Glossary · F · FCR

First contact resolution

Definition

First contact resolution (FCR) is the share of requests resolved completely in the first contact, without the customer having to get in touch again.

Nobody enjoys having to get in touch twice. First contact resolution measures how often that is avoided. It connects the customer's view with operational efficiency, because every repeat contact costs both sides time.

#Three ways to measure it

No system knows by itself whether a request was resolved. Three methods are common, and each has strengths and weaknesses.

Method	How it works	Strength	Weakness
Survey	The customer confirms after the contact whether she was helped	Customer's view	Only some reply
Repeat contact	No new contact on the same request within a window, such as seven days	Automatic, complete	Needs clean matching
Self-assessment	Agents mark the case as resolved	Simple	Subjective

Many teams combine two methods, for example automatic repeat-contact measurement with a short survey as a cross-check. What matters is that the definition is written down and does not change from month to month.

That includes deciding what counts as "the same request". A billing question and a change of address from the same customer on the same day are two requests, not a repeat contact.

#Channel switches count too

Someone who chats first and then calls has made contact twice. Measuring channel by channel misses that. First contact resolution is therefore an omnichannel metric, or it flatters.

A callback the customer has to chase herself is a second contact too.

That requires recognising the same person across channels, which is what identity resolution does.

#What improves it