10 Ways to Improve Your FCR

Once you realize how important the FCR (First Call Resolution) of your company’s customer service department is, you will want to improve it and optimize it. This is because call centers now focus on measuring outcomes, rather than measuring efficiency metrics. In a word, one of the most important metrics you will need to measure is “Did we manage to answer the customer’s query on the first call?”. This is what FCR is. And here are 10 ways to improve it:

1. Understand the issues and quickly fix them – conduct an FCR analysis and if you stumble upon issues – conduct a root cause analysis to pinpoint those issues and fix them. Maybe the problem is in transferring calls or maybe some products are more problematic than others. Sometimes it can even be the company’s policy that crates the problem. Find out what it is and fix it;
2. Analyze customer call behavior – create customer profiles divided into groups and describe the characteristics of each group. Pinpoint each group’s needs, which product or service they use, why they use this particular product and typical call behavior. After that analyze the demographic data and determine your callers’ dominant age, marital status, sex etc.
   Finally, group customers by the reason for their call. With all that done, you will have the big picture of your customers – who is calling, what problems they typically have;
3. Invest in call center software – choose software that can provide information about every caller in one intuitive interface. This way your agents will have the caller’s information pop up in front of them when the conversation starts;
4. Support structure optimization – once you have a better understanding of your callers and the software to back you up, you can make changes in your whole support structure to better accommodate your clients’ needs;
5. TCO (Total Call Ownership) – implement this process in your call center. TCO means that one agent should not only take care of the initial call, but also take care of the whole problem from top to bottom. This means less call transfers and thus – higher FCR;
6. Self-service options – an overlooked factor, but one that can also increase your FCR, is providing more automated self-service options for the caller. Basically, you can configure your IVR to provide basic information for your company – work hours, account information etc.;
7. Content optimization – sometimes, the answer is in your website content. If your agents can send a link to the caller with the page that has the solution to his problem, it is less likely the customer will call again with the same problem;
8. Improve your agents’ performance – callers are different and your agents should be able to handle every call with ease. This means they should be proficient with the software, with your products or services, with the procedures in your company and with the company’s policies. Provide extensive training and increase your agents’ motivation often – they are the force that can single-handedly increase the FCR;
9. Empower your agents – scripted answers and agents that know how to solve a customer’s problem, but are not allowed to do so are a great stick in the wheels of your FCR. Autonomous agents are more likely to respond to the needs of the caller and find solutions faster;
10. Internal communication – soliciting information from unexperienced and seasoned agents is a great way to improve your FCR. Internal communication should be a two-way street and everyone in the company should be able to freely communicate about work processes – agent to agent and management to agents. Remember, feedback is always a precious thing.

If you think there is an easier way to improve your First Call Resolution and you customer service as a whole – you are right. Outsourcing your call center to a professional company can increase not only your FCR, but also your sales and help you expand your business fast.

If you need more help with your customer service – contact us, we will share our experience with you.