First Call Resolution (FCR)

First Call Resolution, abbreviated as FCR, is one of the top-priority parameters in customer support. FCR or First Call Resolution is an instance wherein a customer finds apt answers to their queries or issues within one interaction with a contact center. It is a metric that portrays the number of customers whose queries are resolved at first contact with the support team.

FCR is one of the most important KPIs of a customer support agent as it highlights the:

Effectiveness of support provided
The efficiency of support agents

Improving FCR is one of the biggest challenges of contact centers. One of the crucial steps to improve it is to execute a Root Call Analysis (RCA) of repeated calls. The agents should be well trained before handling customers as training is the key to amplify FCR. For this, each support team member should possess extensive knowledge of the company’s products and services.

Cross-training is also essential for agents in order to solve a wide range of issues. For better results, agents may isolate the most common issues arising from the customer side and highlight it to the higher authority. To increase First Call Resolution optimally, the quality assurance team of a contact center should track unresolved issues constantly. They should arrange call calibration sessions from time to time with the operation team to understand the areas of improvement.

Another effective way that many brands are adopting to enhance FCR is the post-call customer satisfaction survey. A customer satisfaction questionnaire at the end of a concentration can work as a boost to improve FCR. Greater FCR builds a positive mindset among customers, leading them to trust the brand. Also, it develops a thought within customers that the brand cares about their pain points. An ideal combination of all these efforts will definitely improve the FCR of a contact center.

Effectively resolving customer queries in a single go fosters customer loyalty, resulting in a strong and engaged customer base. As consumers today value experiences over other aspects of brand engagement, it is vital for a business to retain a customer base that endorses the brand to potential and prospective audience enhance synonyms

How to Improve First Call Resolution

Research from The Ascent Group shows that 60% of companies that measure FCR for 1+ year report a 1 to 30% improvement in their performance. And that doesn’t even touch on improvements to the customer experience.

The key to improving the first call resolution is vigilance. You must evaluate current FCR, develop achievable goals, and then put a plan into place. After your plan is in place, it’s important to be attentive, measure performance, and track your metrics.

Set Program Goals: Your steering committee should define FCR goals and desired outcomes.

Train your Agents: After setting goals, agent training is the most important step in achieving improved FCR.

Track Performance: Continuously!

Measure on Multiple Channels: A high FCR on phone calls, but a low FCR on chats does not a good overall FCR make. Make sure you’re measuring across all contact channels.

Develop Incentive Programs: Agent incentive plans encourage agents to work harder to resolve issues the first time.

Set Realistic Customer Expectations: Updated wait times, backlog reports, monitored turnaround – this helps set realistic customer expectations. So they’re not expecting resolution in a day, when the standard is, say, a week.

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