Why Call Centers Struggle with Improving
First Call Resolution (FCR)


Across industries, increasing call center first contact resolution (also called first call resolution or FCR) is a high priority. It is easy to understand why the idea of improving FCR is so appealing — organizations that satisfactorily resolve more customer issues in a single contact will see customer satisfaction improve and call center costs shrink. But while nearly every contact center attempts to make FCR a reality, it is possibly the most elusive of all call center metrics.

Why is first contact resolution so difficult to achieve? A number of issues are involved:

  • Are your agents really listening to customers? Even the most proficient agents sometimes find it difficult to really listen to a customer's needs, especially when they are under pressure to increase the number of calls handled, or when they are hampered by complex systems and lengthy processes.
  • Do agents have a 360° view of every customer? Without all the information about a customer, the account, and previous interaction history, your agent only has part of the story. Their ability to provide the best possible resolution for the customer will be limited if they can't see the entire picture.
  • Does your agent have the ability or authority to completely handle the customer's request? If your agent is part of a specialized team that can only handle part of the customer's request, or if he has to escalate a request because he cannot authorize the solution, which could be a replacement or a refund, then achieving FCR becomes more difficult.
  • Are you documenting all customer interactions uniformly? If the procedure for documenting call notes is not uniform across all your agents, then you may not be able to accurately track FCR because it may not be apparent that subsequent contacts are all related to the same issue.
  • Can you track interactions across all contact channels? Many call centers are simply unable to track customer interactions across multiple channels with accuracy. So if a customer uses multiple contact channels to resolve an issue, such as calling, emailing and using online web chat, your agents may not have a complete view of all these interactions and inaccurately report an issue as resolved.

How Desktop Automation Can Help Improve First Contact Resolution (FCR)

Call center FCR may never be easy to achieve, but there are several ways OpenSpan Desktop Automation can help you improve first call resolution and measure it more accurately. Many of the factors that hamper FCR relate to the visibility and movement of information across teams and systems. Others are related to processes that do not enable or empower agents to deliver the best possible customer outcome, every time. OpenSpan Desktop Automation can help you improve these areas and increase first call resolution for your entire call center. OpenSpan technology can be used to:

  • Manage and deploy business rules that give agents greater authority within set limits, so that they can resolve more customer issues without having to transfer or escalate their cases, thereby shortening call resolution time.
  • Automate tedious manual processes and improve the agent user interface so that the agent's focus on the technology is minimized and focus on the customer is maximized.
  • Integrate channels so that all the information about previous customer contacts, regardless of channel, is consolidated and presented to the agent when needed.
  • Automate and improve call documentation and customer notes, so that useful information about every customer contact is uniformly captured, removing doubt and error from subsequent interactions.

So what prevents your team from achieving FCR today? If any of the scenarios above sound familiar, take a look at how OpenSpan can help you remove the roadblocks caused by process or technology shortcomings, and start reaping the rewards of increased FCR, such as greater customer loyalty, increased productivity and lowered call center costs.

Learn About:

Recent Webinars Now On-Demand:

 

Who Uses OpenSpan?


Customers Customers Customers Customers Customers

First Call Resolution (FCR)

In the call/contact center, first call resolution or first contact resolution (FCR) is when the agent handles the initial call appropriately, correctly and/or accurately so the customer does not need to follow up with a second call about the same issue. FCR is a key performance indicator of the call center while at the same time one of the hardest metrics to accurately measure since first call resolution is largely based on customer's perception of FCR. While talk time during a call is important, having unsatisfactory first call resolution rates is an indication that customer issues are not being resolved in an acceptable manner thus leading to higher call volumes, slower call center operations, increased costs and dissatisfied customers.

Contact center management must maintain a delicate balance between call average handle time and call resolution time. Typically, call centers are willing to accept an increase in the time per call if they also see an increase in first call resolution. Not only can an increase in FCR mean an increase in customer satisfaction, but also contribute to a reduction in call center volume and call center staffing.

Related Searches

Increase Call Center Productivity With OpenSpan's Desktop Analytics & Automation, improve your center's productivity by as much as 40%.
Call/Contact Center White Papers User Process Automation, Streamline Customer On-boarding, Improving Up-sell/Cross-sell revenues are just a few of the subjects of OpenSpan's white Papers.
Monitor Agent Processes Using OpenSpan Desktop Analytics, monitor what systems and applications your agents are spending the majority of their time.
Improve Agent Performance OpenSpan's user process automation technology is specifically designed to improve agent performance and eliminate waste.
Call/Contact Center Case Studies Learn how other companies have used OpenSpan in their call/contact centers to impact the bottom line.
Analyze Agent Processes Using detailed reporting tools, OpenSpan Desktop Analytics, analyzes the information gathered during monitoring.
Reduce Average Handle Time (AHT) Call/contact centers show drastic decreases in AHT with OpenSpan's Desktop Automation software employed on the agent desktop.
Call/Contact Center Webinars Continuous Improvement, Lean Six Sigma, CRM Optimization, Agent Performance & Customer Service. View one today.
Automate Agent Processes OpenSpan Desktop Automation quickly and easily improves agent processes and streamline workflows to show a massive ROI.
Increase First Call Resolution (FCR) OpenSpan's Desktop Automation enables agents to access information both quickly and easily to resolve the issue the first time.
Call/Contact Center Demos View OpenSpan's product demos and learn how user process improvement through automation can help your call/contact center succeed.
Improve the Customer Experience With OpenSpan, Call/Contact centers improve the customer experience and increase overall customer satisfaction.

Popular searches