First contact resolution rate

What is the first contact resolution rate?

When it comes to improving customer service efficiency and happiness, the first contact resolution rate (FCR) is critical. It is included in the key performance indicators (KPIs). The FCR metric counts the number of customer queries resolved on the first engagement. The ability to do so without escalations or follow-ups by the agent is also included in the FCR definition.

First Contact Resolution rate is a measure that can help you track and improve customer service efficiency and customer experience. However, it is a metric with certain potential flaws and should not be used in isolation.

Several key performance indicators (KPIs) for contact centers assess operational efficiency, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and agent productivity. FCR stands out among these measures because it directly reflects the quality of client experience you provide through assistance.

A high FCR rate indicates that your support team can resolve many situations on the first contact — without requiring customer follow-up. When clients contact a support representative, they want the issue resolved quickly (in one conversation).

How to measure first contact resolution rate?

To calculate the first contact resolution rate, divide the total number of cases resolved on the first outreach by the total number of cases received over the specified period (can be calculated daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).

The ideal outcome is to resolve a client’s issue the first time. Customer satisfaction is closely related to the rate of first-contact resolution. The greater the latter, the greater the former. One way for brands to provide exceptional customer service is quickly resolving concerns.

Resolving difficulties efficiently and effectively helps foster client loyalty. Businesses that provide excellent customer service have a better chance of retaining clients who recommend their brand. Retaining customers costs less than acquiring new ones and may also boost a company’s profitability by promoting it to friends and family. When a customer-agent phone call concluded, the first contact resolution rate was measured in the previous call center model. However, tracking the first contact resolution rate has become more complex in the new asynchronous customer service paradigm, where customers may contact a company’s customer service department in various ways. Many companies now allow customers to contact customer support via email, live chat, or in-app.

Monitoring your IT Support first contact resolution rate is critical for two reasons. Customer happiness is driven by FCR, which should and must be measured. Customer happiness is typically connected with high FCR rates.

FCRs can be measured alongside other indicators. Consider FCR and Average Talk Time (or Average Handle Time) for service calls as a combined metric for gauging customer satisfaction. According to an industry maxim, high Average Talk Time rates and low FCR rates may indicate low customer happiness.

FCR rates have an impact on IT Support staffing as well. Low FCR rates typically imply a higher volume of follow-up calls for customer issues, necessitating additional service desk workers to serve the available calls. A high FCR rate may suggest that IT Support resolves customer demands the first time correctly, decreasing or eliminating the need for the customer or IT Support to make a second contact. The FCR can also indicate how well you’ve trained your service desk agents, the tools you make available to your agents (such as diagnostics, remote access, and so on), and even your efficiency and ability to service more people with fewer resources, depending on how you set up your IT service desk metrics.

First contact resolution rate formula

The FCR contact center metric uses the following formula:

There are numerous components to tracking your FCR. You can utilize countless data-gathering approaches to determine whether the client requests were resolved on the first engagement for subsequent measurement. However, this calculation approach does not accurately estimate your FCR performance.

Internal measurement approaches include tracking regular customer contacts about previously considered fixed issues. However, you must carefully describe the time duration you wish to monitor.

SaaS first contact resolution rate example

For over a month, your customer service team has dealt with 175 questions and requests from your customers. Out of that, 112 of these issues were resolved at first contact.

The calculations for your First Contact Resolution rate would therefore look like this: (112 / 175) x 100 = 64%