ShoreTel Reviews

Pros
This product has a lot of great features that make it worthwhile to businesses: - the lowest price on the market (they guarantee the lowest price for their service) - option to "barge" calls (3-way the call without being transferred in) - option to silent monitor reps (monitor the reps with your phone on mute) - option to silent coach reps (talk to or coach your reps without the customer hearing) - see who is not on the phone, on a call, or has their phone set to do not disturb/busy/etc.

Cons
Mono recordings for calls; this is especially limiting for my job function (Call Center Quality Assurance), as to transcribe conversations you need dual stereo recordings to be able to differentiate your customer service rep from the consumer/customer. It is also such an old platform that it's difficult to find any 3rd Party Quality Assurance programs that are compatible with daily monitoring of our businesses customer service/sales reps.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 6/10

Pros
I found this product to have a user-friendly interface when managing the phones in our organization. What I liked the most about the product is the ease in knowing which phone blocks are available for use, as well as the number of phone numbers available in that specific block. Additionally (unlike Cisco Call Manager) it shows the full phone number. This is VERY useful if you are forced to have different call blocks with different prefixes. Not to mention, the call communicator for each user was AMAZING. We could easily make calls to other extensions (or outside numbers) from our desktop using the communicator. Also, if you wanted to call someone in your organization, it will indicate if the person is available (green) or on a call (red). Also great for our call center that had a call queue available.

Cons
Nothing that I could think of that I liked least about the product. I think this is a very user friendly interface and we had no complaints when using.

Rating breakdown

Pros
We were lacking quite a bit with our prior phone system. So the transition to shoretel was much needed. I was involved with the RFP and pricing discussion with a multitude of vendors. In all cases, Shoretel offered the greatest amount of features, including integration with our CRM (Dynamics) all while having the lowest price point. As the Director of HR, I am able to act as system admin with zero technical background, which is also greatly appreciated.

Cons
Reporting analytics are limited. Requires integration with third-party product to get the analytics we prefer. That being said, we dive more into our call details as we are a call center and execute performance metrics at the agent-level based on said data.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
Our company switched to ShoreTel a few years ago, and I've noticed a significant difference in how I use my phone and voice services. The desktop application makes it extremely easy to track missed calls, know the status of people I'm trying to get a hold of, and forward any calls when I'm out of the office.

Cons
Only one complaint - when voicemails get sent to my email, I have to listen to them through my external phone speakers instead of the earpiece. Sometimes I get confidential calls, so I can't be discreet about checking my messages.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I like the line redirection feature the most. You can configure and redirect your line to your mobile phone with one click, which is great and convenient for remote or offsite days. I also like the messaging feature because not everyone in my company uses Skype, but most everyone uses Shoretel. Shoretel also replaced all of our physical phone directory sheets, which is a nice step into the 21st century.

Cons
The call history feature doesn't always update in real time. I've seen instances of a missed call not showing up immediately in my call history, making it impossible to promptly return the missed call.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
The product is very easy for supervisors or managers in your call center to use. You are able to manage several calls groups and CSR's easily by looking at one screen. Its very easy to add new agents using the contact center director. The agent toolbar is very easy to configure at the agents workstations as long as you know the IP address. You are able to easily move agents in and out of the contact center groups. The reports are easy to access, create, and modify to obtain the data that you need to analyze daily.

Cons
In order to do a required system upgrade the contact center had to be closed and we were a 24 hour call center at the time.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
ShoreTel Connect integrates seamlessly with our Salesforce databases, allowing me to quickly call candidates and clients by simply clicking the number on the screen. When making 100+ calls per day, this small quality of life assist is very welcome.

Cons
I have experienced some issues while attempting to use ShoreTel when not connected to our company's network. When connected via home/public Wi-Fi, there will be intermittent issues with maintaining a connection to ShoreTel.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
I rarely actually use my voicemail, but I understand that it's a necessary part of doing business with some. I appreciate that when I'm on the go, Shoretel's transcription allows me to still read voicemails, and the IM function is so necessary for intra-office communication. I love that I can access my voicemails via email and I never have to call in!

Cons
I think Shoretel could benefit from a few more user-friendly benefits like recording of chats. Once the window closes, it's gone. However, at its core, what it does best is the availability of voicemail across other platforms. That happens very well. Also, I think that the interface that allows you to switch between the functions (calls, IMs, etc.) could be a little better organized. I've had complaints from colleagues that have been unable to figure out how to add contacts. When they try to set it up, they end up accidentally calling people.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
usually on most days it works great, the call quality is good and their are no issues. i like the ease of use and it connects instantly. I like how it gives us options to break, without having to log out and the timer helps me know how long i have been on my break or lunch break,

Cons
sometimes we have issues with the phone still rings while we are still on a call with the customer and sometimes the customer cannot hear us when we are answering the phone and vice versa, the support people keep blaming it on our computers but it is clearly not our computers when we havent had these issues with our older system.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Pros: You are able to check call history, check your length of calls, run reports, check statistics, works well with the phone itself and virtual system (application) on the computer. Visual of who left voicemails and caller id.

Cons
Cons, If the virtual system to log in off ect. goes down it is cumbersome to use the phone to log in and out and check history.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
I highly recommend this product. I use the Shore Tel phone system everyday and till now very satisfied with its performance. I like the ease of recording any incoming or outgoing calls. You get a copy of the recordings to your email as well. It got the caller id feature which is really helpful too.

Cons
None, Very satisfied with its functionality and performance.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Well designed product and made to last. The integration with all the other products, chat system, desktop and the different phone's models.

Cons
Needs a marketing plan for the rest of the world, not well know on latin america. Along with that not all the functions are in native language.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
ShoreTel's TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is the lowest in the industry, and part of that reason is because so many ShoreTel features come right out of the box. With other phone systems, you have to buy a different package or have to pay individually for features to be used. Not with ShoreTel. Also, I like the fact that ShoreTel is just a phone company. All of their R&D budget goes into making their system better, not just supporting what part of their product line is making the most revenue.

Cons
There is nothing I do not like about ShoreTel. It is the best business phone system on the market, and I highly recommend it.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The thing I like most about the software is how user friendly it is. Maybe its because what we had previously was so bad and old but this is a light and day difference!

Cons
I would say the thing I probably least like about the software is maybe the price. Its not the most expensive option out there but it isn't the cheapest. But overall we are very pleased

Rating breakdown

Pros
This was quite an upgrade from our previous telephone software, so many of the features are an upgrade from what we had before. The software that each employee uses on a daily basis for their individual phones is helpful. It gives you minimal information, but is helpful in connection with each user and desk phone.

Cons
As an administrator I do not feel like the software is user friendly. Half of the symbols that represent functions on the phone system, don't even make sense to me. I end up going through each and every "main menu" item to get to every sub menu item searching for what I need. The purchase of this type of phone system (and the subsequent software) would have been optimal maybe 3-5 years ago, but doesn't function exactly as was told to us by the sales team. We were quite interested in the instant message and conference features available on the software, only to find out that the instant message feature is separate and requires its own dedicated server and separate installation. The tele-conference features were out of date and are much better met with a software like GoTo Meeting.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 4/10

Pros
They offer a full suite of solutions depending on what type of business you are and your exact needs. We have used them for a software/hardware phone solution and have had great success with them.

Cons
Customer support is lagging at times but has gotten better. Integration hiccups occurred from the onset and tend to pop up randomly

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
Easy to make a call using computer keyboard and never to reach out the phone itself. Also good to track all voice mail and phone history.

Cons
Many functions are hidden on the phone and you will need to learn how to use them using manual. Buying phone accessories like headset is not directly from ShoreTel but their third party dealer.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Phone software that allows us to integrate calls into our email and has been easy to use for even our least tech-savvy employees.

Cons
Updates time-to-time has been problematic, but I feel that maybe more due to our tech side vs software issues. If your system isn't set up in a conventional manner it could potentially cause headaches

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
-easy to type in numbers to make calls (or paste in numbers) -easy reporting to see how many calls were made -FWD calls to cell phone is very handy when working remotely

Cons
-calls do not always FWD to cell (could this be a VPN issue? possibly) -voicemail sometimes plays on computer or calls cell (Inconsistent)

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
We have been using these phones and phone system for awhile. It is a vast improvement over our old phone system. They provide a lot of functionality.

Cons
It does seem like system issues take awhile to fix. It is easy to accidently press an incorrect button/function.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I love the fact the Shoretel will connect to just about everything. It goes through anything connected through a Microsoft product and can get all contact information you need to import.

Cons
It takes quite a bit of searching and setup to get into your Office products and personal cell phones to grab contacts to import. It also is not the easiest to utilize for user freindlyness when it comes to changing setting ie, call forwarding and away. Also doesn't send Caller ID information when forwarding calls.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Pros: * It is fully cloud based * Ability to rent equipment so no excess inventory is required * they try... but fail

Cons
Cons: * inconsistent reporting/call history * long hold time for support and if the issue is complicated, it takes several days to get resolved * the datacenter / database backend is constantly breaking; causing issues logging in or getting the phone(s) to work at all * the mobility app (application on smartphone) is antiquated and constantly dropping * Price is extremely high compared to the poor quality of service received

Rating breakdown

Pros
I love the ease of using ShoreTel from my computer screen. It makes it much easier to call other employees when I need help with something

Cons
There is nothing a I do not like about ShoreTel. It is very easy to use and I have not had any problems with it.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
This is a fantastic phone system for large or medium enterprise, very high quality and nice phones Good messaging system

Cons
Annual support can be expensive for the phone system Tons of add-ons, not an all-in-one price and you get everything, very fragmented in what you have to buy to make it a fully functioning system

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
visual voicemail, call queues, history, address book, I can copy and paste phone numbers from the web, easy to use

Cons
I use the softphone feature of this on VPN which can occasionally cause problems. Everytime I restart my vpn I have to restart the software, sometimes multiple times to get it to connect to the server

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10