This week we feature an article by Pratik Salia, a CX professional and Assistant General Manager at Knowmax. He discusses why first call resolution is important and what companies can do to resolve their customers’ queries in the first call. The authenticity of an organization very much depends on the quality of the customer support […]
This week we feature an article by Pratik Salia, a CX professional and Assistant General Manager at Knowmax. He discusses why first call resolution is important and what companies can do to resolve their customers’ queries in the first call.
The authenticity of an organization very much depends on the quality of the customer support that it provides. An up-to-the-mark first-call resolution (FCR) must be maintained to sustain a good customer experience.
In the past, customer queries were answered through calls, nowadays customer queries are solved through any available digital channel. As the means of customer support are evolving, so is the significance of FCR.
As one can understand from the term, first-call resolution (FCR) indicates the potential of an organization to resolve their customers’ queries in the first call itself, dropping the necessity for the customers to make a second call for the same query.
FCR helps in determining customer satisfaction (CSAT). The higher the FCR rate, the higher is customer satisfaction which as a consequence helps in growing more trust and loyalty in the customers.
FCR also helps in determining the customer support and agents’ efficiency. Apart from these, also how satisfactory is the customer experience (CX). Thus, it has an extensive role to play in the interest of the organization.
There are many advantages to a good FCR rate, one of them being the help that it provides to the organization in determining where the customer agents are lacking effectiveness and require more further improvement. The more the customer agents’ efficiency, the better would be the company’s FCR rate.
Other benefits are that a better FCR rate would imply that the agents’ training and learning are going well. Thus, better customer support and efficient customer agents would result in an improved customer experience.
Improving FCR is a critical process for a company’s profits. FCR can be improved by a knowledge management system with its tools such as a decision tree, knowledge base.
Knowledge base helps in collecting all the important data required for customer support and organizing them in order. In this way, it becomes easier to find relevant solutions for the customers and that too in a very less time.
Decision trees help the customer agents quickly and smoothly find the correct solution for any customer’s queries simply by asking them a few yes or no questions.
Many of the customer queries are simple and repetitive such as “What hours are you open?”, “Are you open on Sundays?”, etc. These would consume a lot of customer agents’ time if they answer each of them over call rather than solving complex customer queries.
Hence, self-service automation is important so that customers can find their answers easily and the customer agents are only left with complex customer queries.
The self-service can be implemented with the help of FAQs and chatbots where the customers can find their solutions only with a few clicks.
Smooth interaction with the customers is just as important as delivering the relevant solution to the customers. Avoiding dead air and keeping the on-hold time as little as possible should be preferred.
Dead Air is the total duration of silence in a call. On-hold time is defined as the time that the customer has to wait on hold while the customer agents need assistance from any supervisor or their call is connected to someone else.
Customers get a feeling of satisfaction when their problems are resolved by the customer care agents without any fuss.
Customer care agents should be given good training and learning. When a customer agent is not able to provide the customers with relevant solutions then the customer makes another call. This impacts a great decrease in the FCR ratings. This would in turn impact the company’s profits.
Customer agents should be provided with all the necessary information required in resolving the customer queries in the first call itself.
With a knowledge base, it becomes much easier for the customer care agents to find the most relevant solutions for their customer queries. A knowledge base helps in collecting all the information and documents. It helps them maintain an organized manner.
Having the access to all that organized information, customer agents can quickly find the most relevant solution for customer queries.
They can even refer to a decision tree. With the help of it, by asking simple yes or no questions, customer agents can understand the customer queries more clearly and thus, provide them with solutions instantly.
Along with improving the FCR, it is important to collect the customers’ feedback. Ask them for feedback right after providing them with their solutions or by sending them emails or SMS.
Gathering feedback helps in determining the drawbacks of customer support. Knowing them, it would be easier to determine where the customer agents need more improvements or training.
FCR plays an important role in a company’s betterment. It determines whether the company is providing good customer support or not. Agents should be given proper training for resolving customer queries in the first call because a second call from the customer for the same query heavily impacts lowering the FCR rate.
Businesses should FCR should improve continuously. Knowledge management helps in improving FCR with tools such as chatbots, decision trees, knowledge base, and FAQs.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.
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