With concerns rising about offshore outsourcing in terms of quality and security, more companies are becoming interested in the cost-saving benefits of using agents who work from their homes.

Savings is important, but it should not come at the expense of lost revenue, and if your customers are primarily from the US, you know how frustrating it can be speaking with an agent from a foreign country that is difficult to understand. Often this leads to customers who simply hang up and go elsewhere.

If you decide to develop your call center services in-house, you can support your customer service or sales staff with Hosted Call Center technology that efficiently routes calls, offers multiple ways to interact with customers (audio only, Video & Chat), and manages the information your customers provide by integrating with your customer relationship management software. You can create a hybrid call center solution that integrates in-house call center agents with home-based call center agents.

A Hosted Call Center allows your business the ability to incorporate home-based agents with your in-house call center agents or even an outsourced call center. Home-based call center agents give you the added benefit of staffing with local people who speak the language and who have the same culture. This is very appealing to many of your customers. Using home-based Call Center Agents also makes staffing easier and opens up a whole new source of employees. It also allows you to save money by reducing the need for office space to house your call center.

Many home-based agents work part-time or as independent contractors. This reduces expenses significantly as your company is not required to pay for health insurance, benefits, sick time, vacation time and maternity leave. You only pay the call center agent when he or she is actually working.

Virtual call centers have been around since the 1990s, but companies were reluctant to give up the control and supervision of an in-house call center. JetBlue Airways Inc was one of the first company’s to implement home-based call center agents. Jet Blue now has a 900+ call center agents that work exclusively-at-home.

Call Blending Improves Call Center Efficiency

AVAD Technologies’s Call Blending allows agents to move between Inbound and Outbound seamlessly maximizing productivity. A big benefit is this greatly reduces idle time for inbound agents.

Previously, agents were either inbound or outbound call center agents. This leads to staff being underutilized. If no calls were coming in, the agent would simply sit idle and while you pay them.

The process of call-blending helps to maximize the time that each work station can devote to handing the telephones, both inbound and outbound calls. The process is automatic and can be configured to your company’s individual needs. As an agent completes a phone call and becomes available, the system will place the agent into the inbound queue and notify the agent by emitting a tone in the headset. The will then be connected to a caller. This allows distribution of the inbound calls to be more evenly distributed across agents.

Call centers of all types use call blending as a way to keep employees productive but not overworked and keep customers happy.

About AVAD Technologies’s Hosted Call Center Solution

AVAD Technologies’s A Hosted Call Center solution is a complete solution that includes VoIP, call center software, automated dialing, IVR/ACD, recording, reporting, and multi-media capabilities and Call Blending.

AVAD Technologies is an ideal solution for small businesses that are seeking an affordable Call Center solution. AVAD Technologies simplifies Call Centers for small businesses by assigning a call center consultant to your company who will assist you throughout the installation and ongoing management of your call center. Your business can create a complex Call Center solution or a simplfied solution, it all depends on your specific needs. Managing communications, and integrating with your customer relationship management software like SalesForce.com is built into AVAD Technologies’s Hosted Call Center solution and is now available to businesses of any size at a fraction of the cost from five to 10 years ago.