What makes FCR the single KPI that affects any other meaningful Service Desk measure?

When you start measuring FCR and put in place action plans that are address improving it, you are likely to see a host of ways it positively impacts your business:

Reduction in operating cost – With your agents resolving customer problems right the first time, the number of times your customers need to call back drops drastically. This results in a drop in call volumes and in operating cost. FCR improvements directly reduce cost by reducing the demand for the service.

Increase in customer satisfaction – When your customers call, they are giving you the opportunity and permission to showcase the value that you provide to them. In fact, every 1% improvement in FCR equals a 1% improvement in customer satisfaction. Satisfaction drops an average of 15% with each repeat call, so the impact repeat calls have on your overall customer satisfaction is enormous.

Improvements in your overall business process – FCR can be difficult to measure, as it involves multiple business processes and systems. Repeat calls are often caused by misaligned inter-departmental processes. When your focus is on empowering your agents to deliver resolutions the first time around, you tend to approach your business process from a customer –oriented standpoint, streamlining processes in favor of the customer.

Increase in up-sell and cross-sell opportunities: A customer, whose problem is resolved on first contact by an empowered agent equipped with the skills and resources, is more open to an up-sell than one who has just been asked to call back or wait for resolution. Satisfied customers are more likely to listen to a marketing offer that is in line with the organization’s growth needs. Worldwide there is increasing evidence to show that empowered agents with focus squarely on FCR deliver better business results.

Increase in employee satisfaction – If your agents are solely judged on a metric like call handle time and are encouraged to beat that metric regardless of the customer’s needs, you are encouraging behavior that is unrelated to business profitability. But by empowering your workforce to take decisions and resolve customer problems on first contact you naturally increase employee satisfaction levels. It also allows you to recognize and reward high performing agents.

Gavin.

Gavin Cooper
Head of Global Marketing
GSS Infotech
Reach me at:
gavin.cooper@gssinfotech.com
Phone: + 1 518-724 3138