The Significance of First Call Resolution
Do you ever feel like working in sales is like swimming through alphabet soup? There are acronyms everywhere, especially when it comes to performance metrics and keeping track of sales progress. You have to keep an eye on your KPIs, including your FCR with help from your CRM, not to mention methods may change depending on if you’re selling B2B or B2C.
With all of these metrics and terms, it can be difficult to prioritize which Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are most important. Research helps us out here by pointing to one particular acronym as critical to customer satisfaction, and that’s your First-Call Resolution, oftentimes referred to as FCR.
What is FCR?
Basically, First-Call Resolution refers to when a customer’s issue or inquiry is solved on the first call or contact. The percentage of those kinds of calls make up your FCR rate, which a MetricNet study showed is strongly positively correlated with customer satisfaction.
There are a few different ways that FCR can be defined and measured. In many cases, it not only refers to the customer’s first call, but can refer to an e-mail, chat message, social media contact, or any other avenue that your company offers for customers or prospects seeking support. So, it is important to differentiate between your First-Call Resolution and your First-Contact Resolution, because those numbers may differ dramatically depending on the nature of your business.
We’ll be focusing on First-Call Resolution, though many of the same caveats and benefits apply for first-contact.
Why Is it Important?
The bottom line is, customers often want their questions answered and problems solved quickly so that they can go on their merry way. And if you respond efficiently, they most likely won’t hesitate to contact you again, and potentially refer you to their friends. Customer satisfaction in and of itself is a powerful marketing tool and a business indicator.
SQM group reports that for every 1% increase in FCR, there is a corresponding 1% increase in customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, FCR also helps provide insight into the productivity of your sales reps. Numbers may not be everything, but if a customer has to call back multiple times about one issue, that may say something about the efficiency of your team, your product, or your sales process.
Measuring your FCR can help to demonstrate how satisfied — or perhaps dissatisfied — that your customers are. Then, you can build strategies and set goals to improve not only your FCR rates but also any other aspects of the sales process that have been a recurring problem for your clients.
What makes a good FCR?
Once you decide to start tracking FCR and you’ve decided how you’re going to calculate it, it’s time to set some goals. Be mindful of any other metrics in place that could inhibit FCR, such as measuring Average Handling Time (AHT). If a rep is too focused on getting the minimum AHT, then that puts FCR on the line, because it may take more than a few minutes to solve the issue at hand.
Most experts also agree that the key to FCR lies in training your reps well. Metricnet’s study on FCR indicated that “the biggest driver of FCR is agent training hours,” with impressive data plots to prove it. Make sure your team is trained to problem-solve, and given the widest knowledge base possible to prevent having to pass it off.
Unified Communications Services recommends using a skills matrix, and creating an understanding of the most frequently asked questions, so that even the newbies can resolve common problems. After all, the more you have to put the customer on hold to find information, or send requests up or down the food chain, the more likely it is that they will simply hang up before the issue is resolved.
Sales reps should also be well trained in personal communications. Give your reps strategies to overcome obstacles like phone anxiety, and to develop “good phone voices.” Teach them tactics that allow them to make a quicker connection with customers over the phone. Pay attention to soft skills like empathy and active listening, which will not only create rapport with the customer but also allow issues or inquiries to be more quickly and thoroughly resolved.
Another key to FCR is making sure you give customers room to respond. This may mean implementing strategies like customer surveys, or it could be as simple as asking, “Have we resolved your issue?” at the end of the call. Questions like “Have I answered your question?” tend to be less abrasive than “Can you rate your service today?” Nikki Nguyen of Jira Service Desk puts it simply: “Don’t mark it resolved until the customer says that it is.”
If you do implement strategies to get customer feedback, which is recommended for maintaining FCR and setting new goals, be sure to pay diligent attention to that feedback. Robert Stanley of Callminer reminds us to “leverage feedback to improve policies,” while we can also use that information to set “realistic customer expectations,” like how long it may actually take for issues to be resolved.
“The only thing we have to fear is a dissatisfied customer” — FCR
But seriously. If you’re looking for a way to improve customer satisfaction, or monitor the efficiency of your team, it may be time for you to take advantage of FCR tracking. Give it a try and monitor the responses that you get from your customers and your team. The results may surprise you.
