What is Inbound Calls Closed on First Call?

In customer relationship management (CRM), the term “Inbound Calls Closed on First Call” refers to satisfactorily addressing the caller’s need the first time they call. This eradicates the need for the caller to follow up with a second call. It is also referred to as First Call Resolution (FCR).

FCR falls under the series of measurements that assist you in tracking the efficiency of your experts and processes. More importantly, because customers like quick resolutions to their issues, it is an effective way to concentrate on customer experience. There are reports that suggest that for every 1% improvement that a call center makes in FCR, it gets a 1% enhancement in customer satisfaction. The reports also read that on an average, customer contentment drops by 15% every time a customer has to follow up regarding the same problem.

In call center outsourcing industry, talk time is a measure of the average time that an agent spends on each call. It is a common performance metric. Typically, fast/short talk time averages are desirable. Fast talk time averages complemented by poor FCR rates signify that customer calls are not being answered adequately.

In layman’s language, first call resolution rate the percentage of customer issues that were solved on the first phone call. Issues resolved in the first call not only impact customer satisfaction, but it also supports costs positively. Call center managers keenly monitor follow-up calls because follow-up calls are not only an indication of customer dissatisfaction, but they also cause a surge in call volume which, in turn, necessitates more agents. As long as the first call resolution rate improves, a call center manager is happy to consider an increase in talk time.

It should be noted that FCR is only one measurement. It should not be used standalone as it’s neither a comprehensive indicator of customer satisfaction nor of IT effectiveness. If used in collaboration with other measurements such as time to first response and actual customer satisfaction scores, it enables you to track trends efficiently and help you identify areas to improve.