First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a call center metric. It measures the ability of the agents to resolve a customer’s issue on the very first contact. Despite the name, the term is often used interchangeably with First Call Resolution which identifies the same only for telephony channels.
If a customer calls again in regards to the same issue, it denotes that the agent failed to resolve the problem in the first attempt. This is an indicator of the customer’s experience with the company. In fact, popular research shows that around 93% of customers expect their issue to be resolved in the first contact especially if it's a phone call. The expectation varies from channel to channel. No customer wants to face a recurring issue and contact support. Hence, it is important to measure FCR to understand how satisfied your customers are at the very instance of contact.
The calculation of the First Contact Resolution rate is done by dividing the number of customer issues resolved by the number of customer inquiries registered.
First Contact Resolution is an impactful metric to track especially when you are a customer-focused enterprise. It allows you to improve customer satisfaction, increase advocacy, reduce costs, and essentially retain customers who are facing issues.
The FCR is dependent on the agent’s excellence in handling tickets. A proper helpdesk system allows agents to swiftly manage their tickets and address them ardently.
When a ticket is resolved at once, fewer resources are wasted in resolving that ticket again. Resources can be agent time, talk time credits, and other things.
Customer wants value for their money. If a customer has a problem and it isn’t even resolved in the first contact, chances are they will be repelled by the service. You can reduce churn when the customer is satisfied in the very first contact.
Customers who experience steady service and get their issues resolved on time are more like to promote the brand in their social circle. It helps in improving the Net Promoter Score.
Every time an agent successfully closes a ticket, their productivity increases. Agents are more satisfied when they are doing well at their jobs.
Customers are often pleased when their queries are resolved in the first contact itself. It builds trust for the company. This results in the customers renewing their subscriptions or purchasing again from the brand.