First Call Resolution: Secret to Exceptional Customer Support

Long wait times can tarnish your business’s image and also pose a risk to customer turnover. Customers demand quick and efficient service, and your service agents would like to see fewer repeated enquiries. The key to this is being able to solve problems the first time around. The main metric that indicates your success in this aspect is first call resolution (FCR) and it is a definite indicator of the effectiveness of your problem-solving process.

Through this guide, we will cover FCR in detail, how to measure it, and best practices, benefits, and why the First Call Resolution is Important to Customer Service Teams.

What Is First Call Resolution?

Customer service First call resolution or FCR, is a customer service performance rate that calculates the number of customer problems that have been solved over the phone and that do not require a follow-up. To get the issue resolved, the agent has to resolve the customer’s problem in a manner that the customer is not required to call the support team again, regarding the same problem.

FCR is a valuable tool that can be used to measure customer service performance in the call center industry. A high FCR rate indicates decreased frustration, good customer experience, less operating costs, and very efficient and prompt customer service.

One area of misunderstanding is the distinction between first call resolution and first contact resolution.

The traditional understanding of first call resolution is solving problems with the very first call.

First contact resolution is a more recent, holistic measure that involves the resolution of issues on the first contact at all support channels: phone, email, live chat, social media, and so on.

Formula for First Call Resolution Rate

First Call Resolution is calculated by dividing the sum of calls that are resolved in the initial call with the sum of calls received in a specific time.

The FCR formula is as follows:

FCR =(Total calls answered in the first call / Total number of calls called)x 100

An example is when a customer care group answered 700 out of 1000 total calls, which would make the FCR rate 70%. The more the better your team would have solved customer problems within the initial contact, which is a positive sign of the overall efficiency in the functioning of the contact center.

Benefits of First Call Resolution

Achieving a good FCR rate has some benefits that include the following:

i. Customer Retention

Customer service is one of the reasons why customers cease to interact with a business. Customer service encourages its customers to return to the business.

ii. Customer Satisfaction

Customers who are satisfied will be able to give repeat business.

iii. Willingness to Spend

Satisfied customers tend to make more purchases with a company during individual transactions.

iv. Improved Efficiency

Good FCR maximizes agent productivity. Support agents waste less time on repeat requests and are able to engage more customers during a day, and eventually reduce customer waiting time.

v. Decreased Costs

An efficient contact center realized due to good FCR allows companies to save time and money in coming back to re-called contacts and addressing other costs associated with customer dissatisfaction.

Importance of First Call Resolution in Customer Service Teams

Consumer satisfaction has never been a more critical issue in the age of social media and customer reviews. Clients today engage in all sorts of queries, including some complex ones, through a variety of channels, such as live chat, social, phone calls (enabled by interactive voice recognition or IVR), and emails.

These changes in consumer habits must alert contact centres since they have also created consumer expectations changes. Customers now demand that they can contact brands in more than one way, and when they discover that they cannot have their problems addressed in one or more of them, they will not be pleased.

In comparison, high first contact resolutions are likely to ensure customers come back. Any person who has operated a business of their own will appreciate that customer loyalty can make or break a business. When your first call resolution rate is high this should mean that a good and efficient service is being offered to the customers.

In addition, the high rate of first contact resolution must be translated into the enhancement of other significant measures. These are customer satisfaction or CSAT scores. The happy customers will be ready to tell their friends about the quality of service provided and this implies more referrals and expansion through word of mouth.

The other benefit of high FCR is that it can save contact centre costs. It is generally much more costly to attract new customers than to retain them. Provided that you are able to convert first-time shoppers into regulars (and keep them as such by offering good customer service), you might save your business a substantial amount of cash.

Best Practices Of First Call Resolution

To be successful in FCR, practice the industry best practices including:

i. Keep Good Documentation

Document solutions to frequently occurring problems that customers may encounter and internal documentation readily available. It can be helpful when customers make the same question many times. A self-service customer service strategy, where a knowledge base and frequently asked questions are provided as a source of accessible information is used by some companies. Knowledge bases may contain step-by-step guidelines that may assist the customers in solving their problems.

ii. Route Calls

Screen customer requests by content type and route calls to the appropriate department. Call routing is done automatically reducing the waiting time of the customer as well as increasing the productivity of the agents.

iii. Quickly Respond to Support Questions

The duration of response is an essential variable in creating a customer experience of a positive type.

iv. Active Listening

Agents need to attempt to obtain as much information as they can about a customer and verify the information with the customer. The goal of the agents should be to learn their needs and assist the customer to achieve them.

v. Respond Appropriately

Agents must provide straightforward instructions to the customer and must be capable of having tutorials or documentation on more complicated customer problems. The agent should always close the call by asking whether he/she has solved the problem of the customer.

How to Improve FCR?

To improve the first call resolution of a company, they should do the following steps:

Review its current FCR plan.
Identify what should be improved.
Formulate practical objectives that can counter the shortcomings of the current strategy in FCR.
Create a strategy to achieve the objectives and put it in action.
Always evaluate the effectiveness of the new strategy by monitoring the important FCR performance indicators.

Final Words – First Call Resolution

To sum up, First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a critical performance metric of call centers that have a direct impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is crucial to its constant enhancement in improving customer service quality and perception of the company.

In addition to the FCR, such measures as average response time, level of customer satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and customer retention rate are also crucial to evaluate and improve the overall performance of the customer service.

By combining these indicators, we get an all-inclusive picture of the performance and the possibilities of improvement in managing customer relationships.

FAQs – First Call Resolution

Q1. What is the significance of first call resolution?

The significance of first call resolution is that it provides information on your current and present methods of customer service and customer experience, the level of agent training, and the efficiency of the existing staffing volumes.

Q2. What do I do to measure first call resolution?

Measure First Call Resolution rates are the number of calls (or messages, emails, etc.) resolved on the first contact divided by the total number of calls your business receives.

Q3. What is the good first call resolution rate?

The average First Call Resolution rate is about 74 and an FCR of 90 or above is excellent. An FCR of 40% of under suggests a critical problem with your customer service team, business processes and customer self-service tools.

Q4. What influences the First Contact Resolution rate?

The rates at which First Contact Resolutions can influence many factors. This covers the complexity of your services or products in general, the number of calls you receive each day and the number of agents you are staffed with, the quality of your agent training and knowledge base resource base, the call routing features found in your call center software and the quality and accessibility of customer self-service tools.

Q5. What is the distinction between First Contact Resolution and First Call Resolution?

First Call Resolution rate and First Contact Resolution rate are both customer service measures, which are typically used interchangeably. The only distinction is that First Contact Resolution is the percentage of customer inquiries resolved with the first attempt in terms of any support channel (phone, email, chat on the web, social media, etc.), whereas First Call Resolution is concerned with the interactions over the phone or via the IVR.