Title :
A queueing model for call blending in call centers
Author :
Bhulai, Sandjai ; Koole, Ger
Author_Institution :
Lucent Technol. Bell Labs., Murray Hill, NJ, USA
Abstract :
Call centers that apply call blending obtain high-productivity and high-service levels by dynamically mixing inbound and outbound traffic. We show that agents should be assigned to outbound calls if the number of available agents exceeds a certain threshold. This control policy is optimal for equal service time distributions and a very good approximation otherwise.
Keywords :
Markov processes; call centres; decision theory; dynamic programming; queueing theory; stochastic processes; call blending; call centers; equal service time distributions; high-productivity; high-service levels; inbound traffic; outbound traffic; queueing model; Delay; Optimal control; Productivity; Throughput; Time factors; Traffic control;
Journal_Title :
Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TAC.2003.815038
