Benchmarks for First Contact Resolution

Sydney, 15 September 2007 - It is well known that first contact resolution is an important factor driving satisfaction and consequently a lot of organisations report numbers at 80% or higher. However, even in organisations reporting these types of FCR rates when we go out and listen to calls and ask the customer "Is this the first time you have called about this It isn't unusal to find 40% say "No!". that means between between 1 in 2 and 1 in 3 customers are calling for at least a second time. I don't think that 40% rework is very good.

First call resolution (or first contact resolution, also abbreviated as FCR), is beginning to split into two distinct benchmark definitions: (1) the first person who tackles the problem (or request, or issue) handles it, or what is now called "first point resolution", and (2) it might take several successive handoffs within the same call, but by the time the caller/customer hangs up, it’s resolved.

Further complicating this, you have to figure out how to measure whether FCR by either definition is really effective, from the customer point of view - in reality the only way to find out is to ask them. Alternatively tracking repeat calls is sometimes easier. At Amazon we put in place a process we called 'snowballs' that not only tracked repeat calls but systematicaly eliminated them. If you want to talk about how that works contact us.

OK, so what are good numbers?

FCR benchmarks we like to see are >95%, meaning fewer than 5% of the cases that the customer’s issues are not resolved in the first point or the series of handoffs. Few companies achieve >95%, and do keep in mind that the customer needs to "decide" if there’s resolution, not the agent or some deduction that no subsequent contact = resolved. Let me know if you’d like to explore surveying and measurement.

What is your definition of 'resolution'? I have seen companies where they count for a resolved call when they gave the customer the right number to call ('we don't provide balance information here, but you can check your balance by dialling...'). If you are managing end-to-end customer processes, you will count as resolution when not only the customer's problem was solved, but s/he was duly informed about the solution, thanked for helping the company improve its operations and asked if s/he was happy with the outcome (and what else we could do for them). Your scores may come a bit down, but you are doing a better job if you close the loop to the very end

Between first point resolution and handoffs—this is too new to call, but we strongly believe that customers do not want to suffer handoffs at all, necessitating higher degrees of training and authorization and knowledge access at the first point. Having said that, >80% of the FCR should be first point, with benchmark "best" being >90% first point (I’ve seen as high as 93%, but over 90% risks handling too many contacts before escalation or handoff."

Author: Bill Price, President of LimeBridge in the US

Published Date: January 8, 2010
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