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Achieving First Call Resolution 2008
Driving Operational Improvement
An extract from Achieving First Call Resolution 2008, a new research report published by the Ascent Group, Inc.
First Call Resolution (FCR) is a critical determinant of customer satisfaction—whether your systems and policies make this possible or not. Customers expect to bring a problem or question to your attention and have it resolved in a timely manner. Not all inquiries can be resolved immediately or on the first contact. However, advances in technology, increasing employee empowerment, and scrutinizing evaluation will increase the number that can.
An 80% FCR rate sounds good. Yet with an 80 percent FCR, 20 percent of callers require multiple contacts with your company to achieve resolution. That 20 percent represents repeat calls, increased call volume, inflated operating expenses, and most importantly, dissatisfied customers.
First Call Resolution is perhaps the most powerful call center metric. A focus and improvement in FCR brings the best of both worlds—an improvement efficiency and effectiveness. You don’t have to worry that you are sacrificing quality because you are reducing costs, or vice versa. When you improve FCR you’re improving quality, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction, all at the same time.
How many of your customers’ calls are resolved on the first contact? You don’t know until you measure it. It sounds easy enough however many companies have found it difficult to define first call resolution, much less measure it consistently. Tactics to measure FCR vary greatly from company to company. Our survey confirms this. While some companies are measuring first call resolution, many are not and would like to. Those that are measuring FCR are dealing with the challenge of selecting the best measurement approach for their organization.
Once you have a good idea of your FCR performance, you can drill down to identify the call types that are not being resolved consistently in one contact. Then decide if it’s even possible or desirable to resolve these types of calls or contacts in one call. If so, root cause analysis and process streamlining or re-engineering will boost your first call resolution performance, reduce repeat calls and rework, and ultimately reduce operating costs.
Can you tell how frequently your customers contact your company? Can you identify repeat calls? Can you segment FCR by type of contact? Can you ask your customers if they think their concern was resolved and how many contacts were required? This is the type of information you’ll need to effectively measure First Call Resolution.
Find out if your customers think their issues and questions are being resolved on the first contact. After all, your customers are the ones calling you.
Benchmark Study of First Call Resolution
To better understand how companies and different industries are approaching First Call Resolution, the Ascent Group conducted its fourth annual benchmarking study to evaluate First Call Resolution performance and measurement. Thirty-two companies from nine industries, representing nine countries, participated in the research. The following pages summarize the study’s objectives, findings, and recommendations.
The main objective of the study was to evaluate the various approaches to measuring First Call Resolution and to identify best practices or opportunities for improvement. Secondary objectives included understanding:
- The range of First Call Resolution performance by company and by industry,
- Strategies for driving improvement in First Call Resolution,
- How first call resolution factors into individual, team, and center-level performance objectives and compensation, and
- How companies are promoting the importance of first call resolution throughout the organization.
Participants were asked to share the history of their first call resolution measurement approaches, as well as identify any improvement in performance. The study also asked companies to include considerations, successes, and plans moving forward.
Study Findings
Study participants range in size from 30,500 calls per year to as many as 48.6 million. Industries represented in the study include:
- Financial Services
- Government
- Insurance
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- Services
- Technical Support
- Telecommunications
- Utilities
Participants report first call resolution rates from 51 percent to 97 percent, indicating varying degrees of maturity and complexity in call type by company and by industry. The bulk of participants (54 percent) have been measuring first call resolution for 3 years or less, indicating the relative immaturity of this measurement technique across industries. The majority of participants (71 percent) measure first call resolution through internal approximation—call statistic calculations, agent logs, and/or call monitoring interpretation. Only twenty-nine percent of participants routinely rely on customer satisfaction feedback to determine first call resolution.
Only fifteen percent rely on two or more measures of first call resolution.
Within our participant group, we found 4 primary ways of measuring first call resolution:
- Call statistic calculations (internal measure)
- Agent-driven call logging or tick sheet (internal measure)
- Call quality monitoring (internal determination)
- Customer satisfaction surveys (external measure)
The majority of participants rely on a single measure to gauge FCR (85 percent). However, 15 percent reported measuring FCR through two or more different measurement approaches.
First Call Resolution performance varied from industry to industry—averaging 63 percent FCR for Tech Support to 93 percent for Retail. FCR goals stretched from 71 percent for Tech Support to 100 percent for Services. All industries averaged 75.4 percent First Call Resolution performance.
What Did We Learn?
Most Companies Actively Measuring First Call Resolution Are Experiencing Improvement. Seventy percent of companies measuring FCR performance reported improvement in their performance, while only 4 percent reported no improvement. The remainder, 26 percent were unable to determine. Those reporting improvement ranged from 2 to 15 percent with an average annual gain of 8 to 9 percent
Improvement in First Call Resolution is Most Closely Tied to Root Cause Analysis, Process Improvement, and Training/Coaching. Those reporting significant improvement in FCR performance also indicated that they had recently implemented focused initiatives aimed at increasing FCR awareness and improving performance. In addition, companies reported using root cause analysis and process improvement to effect real change in the way calls are handled, thereby increasing the opportunities for achieving first call resolution. Indeed, most survey participants confirmed that first call resolution performance was a key driver of continual improvement efforts.
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