Redefining the C in First Call Resolution
First call resolution is a favorite metric of many customer service leaders. But in today’s multichannel environment, first contact resolution is fast becoming a more fitting moniker. This thought hit home for me during a recent call I had with Rob McDougall, president of Upstream Works. We were discussing the six main barriers to first call (er, contact…) resolution and how to overcome them. We also discussed what first contact resolution actually means.
During the conversation I mentioned that some queries take more than one call or email due to their complexity, but that often in those cases customers’ expectation have been set to accept multiple contacts for a specific issue. McDougall concurred, “defining” first call resolution in some situations more as a contact with a satisfactory result than a completed one. “Proper resolution will differ for each particular call,” he said. “As long as you’re optimizing that customers will be happy.”
But, for the many other scenarios where completely resolving an issue is the priority, managers need to consider six areas when planning their approach to first contact resolution, McDougall explained.
1. Agent ability. Companies need to start by hiring the right agents, and then need to train them on the skills necessary to address their customers’ concerns. Even something as simple as training an agent on the right information to enter into particular fields can improve accuracy – and service levels.
2. Agent authority. Giving agents the authority to resolve issues removes callbacks in which customers ask to speak to a manager. “Companies need to give their agents the ability to deliver exceptional service,” McDougall said.
3. Back-end processes. An agent may have handled a call flawlessly, but if that call is followed by, say, a mistake in billing or a delay in shipping, customers will call again. According to McDougall, 20 to 30 percent of the problems leading to multiple calls can be resolved simply by adjusting business processes not just in the contact center, but also in a companies back end.
4. Information access. Companies should give agents easy access to the information they need to handle customers’ queries. “Easy,” meaning that agents should not only have that access, but also know how to get to the information they need. If it’s too much of a challenge, they’ll instead rely on what they know (or think they know). A knowledge base can help here, McDougall says.
5. IVR mazes. If a customer gets lost in a confusing or lengthy IVR, expect them to zero out to get to a human being.
6. Customer preference. Some customers will call back no matter what. Expect it and plan for it.
Ted,
Thanks for the link to your blog. I agree with the comment that you made there that none of the standard options (listed in a chart in your post) on their own are particularly compelling. This is a topic we discuss often when planning articles on service -related topics, so I'm interested to see what suggestions people will make on your blog post.
Whether you define FCR as First Call Resolution or First Contact Resolution does not matter so much to me as the principle underlying it, which should be the same in either case. The real problem I see is in implementing FCR. I blogged recently about this topic (see, "First Call Resolution: Great Principle, Hard to Apply"). I don't see that we have solved that problem, yet, and it's a crucial gap between intention and execution.
Connie, you make a great point. In my blog post today, Do You Really Know Why Customers Are Calling, I relay an example McDougall gave of the costly impact a back-end process can make on the contact center.
Your post is a perfect example of why enterprises must begin to break down silos between the contact center and other departments. Departments outside the contact center must start thinking about how their products, services and actions will impact customers and drive inquiries into the contact center. In the future, I believe that technologies such as business intelligence and analytics will play a key role in breaking down these silos.