Blending Outbound Campaigns and Inbound Contacts

Use

Agents can serve in inbound queues in the middle of an outbound campaign, for example, when there are too many calls waiting or too few agents serving in an inbound queue. When the triggering condition is reached an agent is moved from the outbound campaign to serve in inbound queues, and when the condition is not fulfilled anymore, the agent is returned to the same campaign automatically. (With a version prior to SP07, to return to the campaign, agents need to choose the Outbound tab in CDT, and click Resume.)

Note:

  • When an agent is during blending moved from an outbound campaign to serve in an inbound queue, the system checks all queues that the agent is serving at for incoming contacts (calls, e-mails, chats), and it is possible that the contact offered to an agent is not coming from the queue that triggered the blending.

    To limit the inbound contacts to the triggering queue, make sure that agents are serving in that queue only when joining an outbound campaign, or prioritize the blending queue higher than other queues.

  • If an agent is switched to serve in an inbound queue in the middle on an Outbound campaign, he is not reported as serving in that queue but only in the campaign.

  • An agent is switched to serve in an inbound queue in the middle on an Outbound campaign only after handling a customer ready, not after skipping or rejecting a customer.

  • As of 1705, agents can receive OB campaign calls from an inbound call queue. For more information, see Receiving OB Calls from Inbound Queues.

Prerequisites

Agents serving in a campaign must have been logged on to the inbound queue before joining the campaign.

Procedure

To enable blending define the following two different settings:

  1. To enable blending, select the option System Management > Channels > Contact Center > Allow Queue Calls During Outbound Campaigns, see Configuring Contact Center Settings.

  2. Define the condition that triggers blending for an inbound phone queue in Queue Management > Queues > Advanced Settings > PDForceIBLimit, see Configuring Advanced Queue Settings.

    If the condition is fulfilled, agents are paused from the Outbound campaign, and they start to receive inbound contacts. As of SP07 agents return to campaign automatically when the condition is not valid anymore. With a version prior to SP07 agents need to manually choose the Outbound tab in CDT and click Resume to return to the campaign.

    To define the triggering condition, enter just one of the following parameters:

    • Que_CallsWaiting,maximum number of queue calls

      If the number of calls waiting in the queue exceeds this limit, inbound calls are allocated to agents.

      example:

      To enable inbound calls during campaigns when there are more than 10 calls in the inbound queue, enter the value: Que_CallsWaiting,10

    • Que_TotalAgents,minimum number of agents serving in a queue,maximum number of agents serving in a queue

      If the number of agents currently serving in the inbound queue is below the minimum limit, inbound calls are allocated to agents serving in the campaign. (The agents serving in the campaign are not included in the number though they have been logged on to the queue before joining the campaign).

      Note:

      The maximum number of agents is mandatory because of the syntax, just enter any number large enough.

      example:

      To enable inbound calls during campaigns when there are less than 5 agents serving in the queue, enter the value: Que_TotalAgents,5,9999

    • ESTWAIT,waiting time limit,minimum limit for calls per agent,maximum limit for calls per agent , where

      • waiting time limit : If the estimated waiting time exceeds this limit, inbound calls are allocated to agents.

      • minimum limit for calls per agent : If there are less calls per agent than this limit, no inbound calls are allocated, independently of the estimated waiting time.

      • maximum limit for calls per agent : If there are more calls per agent than this limit inbound calls are allocated to agents, independently of the estimated waiting time.

      example:

      Enter ESTWAIT,60,0.2,1.5. This means that:

      • If the estimated waiting time is over 60 seconds, inbound calls are allocated to agents.

      • If there are less than 0.2 calls per agent in the queue (20 calls in a queue with 100 agents), no inbound calls are allocated even if the waiting time were more than 60 seconds.

      • If there are more than 1.5 calls per agent in the queue (for example, 150 calls in the queue with 100 agents), inbound calls are allocated to agents even if the waiting time were less than 60 seconds.