What is first contact resolution?
First Contact Resolution (FCR): This is an indicator showing the percentage of customer issues resolved during the first contact with the center. Contact centerCalculated as a percentage.
First contact resolution is often confused with first call resolution, as both share the same measurement objective and the same acronym (FCR).
However, first contact resolution is calculated based on statistics from all communication channels (voice, email, social media, etc.) in the contact center. First call resolution is only for the voice channel.
With the development of the Internet, there are more and more channels for customer contact with businesses, which is why it is necessary to measure the ability to solve problems across all contact channels.
Why is FCR important?
FCR is a useful metric for evaluating the effectiveness of a Contact Center. Resolving customer issues completely during the first contact demonstrates the effectiveness and competence of call center agents. Whereas previously, customer care centers often measured interaction effectiveness by complaint handling time, FCR is now used to provide a more accurate assessment.
In fact, if you use FCR and combine it with average processing time (AHT)After categorizing the data according to the most common reasons customers contact the call center, you will see the customer journey interacting with your business and the points of inefficiency.
See also: How to map the customer journey.
FCR calculation formula.
FCR = (Number of issues resolved on first contact / Total number of contacts) X 100
Calculating FCR is relatively straightforward, but how do you know that a customer's issue has actually been resolved?
You can ask the call center agent to note the consultation status on the system or conduct a customer survey after the call. However, this solution does not provide the highest accuracy; sometimes customers respond to the survey that they are satisfied, but issues arise later. Therefore, you can track subsequent contacts from customers and classify whether the issues are recurring or not.
What is a good FCR?
In the Contact Center field, the standard FCR rate typically fluctuates around 65 – 75%So if it's above 75%, that's good, right? Is it suitable for your business?
The answer is that an FCR score above 75% is not necessarily good and suitable for your business. Businesses should not use a universal standard but should customize it to suit their internal needs. You may have a system Self-service Excellent and loved by customers, if that's the case, then the machines are doing the work for you, and you only have to deal with customer issues when they feel the problem is truly difficult. When a customer's problem is very difficult, it also means that your ability to resolve it completely during the first contact will be lower. This means that your FCR will be lower than your competitors if you have a better self-service system than them, but overall, you are still the one with the advantage.
Ultimately, depending on the actual state of business processes, human resources capabilities, and supporting technology, each business will have a different First Contact Resolution rate.
3 Common Mistakes When Using FCR in Contact Centers.
1. Confusing FCR with repeat customer contacts.
As outlined in the FCR measurement guidelines shared by Bellsystem24-Vietnam above, measuring FCR based on the number of times a customer repeats contact is one approach businesses can choose. However, it is important to note that FCR and the number of customer contact repeats are distinct concepts. The number of repeat contacts only reflects and is part of the basis for determining FCR, but it does not encompass it. There will be cases where customers continue to contact you but with completely different issues.
2. FCR measurement is not conducted simultaneously with CSAT.
CSAT: Customer satisfaction level.
Solving a customer's problem does not necessarily mean that the customer is satisfied. Sometimes the actual problem has been resolved, but the customer still rates the quality of their experience poorly. Here, Bellsystem24-Vietnam would like to note that FCR and CSAT must be measured simultaneously. Because the ultimate goal of customer service activities is still customer satisfaction.
3. Don't measure FCR on the first attempt.
Throughout this article, we have mentioned this issue. Measuring FCR during the first contact will lead to inaccuracies in many cases where customers have subsequent issues and continue to seek solutions.
Improve your company's FCR.
Surely every manager wants to increase the problem-solving efficiency of the customer service department and resolve complaints as quickly as possible. First, redefine the root cause of customer complaints and come up with appropriate solutions (objective and subjective).
There are three factors that need to be addressed to improve FCR: Processes, technology, people.
1. Process.
Re-evaluate business processes and ineffective touchpoints that cause problems for customers, forcing them to request support from the company. You can conduct a survey to find out.
Improve your contact center system. Use a combination of IVR and ACD To route calls based on each customer issue to the appropriate support department to increase the likelihood of successful resolution.
2. Technology.
Use smart technologies with high automation capabilities to help customers increase their ability to resolve issues themselves. For example, integration Chatbot In the contact center, customers interact with robots, which understand the issues customers are facing. Speech-to-text and respond by retrieving available data from the CRM, then responding to the customer with Text-to-speech.
You can also see: Automatic switchboard.
3. People.
Invest heavily in the recruitment process, training and regular retraining of Agents to increase their work capacity. Build a standard process for interaction between call center agents and customers with standard service. This is the factor that determines the quality of the Contact center department that you need to invest seriously from the beginning.
Connect with us to build a high quality Contact center for your business.
