What is first call resolution?

How to measure first contact resolution rate? 

FCR enables businesses to reduce operating costs, increases opportunities to sell and boosts customer experiences. 

To calculate FCR:

• Track all interactions initiated by customers within a given period such as one month. 

• Highlight all requests an agent solves on the first interactions by tracking all customer affirmations of a resolution. 

• Divide FCR by the total number of calls in a specific time and multiply by 100. 

Here's the formula: Total Resolved Cases / Total Number of Cases x 100

For example, if 40 out of 120 interactions in a month are resolved on first contact, FCR rate will be 33%. 

Accurately measuring FCR in an omnichannel contact center requires the ablity to track a single issue across multiple channels and touch points, tie together disparate contacts, and have visibility and insights into the whole situation. To accomplish this organizations need a performance management system that captures all aspects of the customer journey and the actions taken to address the issue at each step of the process.

Why is first call resolution important?

Measuring FCR informs support agents and leaders on their ability and knowledge to resolve customer issues. 

• Customer retention. FCR improves customer loyalty and confidence in the company. 

• Customer satisfaction. When a business resolves requests swiftly and provides great experiences, customers are likely to make repeat purchases and recommendations.  

• Agent productivity. FCR reduces agents workload as there are fewer repeat contacts for the same problem. This benefit frees up an employee’s time to focus on increasing FCR and performing other vital tasks such as building a knowledge base for self service. 

If contact center managers need to improve FCR, they can identify knowledge base gaps and determine necessary trainings by reviewing conversations. 

What is an ideal first call resolution rate?

Customers want replies to their questions instantly and solutions to their issues on the first attempt. Many customers rank the quality of customer service teams on how fast they can resolve problems. First call resolution industry standards for contact centers are between 70% and 75% across multiple channels, but this can vary depending on your type of service or business.

It’s also important to evaluate FCR in context of other contact center KPIs such as average handling time (AHT) and customer satisfaction.  

What are the challenges of improving first call resolution?

FCR is clearly an essential metric for contact centers. Yet, some customer support teams struggle with high FCR rates. 

Here are common challenges of improving FCR in a contact center:

• Understaffing

• Long hold times 

• High customer attrition rates 

• Inadequate training 

• Lack of agent authority

How to optimize your FCR metrics with performance intelligence tools 

Echo AI empowers managers and employees with realtime dashboards to measure performance and progress effectively for all levels of the organization. Frontline managers can visualize and analyze FCR across service channels and along with other CX metrics, and create strategies to ensure that all contact center metrics align with overall business objectives. 

Learn more about first call resolution tips for your customer support team. Check out our blog.