First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a critical metric for an outsourced help desk. It measures your ability to resolve a customer issue in one interaction. Gaining a high score in this area improves your customer satisfaction rate and improves your brand image.
In this article, we’ll look at actionable ways to improve your results in this area.
What Is First Contact Resolution?
As the name suggests, this measures your ability to resolve a query at the first point of contact. The idea is that there is no need for any follow-up action.
Why Is FCR So Important?
There are several reasons to improve your score in this area, namely:
· Better Customer Satisfaction
· Higher Cost Efficiency
· Improved Customer Loyalty
· Higher Operational Efficiency
How to Measure This Metric
There are several measures you can use such as the:
· First-Contact Measurement: This details how many calls you deal with during the initial contact. It’s important here to also note that a query shouldn’t be marked closed unless the customer agrees it can be. If they have to call back for another explanation, it’s not an FCR.
· The Multi-Contact Measurement: This explains how many queries took two or more interactions to resolve.
· Customer Effort Score: Namely how difficult it was for them to resolve issues.
· Net Promotor Score: While not directly related, you may be able to glean information about why customers don’t want to recommend your company, and these may relate to the call center.
Discover the Common Challenges
It’s worthwhile reviewing your support structure and processes to see if there are any barriers preventing FCR. These could include poor training, knowledge gaps, and workflow inefficiencies.
Create a Plan to Improve
Now that you understand the challenges, you can work out how to overcome them. Get your team to work with you to identify and change inefficiencies and training needs. You can then embark on a skills development and workflow optimization program that makes a significant difference.
Some training areas to consider include empathetic communication, problem-solving, and active listening skills. These will all help your consultants establish the root cause of the issues more effectively.
Embark in a Process of Continuous Improvement
Ask your consultants and customers to give you feedback on the new service and review your progress based on the KPIs. This allows you to make timely course corrections. Encourage your consultants to take a more proactive role in identifying challenges and give them some leeway to enact workable solutions.
When someone comes up with a great idea, reward them accordingly. Finally, never see the process as completely finished. There’s always room for improvement, especially as technology advances and the customer needs change.
Conclusion
Improving first contact resolution rates benefits your company by improving customer satisfaction and loyalty and reducing costs. By only dealing with a particular query once, you avoid duplicated efforts and wasting the time of your client and consultants.
When it comes to improving in this area, your frontline team and customers are your most valuable sources of information, so don’t leave them out of the process!
