Sixty-six percent of consumers globally switched brands due to poor customer service in 2014, and about 82 percent of those who switched said that the brands could have done something to stop them. Global Consumer Pulse Survey, November 2013

When your contact center offers multi-channel communication, keeping customers satisfied on all channels is a must. Whatever the channel, First Contact Resolution (FCR) is the kind of service customers want nowadays….”One call, live chat, SMS text, or email and I’m done!”

“It is worth keeping in mind that a customer who called first-time round may not want to call again if they weren’t satisfied, and may instead use email, social media or chat. By adopting a multiple touch-point approach to measuring first contact resolution, it is possible to get a true picture of how satisfied your contact center is leaving customers.” David Ford, Managing Director at Magnetic North

First Contact Resolution across all channels will be a game-changer for many contact centers in 2015. It will require innovative customer service and support. Meeting this challenge should surely be a part of your customer support/contact center team’s 2015 New Year’s resolutions. It’s not too late to start doing something about it.

Making the Case for First Contact Resolution

Service Quality Measurement (SQM) Group has been conducting call center benchmarking studies since 1996. After surveying over 1,000,000 customers who called a call center and 25,000 employees who work in call centers, they determined, “The metric we believe is most important for measuring and managing call center customer service and cost performance is FCR.”

Other key findings and relevant statistics coming out of their research, primarily related to live calls, include:

  • 32% of customers have to call back to get their inquiry or problem resolved
  • Only 5% of the call centers benchmarked by SQM are at the world class FCR rating of 80% or higher. Achieving 80% or higher FCR rating typically results in an average of 1.2 calls needed to resolve a customer’s inquiry or problem
  • The call center industry average for resolution is 1.4 calls; if your resolution rate is this high or higher, lowering it represents an enormous opportunity to reduce operating cost
  • If the customer’s inquiry or problem is resolved in the first call, only 1% of those customers are at risk to go to your competitors. Conversely, 15% of customers who did not get their inquiry or problem resolved are likely to go to your competitors
  • FCR increases the customer cross-selling acceptance rate by 20%. If the CSR cross-sells before the inquiry or problem is resolved, the fundamental customer relationship is undermined
  • Employee and customer satisfaction correlation is positively linked for high performing centers and negatively linked for low-performing centers
  • Call centers with high employee satisfaction also have high FCR. Conversely, centers with low employee satisfaction have low FCR
    • The stress is very high on the employee who handles the second and third call from a customer whose issue wasn’t resolved the first time
    • Improving FCR improves both customer and employee satisfaction

Customers most at risk of going to competitors are those who have unresolved inquiries or problems after 2 contacts. The loss of these customers can have the biggest impact on the contact center’s financial performance. Most contact centers are not aware how much revenue they are losing as a result of the customers’ inquiries or problems going unresolved. Nor do they realize the impact FCR has on customer retention and cross-selling.

The effectiveness of live support (live chat) is without question another instance where first “interaction” resolution is happening thousands of time each day. Statistics show it’s one of the reasons people keep coming back to a particular website or product, because they can get immediate answers, often mid-stream in a transaction.  Now that’s cool! Email and SMS text also fall under contacts. Although the instantaneousness of email might not be as present with a live call, chat or text, resolution in the first communication is also beneficial.

Assessing Your FCR and Areas of Possible Improvement

Many contact centers struggle with determining their FCR performance. Primarily, they find it difficult to define and then accurately measure FCR across channels. SQM’s study revealed that call centers are inconsistent in defining FCR and the methods they use to measure it. For example, one center reduced Average Handling Time significantly by using automated knowledgebase and support software that makes it easier for agents to resolve issues themselves. However, fast talk time averages accompanied by poor first contact resolution rates are a sign that customer calls are not being answered satisfactorily. Choose the measuring method most suitable for your center and start monitoring to determine whether or not your agents are solving customer issues appropriately the first time.

Improvement Strategies

Management must be committed to improving FCR and view it as the most important metric being tracked and acted upon. All levels of employees must be aware of why it is important to improve FCR and their own performance. Everyone should be held accountable for FCR.

  • Ask the customer if the problem has been resolved &/or use internal/external surveys to identify improvement opportunities.
  • Conduct post-contact IVR surveys where customers can answer honestly.
  • Capture the “No’s.” Determine what the scenarios are where agents have to say “no” and work to improve processes in these areas.
  • Training is key. Ensure agents are well trained and fully versed on company products and policies. Cross train reps on various channels.
  • Empower and train agents to deal with different customer personality types and to go the extra mile to resolve issues. Customers will rave about customer service if they feel they were treated well, even if their problem wasn’t resolved.
  • Make key information/data widely available and easily accessible to agents.
  • Initiate departmental integration that will enable single contact resolution.
  • Assess your technology and what upgrades could do to help. For example, intelligent skills-based routing can match customer &/or call type with the individual who has the information/skill to satisfy the customer.
  • Have your staff “mystery shop” your center, then report back on experience and findings.
  • Have agents observe, score and mentor one another. Giving poor customer service to a faceless customer is easier than doing in front of peers.
  • Constantly track and monitor unresolved issues. FCR is one of the most critical key performance indicators (KPIs) for the quality of the customer experience, as well as an organization’s overall operational efficiency. Attach KPI’s to these metrics.
  • Watch for agent complacency. New agents often do a better job of FCR than seasoned reps. They are more vigilant in their work. Managing the “old guard” can prove more challenging.

Summary

FCR is highly correlated to customer satisfaction. In fact, FCR is the highest correlated metric to customer satisfaction of all the call center metrics. The absence of FCR is the biggest driver of customer dissatisfaction. For every 1% improvement in FCR, you get a 1% improvement in customer satisfaction. In summary, aside from just being a trend, improving your FCR:

  • Reduces operating costs
  • Adds value to your customers
  • Returns trust to “at risk” customers
  • Builds great brand image for your product/company
  • Increases sale opportunities