Call centers today are often under pressure to deliver faster, smarter, and more personalized support. This is when blended call handling is needed, a system where agents can not only answer customer inquiries, but also reach out to potential customers for lead generation.
Today, we will talk about what blended call handling means and how it can boost efficiency in modern contact centers.
What is Blended Call Handling?
When a call center handles both inbound and outbound calls, it is called blended call handling. In this approach, agents can switch between making outbound calls for sales, follow-ups, or customer satisfaction surveys and managing inbound customer service and support inquiries. It is effective for optimizing agent productivity, proper use of resources, and improving customer service.
How Blended Call Handling Works
As blended call handling works in a manner where both inbound and outbound calls are handled, it requires only one team to run the operations instead of two. Hereâs how blended call handling works:
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
ACD systems use algorithms to route incoming calls to available agents based on factors like skills, availability, and call priority, ensuring calls are directed to the most suitable agent. This reduces downtime and wait times, and makes sure that calls are directed to the most appropriate agent based on skills and availability.
Switching Agents
As blended call handling involves the management of both inbound and outbound calls, it allows switching between agents based on call volume and business needs. Blended agents should have strong communication and problem-solving skills to ensure customer satisfaction. But they should also conduct lead generation or sales campaigns, follow up on customer inquiries, or conduct surveys to gather valuable feedback.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
This works mostly in the case of inbound call handling. The IVR system is the first point of contact for all incoming calls. It welcomes callers with a pre-recorded audio message, offers them various self-service options for basic inquiries, and directs them to an appropriate department or agent. This process routes the customers to suitable agents to meet their needs and demands.
Omnichannel Communication
A blended call handling system must communicate through multiple channels in order to maintain its communication time to time with customers. This includes the use of email, web chat, social media, etc. Itâs uncertain for both inbound and outbound call handling which channel can be used by a customer to reach the business, or which channel is more effective to reach a potential customer. A recent study reveals that 70% of customers are more inclined to purchase from brands that provide outstanding support through multiple channels.
Call Monitoring and Recording
Managers can track agent activity, call volume, and performance metrics by monitoring calls in real-time to optimize the contact center management process. Calls can be recorded and stored for training, quality assurance, and dispute resolution, which proves invaluable for successful contact center operations.
CRM Integration
This helps you connect your Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) system, with the blended contact center solution. It helps your agents gain a unified view of customer data, which is very helpful during phone calls. As agents get access to customer details, they can understand the requirements of individual customers in a better way and deliver personalized responses. 95% of customer service providers believe that having a CRM massively boosts productivity.
Real-Time Analytics and Reporting
This feature provides insights into customer interactions, agent performance, metrics such as average call handling time, and the overall performance of the contact center. By analyzing these important metrics in real time, agents can know what is working and what to work on for the best results and continuous improvement.
What are the Benefits of Blended Call Handling?
Blended call handling has a lot of benefits, including increased revenue, improved efficiency, and customer satisfaction. This system increases agent productivity and can lead to cost savings by reducing the need for separate inbound and outbound teams and infrastructure.
The benefits of blended call handling are described below:
Reduced Idle Time
Blended call handling allows agents to switch customers between them according to needs, as they handle both inbound and outbound calls. In this way, blended call handling makes sure that the agents are always engaged in productive work, reducing idle time.
Proper Use of Resources
Blended call handling makes sure that resources are used properly. Call centers can dynamically assign agents based on real-time call volume and demand, making sure resources are used effectively.
Increased Productivity
Blended call handling can significantly improve the overall productivity of a call center. It can flexibly handle both incoming and outgoing calls, and helps the agents to maintain a steady workflow. During high-traffic periods, they can focus on managing the flow of incoming calls. And during quieter periods, they can focus on making outbound calls for sales, customer follow-ups, or proactive customer care. In this way, productivity can be increased in call centers.
Improved Customer Experience
As blended call handling works for both inbound and outbound calls, it is efficient for quicker response times for customer inquiries and issues. Agents are able to handle a wider range of customer interactions to provide more personalized and accurate support. As a result, customers benefit and are more satisfied with the business.
Cost-Effective
Agents handle both inbound and outbound calls in this system, so call centers can optimize staffing levels and potentially reduce the need for separate teams, thus reducing operational costs. Overhead costs can be reduced as well, as a single platform and infrastructure can be used for both inbound and outbound operations. Cost efficiency is important â more than 54% of CFOs believe in focusing on cost-cutting.
Better Performance Management
Blended call handling helps in more efficient tracking of agent performance. Managers can review metrics for both inbound and outbound activities, providing a complete set of statistics for each agentâs strengths and areas for improvement. Performance evaluations can be more comprehensive and help in targeted training and development opportunities individually.
Workplace Satisfaction
Not only customers, but employees are also benefited from blended call handling. Because the technology features a blend of inbound and outbound calls, agents have the opportunity to learn new skills. Managers identify agents who might need extra training to improve their existing skills through advanced reporting, so agents feel supported and encouraged rather than discouraged and left behind if theyâre struggling to meet performance metrics. This results in an overall increase in productivity and workplace satisfaction.
Increased Revenue
When customers feel that theyâre heard, theyâre more likely to listen and act upon what your agents have to say. They agree to the idea of increasing service, purchasing a value-added offering, or renewing a contract. As a result, the revenue of the business can be increased. Companies with superior customer service have 4-8% higher revenue growth than their competitors.
When to Use Blended Call Handling in Your Call Center
Blended call handling is needed when it is important to optimize agent productivity, improve customer experience, and manage fluctuating call volumes. During these times, it is better to hire agents for handling inbound and outbound calls promptly and efficiently at the same time. The times when you should use blended call handling in your call center are described below:
Fluctuating Call Volumes
Inbound call volume may vary throughout the day or week. Blended call handling helps agents handle both inbound and outbound calls. During slower periods, agents can transition to outbound activities like follow-up calls, sales calls, or customer surveys, ensuring they remain productive and engaged. This makes sure that the resources are used efficiently.
Balancing Customer Sales and Support
In call centers, especially those that provide call answering services, there might be a need to answer customer questions and call customers for various purposes. Blended call handling helps your agents to efficiently manage both inbound customer inquiries and outbound sales or marketing campaigns, and lead generation. This increases your resources and chances of increasing revenues.
Flexibility Needs
Blended call handling offers you and your agents flexibility according to business needs. That means when you need to be flexible and adapt to changing business needs, blended call centers can easily adjust to fluctuations in call volume or campaign demands. This helps your agents to quickly shift focus between inbound and outbound activities.
For More Customer Satisfaction
Blended call handling is very effective in reducing wait times and providing a better customer experience across different channels. By providing inbound and outbound services quickly, blended call handling can lead to satisfied customers and make them return to you and recommend your business to other people as well. 82% of consumers claim that they are likely to recommend a product or company if they have received excellent customer service.
Final Thoughts
Blended call handling has now become an important approach to maximize efficiency and stay competitive. By integrating inbound and outbound call handling services, businesses can reduce idle time, increase agent productivity, and improve the customer experience. Therefore, this approach is important to modern contact centers.
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