https://www.talkdesk.com/resources/webinars/ Today’s customers expect businesses to effortlessly resolve their issues with speed and accuracy. Use these tips to help you improve first call resolution (FCR) within your call center and give your customers the service and support they demand. Talkdesk Cloud-Based Call Center Software www.talkdesk.com/free-trial

1. 11 Ways to Improve Your
First Call Resolution

2. First call resolution (FCR) is an essential indicator of your
call center’s health. Once you have run an analysis to
determine your baseline FCR, you should implement
policies to build upon your score. Here are 11 ways to
begin improving your FCR:

3. #1
Understand and
address issues

4. After you have conducted a first call resolution analysis, it is important
to conduct a root cause analysis on calls that were not resolved on first
contact. A good root cause analysis will help to identify trends and
pinpoint inefficiencies so that you can make data-driven decisions for
the future of your call center.
#1 Understand and address issues

5. You can identify issues by looking into:
• Why was the call transferred?
• Who was the call transferred to?
• Why was the call escalated to a manager?
• Why was the caller followed up with?
• Why did the interaction span different channels (e.g. phone, chat,
email, walk-in)?
• Why was the caller not satisfied with the solution?
#1 Understand and address issues

6. Once you have isolated specific problems, you should consider what
factors may have contributed to those issues:
• Are there specific products, bugs or issues that are frequently cited?
• Are company policies or procedures negatively impacting agent
performance?
• Are there edge cases that should be addressed?
• Do your agents have sufficient knowledge, training and resources?
• Do your agents effectively utilize the knowledge base, follow protocol
and work in line with company policy?
• Is your call center operating with obsolete software, plugins or
hardware?
#1 Understand and address issues

7. You can answer these questions by speaking with your agents, viewing call
logs, listening to call recordings, analyzing customer survey responses and
examining other call center metrics.
Once you identify common issues, knowledge gaps, training
opportunities, inefficiencies and problematic policies/procedures, you
should engage in reparative action and take preventative measures to
help improve first call resolution in the future. Make sure that this
process happens on a regular basis and that you are consistently looking
for ways to streamline the support process.
#1 Understand and address issues

8. #2
Analyze customer contact
behavior to anticipate
their needs

9. The more you know about your customer base and why they reach out to
your company, the more prepared you will be to address their needs. Doing
so will increase customer satisfaction and FCR. You can approach this from
a few angles:
• Create customer profiles
• Analyze customer demographic data
• Group customers by the reason for their calls
#2 Analyze customer contact behavior to anticipate their needs

10. #3
Invest in call center
software that…

11. Provides comprehensive call history in one interface: Equipping your
team with the right tools is essential to increasing FCR. When your agents
have a detailed caller history pop up in their browser before they answer the
call, they will be able to meet customer needs with more skill and
professionalism.
#3 Invest in call center software that…

12. More progressive call center software will display the caller’s name,
company, phone number, email and social media profiles in the browser.
Agents will also have access to detailed contact logs from every contact
channel (e.g. phone, email, chat, support tickets, sales receipts and events)
all in the same interface. With this information at their fingertips, your
agents will be prepared to resolve customer issues without having to make
transfers or callbacks.
#3 Invest in call center software that…

13. Has automated tasks: Forgetting to update or incorrectly entering
information in CRMs, helpdesks and other back office solutions often
results in a decrease in first call resolution. Investing in call center software
that will automatically update all integrated systems and perform relevant
tasks will dramatically improve your FCR by ensuring that your agents are
always prepared to adequately address customer needs.
#3 Invest in call center software that…

14. Has skills-based routing: Once you have a strong understanding of your
customer base, you can better meet their needs by deploying call center
with skills-based routing. You can assign tags to each customer and agent
so that when the customer calls, they will be routed to the agent that is
most capable of meeting their needs.
Has an agent dashboard and metrics: When each agent can access
valuable information about how they are performing, they will be more
aware of their actions and can aim to improve them, without management
having to constantly remind them. Empowering agents to make educated
decisions based on data will help to increase their performance.
#3 Invest in call center software that…

15. #4
Optimize your support
structure

16. Once you have a better understanding of customer behavior and the
situations that lead to a decrease in FCR and you have implemented the
right tools, you can completely change the structure of your support
system to better accommodate the needs of your customers.
You should delegate each issue to different levels of support and then adjust
your skills-based routing algorithms accordingly. For example, you can have
frontline agents who are most skilled at solving basic problems and support
engineers answering technical issues. With both small and large teams,
stratifying your support can be a very simple way to increase first call
resolution.
#4 Optimize your support structure

17. To accomplish this effectively, you should:
• Know what types of calls your frontline support agents can resolve without
transferring
• Know what types of calls are typically escalated and to which teams
• Know which agents are best suited to handle certain caller types/issues
• Know which teams are best equipped to handle specific issues/caller types
• Provide targeted training and supervision to agents who will perform new
tasks and handle new callers
• Provide agents with access to resources, knowledge bases and live support
#4 Optimize your support structure

18. #5
Engage in “Total Contact
Ownership”

19. “Total Contact Ownership” is a process that can dramatically increase FCR. It
is a system in which the agent who takes the initial call follows the call from
start to finish. When you implement this policy, agents will be less likely to
transfer calls just to “pass the problem” to another agent, as they will still be
required to follow the issue until it is closed.
The agent will be more likely to recruit the resources (i.e. more senior agents,
management, technical support agents, etc.) they need to help solve the issue
collaboratively. This system not only increases FCR, but also increases
professionalism and customer satisfaction.
#5 Engage in “Total Contact Ownership”

20. #6
Streamline your internal
processes

21. Once you have pinpointed inefficient processes, policies and procedures, you
can start to alter or eliminate them. Streamlining your internal processes,
eliminating unnecessary red tape and empowering your agents to solve
issues that are within their capabilities will go a long way to improving FCR.
#6 Streamline your internal processes

22. Some policies that you should consider allowing your agents to handle
without transferring the call to a manager are:
• Issuing credits, returns and refunds
• Removing shipping charges
• Adjusting billing cycles and timing
• Removing late fees
• Applying promotional discounts
• Solving warranty issues
#6 Streamline your internal processes

23. #7
Increase automation
and self-service options

24. An obvious, but often overlooked, change that many companies can make to
increase first call resolution is to invest in more automated self-service
options. An easy way to do this is to configure your IVR to provide basic
information (e.g. account information, business hours, etc.) and put a FAQ,
knowledge base and training manuals on your website. This will not only help
to increase FCR but will also significantly reduce call volume.
#7 Increase automation and self-service options

25. #8
Optimize your content

26. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. In the case of FCR, this is
especially true. If your agents can provide information that is accessible
online or via email that will help guide customers through their issues,
customers will be less likely to call back about the same issue.
It is important that the information on your website and in your guides is up-
to-date, helpful and easy to understand. The effort your team puts into making
sure that your content is optimized will pay off in the long run.
#8 Optimize your content

27. #9
Improve agent
performance

28. Improving agent performance may be the best way to help increase FCR.
Here are some tips to help with this process:
Train well: Your agents must be equipped to handle the diverse needs of
callers. This means they should be proficient with your software and
procedures and be comfortable communicating with all types of customers.
Increase motivation: Employees must be motivated to improve their
performance. This can be accomplished through regular performance
reviews, gamification and other management techniques.
Empower agents with the right resources and information: Allow technical
support agents to drop in on calls to offer support when needed, and make
sure managers are available to answer questions.
#9 Improve agent performance

29. #10
Increase agent autonomy

30. Cut the script and the red tape. Autonomous agents who are not bound by
strict scripts and restrictive policies are more capable of effectively meeting
customer needs by being flexible, responsive and personal.
When you remove unnecessary restrictions from capable agents (e.g. the
power to give refunds, make changes to account information, etc.) you will
dramatically decrease the number of calls transferred and increase first call
resolution.
#10 Increase agent autonomy

31. #11
Enhance internal
communication

32. Having an open door policy when it comes to suggestions from staff about
how to improve inefficiencies, procedures, etc. is important for increasing
first call resolution. Managers should regularly solicit information from
inexperienced and seasoned agents about their experience and how to
improve it.
Managers should also monitor for agent effectiveness, track FCR and provide
feedback to agents daily. When internal communication is a two-way street,
the company and the customers win.
#11 Enhance internal communication

33. Your customers expect an effortless experience when they interact with
your brand. Give them what they want in the form of the best phone
support possible.
Find out how with Talkdesk’s cloud-based call center software.
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