Contact Center FCR Best Practices

Contact Center FCR Best Practices Overview

Contact Center FCR Best Practices are based on SQM conducting customer and employee research with over 500 leading North American contact centers to identify who has world class or improving FCR performance. Furthermore, SQM did site visits with those contact centers that had world class or improving FCR performance to validate that their practice has a proven track record for improving FCR or for helping maintain world class FCR performance.

Benefits of Improving FCR Performance

SQM has clients who have improved their FCR performance 10% or more within 30 days or have improved 1% to 2% every year for many years. SQM is very proud of the fact that over 70% of tracking clients improve their FCR and operating costs year over year. By improving the contact center’s FCR performance, there is a positive impact on:

• Csat performance
• The Contact Center's ability to help retain customers for the organization
• Operating costs

For the average contact center SQM benchmarks, a 1% improvement in their FCR performance equals $286,000 in annual operational savings. When FCR improves, not only are operational savings achieved, but the number of customers at risk is also reduced, which is typically a five times or greater savings opportunity than the operational savings. No other contact center metric has as much of an impact on quality and cost as FCR.

Contact Center FCR Best Practice Breakdown

It has been SQM’s experience that best practice importance will vary depending on the contact center’s performance and needs. Therefore, the best practice list below is not ranked for importance. For each best practice, an SQM client’s best practice success story will be shared, as well as additional insights from other clients on best practices they have used to improve FCR performance.

• Quality Assurance – (e.g., evaluation metrics, form, call recording, reporting tool and CSR call evaluation) is linked to the contact center’s VoC FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• Desktop Applications – (e.g., customer relationship management tool, knowledge management tool, claim and bill processing tools, chat, unified desktop) are linked to the contact center’s VoC FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• CSR Recognition – (e.g., awards, certificates, cards, public recognition, gift certificates, additional training, gamification, paid time-off) motivates CSRs to improve or maintain great call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• Career Development – (e.g., job posting, career path, employee development, career advancement criteria) motivates CSRs to improve or maintain great call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• Call Handling – (e.g., routing, hold, transfer, concierge service, call escalation, CSR soft/hard skills) improves or maintains great FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• Escalation CSR Support – (e.g., call escalation, retention, assists CSRs in real time) is linked to the contact center’s VoC FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• Performance Management System – (e.g., accountability metrics, reporting, performance improvement plans, performance appraisals and compensation) improves or maintains great FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• CSR Coaching – (e.g., train the coaches, frequency and length of coaching session, quality of coaching) is linked to the contact center’s VoC FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• CSR Training – (e.g., online, classroom and on-the job training, new hire and on-going knowledge training and gamification) is linked to the contact center’s VoC FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance
• CSR Selection – (e.g., candidate pre-screening, interview, personality testing, job simulation, ideal profile identification) is linked to the contact center’s VoC FCR, call resolution, Csat and Esat performance

Excerpt from: First Contact Resolved Best Practices: Top 10 FCR & Multi-Channel Customer Experience Best Practices from Award Winning Contact Centers

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