What is First Contact Resolution?

It is a key indicator for evaluating your company’s after-sales. First Call Resolution is usually related to support. It is a metric that allows you to monitor each attendant’s capacity and autonomy to solve the problems brought by the customer. It also helps to measure how well the company’s processes work or whether the flow should be simplified.

The more autonomy and decision-making power your attendant have, the better your FCR index will be, as the service teams will not need to pass calls to other levels of the hierarchy. This is directly related to the success of the client, who leaves the experience with his business satisfied and with greater chances of loyalty.

On the other hand, the company’s processes must contribute so that the attendant can resolve the issues raised in that first service. The more streamlined the flow, the less time it takes to resolve customer issues. Remember: this equation is directly linked to team productivity and greater profitability for your company.

How to calculate the First Contact Resolution index?

The account to know the FCR index of your call center is very simple. You need to divide the number of problem resolutions on the first contact by customers’ number of calls.

But, be careful: your attendants must be very well prepared to achieve this level of autonomy sufficient to carry out the necessary actions to solve problems in the first call. To do this, you need to offer the necessary tools, such as training and process improvements.

How to get rid of the dilemma between problem-solving and call time?

After all, what are these tools necessary for First Contact Resolution to be consolidated in your call center? Next, we will point out some steps:

• consultation material: the attendants must have in hand all the information necessary to resolve the issues raised by the customer in a call;
• simplified processes:  as mentioned, it is necessary to verify that the workflow works without complications and that the attendant does not need to resort to other hierarchical levels;
• monitoring: constantly calculate your call center’s FCR index to see if the strategies are working.

Use technology to your advantage. There is a specific software for optimizing call center operations, which will help you monitor your team’s productivity indexes. Also, nothing better than the customer’s opinion, through satisfaction surveys, to assess whether the relationship between the call time and the resolution of problems by their attendants is being made efficiently.