What does first contact resolution (FCR) entail?
First contact resolution (FCR) is a metric that assesses how frequently customers’ questions are answered following their initial phone call, email, text message or chat with your company’s customer service representatives.
It gives insight into how effectively your business responds to the problems faced by your clients.
First contact resolution analyzes your success across all channels, not only phone, in contrast to “first call resolution”, a comparable indicator.
What percentage of first contacts are resolved?
When calculating FCR, divide the total number of client cases by the number of instances that were resolved at the initial contact:
[% of first contact resolution] = [total number of customer inquiries over the same time period] x 100 / [number of customer inquiries resolved on first contact within a specific time period]
You should make sure you’re keeping track of how frequently customers’ inquiries are answered on the first contact and how many inquiries you receive overall in order to collect the information required for this equation.
One way to determine that is to conduct a survey of consumers to see if their problems were remedied when they contacted customer service. You might also keep note of how frequently the same customers contacted your support team with similar inquiries or how frequently your first- or second-tier support staff had to escalate customer issues.
Every organization has a different definition of FCR success.
According to research, the norm for most businesses is an FCR rate between 70 and 75 percent. Nevertheless, that figure may vary greatly based on the nature of your good or service.
Your support staff may have to handle more inbound queries if you provide a highly customized product, for example, where it’s challenging to provide “standard” customer assistance resources or self-service solutions.
It can require more interactions than usual to handle a case if your support staff is handling specialized issues.
Every firm has a distinct definition of FCR success, but it is undeniable that a better FCR corresponds to higher total customer satisfaction.
A decent FCR rate is what?
The industry average places a healthy FCR rate between 70 and 75 percent, which means that 25 to 30 percent of your customer conversations can be classified as repeat calls.
Generally speaking, the better, the higher the FCR rate. The first step in improving FCR is to perform a root cause analysis. In order to fix the issue proactively for subsequent interactions, you must pinpoint the precise reason why clients aren’t receiving a resolution during the initial interaction.
You can follow the instructions listed below:
Find out what motivates continued contact. After contacting your team, are there any particular steps, product features, or challenges that customers still don’t understand? Or do customers make follow-up calls after using a certain channel, such as after using a bot to troubleshoot a problem? In order to deliver a more seamless experience moving forward, understanding where customers aren’t getting their questions answered will be crucial.
Clarify what you’re saying. Is there language in your message that is too complex, ambiguous, or unclear? Keep in mind that being clear is kind, and err on the side of caution. Direct instructions and clear resolution pathways for your clients will assist reduce frustration and difficulties later on.
Enhance the support staff’s training in customer service. If clients feel misunderstood or unheard after dealing with your staff, there probably isn’t a consensus on how to handle typical problems. Make sure you regularly review training and provide your staff with the internal materials and tools they require to provide the best possible customer service by utilizing your FCR data.
For your consumers, build up your knowledge base. Your clients are smart; they can typically troubleshoot problems on their own. Create easily accessible tools that provide your clients with the information they need by knowing the statistics on the topics they ask about most frequently.
Make sure there are several possible solutions. Provide a number of support options for your customers across a range of channels (phone, email, text, chat, video, self-service, etc.).
How crucial is first contact resolution?
Your clients are more likely to become irate the lower your FCR rate is. Reduced customer satisfaction and net promoter scores result from this, in addition to the feared customer turnover.
Your customer support personnel will operate more productively and be able to assist more customers during the course of a day if customer issues are resolved at the point of initial contact. Additionally, a culture like this one promotes staff retention and lowers burnout rates by making customer service representatives feel competent, valued, and empowered.
It’s more likely that both your customers and staff will feel taken care of by your company if your FCR rate is higher.
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