First Call Resolution is a relatively new concept in the marketplace and therefore, often misunderstood.  Similar to the introduction of service levels nearly a decade ago, FCR solutions are creating more confusion than providing resolutions.  Yet confusion over FCR can be extremely costly for organizations.  When customers have to call into an organization multiple times to resolve an issue, the organization's bottom line is directly affected by the higher cost per contact.  But more significantly, a low FCR rate can have a more costly, yet less tangible impact on an operation - many studies suggest a high correlation between low FCR rates and customer churn.  With customer satisfaction as such a potent weapon in today's economic landscape, incremental improvements in FCR can lead to increased customer satisfaction and revenue generation. 

But why are so many companies today struggling with FCR?  In our first FCR Blog post, we talked about the challenge organizations face in simply measuring FCR, as it's not just composed of a single source of information, but rather a combination of data from systems across the organization. 

However, there is another challenge organizations face in addressing FCR, and that is approaching FCR as a strategy, rather than a metric.  FCR is a dynamic measurement because of the multitude of data that must go into calculating it - from CRM, IVR, Quality, Speech Analytics, Customer Satisfaction systems, etc.  As a result, FCR must be considered holistically as a guiding strategy, rather than a one-dimensional metric.

To help you in approaching FCR in your organization, below are a few tips to approaching FCR strategically: 

1. Find meaning in the data -The cornerstone of a performance management solution for FCR is the ability to capture and organize data from disparate systems to provide a complete picture to management.  Too often organizations fixate on a certain metric, such as Average Handle Time, that they believe will solve their FCR problems.  However, this is too simplistic.  A good measure of FCR takes a combination of metrics from various operational systems into consideration.  
2. Deliver actionable information - Without insight into their performance, front line employees cannot improve.  When approaching FCR as a strategy, it is important to deliver contextual and actionable performance information to every role in the organization, from the front line to the executive, and to individuals' performance in different areas, like quality and handle time, to specific activities for improvement.    
3. Establishing realistic goals - Using benchmarking data combined with internal reporting, realistic goals for FCR within an organization can quickly be established.  This analysis also allows organizations to set cost effective short-term and long-term goals for FCR improvements. 

We hope these tips offered some insight into how your organization can approach FCR as a dynamic strategy, rather than a metric, and we'd love to hear your stories about how your organization has approached FCR.