Industry
Banking
Banking Services Transformation: Unlocking Exponential Value
Highlights
- Banks must move beyond measuring NPS and start evaluating the quality of resolution delivered at the very first customer contact. First Contact Resolution (FCR) marks the beginning of a more meaningful journey toward building stronger customer trust and satisfaction.
- FCR goes beyond calls to the contact center and includes the customer’s first interaction, whether through net banking, mobile app, chat, or IVR, even before they speak to a representative
- Banks need to redefine the current norms of measuring customer satisfaction and shift the focus to providing resolution on the first contact made by the customer
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Introduction
The way end-customer satisfaction is measured varies across financial institutions and evolves over time. While some financial institutions move from NPS to CSAT or vice versa, they often overlook the most critical aspect of contact center customer service: focusing on delivering effective resolution.
FCR has multiple elements and captures key components of customer interactions with the contact center. It enables banks to analyze top contact drivers, assess resolution accuracy, and, most importantly, track the total number of contacts made whether through digital channels, IVR, or the contact center itself. This strengthens the customer base as every contact channel is closely monitored, and business opportunities are actively leveraged.
FCR gets measured by asking 2 simple questions to the customers - “Number of times contacted” and “Was your query resolved completely/ partially”. The customers get to define for themselves what they consider an interaction or contact and if their request was completed. Bank can create a loyal customer base and reduce costs by increasing FCR. GenAI driven predictive analytics can help in providing accurate contextual responses to customer service representatives right in the first contact and eliminate repeat contacts instead of only delighting them in interactions and delaying resolutions.
FCR drivers insights
Analyzing FCR drivers through the number of contacts made
The number of times a customer is contacted can be categorized as “1x (time)”, 2x (times) and 3x plus (times). FCR is only counted as a positive if the answer to “Number of times contacted” is 1x and “Was your query resolved completely/partially” is marked ‘completely’. Any other response to these questions will be considered as a dissatisfied response on FCR from the customer.
This will help the banks to focus on two things: provide accurate resolutions to the 1x customers and complete the resolution to the 2x/ 3x callers. This will help the banks to focus on contact type, driving higher contact volumes and operational expenses. Banks can prioritize the top contact driver with higher dissatisfaction and identify relevant improvement opportunities. Analyzing these FCR drivers will provide deeper insights based on key features of customer behavior/ interactions/ contact made.
Resolution rate
Focused resolution rate is an effective way to ensure increase in overall FCR for the business
Although all financial institutions aim at resolving customers’ queries/ concerns, the resolution rate is often ignored. In other words, customer service representatives just end up providing basic responses to customers, creating several follow-ups by asking the customer to call back later to check on the existing query/ concern. This disturbs the entire FCR chain as in such situations repeat contact is created that is listed as FCR dissatisfied customer. To align with the FCR chain, it is important to provide focused resolutions irrespective of the contact type and the number of times contacted. With that, FCR can largely be increased with three thematic objectives targeted towards reducing the effort, expressing accountability and confidence in providing the resolution.
Example – if the customer attempts to resolve a query online and calls the contact center for the same query- it’s important for the business to not only provide the resolution on the call but also fix the issues experienced while attempting it online. This will help financial institutions to get closer to 100% resolution rate which will automatically increase the overall FCR, thereby increasing customer base and paving way for more retentions and acquisitions.
Benefit to customers
This will eliminate the need to call the contact center and endure long IVR wait times, frequent call drops, or issues such as language mismatches with service representatives. FCR will help the customers to choose their preferred way of receiving resolutions. Banks will need to promote self-service and digital adoption in case the top contact driver is done digitally. This will improve the overall customer experience for customers who dislike human interaction and prefer digital servicing mode only.
Self-servicing options
Contacts made to the center are at a higher rate only when digital and self-service adoption is at lower rate. With focus on FCR, financial institutions will be able to identify the trends and patterns on issues experienced digitally and through self-service. By deploying fixes to these issues, financial institutions can create a self-service/ digital-first culture by enabling customers with self-service right from the acquisition stage.
Benefits to banks
Eliminating the need for the customer to speak to a customer service representative will result in tangible contact details and help in reducing the operating costs for the organization. Bank can move beyond FCR and focus on deflecting repeat contacts. Higher FCR will also be a validation that the bank has highest level of customer experience being delivered to the customers through all the contacts made. FCR can be the bridge that will help in prioritizing critical factors that impact the two main drivers, that are contact center and digital adoption.
Conclusion
FCR is not merely a new way for banks to measure customer satisfaction, but a completely different customer experience catering to different demographics. It will improve the underlying opportunities during the first contact made, along with focused resolution to different queries in a structured way. FCR also helps in creating a culture of accountability and helps in measuring the value of investment made whether its digital, self-service or via contact center.