intergrating outbound advocates into an inbound call center

[colette lechowicz]

Hello everyone.

I currently work as an inbound client advocate contracted by a major automobile company. In this position, advocates are required to open a "case" for clients that have issues that need resolution, which is most of our calls. The challenge is that to maintain an adequate service level to service our contract, out bound calls are restricted a lot of the time, hindering our ability to resolve client issues. My goal is to proprose to my leadership and outbound call group that is responsible for working cases assigned to them by inbound reps to resolution. Any suggestions?

[rich]

Colette -

If I correctly understand your question, you are looking for some suggestions on how to manage outbound calls within the current environment you are working in and certainly without adding staff.

If so, I work in a similar environment. There are a couple of options I've utilized in the past -

1. Farm the outbound calls to someone who is underutilized in their current position. You can provide some basic training to them - they don't have to be an expert on what you do, since you already are charged with this responsibility, unless you want to have a capable backup for when you are on vacation, sick, etc. My counselors who handle VIP customers handle outbound customer inquiry calls; they're able to manage this, because the inbound VIP calls don't occupy a lot of their time.

2. Schedule yourself so that you have some dedicated time off the phone each day, preferably at the same time every day, much like a lunch hour. Your supervisor may want to simply stagger these times if there's more than one of you, so that when you are in your BTOP time, someone else will answer your calls and service level will be maintained. That will enable you to manage your outbound time and know that you'll not get distracted by inbound.

I'm curious as to the automobile manufacturer with whom you work; we have a large call center near my office that handles General Motors.

I hope the above is of assistance. If you desire, you may respond to me at surules@aol.com.