First Call Res­o­lu­tion Rate

What is the first call res­o­lu­tion rate? Why is this an impor­tant metric?

First Con­tact Res­o­lu­tion (FCR) is at the top of the list for many orga­ni­za­tions when it comes to the met­rics they’re track­ing. Also referred to as first-call res­o­lu­tion in con­tact cen­ters where the pri­mary mode of con­tact is by phone, FCR helps orga­ni­za­tions track the effi­ciency with which their rep­re­sen­ta­tives are able to resolve cus­tomer issues.

It’s no great sur­prise that cus­tomers who call with any kind of ques­tion — billing, account sta­tus, prod­uct infor­ma­tion, tech­ni­cal assis­tance, etc. — want their ques­tions answered as quickly as pos­si­ble. Com­pa­nies share this goal, as faster res­o­lu­tion equates to lower sup­port costs. For basic issues, this may be accom­plished on the customer’s first inbound call; for more tech­ni­cal or com­plex issues, mul­ti­ple con­tacts are often inevitable. Some issues require research and can­not be resolved on the spot. In either case, ongo­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the cus­tomer while the prob­lem is being resolved is the crit­i­cal factor.

To effec­tively mea­sure FCR, orga­ni­za­tions need to track the num­ber of cus­tomer con­tacts per issue regard­less of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nel. This can be a dif­fi­cult task! A Jan­u­ary, 2008 study by ICMI showed that:

• Just over 50 per­cent of the almost 300 con­tact cen­ter pro­fes­sion­als sur­veyed mea­sured FCR for live agent calls.
• 25 per­cent said they tracked FCR for e-mail.
• Less than 4 per­cent mea­sured FCR for issues processed via chat.

As with other con­tact cen­ter met­rics, one of the main advan­tages of track­ing FCR is to help mea­sure the effec­tive­ness of new ini­tia­tives. By mea­sur­ing FCR prior to imple­ment­ing a new pro­ce­dure or ini­tia­tive, a base­line can be estab­lished. This base­line can then be com­pared to sub­se­quent mea­sure­ments taken after the pro­ce­dural change, train­ing or coach­ing. If an improve­ment in FCR is observed, progress can be tracked; if not, the train­ing or pro­ce­dural change may need to be revisited.

Inter­nal Resources

Posts

• First Call Res­o­lu­tion Tag Archive
• The Busi­ness Case for First Call Resolution
• Alti­tude Soft­ware Flies High With First Call Resolution
• What Are Your Con­tact Cen­ter Met­rics Really Telling You?

Other

• Cus­tomer Ser­vice Train­ing Programs

Down­load

Exter­nal Resources

• First Call Resolution—It’s Impact and Measurement
• First Call Res­o­lu­tion: Key for Con­tin­u­ous Improve­ment — Ascent Group
• The First Time’s the Charm — Nice.com
• Stop Look­ing! The First Con­tact Res­o­lu­tion Sil­ver Bul­let is Already Here

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