In this day of tighter budgets and lower customer spending, customer retention is an important focus for a number of companies. In the contact center, first call resolution will go a long way to keeping the customer satisfied. A recent Primas Group white paper takes it one step further and suggests having a second call treatment plan is essential to customer retention.
First call resolution (FCR) is the ability of a contact center agent to completely fulfill the needs of the calling customer, the first time they contact the center. Achieving FCR - even though it is imperative to the success of the contact center - is difficult. To reach an intended goal, the contact center needs to implement a process for gathering measurements, the use of centralized software, agent training and agent desktop tools.
For the contact center that has achieved a strong FCR rate, customer retention should be the benefit. For all other contact centers, the focus has to be on how to manage and retain repeat call customers. This is where a second call treatment plan applies. The second call is coming - the outcome will depend greatly upon the approach taken by the contact center.
In reality, the ability to track repeat calling is a powerful FCR measurement tool as it allows businesses to define a second call treatment range, track FCR rates and automatically collect information to determine the root causes of problems. This can only work, however, if every call is captured to identify the customer and the reason for the call.
This tracking differs from FCR measurements as it relies on actual repeat calls, it provides FCR information on all calls and not just sample sets and it provides all associated information or data. In tracking such information, the contact center agent has access to information such as the number of times the customer called; where the customer connected to; dates and times calls were made; customer name; and agent names.
Primas offers an FCR product - the Evolution FCR - that is designed to deliver benefit to companies by addressing issues that involve repeat callers. With a second call treatment solution from Primas, the contact center can reduce customer churn, improve revenue opportunities, properly align the customer to the correct resource, expand data collection and increase agent productivity and satisfaction.
In addition to these benefits, the contact center can also complete an automated IVR survey to determine customer satisfaction in the process of interacting with the center. The survey available in Evolution FCR capture's the customer's impression immediately after the interaction.
At the end of the day, not every single customer is going to be happy 100 percent of the time, but the contact center that makes the concentrated effort to achieve satisfaction and measure performance according to data and customer perception will be on the right track for maximum customer retention.
For more first call resolution tips from Primas, click here.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard