First Contact Resolution Rate – Should it Matter to CSMs?

During a typical day as a CSM, you’re fielding questions from internal and external sources. Your internal team members want to know how a customer account is doing, where a specific project stands, and other customer-specific information. Customers have a myriad of questions of their own, ranging from straightforward one-off platform inquiries to larger, more complex discussion topics. If a customer reaches out with a critical question, how fast is your team resolving the issue?

What is a First Contact Resolution Rate?

Traditionally used more in call centers and on support teams, First Contact Resolution Rate measures the overall percentage of customer questions that are resolved (aka answered or solved) during that initial customer interaction. Here is an example of a first contact resolution: A customer reaches out to a CSM asking where they can find a specific piece of functionality on the platform. While still on the call with the customer, the CSM shows them exactly where to find the functionality in question. In this example, the issue was resolved during the initial interaction – aka first contact – with the customer.

Here, we’ll examine the First Contact Resolution Rate from two different angles:

Yes, it should matter to CSMs: First Contact Resolution Rate doesn’t just measure CSM support on the surface. It is a deeper way to measure customer interactions that, added together, offer an indication of customer sentiment and satisfaction. If a First Contact Resolution Rate drops below a certain threshold, a customer account could be in jeopardy.

No, there are more important metrics to monitor: While the First Contact Resolution Rate may indicate how well your team is providing customer feedback, it does not necessarily reflect the fundamental interactions of a customer success team. Other critical metrics like product usage rates, NPS, and Customer Health Score offer a better look at overall customer success than the First Contact Resolution Rate, which is more of a support-focused success metric.

The verdict?

While not a critical customer success metric your team should be following daily, it is a good idea to keep tabs on your First Contact Resolution Rate to ensure customer satisfaction rates do not slip and that key customer questions are being answered on a timely basis. This is also a great metric for your support team to monitor. If possible, support and customer success should try to collaborate on tracking and optimizing First Contact Resolution rate numbers. Ideally, your team should include the First Contact Resolution Rate on your high-level customer success dashboards and reports to track the data but do not need to check in daily.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about different customer success metrics, including how to incorporate lesser-known metrics like First Contact Resolution Rate into your team’s data strategy, with these additional resources from ClientSuccess:

Back To Top