{"id":251770,"date":"2020-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/blog\/first-contact-resolution-fcr-defined\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:43:57","slug":"first-contact-resolution-fcr-defined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/blog\/first-contact-resolution-fcr-defined\/","title":{"rendered":"First Contact Resolution (FCR) Defined"},"content":{"rendered":"
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First Contact Resolution measures the efficiency and effectiveness of Support\u2019s ability to provide the right answer the first time a customer engages with Support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Elements of FCR<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The definition of FCR includes the following four key elements. Each element is explored in detail within the next section.<\/p>\n

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  • Initial Interaction<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Initial Interaction defines what \u201cfirst contact\u201d means. Initial interaction clarifies when the \u201cclock starts\u201d for measuring FCR.<\/li>\n
  • Resolution<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The objective is to provide a solution to a customer issue and not just an answer. In order for FCR to provide an accurate measure of how many cases are truly resolved a clear definition of \u201cresolution\u201d is required.<\/li>\n
  • Qualified Support Representative<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The first person a customer interacts with many not be responsible for providing an answer to his\/her question. The determination of who is qualified to provide support further clarifies which cases are included within the FCR measurement.<\/li>\n
  • Assisted Support<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 This reinforces the notion that FCR is a metric for assisted support cases and not suitable for self-help interactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    First Contact<\/h3>\n

    The term\u00a0first contact<\/em>\u00a0refers to the initial interaction between a customer and a qualified support representative.\u00a0 During this initial interaction, the support representative provides a meaningful response to a customer question resulting in the case to be resolved.\u00a0 An initial response can vary by support delivery approach.\u00a0 Descriptions for when the initial interaction occurs by delivery model are presented below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Model<\/strong><\/td>\nModel Description<\/strong><\/td>\nInitial Interaction Occurs<\/strong><\/td>\nFCR?*<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Front-Line Triage<\/strong><\/td>\nPhone calls are answered by a non-technical team to determine which group or individual is best qualified to provide a response.<\/td>\nWhen the call is answered live, or message returned by a qualified support representative.<\/td>\nYes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is resolved as a result of the initial conversation between the customer and the qualified support representative.<\/p>\n

    No<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 During the initial live interaction with front-line triage team.<\/p>\n

    No<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is NOT resolved during the initial conversation between the customer and the qualified support representative.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Call Back<\/strong><\/td>\nCustomer leaves a voice message for an individual or support team.<\/td>\nWhen the message returned by a qualified support representative results in a live conversation with the customer.\u00a0\u00a0Messages left for the customer are not considered an initial interaction.<\/em><\/td>\nYes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is resolved as a result of the initial conversation between the customer and the qualified support representative.<\/p>\n

    No<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is not resolved during the initial live interaction.<\/p>\n

    No<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If a message is left for the customer.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Phone or Chat \/ Direct to Rep<\/strong><\/td>\nPhone calls or chat requests are directed to individuals qualified to provide an immediate response to customer questions.<\/td>\nWhen the call\/chat is answered live by a qualified support representative.<\/td>\nYes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is resolve as a result of the initial conversation between the customer and the qualified support representative.<\/p>\n

    No<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is not resolved during the initial live interaction.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Electronic<\/strong><\/td>\nCustomer issues are reported through electronic means (e-mail, web-post, social).<\/td>\nWhen a message is returned by a qualified support representative containing a recommended answer or request for additional information.<\/td>\nYes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the case is resolve as a result of the initial message sent from the qualified support representative to the customer.<\/p>\n

    No<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 If the response contains a request for additional information \/ clarification.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    *Note:\u00a0<\/strong> Initial interactions that provide customers with suggested solutions to issues, but the resolutions are not yet verified should be classified as \u201cPending.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Resolution<\/h3>\n

    A resolution and an answer are not the same.\u00a0 A case cannot be considered closed when an answer is suggested but not verified.\u00a0 These situations result in a case being classified as \u201cPending.\u201d\u00a0 If the answer provided is verified as the solution then a pending case can be classified as resolved at first contact.<\/p>\n

    For a case to be considered closed at first contact a customer must accept and acknowledge that there is no further expectation for continued research or alternative course of action.<\/h4>\n

    The term resolution is easy to comprehend when there is a clear response to a customer question and the answer satisfies the customer issue.\u00a0 As much as we would like to provide a satisfactory response to all customer questions there are situations where cases are closed even though the customer did not get the answer they were looking for.<\/p>\n

    The term \u201cresolution\u201d may therefore be misleading because not all cases can be resolved to the satisfaction of the customer. In these cases, resolution more accurately indicates that there is no further action possible.\u00a0 The question or issue has been explored to the point where there is no reasonable course of action and does not warrant an escalation or ongoing investigation.\u00a0 This is not a typical scenario for cases handled at initial contact, but it can occur \u2013 sometimes the answer is \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Qualified Support Representative<\/h3>\n

    Making a distinction for what is a qualified support representative allows the measurement of FCR to be free of non-technical interactions with customers.\u00a0 Support models that rely on front-line groups to triage cases and then direct them to support representatives should begin their measurement of FCR when the customer is engaged with a support representative that is designated to assist them with their specific issue.<\/p>\n

    Assisted Support<\/h3>\n

    FCR is specific to assisted support delivery regardless of the channel used to interact with a customer.\u00a0 FCR may be measured for each assisted support channel individually or across all assisted support channels collectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a common metric used throughout the technology services and broader customer services industries. While widely used the underlying inputs and assumptions that makeup FCR vary …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":251771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[27,46],"tags":[89,79,37,129,91,121,122,33,81,123,124],"class_list":["post-251770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","category-support","tag-case-management","tag-csat","tag-customer-support","tag-effectiveness","tag-efficiency","tag-fcr","tag-first-contact-resolution","tag-metrics","tag-nps","tag-time-to-resolution","tag-ttr","post_outcome-deliver-support-effectively","post_activity-case-management","post_activity-escalation","post_activity-issues-resolution","post_activity-support"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251770"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254971,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251770\/revisions\/254971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servicexrg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}