There’s little to no leeway anymore when it comes to first call resolutions (FCR’s). Your team has to keep this metric in their sights at all times if you are to be a competitive company in your industry. The trend of the current market is about the same no matter which department you work in: customers want things done quickly and correctly, more so than ever before. This means that if you want to keep up, you have to get things done on the first contact point, as often as possible.
We’ve talked about the finer points of FCR success on our blog before. But sometimes it’s more useful to take a step back and look at all your components in perspective to ensure your customers (and your agents) that you’ve cultivating the right environment for a speedy customer service interaction. So let’s get back to the basics.
Your customers are going to need all the channels they want. Multichannel support is one of the huge factors in cutting down on unnecessary call-backs. This way, when a customer wants to get in touch with your company, they don’t just have to make-do with a phone call when they don’t really have time. They can send an e-mail, which fits in with their busy schedule, or pop in with a chat, so they can keep multi-tasking with other work. Providing all the channels that the customers want is not only a good way to satisfy their wants, but it’s a good way to make your company’s job easier.
Your team needs the right support from its management and the authority to make the deciding call. One of the major pitfalls in customer service departments comes into play when the agent feels they don’t have their manager on their side to back their choices. Empowering your agents to say, “yes, I can do that,†when a customer needs something creates a whole team of supervisors who can manage their own work, feel pride in the choices they make, and give their customers top-of-the-line service on the very first call.
Your team will also need the right tools to give them the expert knowledge that customers expect. Providing key elements such as a heavy-hitting, broadly searchable internal knowledge base will help your representatives feel like they can answer a customer’s question, even if they don’t know it right off the bat. A short little search will yield results that can enable each agent to give well-informed, expert solutions within a matter of seconds, and get that customer’s call resolved on the first try.
The main ingredients to improving your FCR rates in your customer service department start with the basics of giving your customers and your agents what they need for the job. There are good tips and tricks to trim the numbers once you’re all settled, but building a solid foundation from the start is really where success awaits!
Upper level customer service starts with base-level excellence. Contact PhaseWare today to get started with your success!