The term is almost self-explanatory, but it’s fair to say that few things are as simple in practice as they sound in theory. All the same, a first call resolution definition is easy to formulate.
If a customer calls for support and their issue is resolved without the need for any additional calls, your customer service agent has achieved first call resolution.
It’s a customer service performance metric that matters, not only because support calls tie up business resources, but because it impacts customer satisfaction.
Place yourself in your customers’ shoes. They’ve probably been through all the self-help resources before they make a call. When they do, they’re hoping their issue can be sorted out right away. They don’t want to call you again, and they’d prefer not to wait for a callback.
Example of First Call Resolution
Today, 50 clients called customer support because they were struggling to use the software you sold them. Forty of them were able to solve their issues after talking to support once. Ten of them got the same information, but failed to overcome the obstacle and had to call back. This example gives you a first call resolution (FCR) score of 80 percent.
What’s a Good FCR Score and Should You Seek Improvement?
How is first call resolution calculated? As we can see from our example, it’s a simple matter of calculating a percentage. Now that you have one, the next question is what you should do with it. And of course, the answer is “improve!”
According to first call resolution industry standards, a score of 70-79 percent is acceptable, so we might feel that our 80 percent score is rather good. However, customer satisfaction is closely tied to first call resolution. An 80 percent score tells you that 20 percent of your clients didn’t achieve the satisfaction they were seeking. It is a good score, but it can be better. 20 percent of your clients would agree with that statement.
As for scores below 70 percent, first call resolution is below-average, so it’s imperative to find out why your score is low and work to improve it. The bottom line? Unless your FCR is close to a hundred percent, it’s time to find out why and determine what you should do about it.
First Call Resolution Best Practices
The first place to look for ways to improve first call resolution is to examine your customer support agents’ approach to calls and offer training. You can analyse interactions and see whether they met the requirements for first call resolution best practice, namely:
- They gained a full understanding of the customer’s needs – a process that may require further questioning.
- They told customers what to expect. For example, if they have to leave a customer on hold while they contact other departments or check customer status, they didn’t just leave the customer talking to an unmanned phone.
- If hold times began to stretch, they told customers what they were doing and why it necessitated a wait.
- They spoke calmly and authoritatively, helping customers to trust them and rely on the process being followed.
- They only gave information when they were certain about it
- After they gave their recommendations, your support agents checked whether the issue had been resolved.
FCR Issues? Be Ready to Critically Examine Your Product
Knowing how to improve first call resolution may mean taking a critical look at your product. There’s an elephant or at least, a very large hamster, in the room. What if neither customers nor call agents are to blame for low levels of first call resolution?
If your agents are receiving a high volume of calls related to a single issue, there’s a chance that your product isn’t as user-friendly as you thought it was – even if support is achieving a good first call resolution rate. Always be ready to consider metrics that go beyond FCR and look at the reasons why customer support calls are being received in the first place.
How to Improve First Call Resolution
Before you start looking for areas for improvement, begin by listening to the calls themselves. Now, consider these options for FCR improvement and highlight the ones you believe are likely to make a difference:
- Train your agents. Find out whether they lack technical expertise or need general customer support agent skills. Tailor your training accordingly.
- Empower your agents. If they need to ask for permissions or wait for colleagues to follow up on customer requests, it may be time to give them direct access to the information they need.
- Improve your self-help resources. Most customers would prefer to find answers themselves. Are your resources optimised for relevant query keywords and easy to find?
- Provide access to customer profiles. Your support agents can better help customers when they have information on their customer journeys. For example, are they talking to a new customer or an established one? The latter may have a greater need for advanced support, while the former may need nothing more than it takes to navigate basics.
- Be where your customers are. Adopt an omnichannel approach so that you can talk to customers from an informed perspective no matter which platforms they are using. Encourage voice calls. Oftentimes, text communication lacks the give-and-take to resolve customer issues quickly and on first contact.
- Use skills-based call routing. Consider training agents in specific areas. For example, you may have technical help desks and billing help desks. Customers are generally happy to respond to a simple call menu that can direct them to specialised agents. This could mean that you have an improved chance of achieving first call resolution.
- Examine customer intent and scenarios. Of course, there will always be times when people need a little help. But if you’re seeing similar scenarios playing out repeatedly, there may be deeper issues to contend with. For example, are confusing user-faced features leading to support enquiries?
Want to Improve FCR? Put RSVP to the Test
There are many disadvantages to using in-house call centres. You may have difficulty with scaling your service, leaving employees idle at times, while at others, clients spend so long on hold that they give up.
Besides this, it takes time to recruit, train and manage customer service agents. Overseeing this distracts you from your core business.
In-house call agents aren’t necessarily objective. They may feel that telling you about customer issues would be problematic for them or they might think that customer expectations are unrealistic.
We will be honest: there are some terrible outsourced customer service call centres out there. We’re sure you’ve experienced them. But here’s our promise.
RSVP begins with in-house equivalence. And that’s just a starting-point. Call us today to find out how our team can take your customer service to the next level.