Customer service outsourcing: What is blended customer service outsourcing?

Blended support

Blended support is particularly interesting for lower volumes or unpredictable volumes. Here, an employee works for several clients at the same time. The advantage is that blended support is charged per interaction. Blended support lends itself well to quieter times. This can be in fixed time blocks, on fixed days or as a whole. Blended support offers flexibility. Here, only the actual productive time is charged. Thus, you are only paid for the time actually worked for a specific client in a blended environment. The advantage of blended support is the high degree of flexibility in relation to only paying for what is actually used.

How does blended customer service support work in practice?

In the practice of a facility call centre, where employees provide customer service for several clients at the same time, the concept of blended customer service support is essential. This model requires a highly flexible and organised approach to function effectively.

First, employees must be trained to understand each client's specific needs and procedures. This includes learning product information, understanding terms of service and going through the right protocols for each company internally. Here, it is crucial that employees can quickly switch between different customer service processes without compromising service quality.

A well-implemented software system is also indispensable in this setting. The system should allow employees to simultaneously manage multiple communication channels and quickly access relevant information for each specific customer interaction. This could include an employee simultaneously making phone calls, answering e-mails and handling live chat calls, all for different clients.

In addition, proper planning and organisation is crucial to ensure that employees can deal effectively with the changing flow of client interactions. This includes implementing an efficient scheduling system that takes into account peak and busy periods for each client.

Another aspect of blended customer service in a facility-based call centre is the importance of continuous monitoring and evaluation. By analysing performance data and collecting feedback from clients, call centre managers can identify any bottlenecks and proactively make improvements to optimise overall customer service.

In short, blended customer service in a facility call centre requires a combination of flexibility, organisation and technological support to function effectively and high-quality service offer to several clients at the same time.

You can read more about customer service outsourcing here! 

Also of interest is our blog on the outsource of customer service at low volumes. You can read it here