First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a percentage measure of a contact center’s success rate in answering customer inquiries the first time they are made. It’s a metric often confused with First Call Resolution, which goes by the same acronym.

While both measure the same, First Contact Resolution does it in all contact center channels, while First Call Resolution is only for the voice channel.

WHY IS FIRST CONTACT RESOLUTION IMPORTANT?

First contact resolution is now seen by many as the best measure of contact center efficiency, as few organizations use talk time as a metric to guide advisors. This is because it can encourage negative behaviours as advisers can start rushing over the phone.

Therefore, organizations are turning to FCR to assess not only the effectiveness of advisors, but also the processes and technology behind them.

In fact, if you use FCR in combination with Average Handling Time (AHT) and divide the metrics by your most common contact reasons, you can highlight your most inefficient customer journeys.

THE FIRST CONTACT RESOLUTION FORMULA

 The traditional formula for FCR is: Queries resolved on first contact / the total number of contacts x 100. The problem comes with how you get the data to input into this calculation.

While the calculation is simple, how do we know that a contact has actually been resolved? How can we track that?

We could ask advisors to confirm with the contact whether or not it has been resolved. But that might encourage negative behavior or customers might realize at some point afterward that something isn’t quite right with the resolution, despite previously saying they were happy with it.

So maybe we can track repeated calls over a certain period of time. But will the interaction be long enough? And maybe the customer will call for a different reason?

Therefore, these two methods are not true RCF calculation methods. A better method of calculating FCR is to send the customer a summary of the interaction a few days after the initial contact. If the client is not satisfied and the case is not “truly resolved”, they can reopen the case and the FCR can be tracked that way.

While first contact resolution is becoming more prevalent in the contact center “metric mix”, it will not be the only measure and it will adjust to all of their requirements to offer a good customer service.

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In a context of market change, the buyers have different expectations and they demand omnichannel, that is, unified experiences through different channels, and sellers, for their side, must follow the rhythm of the change they are constantly facing.

What are the challenges and priorities that establish the design on omnichannel?

 The real situation is that it is estimated that only 14% of the retailers in Europe have achieved a full omnichannel, despite the fact that they consider it a priority, and a big majority are in the process of development. 100 % online stores are the most important competition for these retailers, that face, among others, the challenges of the security and data base privacy in their omnichannel implementation. In addition, the leaders of the omnichannel leave behind /put aside the benefits/profits in a short term, that is, sales, in favor of their customers loyalty.

Omnichannel consists in offering a unified experience to the customers in all contact points and the customers wait for the brands to be on top of their expectations and that they offer an omnichannel service.

But omnichannel isn’t only for the retailers, of course. Developing omnichannel capacities has never been so important for the B2B buyers than how it is today.

B2B buyers have been incorporating actively digital channels in their buying process, putting aside the sellers that have not developed yet these channels.

Which factors can determine the success of omnichannel?

 Capacity

Many companies find it hard to develop and integrate the right skills, people and teams. We must look for a tool that makes it possible to merge, evaluate and group customer data obtained through various channels.

Product category

Different product ranges require different channel and customer strategies. Companies should be able to determine the channel preferences of customers in their own segment of products and services and be able to forecast the development of channel preferences of their customers. On the other hand, a comparison with the competition is also relevant.

Channels

Another question companies should ask themselves when testing their omnichannel strategy is if they are using the right channels. The term “channel” can include apps, calls, store pickup, chatbots, QR codes, etc. It’s also important here to define a cross-channel customer journey and then link the various channels to enable cross-selling. A constant analysis of the channels, including their strengths and weaknesses, can be considered a success factor.

Customer data

Customer data must be recorded at touch points, combined and used for campaigns. The challenges are access to customer data and potential legal restrictions on personal data. Data is crucial to offer a good omnichannel experience, but in turn, consumers/customers are not always in favor of providing it. The success factors in customer data are the definition of the customer journey and successful segmentation of target groups by channel.

Code

Omnichannel excellence requires the fast and constant use of new digital technologies. Therefore, companies should ask themselves if they are making optimal use of digital technologies. This requires, for example, a review of all backend and frontend processes. The challenge is to forecast the acceptance of new technologies by customers.

Periodically survey to customers

Collecting and analyzing customer feedback to learn and apply suggestions to improve the service we offer should be an integral part of the omnichannel experience. Understanding the customer journey at every stage and on every channel, while also identifying needs that can be improved to deliver better results, translates into a success factor.

Supply chain

Omnichannel sales are linked to a flexible, transparent and complex supply chain. Therefore, companies must ask themselves if their existing supply chain can meet these requirements or if it needs to be adapted to meet the requirements of the omnichannel strategy (for example, by real-time visualization of the availability of products or decentralized returns management). The success factors are the technical support of the supply chain, and its control.

Cost analysis

Companies must achieve potential savings with the omnichannel strategy through channel-specific incentivation. From the outset, omnichannel implementation is concerned about its cost, due to the complexity that integrating new technologies with existing ones may have, but this does not have to be the case with an agile and flexible integration tool that accepts pre-existing technology.

Corporate culture

The success of omnichannel requires a corporate culture that is right to innovation and that overcomes siled thinking. Success factors are pilot projects with cross-functional teams. On the other hand, clear communication of the omnichannel strategy and the omnichannel KPI are also part of the success.

If you want to know how MST Holding can help you develop an omnichannel strategy in your business, do not hesitate to contact us.

www.mstholding.com

Experience proves that the good relationship between customer and company isn’t always long-lasting, since incidents can take place that weaken it and even end up breaking it and complaints are part of this system.

When a customer complaint happens, a situation arises that requires delicate treatment, as a way to provide a solution to the customer that doesn’t end with the lost of it, or even worse, with the ”word of mouth effect”and loss of prestige.

The received treatment of the complaints from the customer service centers, is going to be essential for it to be used as a precedent for customer loyalty, or the loss of value of the company against future customers and/or in the market.

We must never lose the point of view that a customer is a human being and, therefore, when we are faced with a complaint, human nature itself must be considered. In other words, they need to feel that they are listened to, and that their opinions, concerns or doubts are valued, giving them their deserved recognition. To do this, the responsible staff for managing this type of incident must have a large dose of tact, flexibility and reflection so that, in this way, we can make the client forget that such dissatisfaction has occurred.

The first essential and basic point to be considered by the company for the correct management of complaints is to provide contact channels for the customer to report incidents. This will serve as an opportunity to improve both services and products, carrying out successful marketing campaigns: both telephone and email customer service must be clearly reflected in all commercial communications.

• Connecting with the customer: prior to the conversation with the customer, it is necessary to plan the tools that are going to be used. That is, what words will we use so that the client feels that the agent listens to him and understands him and also, that he values ​​his concerns, and that he empathizes with him.

• Understanding the problem and proposing solutions:  Against the complaints of the customers, the continuous training of the staff in charge of dealing with them is very important. That is, employees must have all the resources available to be able to provide a variety of solutions to customers, thus giving them the option of choosing the one that best suits their needs. Only in this way, we avoid the deterioration of the company’s image. A conversation should never be closed without the complaint having been resolved.

• Compensation for inconvenience: For the most part, the customer who makes a complaint expects compensation for the inconvenience caused. But also, in reality it is the best way to solve incidents that happen due to complaints. That is, the unsatisfaction that has given rise to the complaint must be transformed into a solution with which the client wins, surprising him with an unexpected and favorable response to his interests and needs. There are a variety of options when it comes to achieving this objective, which also depends on the sector of the organization and the type of customer. In general, gift cards, discount vouchers, movie tickets, exclusive offers, etc. are sent by email or SMS, and in real time. In short, the customer must be compensated with gifts that can satisfy him, since strengthening him is as important as thanking him for helping to improve the organization.

To sum it all, we can conclude that the resolution of requests, complaints, claims and suggestions is also part of the trust that a company gives, and not only through good experiences. In short, the customer service center will be capable of transforming the majority of customer complaints into opportunities for improvement, facilitating the loyalty of contacts considered difficult through the creation of bonds of trust towards the company, between the agent and the customer.

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Let’s assume once and for all that customer service is key for the success of a campaign. And those necessary processes must be established and planned to create and sustain Customer Service, with capacity to adapt to their changes and at an optimum cost.

A lot of the things that are said about Customer Service focus on how the complaint is handled, when in reality it is a hyper complex process that has multiple corners and sometimes, streets with no way out.

• NTF – No TroubleFound– Trouble not found, unable to play.

• One Off, it has been a unique case and it is not explainable.

However, multiple studies try to shed some light on this hole in the income statements of a lot of many companies. This metrics can help to explain the importance of the Customer Service.

*Only 4% of the unsatisfied customers contact. In percentage and generally the companies don’t receive any information of the 96% of their unsatisfied customers. This number is crazy and it shows that there is much more to do in this field, and the hole that can cause on the income statement. There can be several reasons for that to happen/ the reasons can be diverse, between those/ but among others:

 ·         Lack of communication channels

·         Not having necessary resources to listen to them

·         Not having the means to be able to attend them

·         Simply due to the lack of interest from the company

In the days of correctional politics that we are living right now, companies reputation must remain untainted; However, the bad customer service is a reputational leak that can do a lot of damage to the company.

Every 6 complaints received; there are 24 customers with problems and another 6 with serious problems.

Here are three hidden ideas that are of great importance:

 1.         The number of complaints can lead us to deception and therefore to complacency: We may have much bigger problems than we think!

2.         To have an order of magnitude, for each complaint received, the reality is that on average you will have four times more clients with problems, only they will never contact you and you will probably lose the recurrence in the sale.

3.         For each complaint received, you will have another customer with similar problems, but perhaps not as serious, so they may not complain… but they will be an unsatisfied customer.

Following the Zero Flaws Policy, in this sense, is crucial to analyze the occurrences of failure modes in the customers and establish long-term action plans that kill the problems with emergency actions, containment actions and permanent actions.

A lot of customers don’t believe that is worth complaining

In this aspect, three types of profiles are usually found: 

• Those who think that the complaint takes a lot of time and effort, so they just give up.
• Others are probably interested, but don’t know where to start.
• And a third group are the sceptics who doubt they will be treated effectively since they have had very negative past experiences.

And you, which group are you?

The problem of these clients with problems who nevertheless do not complain is that they will most likely not repeat purchases in our business, so the recurrence will fall. Rather we can say that they are much closer to not working with us again.

4. Customers who complain and have a satisfactory customer service experience have a high probability of continuing to do business with us.

Good customer service, which also adds value and does it instantly, not wasting the user’s time,

• Makes him feel important.

• Builds loyalty to the brand, since it reinforces the idea that the user has made a good purchase.

In contrast, customers who complain and have a negative customer service experience are twice as likely to report their negative experience as customers with a good experience to report theirs. And this is a double-edged sword.

 5. Social networks have become speakers of unsatisfied customers.

We have already commented that the vast majority of customers do not complain, and yet they exist.

In the same way, if those who complain do not have an adequate customer service experience, they can resort to social networks to give voice and be a speaker of a situation that they consider unfair. It is in these moments when the clamour becomes exponential.

It is only necessary to take a short walk through social networks to realize that companies can become exposed to public ridicule without any shame in a matter of seconds and a click away. In addition, this battle is almost always won by the user.

6. Metrics you should be able to measure for your business.

Are you able to measure the following KPI’s?

 – The % of clients that are lost per year due to poor service: as a reference, 10-15%: if you are higher, you should consider an immediate Action Plan. If you are below, also, because your goal must be zero.

– The % of customers that are lost throughout the entire sales process – the famous ChurnRate: this metric is not easy to calculate, but it is essential to know where your customers disappear throughout the purchase process

– % of cases in which the problems have their origin in misinterpretation, or simply not reading or not understanding the instructions for use: some companies have taken drastic solutions in this regard, and as a button, IKEA, which does not write its instructions: everything are scenes and symbols, which must have the ability to be equally interpreted regardless of culture or level of studies.

 – % of cases that simply ask for more information: this feedback is really interesting because it allows us to understand the customer, collect information from him and bring together failure modes for future much more robust and powerful versions of our product.

Overall, it is all about establishing a strategy to:

• Do it perfectly to not bother the customer; that means that we will be doing it right. All that is not going into that direction will be a Poor Quality Cost. For example, a system that ensures that the customer has the information that needs is much better than another that provides this necessary information only when the customer complaints.

• If it has to complain, put out a red carpet: we are a Customer Centric company and we recognize how difficult it is to get a customer. In addition, we value the contributions you can make to improve our product.

Conclusions

Gaining the ability to quantify with numbers and truthfully what the client wants to say, what the symptom has been, differentiate the symptom from the problem and carry out an exhaustive analysis of it are not trivial activities and require a robust process and dedicated staff, dedicated and with problem solving skills.

It is essential to know where we are in terms of guarantees, the main contributors to them, and to understand the rationale of why they happen. If we are able to quantify them and this number is also truthful, we will be able to really gain traction and advance in our intention to be more competitive and gain market share.

Let’s never forget that it is much more difficult to get a customer than to keep one. And that in times of recession, good customer service can be a lifesaver against competitors who base their strategy basically on price.

There are long-term benefits too: in many industries, new product ideas are developed and refined by customers: this needs a very close relationship between both parties to reap benefits in both directions.

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Natural Languaje Processment or NLP is one of the greatest advances of the Artificial Intelligence and a key tool inside a contact center. We tell you more.

The concept of PLN encompasses codifying, understanding, interpreting and knowing how to use the language of the human being. Machines that listen to us and understand us, that go through language barriers, which extract information from our conversations, spoken or written, to improve the customer experience. This is how a contact center uses NLP.

¿What is NLP?

In simple terms, Natural Language Processment, or NLP, is a form of Artificial Intelligence that allows a digital application to understand the human being language, either way spoken or written.

NLP applications use the computers to translate languages, convert voice to text and text to voice and to create conversational agents similar to humans, the famous chatbot, to help the employees, customers and partners of an organization to deal with problems, questions and concerns.

NLP uses two main methods to process speech: syntactic analysis and semantic analysis. Syntactic analysis applies rules about sentence structure (syntax) to derive part of the meaning of what is said. Natural Language Processing complements this with semantic analysis, which attempts to extract the true meaning of words. Algorithms translate spoken words into a format that the computer can use.

Although many improvements have been made, the PLN is still not perfect. For example, it has the difficulty to detect some conversational nuances such as sarcasm. We already know that a “yes, of course” sometimes means the opposite. Also, speech habits such as a thick accent, slang, muttering, or stuttering can mess it up.

Maybe this natural processing thing may sound like science fiction to you, but you don’t need to go far to find it. Surely you have ever talked to Siri; Alexa has told you a joke o have asked Google about the weather. They are all examples of NLP.

The evolution of contact center

When was the last time you called a company on the phone? Today’s consumers have a range of channels to communicate with companies. For example, an email, a message, social networks or a chat. Each user chooses the option that is most comfortable for him.

In addition to being omnichannel, today’s contact centers are data-driven. Companies have a large amount of digital data about their customers and, with Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, they can process this data and use it to respond, in the most accurate and relevant way possible, to incoming inquiries and complaints made by customers to their contact center.

In the hands of a contact center company, the data base has ceased to be an element with which to establish commercial actions/trade and has become a tool to make life easier to the workers and customers.

AlI in the contact center

If you have ever exchanged SMS with a customer service bot or have chatted with one, you have already experienced the Artificial Intelligence of a campaign in action. Artificial Intelligence is in constant evolution, These are some of the services that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools can offer in a contact center:

Personalized Agent designation / Custom Agent Appointment

Artificial Intelligence playing matchmaker. And don’t worry; we don’t talk about Tinder in contact center times, but almost. AI ensures that calls go directly to the most appropriate agent for each of them, based on data about the customer’s query, the experience of each agent, the complexity of the call, etc.

Context is key

So simple yet so complicated, as knowing if the customer is angry before picking up the phone. Artificial Intelligence can analyze or detect the context of the contact center interaction using information such as historical data about the customer involved. That way, the agent knows how, when and why he acted the last time he had an interaction with the company.

How NLP speaks with the customers

Even though it is safe to say that you have already figured it out, NLP isn’t just about a chatbot o a conversational assistant. It really is any technology connected to the human being language, being this in a speaken voice or written text.

NLP can email from spam, categorize documents documents based on their text content, summarize relevant highlights from longer documents, automatically transcribe recorded voice conversations, convert written text to speech, and extract relevant clauses from a legal contract. Even transcribe, in real time, a conversation between agent and client.

In this way, PLN is useful in a contact center to decipher the meaning of what a customer says or writes, so that the best response can be provided as quickly as possible.

Sentiment analysis, the last barrier

Sentiment analysis and its importance in marketing. Imagine the importance of its correct application in a contact center. We are talking about getting the AI ​​to analyze the tone of voice and even the cadence of the language to detect the status of the caller.

The goal is to understand the customer’s emotions and the meaning of their words. The lack of the speech of a person who calls, Whether they pause, raise their voice, sound excited, bored or frustrated, can help the agent deal with that person more efficiently, to sell and to solve their problem , if there was any. It’s not just a matter of personal satisfaction, angry customers cost money. Studies suggest that calls involving anger or even cursing from the customer take 8 minutes longer to resolve. In addition to the bad experience for the agent, if time is money, the swear words are very expensive for contact centers.

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On the March 8th of 1857 the first women workers went down the New York City streets under the motto “bread & roses” to fight for their professional rights. Since then, every year in this date, it’s a commemoration of the role of the women in the society and their fight for the equality and independence. In this sense, the role of the women in the call center has supposed the start of the change for the collective.

Going back in time, although the work of women in the contact center reached its peak in the 1920s with the so-called “cable girls”, its origin takes back a long time ago, with the arrival of the telephone and the hiring of the first telemarketer.

Emma Nutt was the first telemarketer; pioneer in the sector, she already stood out in front of their masculine co-workers, due to her feminine qualities to confront the phone relationship with the customers. Just a few days since she started her work, her sister followed her steps in her professional career.

And since then, the presence of the women in the sector has done nothing but grow. In 2020, according to the study about the situation of the contact center created by The CEX Association, 71% of the people which are part of it are women. The reason for this predominance of women in the contact center would return us to the reasons for the success of the first telemarketer.

The qualities of a woman to have a satisfying experience

The increase of the feminization of this sector were already been noticed with Nutt, who stood out because of her soft voice tone, polite and patient. The empathy and sensibility when dealing with the delicate incidences are some of the strong points to offer a satisfactory customer experience adapted to every customer. With the arrival of the technology, the feminine profiles have proven a major capacity of adaptation and team work. All of that has favoured the presence of the woman in this job position, since the beginnings until this day.

Nowadays, in addition to the flexibility that this profession provides, the responsibility and the commitment to a job well done has promoted a bigger professional development for women in the customer experience sector. Although the presence of women in senior management positions is less common, there are many women who manage and coordinate contact centers on a daily basis.

  The leadership of the women in the contact center

As from the consumer’s point of view, connecting with a brand is crucial to establish the fidelization/loalty with the client, the leadership of the women in the sector of the contact center and experience of the customer stimulates a more daintiness in the customer service.

In addition, as the study made by Inbox Research proves, women provide a more strategic vision when working based on results, as well as having a bigger capacity to understand the requirements of teams. This study also highlights that companies that focus on a better way on the customer through these aspects are 60% more profitable than their competition.

In Spain, nowadays, there are many femenine profiles leading several contact centers. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve the visibility and recognition of the work carried out by the women in this sector.

www.mstholding.com

There are many companies that have a sales strategy in the various digital channels, however, there are few that have a digital strategy based on customer service. We are referring to having a customer service strategy for our users, with “real time” customer service, establishing the parameters for response times, a model in which we as companies can communicate with our customers on our own behalf, send notifications about new developments in our products and services, among a host of possibilities.

The adoption of digital channels represents the immediate future in Customer Service, for greater customer satisfaction.

After the start-up and implementation of customer service models, based on a digital strategy, we already have conclusive data in relation to the increase in the customer satisfaction index, as well as the return on investment in these channels. A digital strategy is justified by more than a 25% increase – in satisfaction rates – and a reduction of around 30% in the costs associated with care services.

The irruption of these Channels has meant an additional challenge to the mere fact of the implementation of new communication channels, more than ever our Customer Service Agents assume a key role in an environment in which the human factor and technology allow us to work in a 24/7, omnichannel model and in which we can personalise the “Customer Experience” to the maximum, without any doubts we are coining together a new term; Responsive Contact Centre.

From our Digital transformation unit @C3digital, I invite you to take a closer look at our Experience and Solutions in the face of this new challenge.

Javier Noguero | javier.noguero@mstholding.com
Strategy and Business Development Director
NNU / C3 Digital

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To celebrate the International Day of Education, we show you in 6 steps how to set up an eLearning system.

January 24th is International Education Day. Therefore, we want to help you to implement an eLearning training system to train your employees with our Cloud platform. In 6 steps you will be teaching your employees.

All changes need special attention. If you want to implement an eLearning system to train your Call Centre employees, you will have to introduce the changes following a few steps to ensure the success of the project. eAlicia have their own eLearning system and we can help you to set up your own.

Traditionally, classroom training has been considered the most effective. However, companies are incorporating training alternatives that allow them to be constantly retrained. They need to simplify the logistics of delivering training to different cities and countries, with different needs and levels of knowledge.

A feasible solution is to implement an e-learning system and combine it with face-to-face training. However, it can be difficult to introduce a new training system without a good introduction and proper management of the change.

It is essential to have a platform where you can upload your courses and your employees can access them from anywhere to take the exams or study the syllabus. At eAlicia we provide you with this platform where you can benefit from the many advantages it offers. Control the evaluation of your employees in real time, compare data and draw your own conclusions.

In order to implement an eLearning training system, we recommend you to take into account these 6 aspects:

1. Identify internal promoters.

There will probably be employees in your company who love new technologies. First of all, look for those who have used an e-learning system before, who are eager to add value or who are always motivated.

2. Involvement in the project.

Secondly, offer and motivate them to participate in the e-learning development and implementation project. You can involve them at different stages of the project. Some can be involved in the definition of the project, others in the choice of suppliers and the last ones in the planning of the communication. They can also be involved in the pilot tests.

3. Functionalities of internal promoters.

• Convey an attitude of constant learning and openness.
• Proactively intervene in part or all of the project. This involves attending meetings, preparing and developing ideas. But all of them should be eager to collaborate in promoting and talking about the project when the time comes.
• Be aware of the different groups of influence in the company. Identify other potential internal promoters of the project and potential detractors.
• Collaborate in the pilot tests for the implementation of e-learning, providing feedback on aspects to be improved and proposals for solutions.
• Actively participate in the communication process, training of other colleagues and expansion of the project to other areas, companies or countries.

4.Project development.

Internal project promoters love to be involved in the genesis of projects. Being able to define the objectives, scope, resources needed, distribution of tasks and deadlines will help them to know what they are participating in and what their objective is.

5. Communication and implementation.

Once the project has been tested with the group of volunteers and promoters, the communication part becomes one of the most important. It can include both formal and informal actions. I.e. sending an email informing about the project and the people involved in the pilot can be a sign of recognition.

Talking informally over lunch about the virtues and advantages of the project can help to change the perspective of other colleagues. Training or mentoring actions for other colleagues can be included. They can also participate in collecting feedback and improvements. Moreover, they can lead small discussion groups to apply the e-learning project to other areas of the company.

6. Evaluation and improvement.

Finally, monitoring the project is very important to ensure that it continues to progress and does not stagnate. The updating of content, the participation of the entire community of students or workers, and the measurement of results are the pillars of a successful e-learning project.

It is essential to have a platform where you can upload the courses and where your employees can access them from anywhere to take the exams or study the syllabus. At eAlicia we provide it and you will be able to enjoy the many advantages of this tool. Control the evaluation of your employees in real time, compare data and draw your own conclusions.

Do you want to set up your own eLearning system?

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