Building Member Loyalty with the FIRST Call

Your members are firing you every day, and you don’t know it. Credit unions claim that their pillar of success is great member service, but is it? How are you measuring your contact center’s member service?

Maybe you’ve been tracking the metrics discussed so far in our series, and you think your service levels are superior:

• You’re answering your calls on the second ring.
• Your abandonment rates are under 5 percent.
• You’re listening to the recorded calls and scoring your employees highly on their “quality” - tone, empathy, using the members name and thanking them for being a member.

You may be doing all of the above very well, but it is not enough to keep members loyal.

Why?

After ten years of consulting credit unions, I have not met with many that have the tools to track whether the credit union resolved the member’s need on the first call. Did the employee answer the member’s issue? Or was the member transferred to another area of the credit union? Does your contact center need to call the member back? Or, even worse, did you ask the member to call another number?

While these scenarios are horrible. The situation is worse because no one knows the extent of the problem. First Call Resolution is simply not tracked or reported.

First Call Resolution Rate – The BEST Driver of Loyalty

First Call Resolution Rate (FCRR) is the percentage of calls resolved on the first call without being transferred to another agent.

According to a 2009 report by The Ascent Group, “First Call Resolution is perhaps the most powerful call center metric. When you improve FCRR you’re improving quality, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction, all at the same time.”

FCRR is the primary driver of member satisfaction. Credit unions who improve FCRR usually see an improvement in their efficiency metrics.

We like to see an FCR of at least 90 percent. Why so high?

The Ascent Group report added, “An 80 percent FCR rate sounds pretty good. However, an 80 percent FCR means your customers call you, on average, 1.2 times to resolve a question or issue. This 20 percent in 'repeat calls' represents increased call volume, inflated operating expenses, and most importantly, dissatisfied customers. Dissatisfied customers are more likely to defect and more likely to tell others about their experiences."

There key to having a great FCRR is installing the proper tools to ensure the caller reaches the agent who can best assist them. This means having a call routing system in place to send questions about mortgages to the lending department or questions about password resets to the technical support department.

In the case of the small New England credit union we shared last week, partnering with a call center provider also made an impact on first call resolution. When we began working with the credit union, we found that only 75 percent of calls were being handled on the first call. In less than a year, the credit union changed their processes to empower their call center partners and agents to take action on a wider variety of calls, improving first call resolution to 88 percent.

So how can a credit union measure first call resolution? The simple way is to end each call with the question, “Are You Happy?” If so, thank the member for their business. If not, listen to their needs and keep working with the member to resolve their issue.

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Don’t Think Basic, Think NECESSARY Call Center Metrics
Calls Cost, But How Much is Too Much?

Calls Cost, But How Much is Too Much?

Whether a call is made to your internal call center or your call center partner, there is a cost associated with it. Knowing the cost of each call determines the resources required to run a call center as well as its effectiveness. Two useful metrics to measure cost are Call Handle Time and Cost per Contact.

Call Handle Time is more than just the amount of time an agent spends on the phone. It is calculated by combining total talk time with total wrap-up time, which includes any follow-up e-mails, paper work, or calls. It is important to measure this because for many call centers, the administrative and follow-up can account for more than 50 percent of an agent’s time.

Cost Per Contact is one of the most accurate ways to measure efficiency. The metric is determined by dividing the total cost of the contact center by the number of calls completed. For example, if it costs you $50,000 to run your call center for a month, and you took 10,000 calls in that month, then your cost per contact would be $5.00.

Metrics Explained
Cost per contact and call handle time can vary greatly. Most credit unions aim for a cost per contact between $3.18 and $5.30 per call. However, maintaining a higher cost per contact ratio may be worth it if it means higher service levels. There is a real danger if questions are answered too quickly, and revenue and loyalty-building opportunities are lost.

Call handle time should also be compared to the types of calls an agent is taking. Complex issues, such as a new loan application, are going to take more time than a call to get directions to the nearest branch.

Measuring all these metrics can help credit unions make the changes needed to maximize the efficiency of their call center. I recently worked with a small New England credit union to improve efficiencies throughout the call center, including expanding their hours of service to 24 hours a day.

The credit union experienced a dramatic 71 percent improvement in cost per contact and 9 percent savings ($40,000) in annual contact center expenses even though they experienced a three-fold increase in call volume demonstrating the major scale advantage outsourcing brings. Additionally, the call abandonment rate dropped from 15 percent to three percent.

All of the metrics discussed to date have touched on efficiency. However, credit unions must be careful not to sacrifice quality for efficiency. Next week, we’ll look at more qualitative measures and how credit unions can ensure an efficient call center is also delivering the high quality demanded by its members.

Don’t Think Basic, Think NECESSARY Call Center Metrics

Previously, we introduced seven metrics credit unions must be measuring to ensure their call centers are driving revenue and member retention. Today, we’re looking at two of the most basic measurements for a call center – Average Speed of Answer (ASA) and Call Abandonment Rate.

Do not let the word “basic” discourage or distract you from reading further. These basics are necessary. While they are often measured, they are not always reviewed or analyzed. Blindly sticking to metrics, not digging deeper to understand the numbers means you are missing great opportunities.

ASA measures the time it takes for an agent to answer a member’s call. It gives credit unions an idea of how easily they are meeting service level goal or how much additional labor may be required to achieve a service level goal. The industry standard is 80/30, which means that 80 percent of calls into the call center should be answered within 30 seconds.

Call Abandonment Rate is the rate at which calls go unanswered. For credit unions meeting the 80/30 ASA, the abandonment rate should consistently be around three percent. Remember, the longer a member is on hold, the more frustrated they will be. Eventually, even the most patient caller will hang up, costing your credit union the opportunity to enhance that member’s loyalty.

Metrics Explained
A common misconception after hearing these metrics is credit unions should do whatever it takes to ensure every call is answered immediately, right? No!

I’ve met with two $1 billion credit unions during the past three weeks that employ a policy that all calls will get routed to the first available employee, even if it is the CEO. Sounds good on paper – theoretically, no phone rings more than twice. But what is the point of answering the call quickly if the member has to be transferred? The IT department is not suited to field requests for loan applications. The best use of the loan department is not to reset passwords. Even though the phone has been picked up, the member’s issue may still be unresolved. They’ve been put on hold or been required to repeat information with each new person who answers the phone. They will hang up frustrated and considering trying out the bank around the corner.

An ASA or Call Abandonment Rate that is high is also very expensive. If a credit union call center is staffed to provide a 90/10, they are paying exponentially higher costs due to agents sitting around waiting on calls. Most callers do not differentiate between a wait time of ten seconds and 30 seconds, so the key is to answer phones quickly enough to satisfy the majority of callers without wasting resources.

ASA and Call Abandonment Rate should be reviewed in balance with the rest of the key metrics. It is important that the call center be staffed well enough to answer the vast majority of calls in a short time. This reduces the lost revenue potential of calls being abandoned.
However, speed for the sake of speed will not ensure that your members’ needs are being met. To do that, you have to look at different metrics, which we will explore in depth next week.