Monthly Newsletter
Online Newsletter for Call
Center Personnel
Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D. Editor and Publisher
Volume XXII, Issue 4
Date: April 1, 2011 - First Call Resolution: Still #1 Driver of Customer Satisfaction
Certainly first call resolution continues to remain the #1 driver of customer
satisfaction. The costs associated with customers having to contact you
more than once or twice, and then defecting to your competition are steep.
According to a Yankee Group study 30 – 35% of calls coming into the average
center are unnecessary repeat calls. And,
65% of all repeat calls are reportedly the result of agent
errors, such as: No confident answer, the wrong answer, someone doesn’t follow
through on commitment, and the customer will call back.
Customer Relationship Metrics’ research reports that caller satisfaction ratings
will be 35% to 45% lower when a second call is made on the same issue.
Yet another study conducted by Service Quality Measurement Group reported that
for every 1% improvement in FCR, you get 1% improvement in customer
satisfaction. Additionally, if a customer’s inquiry or problem
were resolved in the first call, only 3% of those customers were at risk of
going to a competitor.
On the other hand, 34% of customers who didn’t get their
inquiry or problem resolved were likely to go to a competitor. Do you know
what losing that customer cost you?
The challenge still exists today as to how to define and then measure FCR
accurately, effectively, and efficiently. Some centers allow agents to
determine if the customer’s issue were resolved on first contact. The
problem here obviously is that it’s totally subjective.
Some centers use their QA people to decide whether calls were resolved on first
contact. This method is based on a random sampling and doesn’t reflect a
complete picture.
Other centers use post-call surveys and directly ask the customer whether or not
their issue was resolved on the first contact.
To my way of thinking, the best way to determine the question of resolution is
to ask your customer. Many technical programs, measurements, etc. will
provide data that may be useful for internal purposes, but please don’t forget
the customer. In the final analysis, it’s the customer’s perception that
matters.
And finally, I believe that first call resolution is a training issue. If your personnel have the communication skills, the knowledge base, and the empowerment, you can eliminate those second and third calls, as well as the misinformation.
On May 19th at 1 pm EDT, I am presenting a live webinar on First Call
Resolution: How to Define and Measure.
Go here to learn more about it and to register
http://www.iccaevent.com/first_call_resolution.html
Note: Your entire team can be
present for one enrollment fee!
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