Call blending

With call blending, the system automatically transitions agents between handling outbound campaign calls and inbound IVR calls, based on real-time queue conditions that you configure on your IVR queues. When you're using the same pool of agents to handle outbound campaigns and inbound IVR calls, call blending lets you prioritize inbound call handling during peak periods.

You can configure call blending for a queue using blending conditions. These blending conditions are agent availability, queue depth, and SLA. If you configure multiple blending conditions, you can combine these conditions using the following operators:

  • AND: All blending conditions must be met before call blending goes into effect.

  • OR: At least one of the blending conditions must be met before call blending goes into effect.

When call blending goes into effect for an IVR queue, agents that are assigned to that queue stop being offered calls from all campaign queues that they're assigned to. These agents can then handle inbound calls from the IVR queues that they're assigned to. When call blending is no longer in effect for the queue, agents resume receiving new outbound campaign calls.

Considerations

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when using call blending:

  • Call blending has no effect on queue priority. Queue priority rules are independent of call blending. Queue priority rules are in effect regardless of whether call blending is in effect.

  • Campaign call-backs are ordinary inbound calls. If an end-user calls your contact center as a result of a campaign call that they received, the call is treated like any other inbound call. The call enters an inbound queue and is prioritized like all other inbound calls.

Permissions

Any administrator with Settings > Queue > All other features permission can configure these settings. No new permissions are needed.

Configure call blending

You can configure call blending at the queue level. There's no global configuration.

To configure call blending, follow these steps:

  1. In the CCAI Platform portal, click Settings > Queue. If you don't see the Settings menu, click Menu.

  2. In the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) pane, click Edit / View.

  3. Click the queue that you want to edit.

  4. In the Settings pane, for Inbound and Outbound Campaign Call Blending, click Configure.

  5. Click the Blending condition toggle to the on position.

  6. Select one or more of the following blending conditions and configure each threshold:

    • Agent availability check. Blending condition is met when the number of available agents falls below this threshold.

    • Queue depth. Blending condition is met when the number of callers in the queue exceeds this threshold.

    • SLA. Blending condition is met when the queue falls below these SLA thresholds.

  7. If you select two or more blending conditions, the operator field appears. Select one of the following operators:

    • AND. All blending conditions must be met before call blending goes into effect.

    • OR. At least one of the blending conditions must be met before call blending goes into effect.