FCR Improvement Software for Call Centers
Studies Designed to Improve FCR and Provide Great CX
Awards Recognizing Excellence in FCR, CX, and EX Delivery
The Resources You Need to Improve FCR, CX, and EX
Improve FCR, CX, and EX - One Individual at a Time
Learn the definition of First Call Resolution and how to measure your contact center's FCR performance.
Measure Your FCR
FCR is defined as a metric that measures a call center’s ability to resolve a customer’s inquiry or problem on the first call, with no repeat calls or other contact channels required from the initial call reason.
First Call Resolution is a critical contact center metric since it is a leading indicator of operating costs, customer retention, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and increased selling opportunities. FCR does not take into consideration interactions a customer might have had with other contact channels (e.g. website, IVR, chat, email, storefront, etc.) to resolve their inquiry, it is focused on their interaction in the call center only.
Learn About FCR Reimagined ▶
The calculation of FCR is based on the number customers whose inquiry or problem was resolved on their first call to the contact center, divided by the total number of customers who call the contact center.
In a given day, the number of customers who had their inquiry or problem resolved on the first call (280) ÷ the total number of customer inquiries to the contact center (400) = 70% FCR performance.
Discover the top 5 Reasons to Improve FCR
An internal FCR measurement approach that uses software to track whether a customer called multiple time within a certain number of days.
The pros of repeat-call technology method are:
The cons with this technology method are:
An internal FCR measurement approach that uses a quality assurance (QA) analyst to audit a call and determine if it was resolved and on the first call.
The pros with the internal QA method are:
The cons with the quality assurance FCR measurement method are:
Download the FCR Whitepaper
A post-contact survey is completed with the customer via telephone, outbound IVR, or email survey within one business day of their call to a contact center.
The pros with this method are:
The cons with this measurement method are:
There are pros and cons in each method of measuring FCR and it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each since performance can vary greatly between measurement methodologies. Even within one methodology, FCR performance can vary greatly (e.g., the number of days used to calculate the internal FCR measurement in repeat-call tracking technology is not standard and will greatly influence FCR results). Internal measurement methods such as quality assurance (QA) and repeat-call tracking technology can be good practices but are not best practices for defining and measuring an FCR operating philosophy. SQM’s research shows that contact centers using internal metrics report their FCR 10% to 20% higher than their external VoC measured FCR performance. The best measurement FCR operating philosophy makes use of the strengths of each methodology to deliver data that can inform decisions that drive FCR performance improvement results. Therefore, managers should not rely solely on any one method for defining and measuring FCR, especially internal FCR measurement methods. Internal FCR measurement methods should be viewed as a supplement to post-contact customer survey methods. After all, the customer’s opinion is what really matters most in deciding if they will make a repeat call.
The best operating philosophy for defining and measuring FCR performance is letting the customer determine if their contact was resolved using a post-contact survey, while supplementing their feedback with the robust sample of the repeat-call tracking technology, and layering the compliance know-how of a QA process . So, with that in mind, the best method to measure FCR is to start with a great post-contact customer survey program that provides an outside-in perspective of the customer’s perception, layer robust repeat-call tracking technology to help bolster sample size limitations, and ensure that the QA process is linked to validating the measurement from an internal perspective.
Find out why over 500 leading North American contact centers trust SQM FCR Insights Software as the best way to measure and improve FCR by linking post-transaction VoC surveys to QA data and repeat call tracking technology, all in one powerful platform.
FCR is More Than a Metric, it’s an Operating Philosophy
If you liked this article, you can learn more about the author Mike Desmarais, MBA, and SQM Group.