Can blending tasks in the call centre improve productivity?

Many organisations, particularly local authorities and others in the public sector, are under pressure to deliver services at a significantly reduced cost, due to spending cuts. Ken Reid of Rostrvm Solutions, looks at ways to lessen the impact on the customer. 

It’s possible to keep customers at the heart of operations and introduce more services to the call centre with little or no extra resource. Innovative use of call centre technology will increase call handling levels and improve life for both the workforce and customer.

This is crucial at a time when hard-pressed customers are more likely to complain – and the call centre agents in the firing line need something which will help them and lift their morale. So technology which improves quality of service is the answer and blending is a good example.

Ken Reid of Rostrvm Solutions says, “Blending tasks in the contact centre ensures greater output is gained from the same number of staff because agents are switched to other tasks during down times. This will improve productivity, lower queue times for customers and reduce the risk of abandoned calls, without constant expenditure.”

Blending is not just about combining inbound and outbound telephone calls – it can also be used for combining calls with emails and social media responses.

Councils – who are struggling to use limited budgets and resources to protect essential services and help local residents through hard times – are using blending successfully. Managers can fine-tune the balance between real-time resource availability and demand across multiple media and numerous tasks. Staff can be switched rapidly, which means they can help deal with events like extra calls during bad weather.

Ken Reid adds, “Those who don’t implement blending will lose out in the long run. The role of the contact centre is expanding and becoming more complex but blending ensures that there are enough agents to handle calls when the volume is high, and that productivity levels do not slip when the number of calls is lower. Customer service does not have to lose out to budget cuts with this type of creative technology.”