Imagine you are a customer calling 📞 a helpline because you have a problem. You need assistance desperately and quickly.
Now, picture how relieved you would be if just one phone call were needed to solve your problem. This is what first-call resolution aims to do. It provides you with the service you want on the first call. 😊
First-call resolution is a metric used to evaluate the effectiveness of customer service interactions. In today’s world, where customers want the best service, a high first-call rate significantly enhances business reputations and provides customers with better service.
In this blog, we will provide you with the 21 best ways to improve your first call resolution rate.💫
🔑Key Highlights
- First-call resolution is a metric that measures a business’s performance by calculating its problem-solving capacity on the first call.
- If you have a higher first-call resolution rate, you have successfully left a positive experience on the first call.
- Businesses can improve their first-call resolution by using different strategies, such as regularly tracking the FCR rate, profoundly understanding customer needs, and providing accurate information.
- FCR strategies help your business build trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among customers.
- KrispCall’s advanced features, including call transfer, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and Auto attendance, can revolutionize your business’s First Call Rate.
Why do you need to focus on improving the first call resolution rate?
The first-call resolution rate is an essential metric that measures a business’s performance by calculating its problem-solving capacity on the first call. A higher first-call resolution rate means you have successfully left a positive impression on your customer experience on the first call.
In addition, FCR also saves operating costs from repeated customer interactions, as you solve their problem on the first call. When a business focuses on improving the first-call resolution rate, it automatically enhances the service and efficiency of agents.
You need to focus on improving the first call resolution rate because of these reasons:
- To provide customer satisfaction: If a business offers proper service to the customer on the first call, it will automatically satisfy the customer’s experience. A satisfied customer is likely to trust and repeat business with the company.
- Customer retention: A proper FCR ensures that your customers are satisfied with your product and customer experience. Moreover, it also encourages customers to return to your brand for additional products.
- To lower operational costs: FCR focuses on providing service on first calls and avoids dealing with them repeatedly, helping the company avoid unnecessary work. Therefore, the company can save operational costs by reducing call volume, decreasing handling time, and lowering operational expenses.
- To enhance agent productivity: With First-call resolution, metrics agents don’t have to repeatedly deal with the same customer. They focus on solving problems in one call and concentrate more on complicated customer problems.
- Improve brand image: When agents provide excellent solutions in one call, the brand’s image is significantly boosted. Customers who receive quick solutions will likely spread positive feedback about the company.
How do you improve your first call resolution?
Improving first-call resolution involves several key strategies to enhance customer service efficiency. To understand the customer’s needs well and enhance first-call resolution, consider the following best first call resolution tips:
1. Understand the customer’s needs well
The first step in improving call resolution is understanding customers’ needs. When interacting with them, listen👂 to them carefully and try to understand their issue fully.
Sometimes, when you don’t understand the customer’s issue, you can ask, “Can you please elaborate?” Or you can also ask, “I am sorry, but I didn’t actually catch you. Can you please thoroughly explain the issue?” Asking them questions like this helps you gather essential information.
2. Don’t provide information that you are not sure about
Every day, agents have to communicate with hundreds of customers, and it’s not like agents have to know everything about every topic. Sometimes, they can also become confused about certain aspects.
In that case, instead of giving them a wrong answer or something you are unsure about, try transferring a call to an agent who can solve the problem. Providing correct information in the first call will help business maintain their first call resolution.
3. Track your first call resolution (FCR) rate
First-call resolution helps the call center meet customers’ needs on the first call by providing a possible solution. Calculating a business’s first-call resolution rate is important as it clearly shows whether the company effectively solved the issue on the first call.
Moreover, by tracking the rate of first-call resolutions, the call center can better understand how quickly it has solved the client’s problem.
4. Regularly assess customer satisfaction (CSAT) levels.
Another best practice for first-call resolution is regularly assessing customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Customer satisfaction and first-call resolution are related. When you provide better service in a single call, the customer will be satisfied, and your first-call resolution will also improve.
So, it’s a company’s job to maintain and understand customer satisfaction. Understanding customer satisfaction gives businesses better insight into how well their support team meets customer needs. Moreover, it helps companies identify areas for improvement and ensure a better customer experience.
5. Implement advanced technologies
Nowadays, businesses use advanced technology such as Chatbots and CRM systems as part of first-call resolution strategies to improve first-call resolution and automate tasks. Tools like CRM systems and AI help you update calls, create tickets, and efficiently route a skill-based call to resolve a customer issue.
Moreover, these tools help agents avoid repetitive tasks, offer personalized support, and respond quickly to customers. Implementing advanced technologies will improve the first-call resolution rate and the overall customer experience.
6. Invest in comprehensive training programs for your agents.
Proper training of call agents is essential for providing better service to customers. A comprehensive training program can help agents handle demanding customers and complicated issues more effectively.
So, businesses should invest in training and offer regular classes to give agents a broad understanding of the context and what they are working at. Proper training helps call center agents feel more confident and better assist customers.
7. Minimize customer effort in interactions
While on call, agents should ensure the customer’s interaction is easy and comfortable. Agents should try to minimize customer effort in the interaction, such as simplifying the process and providing proper guidance without having the customer express much.
By minimizing customer effort, an agent can enhance a customer’s overall experience, reduce frustration, and solve issues on the first call.
8. Define key performance indicators (KPIs)
Call Center Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that evaluate and assess a company’s overall performance. Most companies use KPIs in sales and marketing to track and analyze their overall performance, conversation rate, and revenue generation.
Tracking and analyzing sales KPIs helps you monitor sales targets, areas for improvement, and other information about the company.
9. Identify areas of improvement within your processes
There is always room for improvement 🤞 in business, and identifying where to improve will help agents work on that matter. First, recognizing areas of improvement within your process is essential before working on it, and identifying them includes various steps, like examining call data and customer feedback.
After you find your weaknesses, you can work on improving them. Identifying areas of improvement helps you improve communication and give your teams better tools. Lastly, addressing these areas will eventually strengthen your FCR rates.
10. Integrate speech analytics to understand customer sentiment
Speech analytics is a tool that analyzes customer conversation and sentiment using artificial intelligence and natural language processing. Call centers usually use this tool to identify and understand customers’ feelings.
By integrating speech analytics into customer service, businesses can gain valuable information about customers’ sentiments and satisfaction levels. The speech analytics tool can also help you identify trends and common issues during the conversation, which allows agents to understand the leading cause of customer frustration.
11. Establish a cross-channel information update plan
Companies should always ensure they provide better services and keep them updated about the stuff to their customers. To do so, it is essential to establish cross-channel update strategies. Cross-channel is a plan that helps contact center management keep updated about the new product service in the business.
Cross-channel management can help agents predict different types of questions they might face and prepare them accordingly.
12. Encourage total contact ownership concept
Total contact ownership refers to the agent handling the customer’s problems and taking full responsibility for resolution. Encouraging agents for this is essential because it allows the customers to get consistent support from beginning to end.
When agents are assigned specific customer responsibilities, they are more motivated to solve issues on the first call. This motivates them to work effectively to understand and solve customer queries using all their resources.
13. Consider a knowledge base
Many customer questions can be resolved without requiring a phone call. You can create an online knowledge base that customers can access anytime by identifying the most frequently asked questions or common concerns.
A knowledge base is a collection of resources that provides detailed information about your product and offers support on popular features or common issues.
These resources will help improve your first call resolution rate, as fewer customers will need to call for assistance after using these helpful guides.
14. Offer multiple communication channels
Customers may use various channels, which can be different accordingly. To keep up with them in their specific channels, you must focus on providing multiple communication channels in your contact center or business. Multichannel communication is connecting with the client via emails, social media, chat, and more.
This will ensure customers have a smooth experience across all channels by solving their inquiries or problems via their preferred channels. Businesses can improve their ability to solve customer issues by contacting customers with more detailed assistance.
15. Implement advanced call routing systems
One of the first steps of providing a service in a first call is routing the client to an agent who knows how to solve the problem. The agent should analyze the customer’s behavior and problem and route the client to a skilled agent.
Implementing advanced call routing systems is another way to improve the first-call resolution rate. These systems allow businesses to efficiently route calls to the correct department, where the customer’s problem can be solved.
This reduces customer’s stress while talking with different agents and not solving problems. Also, these systems are intelligent and can handle calls efficiently, which is a win-win for customers and businesses. It also enhances customer experience by ensuring that customer queries are handled by agents who have the knowledge and skills to provide proper guidance on related topics.
16. Analyze customer behavior and predict needs
Agents should be able to understand and analyze customers’ behavior. The more you understand your customers, the better service you can provide them. When you know why customers contact you, you can adequately provide them with the right solution.
Analyzing customer behavior requires agents to gather qualitative and quantitative data on customers’ behavior and assess the data for behavior insights and customer feedback.
17. Improve contact transfer efficiency
Call transfer is an essential first-call resolution optimization technique for a call center that aims to provide customers with solutions within a single call. However, overusing call transfers can lower a company’s value in customers’ eyes.
For example, when a customer calls you, they want their problem solved by the same agent. However, when agents transfer their calls from one agent to another, customers might feel they don’t know how to solve the problem and also feel irritated. So, agents should remember to transfer calls only when they cannot provide a proper solution and avoid transferring calls all the time.
18. Gather regular feedback from agents
Most companies focus only on receiving customer feedback, but feedback from agents is also important to make conversations effective. Businesses should always ask for feedback, such as joint issues they face during conversations, challenges, and overall experience issues.
By addressing all their issues, other agents can understand the problems other agents face and be prepared to solve those issues themselves.
19. Communicate clearly with customers
Communication is the key to improving customer and company relationships. So, during a call, agents should clearly communicate and identify what the customer actually wants. Only then can they provide better service.
Agents should also train themselves to clearly instruct their clients on how their problems can be solved. If agents provide and communicate clearly on the first call, customers will likely call again for more information later.
20. Ask the customer about their overall experience
Always ask customers about their overall experience at the end of the call. Asking a customer about a solution you have provided or your service will make the customer feel valued and respected. You can further explore their experience by asking specific questions like:
- “Was there anything specific that stood out to you during our interaction?”
- “Is there anything we could have done differently to improve your experience?”
- “Are there any other services or features you would like to see in the future?”
These questions show that you value their feedback and provide actionable insights for improving your services. Moreover, you can also identify the areas for improvement and ensure their overall satisfaction on a single call.
21. Monitor calls for quality assurance
The company should always focus on VoIP call quality to increase efficiency and satisfy customers. Managers and higher-level staff can monitor conversations using call barging, call recording, and social media interactions.
Measuring call quality helps the company identify the efficiency and effectiveness of the conversation between agents and customers. Moreover, it also helps the business identify areas for improvement.
How can KrispCall help your business improve FCR?
KrispCall’s cloud-based telephony system has various features that help your business improve its First Call Rate. With Krispcall’s call transfer feature, you can smoothly transfer calls between agents, allowing customers and agents to stay connected. Similarly, with KrispCall Interactive voice response, businesses can simplify the call management process and guide customers to the proper agent.
In addition, KrispCall’s auto attendant feature efficiently directs incoming calls to the proper department. This automated process optimizes your chances of achieving FCR by ensuring callers reach the correct destination and reducing misdirected calls.
Wrapping Up
Businesses should focus on the best way to improve the first-call resolution rate. Resolving customer issues on the first call builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction. Satisfied customers😀 are more likely to be repeat customers and recommend the business to others.
Businesses can improve their first-call resolution by using different strategies, such as regularly tracking the FCR rate, deeply understanding customer needs, and providing accurate information. Similarly, businesses should focus on training agents to utilize advanced technology and communicate appropriately with customers.
To implement these strategies effectively and boost your FCR rates, consider partnering with KrispCall. With its advanced call management features, KrispCall can help streamline your customer interactions and ensure a superior customer experience.💫
FAQs
How to measure the first contact resolution rate?
To calculate your company’s first contact resolution, divide the total number of customers whose query or problem was resolved at the very interaction across the entire measurement period by the total number of tickets received.
The formula to calculate the First contact resolution rate is:
FCR = (Total number of one-touch tickets ÷ Total number of tickets received) x 100
What strategies can organizations implement to optimize FCR rates?
Business can train their agents, use advanced technology, optimize call routing, and maintain and analyze FCR metrics to optimize FCR rates.
