContact reviews and user ratings say the tool is ideal for fundraising, campaign phone banking, and communicating with constituents on the channel of their preference.

NICE CXone Alternatives 

The following contact center solutions and call center software providers are some of the most popular NICE CXone alternatives: