First Contact Resolution (FCR): Customer Perspective - External Resolved

Author: Prit Ahluwalia: Call Centre a2z

Date: 18th July 2013

First Call Resolution can be seen from both the customer and agent perspective. With this in mind, it is usual to adopt two measures; both an external and an internal one and these should be time-based with a rolling reporting window until any fulfilment process is completed.

External Perspective (Customer Resolved)

The External Perspective or Customer Resolved is easy enough to define but one which contact centres struggle to measure. If the enquiry is resolved in the first contact to the customer’s satisfaction, then it is considered to be a successful FCR.

However, this can only be achieved for straightforward enquiries and not where fulfilment is time-based. If a customer calls to find out their current bank balance the agent can simply read this off from the customer’s account screen. The enquiry is completed as a FCR. However, if the customer calls to report a lost or stolen credit card, the enquiry is time-based and is not resolved until the credit card is dispatched and received by the customer. If the initial call is concluded with the agent stating that they have ordered the replacement card, both parties may consider this to be a FCR, but this cannot be confirmed until fulfilment has been completed.

If the internal measurement process involves the agent 'checking' the ’resolved’ or ‘closed’ box this will be recorded as a FCR. However, if the process fails further down the line and the credit card is not received, the customer will need to call again. The contact which was initially registered as an FCR now falls out of this category. So we can see that this enquiry is time-based and requires fulfilment. In such scenarios the FCR window should remain open until fulfilment is complete and not measured immediately after first contact. If the agent completes their process satisfactorily then the contact can be recorded as an Agent Resolved FCR but only as ‘pending’ for Customer Resolved FCR.

see also;

First Contact Resolution (FCR): Agent Perspective - Internal Resolved

Time-based First Contact Resolution (FCR) Reporting Window


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