What Is First Contact Resolution (FCR)?
Start driving better customer experience today by improving your first contact resolution rate
What Is First Contact Resolution (FCR)?
Start driving better customer experience today by improving your first contact resolution rate
What Is First Contact Resolution (FCR)?
Start driving better customer experience today by improving your first contact resolution rate
What Is First Contact Resolution (FCR)?
Start driving better customer experience today by improving your first contact resolution rate
Ever wonder why customer loyalty tends to fluctuate? It’s because customers are observant and want to stay with businesses that solve their problems.
The first contact resolution rate measures the number of queries or problems solved by customer service agents upon the initial interaction with the consumer. If your organization improves it, you can bet that it’ll help you develop customer loyalty.
Interested in learning more? Read here:
Ever wonder why customer loyalty tends to fluctuate? It’s because customers are observant and want to stay with businesses that solve their problems.
The first contact resolution rate measures the number of queries or problems solved by customer service agents upon the initial interaction with the consumer. If your organization improves it, you can bet that it’ll help you develop customer loyalty.
Interested in learning more? Read here:
Ever wonder why customer loyalty tends to fluctuate? It’s because customers are observant and want to stay with businesses that solve their problems.
The first contact resolution rate measures the number of queries or problems solved by customer service agents upon the initial interaction with the consumer. If your organization improves it, you can bet that it’ll help you develop customer loyalty.
Interested in learning more? Read here:
Ever wonder why customer loyalty tends to fluctuate? It’s because customers are observant and want to stay with businesses that solve their problems.
The first contact resolution rate measures the number of queries or problems solved by customer service agents upon the initial interaction with the consumer. If your organization improves it, you can bet that it’ll help you develop customer loyalty.
Interested in learning more? Read here:
Let's say you bought a new phone. You came home and followed all the instructions given to set it up. But even after doing everything the right way, the device just didn't seem to work properly. Who do you call in such a situation? Customer service, right?
Now imagine how that’ll go. Rather than making you wait for a long time, the representative quickly listens to your problems. And, not only that, they also provide you with a solution that actually works. What would you have to say about this type of first interaction? Of course, you’d describe it as superb! That's what the first contact resolution metric is all about.
It’s a means of gauging the percentage of customer queries and problems that your customer service representatives solve on the first attempt. First contact resolution, also known as first call resolution, eliminates the need for follow-ups, keeping both the customers and agents happy.
The first contact resolution rate is indicative of your customer's satisfaction. It can give you an idea of consumers’ contentment level with your product and services. Additionally, FCR can also be measured in combination with metrics such as Average Talk Time, also known as Average Handle Time (AHT). AHT is the amount of time a call center agent spends talking to a customer as they work toward providing a solution.
High FCR with low Average Handle Time (AHT) almost certainly means that your customers are satisfied with your services. Conversely, low FCR with high AHT means that consumers are dissatisfied with your product or service.
Moreover, FCR helps you meet your staffing demands effortlessly. For example, if you are continuously coming up against low FCR, then it might mean that you need more staff. It could be the reason why it takes more than one call for your customers to get their issues resolved.
High FCR, on the other hand, would mean the customer service representatives are doing an excellent job handling queries and providing solutions. This eliminates or minimizes the need for second contact follow-ups, reducing the time it takes to satisfy a user.
Let's say you bought a new phone. You came home and followed all the instructions given to set it up. But even after doing everything the right way, the device just didn't seem to work properly. Who do you call in such a situation? Customer service, right?
Now imagine how that’ll go. Rather than making you wait for a long time, the representative quickly listens to your problems. And, not only that, they also provide you with a solution that actually works. What would you have to say about this type of first interaction? Of course, you’d describe it as superb! That's what the first contact resolution metric is all about.
It’s a means of gauging the percentage of customer queries and problems that your customer service representatives solve on the first attempt. First contact resolution, also known as first call resolution, eliminates the need for follow-ups, keeping both the customers and agents happy.
The first contact resolution rate is indicative of your customer's satisfaction. It can give you an idea of consumers’ contentment level with your product and services. Additionally, FCR can also be measured in combination with metrics such as Average Talk Time, also known as Average Handle Time (AHT). AHT is the amount of time a call center agent spends talking to a customer as they work toward providing a solution.
High FCR with low Average Handle Time (AHT) almost certainly means that your customers are satisfied with your services. Conversely, low FCR with high AHT means that consumers are dissatisfied with your product or service.
Moreover, FCR helps you meet your staffing demands effortlessly. For example, if you are continuously coming up against low FCR, then it might mean that you need more staff. It could be the reason why it takes more than one call for your customers to get their issues resolved.
High FCR, on the other hand, would mean the customer service representatives are doing an excellent job handling queries and providing solutions. This eliminates or minimizes the need for second contact follow-ups, reducing the time it takes to satisfy a user.
Let's say you bought a new phone. You came home and followed all the instructions given to set it up. But even after doing everything the right way, the device just didn't seem to work properly. Who do you call in such a situation? Customer service, right?
Now imagine how that’ll go. Rather than making you wait for a long time, the representative quickly listens to your problems. And, not only that, they also provide you with a solution that actually works. What would you have to say about this type of first interaction? Of course, you’d describe it as superb! That's what the first contact resolution metric is all about.
It’s a means of gauging the percentage of customer queries and problems that your customer service representatives solve on the first attempt. First contact resolution, also known as first call resolution, eliminates the need for follow-ups, keeping both the customers and agents happy.
The first contact resolution rate is indicative of your customer's satisfaction. It can give you an idea of consumers’ contentment level with your product and services. Additionally, FCR can also be measured in combination with metrics such as Average Talk Time, also known as Average Handle Time (AHT). AHT is the amount of time a call center agent spends talking to a customer as they work toward providing a solution.
High FCR with low Average Handle Time (AHT) almost certainly means that your customers are satisfied with your services. Conversely, low FCR with high AHT means that consumers are dissatisfied with your product or service.
Moreover, FCR helps you meet your staffing demands effortlessly. For example, if you are continuously coming up against low FCR, then it might mean that you need more staff. It could be the reason why it takes more than one call for your customers to get their issues resolved.
High FCR, on the other hand, would mean the customer service representatives are doing an excellent job handling queries and providing solutions. This eliminates or minimizes the need for second contact follow-ups, reducing the time it takes to satisfy a user.
Let's say you bought a new phone. You came home and followed all the instructions given to set it up. But even after doing everything the right way, the device just didn't seem to work properly. Who do you call in such a situation? Customer service, right?
Now imagine how that’ll go. Rather than making you wait for a long time, the representative quickly listens to your problems. And, not only that, they also provide you with a solution that actually works. What would you have to say about this type of first interaction? Of course, you’d describe it as superb! That's what the first contact resolution metric is all about.
It’s a means of gauging the percentage of customer queries and problems that your customer service representatives solve on the first attempt. First contact resolution, also known as first call resolution, eliminates the need for follow-ups, keeping both the customers and agents happy.
The first contact resolution rate is indicative of your customer's satisfaction. It can give you an idea of consumers’ contentment level with your product and services. Additionally, FCR can also be measured in combination with metrics such as Average Talk Time, also known as Average Handle Time (AHT). AHT is the amount of time a call center agent spends talking to a customer as they work toward providing a solution.
High FCR with low Average Handle Time (AHT) almost certainly means that your customers are satisfied with your services. Conversely, low FCR with high AHT means that consumers are dissatisfied with your product or service.
Moreover, FCR helps you meet your staffing demands effortlessly. For example, if you are continuously coming up against low FCR, then it might mean that you need more staff. It could be the reason why it takes more than one call for your customers to get their issues resolved.
High FCR, on the other hand, would mean the customer service representatives are doing an excellent job handling queries and providing solutions. This eliminates or minimizes the need for second contact follow-ups, reducing the time it takes to satisfy a user.
It’s established that FCR is a metric that helps you calculate one aspect of customer satisfaction and how well you’re helping your customers solve their problems upon first contact. But how, precisely, do you get this score?
For FCR measurement, the following formulae can be used:
First Contact Resolution Rate = Combined number of tickets resolved on first contact / The total number of incoming tickets
Gross FCR rate doesn’t make any exceptions for the problems that couldn’t be solved by your agents within the first interaction. It counts all incoming communications from a customer towards your score.
First contact resolution rate = Tickets (consumer problems) resolved on the first contact / Total number of tickets - total number of unsolved tickets (on first contact)
Net FCR takes instances where your customer support team wasn’t able to solve the tickets on first contact into account. By excluding the more complex issues from the total number of support requests, it provides more accurate results.
Of the two, net FCR is usually given preference because, let's face it, there are many issues that do need a follow-up call or second contact. For example: software updates, email support, or an issue concerning internet connectivity might require multiple levels of support throughout the customer journey.
Number-crunching aside, you can send an interaction summary to your customer sometime after their initial connection with your agent. It’s a good way to ensure that you have really helped them with their problem and cross-check your first call resolution rate simultaneously. As a bonus, buyers can reopen the case if they are not truly satisfied with the resolution. It’ll help you track your FCR data more accurately.
While there are many advantages to calculating your company's FCR—such as identifying areas for improvement, understanding target audience behavior, and mapping staffing requirements—it also has its downsides. Let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of measuring FCR:
For every percentage of improvement in your first contact resolution rate, you can expect an equal reduction in your business's operating costs. Why is that? It’s because a higher FCR rate means quicker resolution of queries. This in turn means less time spent by each resource on a particular problem.
When consumer queries and complaints are solved upon first contact with your organization, it denotes a good FCR rate. This means better query resolution rates, improved agent efficiency and ability to solve problems, and good service speed. All of this leads to higher customer satisfaction.
Just as a high FCR rate means a good customer satisfaction rate, it can also help your employees have a better working experience. When agents don’t have to deal with angry and frustrated customers repeatedly, they can happily carry out their duties.
When too many of your customers are calling to inquire about simple problems or issues, it means your self-service options are lacking (despite high FCR). It means you’ll have to pay more attention to your online knowledge base so you can better address the less complicated or frequently asked questions.
When you have a high FCR but customers are returning with the same problems, it might mean that your customer service agents are offering quick fixes or temporary solutions. Doing this might solve the problem for the time being and boost your FCR score. But it will not be sustainable and might even hurt your customer retention efforts.
It’s established that FCR is a metric that helps you calculate one aspect of customer satisfaction and how well you’re helping your customers solve their problems upon first contact. But how, precisely, do you get this score?
For FCR measurement, the following formulae can be used:
First Contact Resolution Rate = Combined number of tickets resolved on first contact / The total number of incoming tickets
Gross FCR rate doesn’t make any exceptions for the problems that couldn’t be solved by your agents within the first interaction. It counts all incoming communications from a customer towards your score.
First contact resolution rate = Tickets (consumer problems) resolved on the first contact / Total number of tickets - total number of unsolved tickets (on first contact)
Net FCR takes instances where your customer support team wasn’t able to solve the tickets on first contact into account. By excluding the more complex issues from the total number of support requests, it provides more accurate results.
Of the two, net FCR is usually given preference because, let's face it, there are many issues that do need a follow-up call or second contact. For example: software updates, email support, or an issue concerning internet connectivity might require multiple levels of support throughout the customer journey.
Number-crunching aside, you can send an interaction summary to your customer sometime after their initial connection with your agent. It’s a good way to ensure that you have really helped them with their problem and cross-check your first call resolution rate simultaneously. As a bonus, buyers can reopen the case if they are not truly satisfied with the resolution. It’ll help you track your FCR data more accurately.
While there are many advantages to calculating your company's FCR—such as identifying areas for improvement, understanding target audience behavior, and mapping staffing requirements—it also has its downsides. Let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of measuring FCR:
For every percentage of improvement in your first contact resolution rate, you can expect an equal reduction in your business's operating costs. Why is that? It’s because a higher FCR rate means quicker resolution of queries. This in turn means less time spent by each resource on a particular problem.
When consumer queries and complaints are solved upon first contact with your organization, it denotes a good FCR rate. This means better query resolution rates, improved agent efficiency and ability to solve problems, and good service speed. All of this leads to higher customer satisfaction.
Just as a high FCR rate means a good customer satisfaction rate, it can also help your employees have a better working experience. When agents don’t have to deal with angry and frustrated customers repeatedly, they can happily carry out their duties.
When too many of your customers are calling to inquire about simple problems or issues, it means your self-service options are lacking (despite high FCR). It means you’ll have to pay more attention to your online knowledge base so you can better address the less complicated or frequently asked questions.
When you have a high FCR but customers are returning with the same problems, it might mean that your customer service agents are offering quick fixes or temporary solutions. Doing this might solve the problem for the time being and boost your FCR score. But it will not be sustainable and might even hurt your customer retention efforts.
It’s established that FCR is a metric that helps you calculate one aspect of customer satisfaction and how well you’re helping your customers solve their problems upon first contact. But how, precisely, do you get this score?
For FCR measurement, the following formulae can be used:
First Contact Resolution Rate = Combined number of tickets resolved on first contact / The total number of incoming tickets
Gross FCR rate doesn’t make any exceptions for the problems that couldn’t be solved by your agents within the first interaction. It counts all incoming communications from a customer towards your score.
First contact resolution rate = Tickets (consumer problems) resolved on the first contact / Total number of tickets - total number of unsolved tickets (on first contact)
Net FCR takes instances where your customer support team wasn’t able to solve the tickets on first contact into account. By excluding the more complex issues from the total number of support requests, it provides more accurate results.
Of the two, net FCR is usually given preference because, let's face it, there are many issues that do need a follow-up call or second contact. For example: software updates, email support, or an issue concerning internet connectivity might require multiple levels of support throughout the customer journey.
Number-crunching aside, you can send an interaction summary to your customer sometime after their initial connection with your agent. It’s a good way to ensure that you have really helped them with their problem and cross-check your first call resolution rate simultaneously. As a bonus, buyers can reopen the case if they are not truly satisfied with the resolution. It’ll help you track your FCR data more accurately.
While there are many advantages to calculating your company's FCR—such as identifying areas for improvement, understanding target audience behavior, and mapping staffing requirements—it also has its downsides. Let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of measuring FCR:
For every percentage of improvement in your first contact resolution rate, you can expect an equal reduction in your business's operating costs. Why is that? It’s because a higher FCR rate means quicker resolution of queries. This in turn means less time spent by each resource on a particular problem.
When consumer queries and complaints are solved upon first contact with your organization, it denotes a good FCR rate. This means better query resolution rates, improved agent efficiency and ability to solve problems, and good service speed. All of this leads to higher customer satisfaction.
Just as a high FCR rate means a good customer satisfaction rate, it can also help your employees have a better working experience. When agents don’t have to deal with angry and frustrated customers repeatedly, they can happily carry out their duties.
When too many of your customers are calling to inquire about simple problems or issues, it means your self-service options are lacking (despite high FCR). It means you’ll have to pay more attention to your online knowledge base so you can better address the less complicated or frequently asked questions.
When you have a high FCR but customers are returning with the same problems, it might mean that your customer service agents are offering quick fixes or temporary solutions. Doing this might solve the problem for the time being and boost your FCR score. But it will not be sustainable and might even hurt your customer retention efforts.
It’s established that FCR is a metric that helps you calculate one aspect of customer satisfaction and how well you’re helping your customers solve their problems upon first contact. But how, precisely, do you get this score?
For FCR measurement, the following formulae can be used:
First Contact Resolution Rate = Combined number of tickets resolved on first contact / The total number of incoming tickets
Gross FCR rate doesn’t make any exceptions for the problems that couldn’t be solved by your agents within the first interaction. It counts all incoming communications from a customer towards your score.
First contact resolution rate = Tickets (consumer problems) resolved on the first contact / Total number of tickets - total number of unsolved tickets (on first contact)
Net FCR takes instances where your customer support team wasn’t able to solve the tickets on first contact into account. By excluding the more complex issues from the total number of support requests, it provides more accurate results.
Of the two, net FCR is usually given preference because, let's face it, there are many issues that do need a follow-up call or second contact. For example: software updates, email support, or an issue concerning internet connectivity might require multiple levels of support throughout the customer journey.
Number-crunching aside, you can send an interaction summary to your customer sometime after their initial connection with your agent. It’s a good way to ensure that you have really helped them with their problem and cross-check your first call resolution rate simultaneously. As a bonus, buyers can reopen the case if they are not truly satisfied with the resolution. It’ll help you track your FCR data more accurately.
While there are many advantages to calculating your company's FCR—such as identifying areas for improvement, understanding target audience behavior, and mapping staffing requirements—it also has its downsides. Let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of measuring FCR:
For every percentage of improvement in your first contact resolution rate, you can expect an equal reduction in your business's operating costs. Why is that? It’s because a higher FCR rate means quicker resolution of queries. This in turn means less time spent by each resource on a particular problem.
When consumer queries and complaints are solved upon first contact with your organization, it denotes a good FCR rate. This means better query resolution rates, improved agent efficiency and ability to solve problems, and good service speed. All of this leads to higher customer satisfaction.
Just as a high FCR rate means a good customer satisfaction rate, it can also help your employees have a better working experience. When agents don’t have to deal with angry and frustrated customers repeatedly, they can happily carry out their duties.
When too many of your customers are calling to inquire about simple problems or issues, it means your self-service options are lacking (despite high FCR). It means you’ll have to pay more attention to your online knowledge base so you can better address the less complicated or frequently asked questions.
When you have a high FCR but customers are returning with the same problems, it might mean that your customer service agents are offering quick fixes or temporary solutions. Doing this might solve the problem for the time being and boost your FCR score. But it will not be sustainable and might even hurt your customer retention efforts.
A good first contact resolution rate can vary from industry to industry. But for call centers in general, it might be around 70 to 80 percent.
An FCR of 70% means that the remaining or at least 30% of the tickets require second contact for complete resolution. However, getting a lower score doesn't necessarily mean that your competitors are doing a better job than you.
For example, if you’ve set up a targeted but nevertheless expansive library of tips and tricks as a part of your self-service channels, it will filter out simple queries. Customers who can find the information online concerning their problems will not call support meaning that only unsolved issues will make their way to your customer support team.
Now, when you are done solving problems that came through, you may think about your FCR and how it should be improved. Since you had set up an online knowledge base, a good percentage of customers got what they wanted but you weren’t able to measure their satisfaction.
This means that your customer satisfaction levels don’t always have to reflect your industry’s first contact resolution standards. It could deviate from the established baseline. The above example explains how your support team might actually be doing a good job even if FCR is not achieved via phone or chat. And you making changes based on general benchmarks alone could derail a whole process that otherwise works smoothly.
Here’s how you can achieve a truly good first contact resolution rate:
If your level 1 customer service team has the knowledge required to solve tier 2 questions, your FCR metric will improve.
For example, customer issues (think a change in name and address) that are escalated by level 1 consumer support agents to level 2 agents often drive second contact. If you choose to do a bit of restructuring and get your level 1 team to handle these common issues through agent training, then there’s a smaller need for escalation. This way, customers’ problems can be more easily solved in real-time.
One of the key factors that help drive a better FCR score is identifying repeat contact stimulus. Understanding what’s causing your customers to reach out again and again for help in resolving the same problem can help you address the issue properly.
You can start by assessing how your customers are dealing with your IVR. Interactive Voice Response technology is designed to offer convenience and add reliability to your customer support system. However, consumers who press buttons without properly listening to the IVR menu may get redirected to irrelevant departments making it difficult to provide them with a swift, correct response. This suggests a need to revisit your IVR scripts.
Next, you can keep an eye on the call disposition codes (these are used to tag calls as either urgent/important or low priority) and how well-versed your customer advisors are with these. If they don't know a specific tag and its purpose, it could take a long time to offer support leading to reduced productivity and efficiency.
Once you’re done with these common issues, you can set up a meeting with the team to figure out why a customer keeps coming back with a recurring issue. It will allow you to better understand what the customer needs. The team can then help you identify where the faults are and how to correct them, thereby helping you find a path toward a good FCR score.
Contact center environments are naturally inclined towards constantly documenting and measuring achievements. First contact resolution might seem like a good gauge for performance, but is it the only metric you should always be looking towards?
The short answer is no.
FCR rate will yield you the best results only when it’s used in combination with other metrics such as NPS, CSAT, etc. Priorities of a contact center with respect to satisfying customers keep changing.
For example: a customer might call you back a second time with the same problem if the solution worked for them for a short time but stopped working when they used your product with another app. Situations like these drive second contact and don’t contribute positively towards the FCR rate, even after you did everything right.
Tackling customer complaints is rarely easy. And solving problems on first contact, which is what FCR is all about, is even trickier. But following best practices can help you get past all the hassle. Here are some things you can do to improve first contact resolution for your organization:
The first step towards solving any problem is recognizing that it exists.
If you want to improve your FCR, start by looking for issues that are bringing it down. Collect feedback from customers, analyze call records, look at logs, and set up a schedule with your team to go over the unearthed lags and lacks.
Ask questions such as:
- Why do customers have to call back again?
- What type of questions pose a challenge for your support team?
- Which channel provides the best support to your customers?
- What compels your agents to turn to supervisors when handling requests?
It's difficult for customer service personnel to offer quick solutions if they have issues finding information that’s relevant to the situation. Allow your agents to access pertinent data by using customer relationship management software (CRM). This will change how queries and support services are handled at your organization for the better.
A CRM tool typically has storage capabilities, in-built analytics, and other features that help representatives deliver on customer expectations. Consumers find it hard to deal with businesses that expect them to provide information repeatedly each time they call. Conversely, they're happy with enterprises that can quickly resolve their queries.
Training your employees to deal with situations before they occur is an effective way to control outcomes.
In call centers, a large number of cases require support representatives to possess enough knowledge to provide a solution to common issues. If an agent hasn't experienced the rapid influx of phone calls before, they are likely to make mistakes. Set up regular training sessions to go over recorded customer feedback in line with the organization's key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help your agents become more efficient at catering to customer requests.
At times, even simple queries can become hard to deal with for agents who aren’t trained properly. When a user calls with a question that a particular level 1 agent is unable to handle, it can very quickly turn into an interaction that requires a follow-up. You can avoid this fiasco by introducing automation at the help desk.
Using AI-powered tools, you can assign tickets automatically to the right agent (the one with the appropriate skills and knowledge), which will help you in a number of ways. It will help you monitor the number of customer interactions and review the functionality of your system. You can use this information to optimize the request fulfillment process and improve customer experience and satisfaction.
A good first contact resolution rate can vary from industry to industry. But for call centers in general, it might be around 70 to 80 percent.
An FCR of 70% means that the remaining or at least 30% of the tickets require second contact for complete resolution. However, getting a lower score doesn't necessarily mean that your competitors are doing a better job than you.
For example, if you’ve set up a targeted but nevertheless expansive library of tips and tricks as a part of your self-service channels, it will filter out simple queries. Customers who can find the information online concerning their problems will not call support meaning that only unsolved issues will make their way to your customer support team.
Now, when you are done solving problems that came through, you may think about your FCR and how it should be improved. Since you had set up an online knowledge base, a good percentage of customers got what they wanted but you weren’t able to measure their satisfaction.
This means that your customer satisfaction levels don’t always have to reflect your industry’s first contact resolution standards. It could deviate from the established baseline. The above example explains how your support team might actually be doing a good job even if FCR is not achieved via phone or chat. And you making changes based on general benchmarks alone could derail a whole process that otherwise works smoothly.
Here’s how you can achieve a truly good first contact resolution rate:
If your level 1 customer service team has the knowledge required to solve tier 2 questions, your FCR metric will improve.
For example, customer issues (think a change in name and address) that are escalated by level 1 consumer support agents to level 2 agents often drive second contact. If you choose to do a bit of restructuring and get your level 1 team to handle these common issues through agent training, then there’s a smaller need for escalation. This way, customers’ problems can be more easily solved in real-time.
One of the key factors that help drive a better FCR score is identifying repeat contact stimulus. Understanding what’s causing your customers to reach out again and again for help in resolving the same problem can help you address the issue properly.
You can start by assessing how your customers are dealing with your IVR. Interactive Voice Response technology is designed to offer convenience and add reliability to your customer support system. However, consumers who press buttons without properly listening to the IVR menu may get redirected to irrelevant departments making it difficult to provide them with a swift, correct response. This suggests a need to revisit your IVR scripts.
Next, you can keep an eye on the call disposition codes (these are used to tag calls as either urgent/important or low priority) and how well-versed your customer advisors are with these. If they don't know a specific tag and its purpose, it could take a long time to offer support leading to reduced productivity and efficiency.
Once you’re done with these common issues, you can set up a meeting with the team to figure out why a customer keeps coming back with a recurring issue. It will allow you to better understand what the customer needs. The team can then help you identify where the faults are and how to correct them, thereby helping you find a path toward a good FCR score.
Contact center environments are naturally inclined towards constantly documenting and measuring achievements. First contact resolution might seem like a good gauge for performance, but is it the only metric you should always be looking towards?
The short answer is no.
FCR rate will yield you the best results only when it’s used in combination with other metrics such as NPS, CSAT, etc. Priorities of a contact center with respect to satisfying customers keep changing.
For example: a customer might call you back a second time with the same problem if the solution worked for them for a short time but stopped working when they used your product with another app. Situations like these drive second contact and don’t contribute positively towards the FCR rate, even after you did everything right.
Tackling customer complaints is rarely easy. And solving problems on first contact, which is what FCR is all about, is even trickier. But following best practices can help you get past all the hassle. Here are some things you can do to improve first contact resolution for your organization:
The first step towards solving any problem is recognizing that it exists.
If you want to improve your FCR, start by looking for issues that are bringing it down. Collect feedback from customers, analyze call records, look at logs, and set up a schedule with your team to go over the unearthed lags and lacks.
Ask questions such as:
- Why do customers have to call back again?
- What type of questions pose a challenge for your support team?
- Which channel provides the best support to your customers?
- What compels your agents to turn to supervisors when handling requests?
It's difficult for customer service personnel to offer quick solutions if they have issues finding information that’s relevant to the situation. Allow your agents to access pertinent data by using customer relationship management software (CRM). This will change how queries and support services are handled at your organization for the better.
A CRM tool typically has storage capabilities, in-built analytics, and other features that help representatives deliver on customer expectations. Consumers find it hard to deal with businesses that expect them to provide information repeatedly each time they call. Conversely, they're happy with enterprises that can quickly resolve their queries.
Training your employees to deal with situations before they occur is an effective way to control outcomes.
In call centers, a large number of cases require support representatives to possess enough knowledge to provide a solution to common issues. If an agent hasn't experienced the rapid influx of phone calls before, they are likely to make mistakes. Set up regular training sessions to go over recorded customer feedback in line with the organization's key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help your agents become more efficient at catering to customer requests.
At times, even simple queries can become hard to deal with for agents who aren’t trained properly. When a user calls with a question that a particular level 1 agent is unable to handle, it can very quickly turn into an interaction that requires a follow-up. You can avoid this fiasco by introducing automation at the help desk.
Using AI-powered tools, you can assign tickets automatically to the right agent (the one with the appropriate skills and knowledge), which will help you in a number of ways. It will help you monitor the number of customer interactions and review the functionality of your system. You can use this information to optimize the request fulfillment process and improve customer experience and satisfaction.
A good first contact resolution rate can vary from industry to industry. But for call centers in general, it might be around 70 to 80 percent.
An FCR of 70% means that the remaining or at least 30% of the tickets require second contact for complete resolution. However, getting a lower score doesn't necessarily mean that your competitors are doing a better job than you.
For example, if you’ve set up a targeted but nevertheless expansive library of tips and tricks as a part of your self-service channels, it will filter out simple queries. Customers who can find the information online concerning their problems will not call support meaning that only unsolved issues will make their way to your customer support team.
Now, when you are done solving problems that came through, you may think about your FCR and how it should be improved. Since you had set up an online knowledge base, a good percentage of customers got what they wanted but you weren’t able to measure their satisfaction.
This means that your customer satisfaction levels don’t always have to reflect your industry’s first contact resolution standards. It could deviate from the established baseline. The above example explains how your support team might actually be doing a good job even if FCR is not achieved via phone or chat. And you making changes based on general benchmarks alone could derail a whole process that otherwise works smoothly.
Here’s how you can achieve a truly good first contact resolution rate:
If your level 1 customer service team has the knowledge required to solve tier 2 questions, your FCR metric will improve.
For example, customer issues (think a change in name and address) that are escalated by level 1 consumer support agents to level 2 agents often drive second contact. If you choose to do a bit of restructuring and get your level 1 team to handle these common issues through agent training, then there’s a smaller need for escalation. This way, customers’ problems can be more easily solved in real-time.
One of the key factors that help drive a better FCR score is identifying repeat contact stimulus. Understanding what’s causing your customers to reach out again and again for help in resolving the same problem can help you address the issue properly.
You can start by assessing how your customers are dealing with your IVR. Interactive Voice Response technology is designed to offer convenience and add reliability to your customer support system. However, consumers who press buttons without properly listening to the IVR menu may get redirected to irrelevant departments making it difficult to provide them with a swift, correct response. This suggests a need to revisit your IVR scripts.
Next, you can keep an eye on the call disposition codes (these are used to tag calls as either urgent/important or low priority) and how well-versed your customer advisors are with these. If they don't know a specific tag and its purpose, it could take a long time to offer support leading to reduced productivity and efficiency.
Once you’re done with these common issues, you can set up a meeting with the team to figure out why a customer keeps coming back with a recurring issue. It will allow you to better understand what the customer needs. The team can then help you identify where the faults are and how to correct them, thereby helping you find a path toward a good FCR score.
Contact center environments are naturally inclined towards constantly documenting and measuring achievements. First contact resolution might seem like a good gauge for performance, but is it the only metric you should always be looking towards?
The short answer is no.
FCR rate will yield you the best results only when it’s used in combination with other metrics such as NPS, CSAT, etc. Priorities of a contact center with respect to satisfying customers keep changing.
For example: a customer might call you back a second time with the same problem if the solution worked for them for a short time but stopped working when they used your product with another app. Situations like these drive second contact and don’t contribute positively towards the FCR rate, even after you did everything right.
Tackling customer complaints is rarely easy. And solving problems on first contact, which is what FCR is all about, is even trickier. But following best practices can help you get past all the hassle. Here are some things you can do to improve first contact resolution for your organization:
The first step towards solving any problem is recognizing that it exists.
If you want to improve your FCR, start by looking for issues that are bringing it down. Collect feedback from customers, analyze call records, look at logs, and set up a schedule with your team to go over the unearthed lags and lacks.
Ask questions such as:
- Why do customers have to call back again?
- What type of questions pose a challenge for your support team?
- Which channel provides the best support to your customers?
- What compels your agents to turn to supervisors when handling requests?
It's difficult for customer service personnel to offer quick solutions if they have issues finding information that’s relevant to the situation. Allow your agents to access pertinent data by using customer relationship management software (CRM). This will change how queries and support services are handled at your organization for the better.
A CRM tool typically has storage capabilities, in-built analytics, and other features that help representatives deliver on customer expectations. Consumers find it hard to deal with businesses that expect them to provide information repeatedly each time they call. Conversely, they're happy with enterprises that can quickly resolve their queries.
Training your employees to deal with situations before they occur is an effective way to control outcomes.
In call centers, a large number of cases require support representatives to possess enough knowledge to provide a solution to common issues. If an agent hasn't experienced the rapid influx of phone calls before, they are likely to make mistakes. Set up regular training sessions to go over recorded customer feedback in line with the organization's key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help your agents become more efficient at catering to customer requests.
At times, even simple queries can become hard to deal with for agents who aren’t trained properly. When a user calls with a question that a particular level 1 agent is unable to handle, it can very quickly turn into an interaction that requires a follow-up. You can avoid this fiasco by introducing automation at the help desk.
Using AI-powered tools, you can assign tickets automatically to the right agent (the one with the appropriate skills and knowledge), which will help you in a number of ways. It will help you monitor the number of customer interactions and review the functionality of your system. You can use this information to optimize the request fulfillment process and improve customer experience and satisfaction.
A good first contact resolution rate can vary from industry to industry. But for call centers in general, it might be around 70 to 80 percent.
An FCR of 70% means that the remaining or at least 30% of the tickets require second contact for complete resolution. However, getting a lower score doesn't necessarily mean that your competitors are doing a better job than you.
For example, if you’ve set up a targeted but nevertheless expansive library of tips and tricks as a part of your self-service channels, it will filter out simple queries. Customers who can find the information online concerning their problems will not call support meaning that only unsolved issues will make their way to your customer support team.
Now, when you are done solving problems that came through, you may think about your FCR and how it should be improved. Since you had set up an online knowledge base, a good percentage of customers got what they wanted but you weren’t able to measure their satisfaction.
This means that your customer satisfaction levels don’t always have to reflect your industry’s first contact resolution standards. It could deviate from the established baseline. The above example explains how your support team might actually be doing a good job even if FCR is not achieved via phone or chat. And you making changes based on general benchmarks alone could derail a whole process that otherwise works smoothly.
Here’s how you can achieve a truly good first contact resolution rate:
If your level 1 customer service team has the knowledge required to solve tier 2 questions, your FCR metric will improve.
For example, customer issues (think a change in name and address) that are escalated by level 1 consumer support agents to level 2 agents often drive second contact. If you choose to do a bit of restructuring and get your level 1 team to handle these common issues through agent training, then there’s a smaller need for escalation. This way, customers’ problems can be more easily solved in real-time.
One of the key factors that help drive a better FCR score is identifying repeat contact stimulus. Understanding what’s causing your customers to reach out again and again for help in resolving the same problem can help you address the issue properly.
You can start by assessing how your customers are dealing with your IVR. Interactive Voice Response technology is designed to offer convenience and add reliability to your customer support system. However, consumers who press buttons without properly listening to the IVR menu may get redirected to irrelevant departments making it difficult to provide them with a swift, correct response. This suggests a need to revisit your IVR scripts.
Next, you can keep an eye on the call disposition codes (these are used to tag calls as either urgent/important or low priority) and how well-versed your customer advisors are with these. If they don't know a specific tag and its purpose, it could take a long time to offer support leading to reduced productivity and efficiency.
Once you’re done with these common issues, you can set up a meeting with the team to figure out why a customer keeps coming back with a recurring issue. It will allow you to better understand what the customer needs. The team can then help you identify where the faults are and how to correct them, thereby helping you find a path toward a good FCR score.
Contact center environments are naturally inclined towards constantly documenting and measuring achievements. First contact resolution might seem like a good gauge for performance, but is it the only metric you should always be looking towards?
The short answer is no.
FCR rate will yield you the best results only when it’s used in combination with other metrics such as NPS, CSAT, etc. Priorities of a contact center with respect to satisfying customers keep changing.
For example: a customer might call you back a second time with the same problem if the solution worked for them for a short time but stopped working when they used your product with another app. Situations like these drive second contact and don’t contribute positively towards the FCR rate, even after you did everything right.
Tackling customer complaints is rarely easy. And solving problems on first contact, which is what FCR is all about, is even trickier. But following best practices can help you get past all the hassle. Here are some things you can do to improve first contact resolution for your organization:
The first step towards solving any problem is recognizing that it exists.
If you want to improve your FCR, start by looking for issues that are bringing it down. Collect feedback from customers, analyze call records, look at logs, and set up a schedule with your team to go over the unearthed lags and lacks.
Ask questions such as:
- Why do customers have to call back again?
- What type of questions pose a challenge for your support team?
- Which channel provides the best support to your customers?
- What compels your agents to turn to supervisors when handling requests?
It's difficult for customer service personnel to offer quick solutions if they have issues finding information that’s relevant to the situation. Allow your agents to access pertinent data by using customer relationship management software (CRM). This will change how queries and support services are handled at your organization for the better.
A CRM tool typically has storage capabilities, in-built analytics, and other features that help representatives deliver on customer expectations. Consumers find it hard to deal with businesses that expect them to provide information repeatedly each time they call. Conversely, they're happy with enterprises that can quickly resolve their queries.
Training your employees to deal with situations before they occur is an effective way to control outcomes.
In call centers, a large number of cases require support representatives to possess enough knowledge to provide a solution to common issues. If an agent hasn't experienced the rapid influx of phone calls before, they are likely to make mistakes. Set up regular training sessions to go over recorded customer feedback in line with the organization's key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help your agents become more efficient at catering to customer requests.
At times, even simple queries can become hard to deal with for agents who aren’t trained properly. When a user calls with a question that a particular level 1 agent is unable to handle, it can very quickly turn into an interaction that requires a follow-up. You can avoid this fiasco by introducing automation at the help desk.
Using AI-powered tools, you can assign tickets automatically to the right agent (the one with the appropriate skills and knowledge), which will help you in a number of ways. It will help you monitor the number of customer interactions and review the functionality of your system. You can use this information to optimize the request fulfillment process and improve customer experience and satisfaction.
8x8 understands how important it is to keep your customers satisfied and happy. We live in an era where first impressions are integral to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
8x8's contact center solutions, which include an intelligent IVR, are designed to meet customer expectations and help you deliver better experiences.
Want to improve your FCR?
8x8 understands how important it is to keep your customers satisfied and happy. We live in an era where first impressions are integral to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
8x8's contact center solutions, which include an intelligent IVR, are designed to meet customer expectations and help you deliver better experiences.
Want to improve your FCR?
8x8 understands how important it is to keep your customers satisfied and happy. We live in an era where first impressions are integral to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
8x8's contact center solutions, which include an intelligent IVR, are designed to meet customer expectations and help you deliver better experiences.
Want to improve your FCR?
8x8 understands how important it is to keep your customers satisfied and happy. We live in an era where first impressions are integral to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
8x8's contact center solutions, which include an intelligent IVR, are designed to meet customer expectations and help you deliver better experiences.
Want to improve your FCR?