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Customer Service is a Contact Sport: 3 Ways You Can Improve First Contact Resolution

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The first contact with your customers is the most important interaction you’ll have. Here’s how to increase your odds of resolving problems on the first try.

Of the many metrics gathered by contact centres, one metric stands among the others as a benchmark of efficiency and positive customer support: First Contact Resolution (FCR). It’s easy to understand why this metric is so important: How much does each call cost your centre? And how many of those calls are second or third interactions that could have been resolved on the first attempt?

FCR is your rate of customers whose issues were resolved with a single interaction — something all high-performing call centres strive for. A customer service survey by Dimensional Research has shown that 69% of consumers equate good customer service with fast problem resolution, and 72% feel that poor service was the result of having to explain their problem to multiple agents.

Knowing what factors influence FCR will allow you to develop better strategies for increasing it and improving your customer response. Read on for 3 ways to improve your FCR rates and keep your customers happy.

1) Empower Your Agents with Flexibility

Your customer support team needs the help of management to do their job effectively. Giving your agents autonomy is an essential part of handling problems on the first attempt and bringing FCR rates up. Removing restrictions and red tape that may get in the way of providing solutions can give your team the flexibility they need to get creative with their problem solving.

This process includes arming your agents with necessary information about each customer transaction. Each agent interacting with a customer should be aware of that customer’s purchase history, previous support requests and overall experience interacting with your agents. Without this background, solving issues on the first call becomes a trickier process.

2) Team Management and Training

Proper agent education and training are essential to keeping your FCR rates high. Resolving an issue on the first interaction isn’t always easy, and often requires the special touch of a trained and creative agent that is able to meet the needs of their customer.

Agents capable of meeting these goals can be hard to find, and almost never start out that way. You need effective agents on your staff, but it’s the manager’s duty to get them there. Agent coaching is one of the best ways to guarantee that your staff can handle consumer complaints on the first call.

Developing your agents and managing their performance shouldn’t be two separate goals for an effective team leader. Managers who survey their employees to learn about their abilities will have a much better understanding of the customer experience than those who only manage as a reactionary measure when things get bad.

This type of proactive response to team-building can offer views about how your agents feel about their level of training, their strengths and weakness, and what they feel are the biggest shortcomings to your customer support procedures.

3) Keeping It Simple

Overly complicated systems can be a big detriment to your FCR. The more complex the procedures and systems of your call centre, the more likely it is that your agents will need to undergo multiple interactions with consumers to solve their problems. A 2013 Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Survey revealed that 91% of consumers become frustrated when they have to contact a call centre multiple times for the same reason. To avoid needless interactions due to complex red tape, simplify your procedures so agents have a better chance of achieving FCR.

Recognizing where complications can occur in the call centre flow can offer insight into which procedures can be streamlined.

  • Calls will vary in complexity, with more complicated issues more likely to be transferred between agents or directed to supervisors, thereby decreasing FCR.
  • A complicated work environment that is dragged down by administrative inefficiencies, restrictive policies, and a culture not focused on the consumer increase the odds that a caller’s issue won’t get resolved on the first go.
  • Complex services and products tend to decrease FCR due to increased troubleshooting and problem solving times. Providing agents with fingertip tools and arming them with call control techniques will help reduce caller frustration, and long periods of silence while on the phone.

An Adaptable Work Environment

Improving FCR shouldn’t just be a goal you set for your contact centre, it should be a large-scale corporate objective that’s prioritized in training and procedure implementation. High FCR rates are a big factor in maintaining the customers you already have, but it can only be accomplished with the help of trained agents with the freedom to help customers in an environment that best facilitates a good customer experience.

Interested in learning more about how FCR can be optimized in your workplace? Download our free white paper!

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