First contact resolution (or FCR) rate is how often you solve a customer’s issue the first time you speak to them. The average FCR rate for live customer support is currently 66%. It is one of the most important factors for measuring consumer satisfaction level. In our fast-paced world, customers want issues to be resolved as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Live customer support increases your chances of having a high FCR rate without trying too hard, as it is offers responsive customer service, but there are some things you can do to make this even better:
Pre-Chat Questionnaires
Customers may have varying issues that require them to speak to different representatives in your company — tech vs. non-tech questions, for example. One of the benefits of live response is that you can use a pre-chat questionnaire to ensure that they speak to the right person the first time. This reduces the wait time or the need for them to come back when the employee is free. It also gives reps a good insight into your Contact’s situation before they start chatting so that they can offer the most efficient support when in conversation.
Communication is Key
Interacting with customers in real time is one of the benefits of live response but it can go against you if not used properly. Make sure you let your customer know at all stages what you are doing and if they will have to wait at all. Long periods of silence can cause them to get frustrated and end the conversation.
Checking if customers are satisfied or have any other issues before you end a conversation is a great way to ensure they don’t have to come back again.
Post-Chat Questionnaires
These short surveys allow you to track your progress and note areas you can improve on to increase your FCR and thus, your responsive customer service overall.
Multitasking
One of the benefits of live response is that support staff can speak to several customers at once and carry out multiple tasks. Using a good live support software — such as Xeno — that consolidates all communication in one place, can help to keep responses quick and provide relevant information in a few clicks.
Train, Train, Train
Your staff needs to be on top of the latest and most popular and issues affecting your customers to get things solved in the first instance. Learning on the job or having to refer to other staff members slows down your service and lead to more referrals to staff with more experience. Extra training can only help in this area; for a more extensive look at how to optimize your training, check out our previous blog post.
Get it in One
When used correctly, there are a number of ways you can make it easier to increase your FCR with live customer support. Utilizing a quality live support software such as Xeno only helps this further. Customer details, pre and post-chat questionnaires, all neatly consolidated in one place, makes it hard not to get your FCR looking healthier.
