Recent studies show that, when compared with on-premise business phone systems, cloud-based contact center software cuts downtime rates by 35%.

As a call center manager or IT administrator, you’re ready to switch to a cloud-based platform, but you want to learn more about the features that top providers like Genesys and Five9 have to offer that your traditional phone system doesn’t.

In this head-to-head comparison of Five9 vs Genesys, we’ll compare incoming and outgoing calling features, Intelligent Voice Recognition capabilities, multiple channel communication, and more to make your decision easier.

Here are the sections we’ll cover:

 

 

What is Genesys?

 

Genesys Outbound Calling Center

 

Genesys is an omnichannel unified communications cloud contact center software with advanced call management features to streamline customer service, increase customer engagement, and boost agent productivity.

The Genesys Cloud™ is designed to engage with customers across multiple touchpoints while offering agents increased business communications flexibility.

Top Genesys features include:

  • CloudVoice interconnected VoIP telephony or BYOC
  • Incoming call routing
  • Outgoing call management
  • Customer self-service capabilities
  • Chat messaging
  • CRM integration
  • Business SMS text messaging
  • Team collaboration tools
  • Workforce engagement and analytics
  • Third-party app integration

 

What is Five9?

 

Five9 call center

Five9 Call Center (Image Source)

 

Five9 is an intelligent cloud call center software that integrates with most CRM and helpdesk ticketing platforms to provide multiple channel customer support and optimize internal workflow strategies.

The Genius™ contact center solutions take a customer-first approach to business communications.

Its best-known features are:

  • UC integration or Cloud Voice VoIP virtual phone system integration
  • Advanced incoming and outgoing call management
  • CRM integration
  • Call center metrics
  • Chat messaging
  • Customer self-service
  • SMS text messaging

 

Five9 vs Genesys: Feature Comparison

Here, we’ll offer a side-by-side comparison of the top Five9 vs Genesys features, which include:

  • Incoming Calling
  • Outgoing Calling
  • Customer Self-Service
  • Omnichannel Communication
  • Workflow optimization
  • Analytics and Reporting
  • Integrations

 

Incoming Calling Features

Genesys Calling Interface

Genesys Interface (Image Source)

Genesys Inbound Voice is designed to increase first call resolution rates through the use of ACD routing based on live customer data and interaction history, set calling rules, and agent availability.

Its intelligent call routing system is designed to replace PBX phone systems, unify a geographically diverse workforce, and harness the power of artificial intelligence to enhance customer calls.

Screen Pops provide agents with all recent and relevant customer data as soon as they accept an incoming call, eliminating the need for callers to repeat themselves to multiple agents.

It supports customer segmentation for increased personalization, and allows for call prioritization according to customer value, the level of service needed, or current call center traffic and estimated wait times.

Inbound Voice uses call forwarding and priority routing to ensure that, no matter where an agent is located or the device they’re using, they connect with their VIP clients.

Additional Genesys Incoming call features include:

  • BYOC or VoIP Cloud Voice calling
  • Built-in speech recognition
  • Live agent and call flow monitoring
  • Relationship-based routing
  • Skills-based routing
  • Automated call notifications
  • Workforce routing
  • Network Voice routing strategy to lower SIP trunking costs
  • Agent scripting
  • CRM integration

 

Five 9’s incoming calling center uses its Engagement Workflow to route calls to the best available agent, and also uses CTI Screen Pops to display recent previous customer journey touchpoints.

Routing options include:

  • Skills-based routing
  • Time-of-day routing
  • Voicemail routing
  • Priority routing
  • Round robin routing

Like Genesys, Five 9’s incoming calling software is designed to promote personalized interactions. Segmented agent scripts for incoming callers make it easy for representatives to provide quick assistance to customers, increasing their first call resolution rate.

 

Five9 incoming call

Five9 user interface

Additional Five 9 incoming calling features include:

  • Incoming call whisper
  • Call monitoring
  • Text-to-speech
  • Voicemail to email
  • Call notifications
  • Contact management
  • CRM integration

 

Outbound Dialers & Calling Features

The Genesys outgoing call tool includes features that make it easier to anticipate customer needs and lower incoming calling rates.

The autodialer uses call pacing, voicemail filters, and busy signal/unanswered call filters to increase agent talk time. Genesys’ blended call system ensures that agents can easily switch from incoming to outgoing calls, or vice versa, to accommodate increased call queues.

Much like incoming Screen Pops, outgoing preview dialing tools provide agents with customer information before call initiation, allowing them to be better prepared for the conversation.

Additional Genesys outgoing call features include:

  • Progressive dialer
  • Call Screening
  • Automated callbacks and reminders
  • Predictive dialer
  • Integrated Do Not Call lists
  • Drag-and-drop call flow
  • Landline and mobile call strategies
  • Automated suppression lists
  • Customer opt-ins
  • Telemarketing tools and scripts (upselling, customer data collection, etc.)
  • Escalation matrix and dialing rules
  • Outgoing call analytics and customer reports
  • Outgoing Intelligent Voice Recognition
  • Customer and list segmentation
  • Call progress detection
  • CRM integration

Related:

 

Five 9 Outbound Calling offers several custom dialing modes designed to maximize agent productivity and connect representatives to as many leads as possible.

The automatic Power Dialer mode, unlike predictive or progressive dialing, follows a set calls-to-agent ratio. As soon as an agent activates the Power Dialer, the calling system begins calling potential leads at a speed consistent with the current calls-to-agent ratio.

This way, agents no longer lose time on unanswered calls, busy signals, or numbers that are out of service.

Users can also transition to predictive, preview, or progressive dialing modes at any time.

With live Do Not Call list management, answering machine detection, and automated voicemail, Five 9 can help to increase agent talk time by over 300% per hour.

Five 9 auto dialing rules are in full compliance with TCPA and other VoIP regulations.

Additional Five 9 outgoing calling center features include:

  • Campaign and list management
  • Outgoing call priority
  • Disposition redials and timers
  • Timezone rules calling
  • FTP data importing
  • United States Local caller ID
  • Voice recordings
  • Vertical dialing mode
  • List penetration dialing
  • Agent scripting

 

Call Center Software Comparison

The below table shows additional Genesys and Five 9 Call Center features:

Features Genesys Five9
Inbound, Outbound, and Blended Calls
Speech-Enabled IVR
Caller ID
ACD Routing
Number Porting
Toll-Free Telephone Numbers
Call Scripting
Screen Pops
Softphone Capabilities
Call Recording
Video Calling
Call Monitoring
Auto Dialing
Automated Call Scheduling

Winner: Thanks to its Power Dialing mode, Five9 has the better outgoing calling software, while Genesys boasts the superior incoming call management features by allowing customers to opt-in.

 

Customer Self-Service

Genesys PureEngage offers multi-channel customer self-service through the use of AI-powered digital assistants, chatbots, and voice bots.

In addition to the standard PureCloud hosted IVR features, Genesys Voice Callback allows incoming callers to request a callback as soon as an agent is available or at a time that’s the most convenient for them, eliminating the need for long wait times.

It also uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) from Nuance to allow customers to speak to Voicebots naturally.

Genesys Call Center self-service makes it easy to schedule more personalized menu options and implement customized microapps that allow for customers to resolve their own issues even faster.

Automated chatbots make providing instant customer service over your website, social media messenger tools, WhatsApp, and more much easier. They integrate with chatbots from Amazon, Google, and IBM to allow users to keep their preferred interface.

Chatbot analytics allow users to identify common problem areas within the customer journey, and then automate bots to communicate with customers once they get there.

Additional customer self-service Genesys features include:

 

  • Visual Intelligent Voice Recognition
  • Multi-lingual self-service
  • Touch-tone to enter personal information
  • Customer verification
  • Self-service payments
  • Transition to live agent

 

Five9’s customer self-service tool provides many of the same features as Genesys, including both visual Intelligent Voice Recognition and speech-recognition with Natural Language Processing.

It also offers prompts for self-service, callback scheduling, estimated wait times, and the ability to opt to transition to a live agent or leave a voicemail. Its customer tone analysis better prepares agents for a prickly caller.

AI-powered virtual assistants allow for chat messaging via an iPhone or Android mobile app or desktop computer and let customers select the specific topic they need assistance with.

Additional features of the Virtual Assistant include:

 

  • Self-service capabilities in 17 languages
  • Ability to update customer information
  • Appointment scheduling
  • Automated social distancing policy
  • Customer verification

Winner: Genesys offers better multi-channel virtual assistance in addition to allowing for Intelligent Voice Recognition payment collection, which Five9 does not allow for.

 

Omnichannel Communication

Genesys’s PureConnect Omnichannel Communications Solutions allows customers to connect with agents on the device of their choosing, ensuring that the conversation will pick up exactly where it left off regardless of whether they’re on Facebook Messenger or email.

Genesys allows customers and agents to communicate via live web chat, email, phone, messenger apps, SMS texting, video with screen sharing, or even through multichannel canned responses.

It presents all current and historical customer experience data and conversations into one unified agent interface.

Additional multi-channel communication features include:

  • CRM integration
  • Customer co-browsing
  • Email routing
  • Concurrent agent chat sessions
  • Multiple channel automation
  • Customer profiles
  • Customer experience notes
  • Typing indicators
  • Stored chat transcripts
  • Transfer to or conference with a colleague
  • Graphic and video SMS and email messaging

 

Five 9 takes a digital-first approach to omnichannel customer service, which is what makes it markedly different from Genesys.

Conversation synching and a unified multi-channel interface mean that both agents and customers can communicate on their preferred device.

Like Genesys, Five 9 allows for communication via social media messaging apps, video calling, email, online chat, SMS messaging, and video calling. However, unlike Genesys, Five9 anticipates multi-channel communication, allowing users to add or switch channels at any point during a customer interaction.

Additional Five 9 Omnichannel Communication features include:

 

  • CRM integration and the ability to route emails to CRM
  • Auto-greetings and automated comfort messages
  • Customer forms to explain issue before the session
  • After-hours messaging
  • Multi-touch email responses
  • Concurrent messaging sessions
  • Transfer and conference current calls/messages

 

Winner: Draw, as the winner here will vary depending on if your company relies on digital-first or phone call-first communication with customers. Whatever your preference, Five 9 and Genesys offer virtually the same multi-channel communication capabilities

 

Workforce Optimization

Five9 Customer Experience

Five9 Customer Journey Dashboard (Image Source)

 

Genesys Workflow Optimization

Genesys Workflow Optimization

 

Genesys Workforce Optimization for Call Centers allows users to evenly distribute workloads, monitor agent activity, schedule calls and meetings, and decrease over time.

Speech analytics and text-based analytics provide deeper insight into employee workflow and common customer concerns, making it easier to understand processes to automate or improve.

Team collaboration via video, email, and chat prevents miscommunication, while multichannel recording allows team leaders to better analyze employee performance.

Additional optimization features include:

  • Forecasting
  • Genesys Performance DNA (employee evaluation and optimization)
  • Drag-and-drop scheduling
  • Customized training and assessment tools
  • Graphical script editor tool

 

Five9 Workforce Optimization (WFO) tools are designed based on partnerships with vendors like Authority Software, Verint, and Calabrio to offer insights into workflow management.

In addition to identifying current contact trends and forecasting future ones, Five9 also creates potential schedules related to current employee headcount and call volumes.

Five9 also takes a more hands-on approach to quality management. Like Genesys, it records phone calls, chat transcripts, email interactions and more — but Five9 has searchable transcripts and scoring methodologies that make it easier to analyze employee performance.

Other Five9 workforce management features include:

 

  • 6 different forecasting methods
  • Live multi-screen agent monitoring
  • Evaluation form creation and employee evaluation response
  • Scalable recording storage
  • Multi-skill forecasting
  • Agent shift bidding and shift preference setting
  • Agent coaching packages
  • Vacation management tools
  • Cost of schedule analytics

 

Winner: Five9 takes the lead here. While Genesys relies more on analytics to inform workflow patterns, Five9 also includes features to automatically adjust agents’ schedules or allow representatives to bid on shifts — two things that make optimization much easier.

 

Analytics and Reporting

Five9 analytics

Five9 Analytics Dashboard (via Five9)

 

Genesys Analytics

Genesys Analytics Dashboard (Image Source)

Genesys reporting and analytics tools make data-driven call center optimization possible through 360-degree customer interaction reviews.

Data exporting, real-time analytics, and predictive analytics allow managers to know exactly what is going on in their call centers at all times.

Users can track a variety of call center metrics and KPIs in Genesys, including:

 

  • Average call length
  • Average number of calls per agent
  • Call resolution time
  • Agent productivity and closure rates
  • Current agent status
  • Speech and text analytics
  • Customer feedback
  • Customer journey tracking

 

Five 9 provides more than 120 highly customizable KPI reports, delivering actionable insights regarding both real-time and historical data.

Features like multichannel campaign statistics, multi-channel agent performance indicators, call logs, and ACD queue monitoring give a more in-depth look at agent productivity. Admins can filter by the employee, department, call list, and more. They can also monitor Intelligent Voice Recognition interactions, update lists according to live interactions, and export data to CSV, PDF, HTML, and RTF files.

Plus, unlike Genesys, Five 9 has gamification capabilities that allow call center managers to reward positive work habits and create a greater sense of accountability among employees.

 

Five9 vs Genesys Analytics

The below table offers a head-to-head comparison of Five 9 and Genesys reporting and analytics capabilities.

KPIs/Data Provided Genesys Five9
Customer Surveys/Feedback
Real-time Analytics
Call Length, Number of Calls, Current Agent Status
What-If Forecasting
Gamification X
Visual IVR monitoring X
NLP Speech Analytics
Automated Reports

 

Winner: Five9 offers a higher number of KPIs, gamification, and deeper customer sentiment analysis than Genesys.

 

Integrations

Five9 Salesforce Integration

Five9 Salesforce Integration

 

Genesys Salesforce Integration

Genesys Salesforce Integration

The below table outlines the top third-party apps integrations available within the Genesys App Foundry and Five9 Contact Center Integration.

App Genesys Five9
Public APIs
Zoho Smart
Oracle
Salesforce
GSuite
Microsoft 365
PureSocial X
Bright Metrics X
Zoom Upcoming
Trello X
Microsoft Teams
Zapier X Upcoming
Okta
Zendesk X

Winner: Genesys has more integration capabilities than Five9, especially regarding more in-depth data and analytics apps. Additionally, user reviews point out that Genesys integrations are less prone to crashes and glitches than Five9’s integrations — which users say can cause the system to crash when too many are run simultaneously.

 

User Experience

Current and past user reviews of both Five9 and Genesys highlight the consistent pros and cons of each tool, outlined below.

Genesys Pros

Genesys Cons

  • Overall ease of use, intuitive user interface
  • Weak customizable reports
  • Reliable, outages or dropped calls rare
  • Customer support needs improvement
  • Frequent product updates, receptive to user suggestions
  • Need for more robust outgoing calling rules
  • High-level integrations
  • Need for increased email and webchat features
  • Cloud-based, compatible with numerous browsers
  • Recording retention needs to be longer

Five9 Pros

Five9 Cons

  • High level of report and dashboard customization
  • Dropped calls more common than is acceptable
  • Excellent agent training and customer support
  • Issues with Java-based application
  • User-friendly interface designed with fully remote teams in mind
  • Lackluster message history tracking
  • High voice call audio quality
  • Inbound voicemails require “digging” to find
  • Excellent admin settings and user controls
  • Lack of integrations


Winner: Though individual satisfaction with either software will vary based on required features, company budgets, and required use cases, as of this writing, Five9 has far more glowing reviews — especially when it comes to overall ease of use and overall employee onboarding — than Genesys.

 

Pricing Structure

Genesys offers three fixed price monthly paid plans, while also allowing users to choose hourly pricing — and ideal option for new or small businesses.

Five9 pricing, however, is not publicly listed and is quote-based.

It follows a tiered pricing approach based on the number of users, products purchased, and features required. Five9’s pricing also depends on how many agents have specific features and permissions.

The below table outlines the Genesys Cloud pricing and plans.

Features Genesys Cloud 1 Genesys Cloud 2 Genesys Cloud 3
Price $75/month per agent or $0.68/hour $110/month per agent or $0.99/hour $140/month per agent or $1.26/hour
Speech Enabled IVR
Voicebots
Chatbots X
Co-browsing and Screen Sharing X X
SMS and Messaging apps routing X X
Voicemail
IVR and Web Callbacks X
Inbound/Outbound Blending X
Interaction Recording ✓ + Screen Recording
Workforce Management X X
Third-Party App and API Integrations
Real-Time and Historical Performance Analytics

Winner: Unknown, as Five9’s pricing is not readily available.

 

Genesys vs Five9: Is There a Clear Winner?

In the Genesys vs Five9 showdown, specific call center software use cases or industries will tip the scales in favor of one platform over another. Both tools are ideal for any company size, including large enterprises and local businesses.

Five9 is best for:

  • Digital-first communication
  • Companies with a need for more in-depth analytics
  • Entirely remote teams

 

Genesys is best for:

  • Companies that depend heavily on customer self-service
  • Collections agencies/financial industries that rarely meet clients in person
  • Companies that use multiple business communication software options

Curious about other business communication systems besides Genesys and Five9?

Our interactive table on the top call center software compares additional providers and alternatives, such as:

  • Twilio
  •  TalkDesk
  • Dialpad
  • Avaya
  • Cisco Unified Contact Center
  • Mitel
  • NICE inContact