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Increasing Call Center Effectiveness with First Call Resolution

By Upstream Works

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Overview

» First call resolution definition and effects

» Why improve?

» Causes of errors

» Measuring first call resolution

» Improving first call resolution

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What is First Call Resolution?

Properly addressing the customer's need the first time they call, thereby eliminating the need for the customer to follow up with a second call.

-whatis.com

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Statistics

» Industry average FCR rates are only 70%

» Therefore 15% of your callers have to call twice or more

» Therefore:» ~15% is rework

» ~15% of your customer base is at risk

»Repeat calls are premium expense calls

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Cost of Repeat Calls

» Repeat calls increase call volumes

» Repeat calls are driving customer satisfaction down

»Decreases likelihood to recommend

» Increases customer attrition / churn

»Lowers long term revenues

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Strategic KPIs

» FCR

» Agent solve rate

» Cost per incident

» Customer satisfaction

» Likely to recommend – “Net Promoter Score”

» Not AHT

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Benefits of Measuring FCR?

» Reduce call volumes

» Improve customer satisfaction

» Properly reward and retain agents

» Increase revenue

» Improve overall business process

» Understand your customers

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Why Aren’t Calls Handled?

» Agent ability

» Access to information

» Authority

» Business process

» Customer

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Why Isn’t FCR Measured?

» Don’t know how

»Complex metric

» Cost of FCR not known

»Costs not recognized; WIIFM

» FCR improvement is a long term investment

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7 Ways to Measure FCR

» No single mechanism is 100% accurate

» Multiple methods provide more detail

» Measure to improve!

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FCR Measurement Failures

» Measuring FCR as a ‘number’

» Measuring FCR as a single metric across all call types

» Not capturing enough detail to be actionable

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#1 – Agent Logs

» Simple measurement

» Shows a clear management focus on FCR

» Real time measurement

» Biased by agent’s perceptions and motivation

» Manual process

» Minimal improvement detail

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#2 – CRM / Case Management

» CRM application must have history support

»Could be an IT project

» Manual process

» All calls and call types are not tracked

»Number of calls ≠ number of cases

» Requires single CRM application

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#3,4,5 - Surveys

» Live; IVR; Email

» First hand customer view of the call

» Sampling technology

» Requires permission

» Must be immediate

» Direct measure of customer satisfaction rates

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#6 - Call and Screen Recording

» Agent view of the call

» But this is NOT Quality Monitoring!

» Pinpoint simple errors on calls

» Subject to reviewer’s opinion

» May lack detail for improvement

» Sampling technology - prohibits related (original) call evaluations

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#7 – Repeat Call Tracking

» Automatically collected

» Requires ‘actionable detail’

» Evaluates 100% of calls

» Does not rely on “impressions”

» “Repeat” is defined by call horizon

» Requires caller identification

» Rear view mirror

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Tracking details

» Call reason

» Agent ID

» Customer information

» Call information (ToD; AHT; ASA; ACW)

» Tagged to:

» Repeat call tracking

» Recording

» Survey responses

» Agent Logging

» CRM

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3D FCR Measurement

Detailed Contact

Information

RepeatCall

Tracking

SurveyCall Recording

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Problem Solving

Detailed Contact

Information

RepeatCall

Tracking

SurveyCall Recording

Call type = payment

Sat = 40%

Pattern – Short call ; terminates in IVR

Subsequent call to agent

“My payment is late and I can’t make it in the IVR”

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Improving First Call Resolution

» Low Hanging Fruit

» Determine impact

» Root cause analysis

»Call reason Pareto analysis - ‘biggest bang’

» Multi - channel correlation

» Extend throughout the business

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Summary

» Lots of room for FCR improvement

» Large return on investment

» Primarily a measure of effectiveness

» Do more with less

» Complex measurement

» Multiple types is best

» Use detailed information to improve

» Not a quick fix but a worthwhile one

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About Upstream Works

» Call center solution provider

» UpStart Experience Suite

»Measures FCR 4 different ways

» To help agents and improve FCR rates

» Addressing a wide range of agent and call handling needs

» Contact us for free FCR ROI Assessment

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Contact

» Rob McDougall

» rmcdougall@upstreamworks.com

» www.upstreamworks.com

» 905 660 0969 x 358

» Twitter: @up_rmcd

» See the full webinar recording at www.upstreamworks.com

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Recommendations

» Divide social media into multiple component areas

» Marketing, PR (proactive) and contact center (reactive)

» Implement ‘scanning software that will filter the incoming results

» Assign call center staff to resolve public customer issues

» Create customer interactions

» Timely identification of call center failures

» Provide specific resolutions

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About Upstream Works Software

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Business Interaction Management

Track and save the entire interaction as it happens. It’s easier to use and understand later

Provide in-your-face interaction context that’s role tailored for personalized service

Pre-built best practices analytics

©Upstream Works Software

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Customer Insights

Customer Experience

Performance

Improvement

Performance

Management

Training and Staffing

Process Improvemen

t

All customer channels

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Business Interaction Pain Points

» Problem: No methodology or technology used provides a single comprehensive and auditable view of how customers interact with a business.

» Result: Averages are used to allocate funds to drive customer loyalty and reduce costs across the multiple interaction channels in use today.

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Upstream Solution

» Upstream Works’ Business Interaction Management, makes the collective of customer interactions visible, accountable and controllable

» Combines technology and a methodology to track individual customer interactions across the business

» Links outcomes to supporting interactions

» Puts the collected information into a powerful form

» Compliments existing applications and infrastructure

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Next In Series

» Repeat Calls: Assessing the Damage; Calculating the Cost

www.upstreamworks.com – Download the whitepaper from our website: Increasing Call

Center Effectiveness Through First Call Resolution