The Role of First-Call-Resolution in Customer Satisfaction

There is an obvi­ous and unde­ni­able cor­re­la­tion between First-Call-Resolution (FCR) and cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion. When one goes up – the other fol­lows. Unfor­tu­nately the oppo­site is also true. When one per­cent­age goes down so does the other. Suc­cess­ful call cen­ter man­agers closely mon­i­tor FCR and are quick to make adjust­ments when the met­ric starts to decline.

12% of cus­tomers leave if it takes 2 or more calls to resolve their issue. icmi.com

Listed below are 5 com­pelling rea­sons why FCR is impor­tant to your center’s success.

1. Increased Cus­tomer Sat­is­fac­tion. When cus­tomer issues are resolved quickly and cor­rectly the first time, cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion increases. When cus­tomers are happy with a prod­uct or ser­vice they share the news with friends and family.
2. Reduced Oper­at­ing Costs. Increas­ing FCR reduces call cen­ter oper­at­ing costs by decreas­ing the num­ber of cus­tomers that need to call back because their issue was not resolved the first time.
3. Reduced Employee Turnover. It is very stress­ful to han­dle a sec­ond or third call from a cus­tomer whose issue was not resolved the first time. Employ­ees who are able to resolve a cus­tomer issue the first time feel good about them­selves and the com­pany. Increas­ing FCR boosts employee con­fi­dence and low­ers employee turnover which decreases oper­at­ing costs.
4. Increased Cross-Sell & Upsell Oppor­tu­ni­ties. Cus­tomers who expe­ri­ence FCR are open to hear­ing about addi­tional prod­ucts or ser­vices that may ben­e­fit them. Encour­age agents to cap­i­tal­ize on this oppor­tu­nity and sug­gest prod­ucts or ser­vices to com­pli­ment the customer’s prior pur­chases.
   

For every 1% improve­ment in FCR, you get a 1% improve­ment in cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion. sqmgroup.com

Improv­ing your center’s first-call-resolution per­for­mance will pro­vide many short term and long term ben­e­fits. To read more on this topic please select one of the below links:

Inspired to make changes? Smart man­agers know the key to sus­tained first-call-resolution improve­ments is to invest in train­ing their employ­ees to achieve first call res­o­lu­tion. Skilled employ­ees who have acquired exten­sive prod­uct and ser­vice knowl­edge as well as supe­rior com­mu­ni­ca­tions skills will increase FCR and dif­fer­en­ti­ate your com­pany from com­peti­tors. To learn more about our com­pre­hen­sive train­ing pro­grams fol­low the below links:

Cus­tomer Ser­vice Train­ing for Tech­ni­cal Sup­port Technicians

Cus­tomer Ser­vice Train­ing for Con­tact Cen­ter Agents

Cus­tomer Ser­vice Train­ing for Field Ser­vice Engineers