When call centers began pursuing “first-call resolution” in the last decade, it wasn’t just a buzzword. The idea of ensuring that all calls into a contact center are resolved on the very first call, eliminating the need for the customer to call back, has a whole host of benefits.

For starters, repeat calls cost contact centers money. Each time a customer calls back because he or she is unsure of previous advice or answers, the cost of that customer’s transaction is doubling and tripling. Because the customer will often be irritated about the need for repeat calls, the interaction is more likely to be antagonistic, which adds time to the call and damages the customer relationship. Finally, if a customer has to call a company often enough, it’s nearly a certainty that he or she will at least consider switching to a competitor.

First-call resolution, simply put, is a way to save both money and customer relationships. It may even help you keep agents: your contact center employees do not enjoy having to field irate callers with unresolved issues.

If you do have low first-call resolutions performance indicators, it’s probable that your agents simply don’t have the resources they require to resolve customers’ issues. Many contact centers have deployed a vast array of technologies and strategic initiatives designed to reduce and ultimately eliminate repeat calls, only to find that the problem still persists. If this is your organization, you’re probably wondering what you’re doing wrong. Why is all of your planning still not producing the expected results? What needs to be done to diminish the increased call volume and manage the major operational challenges presented by unnecessary repeat calls?

The first step is to understand precisely where your call center planning and resources are going wrong.

On Wednesday, May 22 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT; 11:00 a.m. Pacific), TMCnet will co-sponsor a Web event with workforce analytics solutions provider Ekata to help contact centers understand how to recognize the causes of repeat calls. Attendees will learn how to accurately categorize call reasons, understand and work with large call sample sizes, identify avoidable repeat calls, create individual-level repeat metrics that can be consistently trusted and identify and act upon coachable opportunities.

The goal is to find the roadblocks to first-call resolution – which aren’t always obvious – and determine how to overcome them to ensure that each customer’s issue is resolved for the first time, every time.

Learn more or register for the Web event here on TMCnet.