Outbound call centres hold an important place in the present business scenario. Though some call centres work only on an inbound operation, most work on both. These are usually the bigger call centres that have separate groups of trained agents specialising in inbound and outbound calls.
However, smaller call centres can’t afford to have entirely different sets of agents specialising in incoming and outgoing calls; they usually rotate their agents from time to time between inbound and outbound operations. For these call centres, the biggest question that bugs management is how to manage a balance between inbound and outbound operations, so that there are enough agents to handle calls when the call volume rises and the productivity doesn’t fall down when the call volume falls.
Here, call blending plays its role. Simply defined, call blending means using outbound agents to receive inbound calls, or using inbound agents to make outbound calls. For example, if the agents receiving calls remain idle for a particular amount of time, they can be used for outbound operations. Similarly, in a process handling collections, receiving calls is as important as placing calls, so the agents can be used for both. Thus, by integrating inbound and outbound services, call blending allows any call centre to maximise its agent’s skills as well as time.