The Contact Center supports a blending mode for Agents. When the agent is in blended mode, the system will switch the agent between queue and campaign, as per the current needs.
- Automatic Blending
If an agent is in the blending mode, the system automatically switches the Agent between Inbound (Queue) and Outbound (Campaign).
- Manual Blending
Also, it is possible to manually switch between IN and OUT by using the Agent panel in gloCOM. The switching mode can also be managed by using the Supervisor panel. This may be useful if the blending system does not work, or an Agent has to work only Inbound/Outbound for a certain period.
For the blending mode to work, users must define specific criteria for each queue. One of the required fields is the minimum number of Idle Agents that this Queue must have. This will tell the system to primarily try to fulfill Inbound requirements before putting Agents in Outbound.
To access the Minimum Idle Agents:
Log in to the PBXware administration.
Navigate to the 'Contact Center' tab: Queues.
Click the 'Add Queue' button.
Open the 'Show Advanced Options': General -> Minimum Idle Agents.
For more information, please refer to Queues
Click the 'Save' button.
If an agent is a member of multiple queues, all those queues will be taken into account for that agent. There are specific moments when the system determines whether an agent should be placed in Inbound mode (to receive calls from queues) or switched to Outbound mode (to work on dialer campaigns).
These moments are defined as follows:
When an agent logs into the system (application).
When an agent returns from a pause.
When an agent finishes a call (either from a queue or a dialer).
At these moments, the system will check whether any of the queues the agent is a member of are lacking agents. It will go through all the queues and, for example, if the "Minimum idle agents" setting is set to 2 and all agents are currently busy (i.e., current idle agents = 0 or 1), the system will determine that this agent should be switched to Inbound mode. In this case, the agent cannot work on dialer campaigns; they can either receive calls or work in campaigns, meaning they are in Outbound mode.
For example, if the Sales queue has 5 agents and the Minimum idle agents setting is set to 2, and currently, 4 agents are busy, when the fifth agent logs in, the system will immediately place them in Inbound mode.
The most important element to understand is that the blending mode is a lazy system that has no timeout triggering, unlike some other solutions. This means that Agents themselves are triggering the blending system by doing some actions like Ending Call/Logging in/Unpausing. This reduces complexity and provides stability to the system.
In a real case scenario, Agents are always busy and are handling some calls, therefore, there is always a sufficient number of actions that can trigger the blending mode. The advantage of having it done this way is that it ensures avoiding any other unexpected behaviors from the Agent’s point of view. If it was done differently, the system would be busy and constantly switch the Agent from IN to OUT, so the Agent could lose a lot of time just trying to resolve from which direction he received a call. Instead of doing so, the Agent already knows that s(he) could be moved to Queue or Campaign only when the current call is ended or because of some other predefined action.