Tips on Satisfying Customers with First Contact Resolution

For call/contact centers it is important to satisfy calling customers and that too on the first call itself. First Contact Resolution (FCR) is an important IT support metric that includes best practices and strategies for better customer service. It is simply the percentage of incoming calls or queries that are resolved during the first interaction itself. Thereby, it helps to eliminate the need for the customer or IT Support to arrange a follow-up call. With the help of the right contact center software, businesses can achieve a good FCR. If we talk about the good FCR rate, then the industry standard for a good FCR rate is about 70% to 79%. Therefore, call/contact centers with an FCR rate below 70% must implement the right ways to improve this rate. In short, offering a world-class FCR rate (around 80%) should be one of the key call center KPIs of today’s businesses. FCR KPI for call/contact centers can be determined easily. Just consider the number of issues received and resolved in a single call by the total number of issues raised in the same period. Also Read: What Call Center KPIs You Need to Track to Improve Performance?

Important factors to consider for improving first call resolution

A few factors come into play when you wish to satisfy customers with first call resolution.

#1. The finest omnichannel contact center software

Customers may choose any channel to communicate or express their issues. Responding to customers on the channel of their choice is the first step. And for this, you will need to use the omnichannel contact center software. It helps agents to keep track of all channels and switch from one to the other instantly as per the requirement. Moreover, contact center omnichannel software allows audio-video chat and conferencing facilities as you will see later down in this post.

#2. Train and empower agents

It happens all the time. Agents are good at interactions but they may find it confusing when it comes to answering knowledge-based queries. This is when these famous words come out  …” I am so sorry but…” One may argue that it may not humanly be possible for agents to be as knowledgeable as a sales manager. They cannot handle such queries just like a technical person in charge of the product or service. However, it is possible to empower agents to handle knowledge-based queries. How? Well, the shortcut is to let agents access the information window on the screen of multi-channel contact center software. From there, they can easily get the relevant details of the customer and the product regarding which the call is being made. It is worthwhile for training agents to develop a commitment to resolve calls on the first attempt. Motivating them will help them to take an interest to address queries and try to resolve them.

#3. Decision-making ability

Decision-making is another crucial point. An agent handling the call may not have the authority to make decisions that would resolve the issue. In this case, businesses can define a set of rules and situations that would let agents take immediate decisions. At the same time, a backchannel could be kept open for senior-level executive help. This assures that whenever a senior-level executive must take a decision, they are available and ready to decide. In such a scenario, contact center management software plays a key role in empowering call/contact center agents.

#4. Escalation and conferencing

It happens often that what a customer asks is something the agent cannot resolve but a senior must intervene. The agent finds it tedious to put the caller on hold, consult a senior and then respond. Besides, this whole process can be very time-consuming. The easy way out is an omnichannel contact center software with the audio-video conferencing feature. Escalation on the spot is necessary for first call resolution. One or more seniors from other departments may be roped into an audio or video conference with the customer. This is bound to lead to a first-call resolution in the majority of cases. The opportunity can be grabbed to ask customers about how it went.

#5. Analytics in call center solutions

The contact center is the platform of communication. It must have superior analytics to help businesses that use contact center software to analyze all past transactions. It will help them to identify areas needing improvements in the move towards first call resolution. Gathering and analyzing customer data helps to get valuable insights into an organization’s performance. The data must include customer satisfaction rate, customer retention, customer effort score, etc. To sum-up More than 90% of customers expect their query to be resolved on the first call itself. Therefore, contact centers must make sure to deliver great customer service with a higher FCR rate. They must invest in good contact center omnichannel software. One such software is HoduCC contact center software. Available as both single tenant and multi tenant contact center software, HoduCC ensures a higher first call resolution rate. Apart from this, it comes with various enterprise-grade features and functionalities. Connect with the HoduSoft team today for more information about HoduCC. HoduSoft can help you grow fast and stronger!