What Is The First Call Resolution and Why Is It Important?

Have you ever waited on a customer care line to have your problem fixed and just to be transferred to another agent, or have you ever been kept on hold while the agent tried to solve your issue? You probably have. It is not an ideal situation, but it is common in customer support. 

In order to eliminate this problem, businesses have started incorporating First Call Resolution (FCR). The first call resolution is an ideal process through which a number of customer call issues are solved on the first interaction. This is a great way to increase positive customer experience as it provides various benefits, such as lower operational costs, increased customer loyalty, improved efficiency, and more. 

In this blog, we will discuss the importance of first call resolution (FCR), its challenges, and strategies for improving FCR.

Let’s get started!!! 😀

First Call Resolution (FCR): why is it important?

FCR, more commonly known as first call resolution, is a process through which the number of customer call issues resolved is calculated. This can be done via chats, calls, or even emails. FCR is a great way to monitor employees’ productivity through customer experience. 

It is entirely different from other customer service metrics as it prioritizes solving the issue on the first try. Unlike other customer support metrics like Average Response Time (ART), FCR values quality over speed.

 It tries to address customers’ issues regardless of the time taken. First Call resolution impacts decisions made by teams and affects planning and staffing decisions. It focuses on resolving the problem during the first interaction, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty, and providing high-quality customer service. The following are the reasons why the first-call resolution is essential.

1. Good FCR helps to retain customers.
2. It helps to maximize the employee’s productivity.
3. First-call resolution (FCR) increases and provides better customer service.
4. Good FCR reduces operational costs. 
5. FCR builds a positive brand reputation.
6. Good FCR provides valuable insights on customer issues and areas of improvement.

🔖Also read:  Preventing Call Center Burnout: Effective Tips and Strategies

Benefits of First Call Resolution

Here are some of the benefits of First Call Resolution.

1. Improved customer satisfaction

A successful first call resolution (FCR) can increase customer satisfaction by addressing effective solutions to customer issues. When you solve customer issues during the first interaction and eliminate any follow-up calls, it can lead to a positive customer experience.  This way, businesses can build better and stronger relationships with their customers by minimizing customer frustration. 

2. Improved customer experience

When you solve a customer’s issue on the first call, it creates a positive experience for them. First-call resolution makes customers feel understood when they ask for help and get immediate support. It is a good way to reduce customer frustration as agents get back to customers as quickly as possible with effective solutions, improving the overall customer experience.

3. Improved efficiency

First-call resolution is a great way to improve business efficiency as it reduces repeated contact with customers, saving both the agent’s and customer’s time. With fewer repeated calls, employees can handle more issues, resulting in an overall increase in organizational efficiency and productivity.  FCR enhances the organization’s efficiency overall by maximizing the use of available resources and allowing organizations to improve their support and delivery teams.  

4. Reduced cost

Implementing FCR into your customer support metric could be a great way to reduce cost. When issues are resolved quickly, the interaction time is reduced, minimizing the operational cost. Also, when problems are solved timely, agents are able to interact with more customers, saving time and resources. With the help of first-call resolution, businesses are able to save big bucks while providing quality service.

5. Increased productivity

When there are fewer call volumes to handle, it automatically increases productivity as FCR minimizes follow-up calls. As agents are reducing call time and volume by effectively handling issues, they are able to assist more customers in less time, increasing productivity for both the agent and the organization. It. It also reduces agents’ downtime and improves task completion rate as there are fewer issues to be solved.

Challenges in Achieving First Call Resolution

The following are the challenges affecting First Call Resolution.

I. Lack of agent training

Lack of agent training can negatively impact customer expectations as an organization lacks agents with proper training to handle customers and their issues. It is very important to provide effective training to agents with appropriate skills and knowledge. Without proper training, agents waste so much time, achieving absolutely nothing. To overcome the lack of training, organizations must prioritize training and development to empower agents with efficiency and a higher knowledge drive.

II. Unrealistic Customer Expectations

Frequently, agents are expected to cater to customer’s unrealistic expectations. This can often result in miscommunicating, misunderstanding, bad reviews, etc, reducing the brand’s image. Setting unrealistic industry expectations can result in lower FCR rates and create a negative customer experience. To avoid these complications, brands must provide transparency over the products they sell and set clear expectations about their product and services.

III. High call volume

Large call volume is one of the major challenges in customer support. Whenever a call center experiences a high volume of calls,  it can lead to agencies experiencing stress and burnout. This can reduce agent’s productivity and availability, resulting in higher wait times. To avoid this from happening, businesses must invest heavily in staffing and technology to provide customers with smooth call flow and timely replies.

IV. Poor communication

A lack of proper communication can limit customers from accessing agents in their time of need.  This can result in a negative customer experience. Improper and unclear communication can lead to misunderstanding, unclear instruction, decreased productivity, etc, all resulting in poor FCR rates and unsatisfied customers. 

In order to prevent this, various communication development programs and tools, such as call recording and monitoring, must be implemented. 

V. Lack of automated and advanced technology 

A lack of advanced technology can limit data accessibility, limiting the ability to understand the customer and their preference, ultimately reducing the FCR rate. It increases manual labor without automated tools, and agents are likely to manually input data, increasing the chances of error. Lack of advanced technology limits integration, preventing seamless communication and a lack of customer experience. To avoid this issue, businesses must invest properly in automated and advanced technology, enabling CRM systems, chatbots, instant replies, etc, and ultimately increasing customer satisfaction.

Strategies for Enhancing Your First Call Resolution Rate

The following are the strategies for enhancing your first call resolution rate.

1. Empowering your support team

Empowering your support team could be a great way to enhance your FCR rate. It provides guidance on how to handle any issues regarding customer support. With proper empowerment, agents can have clear access to a database, allowing real-time insight into customer behavior. Providing regular training, investing in technology, etc., can all empower your support team, leading to more engaged and satisfied customers. 

2. Identifying weak spots

Analyzing and finding weak spots could be a great way to enhance your company’s FCR rate, as it promotes growth and success. By identifying areas of improvement and working on them, businesses can provide better customer satisfaction and enhance sustainable development. This approach also offers operational efficiency, as it streamlines all areas of improvement. Companies should invest heavily in training staff, coaching regularly, and cross-checking employees to ensure improved productivity and customer service. 

3. Using automation technology

Using automated technology, such as chatbots, Virtual Response (VR), IVR systems, etc., in your customer support can vastly change how you operate a business. Implementing chatbots and VR in your support system can give your customers instant replies, saving time and resources. It reduces wait time and improves the FCR rate by resolving issues immediately. By implementing newer automated technology, businesses can streamline workflow and minimize wait time, enhancing the overall customer experience.

4. Focusing and catering to improve customer experience

While running a business, your primary focus should always be to cater to the customer.  In order to focus on and improve customer experience, companies should invest in agent training and create a customer-centric culture. Creating a customer-centric culture enhances customer experiences and loyalty as it caters more to what customers really want and need. Catering specifically to the customer needs improves customer satisfaction, overall increasing the FCR rate. 

5. Providing multichannel communication

Multichannel communication is an important factor in business as it creates better interaction with customers through various communication channels. It ensures smooth and seamless communication through integration with multiple communication media, such as email, phone, chats, etc. This way, data can be synced across multiple platforms, and businesses can leverage it.  Multichannel communication enables real-time communication through live chats and virtual messages to ensure immediate assistance. 

6. Training and development

Investing in training and development technologies is an effective way to enhance your FCR rate. Proper and effective training can increase and improve an agent’s efficiency and performance. Businesses should provide regular training in problem-solving, stress-controlling, communication, product and development, etc., to empower agents and help them achieve their targets. This is a great way to get business on the right track and deliver top-notch customer service. 

7. Real-time assistance

Providing immediate customer assistance is a great way to enhance the first call resolution rate. In order to provide real-time assistance, businesses must implement different technologies such as chatbots, social media messaging, live chats, etc. These technologies can help provide immediate and effective support to the customer, overall increasing the FCR and customer satisfaction rate. 

Measuring and Monitoring First Call Resolution

First call resolution (FCR) is calculated by multiplying the exact number of customer call issues that were solved on the first contact by the total number of customer call issues divided by 100. Businesses can calculate their FCR rate using different measures, as there are different ways in which businesses calculate their first call resolution rate. The most frequently used methods are listed below, which different organizations can use to estimate their FCR rate.

1. Call survey
2. Customer callback
3. Call analysis
4. Call transfer rate
5. Customer satisfaction score

By implementing these essential methods, businesses can get insights into what they really need to improve. This way, they can find their weak point and work on it. Analyzing and monitoring the key methods can help businesses track their performance. Surveys and call analysis can give you accurate results on why or how the problem wasn’t solved. This way, the organization can track employee’s performances as well. 

Conclusion

To sum it up, having a good first-call resolution can be a valuable asset in an organization as it can help businesses achieve higher e customer satisfaction rates and work accordingly to achieve it. It helps businesses solve customer call issues on the first contact, eliminating any follow-up calls. 

Having a proper FCR will ensure customers with a positive and personalized experience. We encourage every business to implement first-call resolution into their customer support method in their business setting to achieve positive reviews.

FAQs

What’s the difference between call resolution and first call resolution (FCR)?

First-call resolution refers to solving customer issues on the first contact, whereas call resolution refers to solving customer issues in general. 

Why is a good first-call resolution rate important for business success?

A good first-call resolution rate is essential for business success, as it can increase customer satisfaction, leading to more customer recommendations.

How To Measure First Call Resolution?

To measure the First Call Resolution(FCR), you need to divide the number of customer queries resolved on first contact by the total number of interactions you had and multiply it by 100.

What’s a good FCR rate?

A good rate for FCR (First Call Resolution) is around 70%-75%.