Call Blending

[DonHeed]

We are looking at call blending to improve productivity within our inbound and outbound teams. Has anyone used this before? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Thanks,

Don Heed

[headsetguy]

This works very well if your agent skill set is up to par. You will need to assess this before moving into a blended envirnment.

I'm assuming you already have an ACD or PBX type system correct?

What type of service are you doing? Product related or service/help desk?

[DonHeed]

HeadsetGuy,

When you say "up to par" what exactly do you mean? We are a sales contact center emphasizing sales. We consider it a must to have a 10 second ASA and 90% Service Level of 10 seconds. If call blending would disrupt this, then it's not going to do us much good. Also, wouldn't that raise occupancy levels and cause burnout?

[ctaylor]

The challenge with 'call blending' often comes down to the skill sets and competencies of your inbound and outbound staff. If your organization is like most then the skills you looked for in new hires for these two groups were different. In my experience there is often an overlap of skill sets of say 70%, but you can still have problems. Sales staff often cannot and do not demonstrate empathy as well as customer service agents. CS staff often do not like, enjoy ( or particularly do well) in placing pro-active calls.

Having said this it can be done and sometimes even successfully. If your calls are going unanswered then a slightly round outbound agent in the square CS inbound hole is better than no answer.

Hope this post is of assistance. Feel free to drop me note if I can assist you further.

Colin Taylor
The Taylor Reach Group Inc.
ctaylor@thetaylorreachgroup.com

[vickiecoleman]

Blended call jobs are a fabulous thing! They greatly decrease idle time (time when agents are waiting for inbound calls) and increase productivity. In addition, depending on the size of your group, they make a dialer run much more efficiently. I have been in the call center industry for many years and although it does require a higher skill set from your associates Blend is definitely the way to go.

[DonHeed]

Hi VickieColeman,

You have an obvious enthusiasm for call blending. I was hoping you could answer the following concerns I have.

1) We are a sales outfit that is becoming more center dependant and less branch dependant with inbound calls. Our customers are used to having thier calls answered promptly. Therefore we are adamant about meeting a 10 second ASA and a service level of 90% in 10 seconds. What keeps an inbound agent ready to take inbound calls if he/she is stuck on an outbound call?

2) Will call blending increase occupancy rates to the point of burnout?

3) What company are you using for call-blending?

Thanks,

Don Heed

[vickiecoleman]

We are using Mosaix to run our Blend job. The service level we maintain is 80/20. However, when inbound volume is high the dialer adjusts and does relatively no outbound. The only slight problem with a Blended environment is that you must be well if not slightly overstaffed to maintain a service level of 90/10. However, if you don't mind having high penetration rates (which is actually a good thing in a collections environment) the overstaffing turns into a plus. In a sales environment you might not want to deal with high penetration as it tends to make potential customers/third parties upset. My suggestion to you is that you take a test group of 50 or so and run a blended job (you need at least 20 to run an efficient dialer) and see how it goes. Depending on the nature of your business it may not be the best way to go. In a collections or recoveries environment I wouldn't do anything else.
Occupancy: If you already have service levels of 90/10 I don't think your occupancy rates would increase much. It sounds like your agents are used to being extremely busy. I don't think they would feel much different in a blend environment.

[gcarp]

I assume you are working in a collections environment.
Do you Cap Plan for that group?