Capterra Review "VICIdial Alternatives"

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Capterra Review "VICIdial Alternatives"

Postby thephaseusa » Mon May 28, 2018 9:09 am

Here is the article:
https://blog.capterra.com/affordable-vi ... ernatives/

My first impression was wow they are comparing everything to VICIdial. And it has their #1 Rank for most affordable call center software. They say out of the 20 they reviewed the average monthly cost is $3556. Well my average cost for using VICIdial has been averaging about $0 per month.

Capterra did praise VICIdial for its user's reviews. But, they go on to "Things to keep in mind" , which says this:

"Things to keep in mind:

Users weren’t in love with VICIdial’s user interface, describing it as a bit dated, hard to customize, and difficult to use. For example, some users noted that the many settings options in “campaign management” aren’t labeled into sections, meaning you need to do lots of reading and scrolling to find what you’re looking for.

In addition, the system lacks a dashboard for reporting, requiring you to download all reports in raw text format."

First, I am certainly in love with VICIdial's user interface! I guess they have had some reviewers who were negative about it, but I've found it not only easy to use, but also having almost every feature one could possibly think of.

Second, sure campaign settings cover a lot of ground but that is what gives us all the different features and options. Also, when you create a new campaign for the first time, really all you have to do is choose a dialing method (manual, ratio, or predictive), enter your caller id transmission phone number so you are in compliance with US regulations, and upload your DNC list if you have one, and set DNC to be campaign only or system wide, upload a call list, and then you can start dialing. If you need call backs coming in to VICIdial you do need to configure a DID, but when I started I used a magic jack number for caller id transmission, and checked incoming messages on it. All the campaign settings defaults enable you to start dialing right away.

As to the features not being grouped and easy to navigate, a VICIdial campaign has 12 different tabs. Very easy to use. I think they have a point about the number of options in the Detail tab of campaigns. I count 205 different setting options, each with its own line. To me they are arranged very logically, once you get acquainted with them. At some point though it might be a good idea to group these settings into different categories and sections making it easier for beginners to locate what they are looking for.

Third, I don't think it's accurate to say the system lacks a dashboard for reporting! I always keep a browser tab open the Reports/Real-Time Main Report of the admin gui. There I see number of outgoing calls number of incoming calls which agents are logged in, which are on calls, which are waiting for calls, which are paused, how many calls they have handled. And when I need to look closer at an agent, I just click on that agent which takes me to User Status for (Agent Name) and I see all the details about his work for today. As to all the other reports, they are numerous and easily and quickly viewable. Capterra states you have to download reports in raw text format. That makes it sound like we are downloading .txt or .csv files and viewing them in notepad or excel. I used one voip carrier that forced you to download csv files and view them in a different program which was inconvenient. I don't agree with that description of VICIdial reporting at all, that you have to download raw text files to be able to see reports. And no dashboard? I love the dashboard! If there is no dashboard what am I seeing when I go myipaddress/vicidial/realtime_report.php ??

In doing their review of "Affordable Vicidial Alternatives" their first and main point is what matters. That VICIdial is number 1, and the others are just alternatives you can also use. If you want to pay $3556 a month, and if you don't need all the different features and options and customizations that VICIdial offers, for an average cost of $0 a month. And if you think about it, they had to say something negative about VICIdial at the start of this review, because otherwise, why would anyone bother to read it?

Vici
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"I conquered" in Latin, first person perfect of vincere, notably part of the phrase Veni, vidi, vici ("I came; I saw; I conquered").

John M
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Re: Capterra Review "VICIdial Alternatives"

Postby mflorell » Mon May 28, 2018 3:22 pm

Great post :)

I read this article too, and wrote a very quick response refuting the "no-dashboard" comment. It is apparently still "awaiting moderation".

It is important to note that Capterra doesn't actually use the software it reviews, it relies entirely on the reviews written by users. And some of those reviews were written years ago, or are by users using very old versions of VICIdial.

I recently added a "screenshots" page to our website to better highlight some of the different user interfaces in VICIdial as a response to this:
http://www.vicidial.com/?page_id=502
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