Getting It Right the First Time –
Defining and Measuring First Call Resolution
By Penny Reynolds
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Ask any contact center professional what their center’s goals are and you are likely going to get some mix of these three stakeholder objectives:
- Improve customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty
- Improve efficiency/reduce costs
- Improve employee satisfaction/retention
These are common goals regardless of the type and size of center that you operate.
here are two basic areas to address that impact all three of the above objectives. First, proper workforce management has to be in place to ensure there are the right number of people in place at the right times to handle the contact workload. Proper staffing levels ensure enough agents are in place to deliver timely service to customers while still keeping an eye on the bottom-line costs. Effective staffing and scheduling also ensures the staff has reasonable work schedules and are neither overworked or sitting idle with nothing to do. The principles of proper workforce management have to be in place for a contact center to address the needs and concerns of customers, senior management, and employees.
The other factor that can influence all three of the above objectives – customer satisfaction, operating costs, and employee satisfaction – is an important metric called First Call Resolution (FCR). There have been numerous studies done that show that FCR is the single metric in the contact center that has the highest correlation rate with customer satisfaction, as well as with cost per call. Turning attention to this metric and working to improve it can have positive results for all three stakeholder groups.
The Metric That Matters
One could argue that FCR could be the contact center’s most important metric. However, there are many centers that do not employ or focus on this metric, as they should. Even though it’s important, it’s not nearly as easy to measure as some of the other metrics that call center management has relied upon for years as their driving force. Many centers focus on service level, abandon rates, average handle time, and other measures – perhaps because they are simply easier to measure. But just because you can measure something doesn’t mean that you should. And just because you should measure something (like FCR) doesn’t mean that you can measure it – at least easily.
Unfortunately, FCR is not as obvious a result as the handle time of calls or service level. It requires much more compilation of numbers and assessment and judgment to ascertain in some instances whether a call has been completed in a satisfactory manner or not. It involves way more work, but it is definitely worth the effort to track in order to pinpoint ways to improve it.
FCR can be complicated to measure, but if you were going to have just a single metric to track that links to the success of your operation, it has to be FCR. There is much empirical data to show that improved FCR means improved customer satisfaction, but what some find surprising is the associated rise in employee satisfaction as FCR rates rise. Certainly, it makes sense that completed calls and satisfied customers translate into less stress for agents and a happier workplace.
The link to lower operating costs is a no-brainer. Repeat calls mean additional handling time and workload, so completing in one call (even if a longer one) will reduce costs. The other link to the economics side is that costs are not just reduced, but revenues can go up. When a customer’s issue has been resolved, he is much happier and open to cross-selling or up-selling opportunities. Catching a customer in that satisfied state just after answering a question or solving a problem is the optimal time to offer additional products or services.
Room for Improvement
According to SQM, a company specializing in FCR measurement and reporting, their Voice of the Customer research shows that for the average call center, 70% of calls are resolved on the first call, which means 30% of customers have to call back because their issue was not resolved on the first call. Only five percent of the centers benchmarked by SQM are at the world-class performance level of 80% or higher.
Further, SQM’s research shows that 86% of customers expect that when they contact a call center, their issue will be resolved in one call. Each time a customer has to call back to resolve an issue, customer satisfaction drops on average by 15%. In other words, if a customer has to call three times to resolve an issue, customer satisfaction would drop by 30%. (Note: There is more tolerance for numerous calls when the customer realizes the issue is a complex one and are generally more forgiving.)
Measurement Approaches
There are two basic ways to measure FCR. One approach involves assembling internal data, while the second actually reaches out to the customer to simply ask whether the customer’s issue was resolved or not. It’s important to note that while FCR (with an emphasis on First) is ideal, there are some types of calls where more than one call will be required to address an issue and therefore a simple yes/no call resolution may not be used, regardless of the number of calls required.
When assembling data for internal measurements, there are many possibilities, with some being state-of-the-art technology solutions, and some requiring no technology. Some of these internal options are:
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Speech Analytics. At the high end of the technology spectrum, using speech analytics can look for the actual words denoting completion and satisfaction. Obviously, it can also look for trigger words that suggest dissatisfaction, frustration, and unhappiness so that calls can immediately be tagged for a quick follow-up.
Quality Monitoring. Listening to calls can determine whether the requisite processes have been followed and calls resolved in a satisfactory manner. It is critical that the quality monitoring form and overall program be designed to focus on resolution as the ultimate successful outcome.
ACD Call Tracking. A recording of calls can show what Automatic Number Identification (ANI) or Caller ID shows up repeatedly in a defined time period. Agent Reporting. Some companies actually rely on agent “tick sheets” to indicate whether calls were resolved in one call. Some centers report good success with this method with agents scoring their calls accurately, but this approach certainly relies on individual interpretation of calls.
The other approach to measuring FCR is to go outward and simply ask the customer. Perception is reality, so it’s really the customer’s view of resolution that is most important. There are a number of ways to gather this information:
Post-Call IVR. Customers can be directed to an IVR following their calls to indicate their satisfaction with the handling of the call and whether it was done in one attempt.
Post-Call Email Survey. Many organizations send an email immediately following a call to determine resolution. Success in terms of participation rate varies widely with this approach.
Post-Call Phone Survey. Calling the customer at the completion of a call is viewed by many as intrusive, but can be a good way to gather the yes/no vote, as well as details about the transaction that have impact on the customer’s perception of the call.
It can be useful to do both internal and external measures of FCR. Some organizations find that their internal data may show one FCR rate, while the customers’ opinions may differ one way or the other. Doing both ways, at least for a period of time, can help calibrate and fine-tune the measurement process.
Benchmarking Results
Just like any other metric, call centers are going to wonder how their FCR rates “measure up” against other centers. At QATC, we constantly get questions about the “industry standard” for FCR (as well as every other metric). The answer here is that it’s dangerous to compare how your FCR compares to other centers. Because there are so many different ways to measure FCR, it’s nearly impossible to get an “apples to apples” comparison.
Here are just a few ways in which FCR measures can vary:
Call transfers. Some centers count FCR success as longas the call is resolved before the customer hangs up, even if it means the call was transferred one or more times during the call to get to the right place. Other centers view just one transfer as a violation of the “first call” rule.
Back Office/Fulfillment. Some centers view it as a FCR failure if a mistake is made down the line in processing the order, while others view it as success as long as the telephone portion was completed properly since that is the only part under the center’s control.
Other Channels. If a customer has tried another channel such as email with no success and then calls the center where the issue is resolved, does that count as FCR? Some companies count it as FCR success since it is the first time in the call center, while others view the first contact as a failure that caused a second one.
Subsequent Calls. If the customer issue is marked as closed and complete, but he calls back two days later, is that an FCR failure? Some centers view a call within X number of days as a continuation, while some might view this as a new issue not impacting the first FCR designation.
Customer Satisfaction. Some centers rely on the customer’s checkmark to designate success. There may be instances where everything that the center can do has been done and the issue is closed, but the customer may not like an outcome that is not in his favor. Some might view this as FCR success even if there is low customer satisfaction, while others don’t give themselves
credit for FCR.
There are many other examples where centers measure and evaluate FCR in different ways. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to compare your FCR rate to others. The only way this is really possible is if a third-party evaluates calls and follows up with customers using the exact same steps, processes, measurements, and analysis.
The key to FCR benchmarking, just like any other metric, is to establish your own measurement process and measure your results over time. Stop worrying about what other call centers are doing and how you compare and put that effort into tracking and improving your internal operations.
Stay tuned to the next issue for tips on how to evaluate and improve FCR results.
Penny Reynolds is the former Co-Founder of The Call Center School and serves as an Educational Advisor to QATC. She can be reached at pennyreynolds00@gmail.com.
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