Workforce Management Featured Article
Consider Deemphasizing Average Handle Time in Favor of First-Call Resolution
While nearly all contact centers chase some kind of metrics – average handle time (AHT) being the most popular – as customers have become more demanding and more willing to switch at the first sign of a poor support experience, companies have begun to realize that some metrics are more important than others. While average handle time may help keep agents on their toes, relying too heavily can damage the customer experience if agents are rushing customers off the phone before the transaction is truly complete, simply in order to keep the agent’s AHT scores low.
Many successful contact centers have begun to realize that the truly important metric to chase is first-call resolution (FCR). While ensuring FCR is the rule of the contact center may add seconds or minutes on to each call, it will ensure that the customer doesn’t have to pick up the phone or log onto your Web site in order to continue a session that should have already been completed because he or she has more questions or didn’t really understand the answers they were given on the first contact. FCR also helps with customer retention, according to a recent blog post by Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo.
“When [FCR] is achieved, a customer issue is solved with maximum efficiency, and the customer is much more likely to be satisfied with the call center encounter, and will remain a customer in the future,” he writes.
Achieving FCR mean getting a lot of other things right. For starters, agents need to be properly trained and provided with the right tools to do their jobs. Disjointed or siloed databases, repetitive processes and cumbersome applications need to be eliminated. Companies also need to carefully track and analyze transactions and identify the areas in which agents may be getting hung up the most.
“Which types of calls most commonly result in the need for a second (or third) follow-up?” asks Ciarlo. “Take pre-emptive action to reduce these instances, by understanding the issues that cause them.”
A good method is to identify which agents have consistently good FCR rates, and use their methodologies in training and to create a set of best practices. Agents attaining high FCR should also be rewarded for their efforts.
“Every contact center has superstar agents who hit their FCR numbers consistently,” writes Ciarlo. “Given the high rate of employee turnover in this industry, it is imperative for companies to do what they can to keep their best agents, by offering recognition, bonuses and preferred shifts.”
Finally, listen to your agents for the wisdom and insight they can provide for achieving better first-call resolution. They’re the ones on the front lines, not operations executives or call center managers. You may be surprised how much they can contribute toward a comprehensive effort to improve first-call resolution.
Edited by Maurice Nagle