KPI of the Day – Customer Service: % First contact resolution rate
Definition
Measures the percentage of requests resolved during the first contact with the customer, from overall customer requests.
Purpose
To indicate the efficiency in resolving customer requests during the first contact with the customer, as this can increase the customer satisfaction level.
Recommendations
Customers are not concerned with who can do what, yet there are cases in which the support center does not have access to all necessary resources to deal with customer requests.
It may be unrealistic to aim for all customer issues to be resolved at the first contact, as this can also depend on the type of request. In assessing the performance related to first contact resolution rates, other facets impacting overall customer experience should be taken into consideration.
A common issue among companies is that they are too focused on achieving a high % First contact resolution rate (FCR), without actually considering whether the customers are ultimately satisfied with the solution offered. This usually reflects on an artificially inflated % FCR, while negatively impacting customer satisfaction, cost per resolution, the retention, and loyalty of customers.
Some recommendations to improve the accuracy and consistency of % First contact resolution rate include:
- Setting up comprehensive business processes (detailed process maps);
- Analyzing customer contact and interaction data from different systems;
- Diversifying data collection sources (e.g. customer satisfaction surveys);
- Performing trends analysis on customer satisfaction with first contact resolution;
- Making full use of data analysis tools, such as correlation and covariance.
Concerning target-setting, thresholds may vary according to the complexity of customer requests and the internal call center solving procedures. Customers who experience issues that are dealt with rapidness and ease have a repurchase intention rate of 89%, according to the Center for Customer-Driven Quality, Purdue University, USA.
Additionally, accurate reporting is dependent on a monitoring system able to distinguish between the situations that can and cannot be resolved at first contact.
Image source:
