Featured Article - May 2008
This month we take a look at First Contact Resolution and its effect on the customer experience.
First Contact Resolution (FCR) can be defined as the ability to resolve a customer’s complaint completely on his/her first contact attempt with an organisation and is usually used in some call centres as a performance measure.
While many contact centres see it as having an impact on caller satisfaction, they do not understand the huge impact it has on the units’ budget. CSR’s are the interface to handle customer issues and if they are not properly trained, empowered and well equipped to handle customer issues and be a sounding board when internal processes and procedures fail, the impact can be a bit overwhelming.
To achieve a high first call resolution rate, organisations must ensure that their internal processes empower and allow the CSR’s to completely resolve the customers complaint at the initial contact point. Some organisations are unable to achieve a high first contact resolution rate due to flaws in their internal processes. If your processes are not customer friendly then you will find that your CSR’s will be unable to resolve the customers’ complaint at the initial point of contact. A resolution of a complaint means the complaint is closed and the customer goes away extremely satisfied – no need for escalations before the customer is informed of the next line of action. Empowerment of the CSR’s is also strategic in attaining a high first contact resolution rate. Empowerment should be backed with appropriate control measures to deter any form of abuse.
Measurement of FCR is also an issue for most organisations. But no one can answer the question better than the customer. Since the customer is the one being “knocked around” go directly to him and ask him how you’re doing. Chances are high that they’ll tell exactly what level of service they are receiving and would like to receive.
So as an organisation do we consider the FCR rate as a measurement criterion? How are we currently measuring our ability to serve our customers at the very first point of lodging a complaint?