Microlog - Service Made Simple. Business Made Better.

Call Center Hell

Customer Interaction

Routing Calls Over the
Internet

First Call Resolution

Emergency Communications

	Improving First Contact Resolution
	Resolving customer requests with the first call pays big dividends.
	Today’s customer service organizations have overwhelming discovered the business case for self-service. However, when customers do opt for live interaction, they don’t like to be transferred from person to person. They want their issues taken care of in one phone call – a practice commonly referred to as First Contact Resolution. Last year, a study of 44 contact management centers by Gartner’s CRM Practice (a technology research firm in Stamford, CT) confirmed this trend, finding: Customers tolerate longer queue times if they get answers from the first agent they contact. For example, customers interacting with service centers that practice First Call Resolution do not view queue times longer than one minute a problem. Conversely, service centers that don’t implement this best practice have higher abandon rates, even when their resolution time is shorter than those that do.
	First contact resolution makes good business sense Organizations that practice First Contact Resolution receive 10 percent fewer calls (by reducing the need for second contacts). In a 25 agent contact center handling 35,000 calls per month, that’s 3,500 fewer calls per month. Because a typical agent handles 1,400 calls/month, that’s a savings of 2.5 FTEs (full time equivalents) or $112,500 per year assuming the average fully burdened compensation for agents is approximately $45,000 per year.
	How to improve Invest in better call routing. The best way to resolve a customer issue quickly is to get the call in front of the person best trained to solve the problem. Train agents to reach resolution prior to engaging in an up sell. Customer loyalty rates fall dramatically in organizations that distract customers from their reason for calling. Invest in Just-In-Time training and knowledge management. Keep agents informed of solutions to common customer problems. Communicate the business value of First Contact Resolution to your staff; solicit agent recommendations for improving this best practice and reducing call volume.