Business Week’s Bangalore Tigers blog had a very interesting post this week on how one Indian BPO firm is using sophisticated algorithms to measure what they call a “confusion index”, which identifies customer support callers who are likely to be converted to buyers. Those hot prospects are then routed to highly skilled reps who are trained to upsell them on the spot. It’s a twist on an interesting trend we’ve seen more and more of lately - hybrid support routing processes.

In a hybrid model, the easy calls (“Is the computer plugged in?”) are handled by a Level 1 or 2 group, while more complex questions are escalated to more highly skilled Level 3 reps. Often times, the Level 1 and 2 employees are located in low cost countries, where highly scripted calls can be handled with ease and far less expense. On the other hand, the Level 3 folks might be located on US shores, where their higher costs are justified by their experience, customer service skills and efficiency at solving support issues. In theory, it sounds like a great process, but there are still issues to consider before jumping into the hybrid model with both feet.

The most important question to ask yourself is, who are your customers. If they are sophisticated, tech savvy users the risk may not outweigh the cost savings.

We all know the MTV generations despise waiting. So although their escalation time to Level 3 support for say a wireless router that’s not working properly may not be a great deal of time, when that Level 3 expert can diagnose the issue quickly, the customer comes away angry that she had to answer a scripted laundry list of silly questions. In other words, if your customer feels they know more about the products you’re selling than your first x layers of customer service reps did…you have a problem.

Crystal Liles is a Senior Consultant for Sourcing Strategy in Ariba’s Spend Management Services group. Prior to joining Ariba, Crystal served as Director of Strategic Analysis for ChoicePoint.