Lisbon, Portugal, 16th July 2008 – Contact Center management needs to find innovative ways to track, control and improve FCR rates, treating the issue as the critical competitive differentiator that it has become in an uncertain economic climate, according to “Boosting First Contact Resolution with Best Practices and Technology Solutions” the new, Altitude Software-sponsored report from independent market research and consultancy company The PELORUS Group. Altitude Software is a leading independent contact center solutions vendor.
The report unveils how to combine best practices and state-of-the-art technology solutions to monitor, evaluate and improve First Contact Resolution rates in the contact centres. FCR is becoming a priority for contact centers worldwide for its growing preeminence as a key performance yardstick to customer satisfaction and lower operating costs.
The report emphasizes that improving FCR requires a combination of process actions, agent empowerment and key technology deployments. According to the research, “…Software solutions support FCR improvements in several ways;
– by encouraging self-service,
– by intelligently routing calls to agents most qualified to handle them,
– by presenting agents with a complete contact history and other pertinent date when the call arrives,
– by presenting agents with an easily accessible and up-to-date knowledge base.
– by automating email response,
– by expediting the process through integrated work flows and collaboration tools.”
“There are a growing number of technology resources management can deploy in order to track, control and increase levels of the one measure that most directly impacts customer satisfaction: first contact resolution”, states author Dick Bucci, Senior Consultant for The PELORUS Group. “And in the actual market context, Altitude Software is a case in point, since the company invests and has created innovative software solutions, such as its Altitude IP Contact Center suite, that have driven FCR rates increase in its clients and helped them getting to the root causes of bottlenecks that created call backs.”
Case in Point: Optima Communications
A case in point in this report is Optima Communications, a Canadian contact center outsourcer specialized in customer relationship optimization, that has experienced a strong increase in its First Contact Resolution (FCR) rate after deploying the Altitude Software’s IP Contact Center suite at its locations. The company prides itself on close working relationships with long standing customers. It has two contact centers with 300 agent positions each.
“The First Contact Resolution rates are a top priority with our clients. We measure it in three ways. Through post-call surveys, ACD records examination for calls to or from the same number in a short period of time, and by instructing the agents to ask the callers if their question was satisfactorily answered at the end of the contact”, explained Elizabeth Sedlacek, Business Development Director for Optima Communications. “The Altitude solution helped Optima achieve its FCR targets by intelligent call routing and providing contact history at the agent desktop. Moreover, as an outsourcer, we needed separate knowledge bases for each one of our major clients and the Altitude suite enabled us to do so. At the same time, it provided us with an innovative technology solution that increased our productivity and service levels”.
Miguel Lopes, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for Altitude Software, comments: “Creating a First Call Resolution oriented contact center is a need, more than just a “nice-to-have” and is becoming a top priority for contact centers globally. As the Pelorus Group report states, it is possible to achieve high FCR rates based on cost-effective, state of the art solutions that improve the costumer care service at both the reactive and the proactive level. Altitude has developed leading edge solutions to drive this main business goal and to assist contact centers in embracing market change, profit from virtualization and focus on their business rather than on the infrastructure.”
