How to improve FCR in Call Center
BPO or Call Center is a customer service industry where customer happiness relies on resolving their issues quickly and in fewer attempts. First Call Resolution (FCR) is a key metric that measures a call center’s ability to solve customer problems in the first interaction, ensuring customer satisfaction.
FCR is one of the key metrics in the Call Center and call center experts must be well-trained to resolve issues promptly.
In this blog, we will explore “What is FCR and How to improve FCR in Call Center?
Without further ado let’s start today’s topic “How to improve FCR in Call Center”.
What is FCR in the Call Center?
FCR stands for First Call Resolution or First Contact Resolution in the call center. As the name refers FCR is a quantitative metric that calculates how well a call center can resolve a customer’s query at first call.
In layman’s language, we can understand FCR as :
A call center metric that measures the call center’s ability to resolve customer queries during the initial call/chat.
In Call Center, FCR metrics can be interchangeably used with RR i.e. Resolution Rate, First Chat Resolution, 7d FCR. In short Call Center FCR (First Call Resolution) measures effectiveness by resolving customer issues during the initial contact, which enhances customer satisfaction.
Now let’s jump to the main topic “How to improve FCR in Call Center”
How to improve FCR in Call Center?
Improving First Call Resolution is imperative in the Call Center. Let’s understand how we can improve FCR in the Call Center
1. Training and Coaching :
To improve the First Contact resolution rate the fundamental exercise is to provide enough quality training to new hire agents. When a call center invests more in training or coaching agents, the certification results go higher, and that results in producing experts with good product knowledge which automatically improves the FCR of the call center.
Training does not only mean providing necessary product training to agents (before onboarding the production floor). Rather whenever a new product update is rolled out, conduct a refresher training for all the experts or cascade the latest update on the floor so that agents are aware of all recent updates and FCR metrics are intact.
2. Monitor RTM:
The other best exercise to improve Call Center FCR is to monitor RTM rigorously. For reference, RTM (Real Time Monitoring ) is a tool that allows managers to track the on-call and after-call activity of agents. So, with rigorous monitoring of RTM, you can figure out the experts who are on long calls or on hold for a long time. High AHT, hold, or wrap time are some common symptoms that indicate, whether the agent is lacking in product knowledge or intentionally extending the call which will certainly negatively impact the FCR
However, in most cases, it happens that new hires or less-tenured agents require more attention and support
You can make a separate queue for new hire agents and can provide more on-call support to them to improve FCR.
3 . Create Canned Responses :
One of the effective ways to improve FCR is to prepare FAQs ( Frequently Asked Questions) create canned responses for them and disseminate them on the floor or update them on the training portal for easy reach of experts.
Often, in a call center, 25% – 30% of the total call volume is for the same issues/ concerns, so it would be a best practice to create a training manual or document that contains all the product-related repeatedly asked questions and the crisp solutions for those cases. It will not only improve FCR but also other metrics like AHT, CSAT, NPS, Number of calls handled, etc.
4 . Regular Audits :
Auditing calls/ chats is a great way to keep a check on the quality of calls produced by experts, whether the experts are following quality parameters or not.
Providing resolution to a customer is one thing, but delivering quality is a different one
From the quality standpoint, to improve FCR, the best exercise is to regularly audit calls/ chats, this exercise will not only improve the quality of the call center but also we can identify top drivers/ outliers impacting FCR metrics.
Post identifying we can prepare a plan of action
The frequency of audits depends on :
- Top drivers contributing high FCR
- Repeated outlier experts for FCR metrics
- Specific day/time when FCR has the highest impact
5 . Identifying BQM :
Despite doing all the best practices if still FCR is not improving then the final exercise is to focus on agent errors i.e. to identify bottom quartile experts.
As mentioned above there are different ways to identify BQ experts in call centers. Some of the best ways are :
- Monitoring RTM
- Quality Audits
- Performance Check
Post identifying BQM start working on these experts and improving their performance. Some proven tips for improving BQM are :
- Conduct regular refresher training.
- Keep track of daily performance.
- Regular chat audits.
Read a comprehensive article on how to improve BQM in Call Center.
Let’s now discuss some common advantages of Improving FCR
Advantages of improving First Call Resolution in Call Center
Although there are some good benefits of controlled FCR in call centers, 3 major benefits are outlined below
- Improve CSAT, NPS, Resolution rate, and other call center metrics
- Cost-effective
- Call Volume Reduction
Read the comprehensive article on FCR and its benefits in Call Center
FCR Calculation :
The basic calculation of FCR :
( Total number of cases resolved at first interaction / Total number of cases received ) * 100
Conclusion:
In conclusion, FCR metrics play a pivotal role in call centers. Improving FCR automatically improves CSAT, NPS, and other call center metrics. In Simple words :
“Improving FCR in call centers makes customers happier. Good training and technology help consistently improve service and satisfaction.”
FAQs
In this segment we will discuss 3 frequently asked questions on ” First Contact Resolution”.
Ques 1. What does FCR stand for?
FCR stands for “First Call/Chat Resolution” or “First Contact Resolution”
Ques 2. What is the average FCR in a call center?
There are no certain targets for FCR but ideally, 75 % – 85% is what every call center focuses on and depends on process type.
Ques 3. How to Improve FCR?
Below 3 best practices to improve FCR
- Focus on (refresher) Training of experts
- Real-time Support to agents
- Regular Audits
It’s now time to wrap up the article How to improve FCR in Call Center . I hope this article has answered all your queries related to First Call Resolution. Still, if you have any questions feel free to reach out at callcentertalks26@gmail.com
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