Companies don’t spare any effort to optimize their customer service and thus increase their sales, as well as satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.

In this context, First Call Resolution (FCR), as one of the most important customer service metrics to be evaluated by organizations seeking excellence, stands out.

Here, you will learn what it is, its importance, advantages, influencing factors, how to measure, and how to increase your business’s FCR rate. Enjoy the read!

 

What is FCR?

 

First Call Resolution (FCR) is a metric used to measure the company’s ability to solve customer problems on the first contact.

One of the most commonly used indicators by call centers and contact centers, FCR measures the efficiency of the company’s service channels, including phone, website, email, and social media.

FCR also reveals the autonomy and capacity of the service to resolve issues in a short period of time.

 

Why is it important?

 

Every company must know if their customers’ problems are being solved, and how quickly this is happening.

By improving FCR, companies reduce the effort the customer needs to make to get their problem resolved, and thus achieve more satisfied customers, who will likely recommend others to get to know the brand.

Calculating FCR also helps organizations identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement in their customer service processes, benefiting both customers and employees.

 

What are the advantages?

 

By calculating and analyzing FCR, companies can optimize their service processes, leading to cost reduction in rework, infrastructure, and personnel.

Besides the savings, companies with high FCR increase customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty, and often even create customer delight, turning these customers into advocates and promoters of the business.

 

What are the influencing factors?

 

Experience, knowledge, technical skills, and turnover rate of attendants, as well as the level of preparation and training of the customer service team, are the main factors that can influence FCR, alongside wait times and the company’s customer service processes.

Other influencing factors include the availability of information to customers, the complexity of the requests, and also the products and/or services of the company.

The lack of autonomy or expertise of the attendant to resolve the issue is another factor that can impact FCR.

In other words, there are many points that need to be considered when trying to improve your FCR rate. However, the calculation is simple.

 

How to measure this metric?

 

Ideally, to calculate your business’s FCR, you simply divide the number of resolutions on the first contact by the total number of requests.

For example, if you received 100 requests in one month, and resolved 70 of them on the first contact, your company’s FCR rate would be 70%.

But how do you know if the customer’s issue was resolved on the first contact? One idea would be to ask the customer in the satisfaction survey at the end of the service whether their issue was resolved. But what if most customers tend to disconnect before answering the satisfaction survey?

Assuming a person doesn’t rest until their problem is solved, and based on our practical observations, most call centers measure FCR by the callback within 24 hours. That is, if the customer doesn’t call back within 24 hours through any service channel, it’s considered a resolution on the first contact.

With all this information, you will have a real scenario of your FCR rate.

 

How to increase your FCR?

 

Now that you know what it is, why measure it, the advantages, the influencing factors, and how to measure it, here’s how to increase your FCR.

 

Invest in self-service

Constantly update and revisit your FAQs and also your website and social media with explanatory content to make it easier for customers to access information and understand your products and/or services. Investing in conversational bots like chatbots and voicebots can also speed up service and avoid the need for human intervention.

 

Train your attendants

Your human attendants should have a comprehensive understanding of the purpose, products, and/or services offered by the company. No matter how complex the customer’s problem or question is, the team should be prepared. Additionally, attendants should understand that, if the bot can’t resolve the issue, they are the last stop for the customer.

 

Map unresolved contacts

After at least a month of analysis, it’s essential to identify the requests that couldn’t be solved on the first contact and the reasons why. With this information, you can feed your human attendants and also your service bots.

 

Track results

Analyze the results monthly and make the optimizations and changes necessary to constantly improve your FCR rate. Remember, new and unexpected customer issues may arise. If that doesn’t happen, it means you’ve succeeded in your strategy, and it’s time to not only serve but delight your customers.

What do you think of our article? We hope you enjoyed it!

Now, let’s get to work! Use our valuable tips to measure and optimize your business’s FCR rate, for exceptional customer service.

 

Thank you for reading. See you next time!

Also read: Bots for customer service: Why add a voicebot to your business?