How Much Does Conversation Intelligence & Auto Quality Management Cost?

Are you trying to understand the general cost of Conversation Intelligence and Automated Quality Management solutions for your contact center? Are you frustrated that you cannot find reliable pricing information anywhere?

Here at MiaRec, we get asked this question many times over, and while it is impossible to give a one-size-fits-all price for all of the different contact center solutions available on the market right now, we strive to provide unbiased, honest, and transparent advice to our prospective customers so they can make a decision that is right for their organization.

In this article, we go over the most common pricing models, look at average price ranges for Conversation Intelligence and Automated Quality Management (Auto QA), and analyze what factors make software costs go up or down. By the end of the article, you will have a better understanding of what to expect in terms of the actual pricing, licensing terms, and any possible hidden fees to look out for.

Please note: All pricing information as of September 2024.

What Do Conversation Intelligence & Automated Quality Management Solutions Cost On Average?

One of the most frequently asked questions regarding the cost of Conversation Intelligence and Automated Quality Management solutions is "What is the average price?" This is very difficult to answer because:

1. We don't know of any vendor other than MiaRec that publicly discusses its pricing, so the information is very limited.
2. Since technology development is moving so fast at the moment, vendors constantly shift which features are included in a package, and
3. Every vendor offers different capabilities under the same label. For example, topic analysis or sentiment analysis may utilize diverse technologies, resulting in varying capabilities despite being labeled similarly.

But here is what we do know: The market is highly fragmented right now, with many outliers in the low and high ends.

The average price of a robust Automated Quality Management and Voice Analytics solution is $50-$90 per user/month. Some vendors offer specific Conversation Intelligence like Topic Analytics Insights or Sentiment Analysis a la carte for around $25 per user/month, but the functionality of those is usually very limited and basic. On the opposite side of the spectrum, high-end solutions start at $150-$180 per user/month but can be much more expensive.

In addition, the pricing depends on how advanced the Voice Analytics features are, whether or not call recording and Automated Quality Management are included, and the brand and niche in which the vendor is operating.

Pricing Models For Conversation Intelligence & Automated Quality Management Solutions

Almost all Conversation Intelligence and Automated Quality Management solutions available on the market today are cloud-based. This means they almost always have a Software-as-a-Service monthly subscription-based pricing model. This flexible pricing model allows you to quickly expand or contract the number of seats you need throughout the seasons.

Due to the complexity of the configuration and integration, a normal contract for Conversation Intelligence and Automated QA solutions will require an annual commitment but offer monthly payments. Some vendors, like MiaRec, will offer you a discount if you pay annually up front or commit to longer contracts such as three and five-year contracts.

SaaS-based pricing is per-user-based. This usually means that it goes by the number of agents you have. Some vendors will require additional (sometimes differently priced) licenses for supervisors and / or administrators, or evaluation licenses for each agent being evaluated. So be sure to ask what a "user" entails.

Tiered Pricing vs. A La Carte Pricing

In addition, the pricing can be tiered (certain functionality and features are bundled together into pricing tiers that allow you to add more advanced and, therefore, expensive capabilities as you grow and require more sophisticated solutions), a la carte (choose which solutions you need from an often long list of products), or a mix of both.

Tiered pricing offers the advantage that it is much simpler and scales as you grow, although sometimes you will pay for capabilities included in a pricing tier that you might not need. A la carte pricing models tend to be highly complicated (sometimes 400+ line items long) and can add up to a much higher total cost than tiered pricing.

MiaRec provides tiered pricing options with the opportunity to add only a handful of specific modules as needed. For instance, if you want to include call or screen recording to your Auto QA licenses, those modules can be easily added. However, if you already have call recording capabilities, there is no need to purchase them again. MiaRec's tiered pricing structure allows for customization and cost-effectiveness based on your contact center's unique requirements.

Additional Costs To Consider

By now, you know that contact center software pricing isn't cut and dry across the board. While there are some industry averages you can orient yourself by, you will encounter possible additional fees and costs you might not have expected at first. 

This can include:

• Setup Fees: Depending on how complex your contact center processes are, there will be an additional one-time setup fee (very common to account for the initial setup of your solution; be sure to ask what is included) that covers implementation, integration, and some professional services to configure your solution to your organization's needs.
• Additional Functionality: Functionality that might only be used by a few people in your organization can sometimes be added on to the standard licenses. This can include screen recording, auto data redaction, etc. (around $15-50/month).
• Call Recording: In order to utilize Conversation Intelligence and Auto QA, your calls must be recorded and transcribed. Some organizations might already have built-in call recording because of the CCaaS (e.g., Five9, Webex Calling) they are using, but in some cases, you might need to pay for this.
• Transcription Services: Voice Analytics pricing is largely driven by the high cost of transcription services, averaging at about $0.05 per minute if done with Google or Microsoft. This can be substantial, e.g., if you are recording 1,000 minutes per agent per month, transcription services only (without analytics) will cost $50.
• Hardware Costs and Storage: You might need to pay for Amazon Web Services, on-premises storage, or data centers in specific locations based on your data security and compliance situation.
• Server License: You might be required to pay for a server license to run the solution on-premises in addition to the per-user price. 
• Integration Fees: These can largely vary depending on the vendor or API Fees.

Specific Vendor Pricing (Observe.AI, CallMiner, and MiaRec)

Now that we have looked at average pricing and walked through the contract terms, additional fees to consider, and more, let's have a look at the pricing information that we DO have. While there are many more Conversation Intelligence and Automated Quality Management vendors out there, we feel that these three are the most representative of the market and are relatively comparable in terms of features and function scope.

Observe.AI Pricing ($119/user)

The Observe.AI Intelligent Workforce Platform embeds Artificial Intelligence into all of your customer conversations, which allows you to optimize agent performance and automate repeatable processes. In addition, the Observe.AI Auto QA add-on provides automatic AI-based scoring of QA questions and reporting on it. 

Pricing: (Source as of April 2023)

• Observe.AI Intelligent Workforce Platform license: $89 per user/month
• Observe.AI Auto QA add-on license: $30 per user/month

Requires 100 seats and an annual commitment. 

CallMiner Pricing ($89/user)

CallMiner Eureka for Quality Teams analyzes and automatically scores 100% of your customer interactions and allows you to automate and aid manual quality workflows using AI. It also includes a coaching model that delivers performance insights directly to agents and supervisors. 

Pricing: (Source as of August 2023)

• CallMiner for Quality Teams (Speech Analytics without call recording): $89/user/month.

CallMiner offers two SaaS-based licensing model options: 1. by the number of hours of voice-based and text-based interactions analyzed per year or 2. by the number of maximum agents per day (seat-based pricing) which is offered as a three-tier-level model.

It is worth noting that CallMiner has a complex a la carte product portfolio with separate products for different teams and different personas, and each of those options can be customized with a la carte options. 

MiaRec Pricing ($39/user)

MiaRec offers comprehensive, yet affordable AI-powered Conversation Intelligence and Automated Quality Management. Its flexible pricing model includes three tiers, allowing contact centers to gradually adopt AI capabilities as they mature in their contact center operations:

In addition, MiaRec offers three add-on modules for those who require them:

Conclusion

To summarize, it is very difficult to make a one-to-one comparison of the pricing of different Automated Quality Management and Conversation Intelligence products because vendors offer different sets of features and use various pricing models.

Some products will offer only basic speech analytics compatibilities or rudimentary quality management capabilities while others offer in-depth, highly sophisticated AI-driven capabilities that will truly transform your contact center operations, drastically improve agent performance and, therefore, customer experience, and enable you to drive revenue. 

As a buyer, you will have to diligently evaluate each shortlisted solution carefully in a trial in order to fully understand the capabilities and the value they can add to your contact center. Then, you must understand the pricing model in detail and calculate the return-on-investment for each solution. If you need help, our sales team is happy to assist in any way possible.