For years, First Call Resolution (FCR) has been hailed as the gold standard of customer service metrics. After all, who wouldn’t want their issue resolved in one interaction? The idea of completing everything in a single call or chat seems efficient and productive for both the company and the customer. But is FCR truly the best metric for measuring customer satisfaction at Alta Resources?

At Alta Resources, we’ve discovered a far more effective way to assess and enhance customer experience—Customer Effort Score (CES). Here’s why CES outperforms FCR and how Alta Resources is leading the way by focusing on what truly matters in customer service: making the process easy for our customers.

The Problem with FCR: Efficiency Doesn’t Equal Satisfaction

On the surface, First Call Resolution appears to be a crucial measure of success. When a customer contacts support and their problem is resolved in that first interaction, it’s considered a win. Many companies, including Alta Resources, have used FCR as a key performance indicator (KPI) for years, believing that improving this metric leads directly to better customer satisfaction. However, that assumption is flawed.

Focusing solely on FCR suggests that solving the problem in one interaction equates to a happy customer. This perspective overlooks a vital element of the customer experience: effort. Did the customer have to jump through hoops to reach that resolution? Did they endure long hold times, repeat their information multiple times, or struggle with a complex IVR system?

Consider this: if a customer spends 45 minutes on the phone with Alta Resources, dealing with multiple transfers and explanations, but ultimately gets their issue resolved, FCR will mark that interaction as a success. Yet for the customer, that experience may have been frustrating, stressful, and time-consuming. Customer satisfaction doesn’t just hinge on getting the problem solved—it’s also about how easy that process was with Alta.

Why Customer Effort Matters More

This is where Customer Effort Score (CES) comes in. Instead of merely measuring whether an issue was resolved, CES asks customers to rate how much effort they had to exert to achieve that resolution. The underlying idea is simple: the less effort a customer has to put in, the more likely they are to be satisfied, remain loyal, and return to Alta Resources.

In a landmark study published in the Harvard Business Review, it was found that reducing customer effort is the strongest predictor of future customer behavior. Customers who experienced low-effort interactions were 94% more likely to repurchase from the same company and 88% more likely to spend more with that company. Conversely, high-effort experiences significantly increased the likelihood of customer churn and complaints.

This is where FCR falls short. FCR looks only at whether an issue is resolved, not at how easy or difficult it was for the customer to achieve that resolution. CES, on the other hand, directly measures the ease of the experience, making it a better predictor of customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Alta’s Approach: Leading the Charge with CES

At Alta Resources, we’ve embraced Customer Effort Score as the most important metric for evaluating and improving customer experience. Our approach is simple: make it as easy as possible for customers to get what they need. By focusing on reducing customer effort, we achieve higher satisfaction scores and foster improved loyalty and repeat business for our clients’ customers.

Here’s how Alta is leading the charge:

1. Proactive Service: Instead of waiting for customers to reach out when issues arise, Alta helps clients implement proactive customer care. This means anticipating customer needs and solving potential problems before they escalate, reducing the effort required from the customer.
2. Simplified Processes: Alta collaborates with clients to streamline customer service workflows, eliminating unnecessary steps that create friction in the customer journey. By leveraging data analytics, we identify areas where customers are getting stuck and redesign processes to make them more intuitive and user-friendly.
3. Omnichannel Support: We ensure customers can interact with brands across multiple channels—whether it’s phone, email, chat, or social media—without having to start over each time. This consistency across platforms minimizes the effort customers need to invest in finding solutions, enhancing their overall experience.
4. Empowered Agents: Alta invests in training and technology that empower customer service agents to resolve issues faster and more effectively. When agents have the right tools and authority, they can deliver a superior experience, reducing the effort customers must exert.

CES and the Future of Customer Experience

The future of customer service is about effortlessness, not just efficiency. Companies that rely on outdated metrics like FCR to gauge their success miss a critical component of the customer experience. At Alta, we recognize that it’s not enough to resolve issues quickly—those resolutions must be easy for the customer to achieve. By focusing on CES, we’re helping our clients build stronger, more loyal customer relationships.

In a world where customers expect more and loyalty is harder to earn, reducing effort is key to standing out. Alta is at the forefront of this shift, and as we continue to innovate in the BPO space, we believe that companies focusing on CES today will be the market leaders of tomorrow.

In conclusion, if your goal is to build lasting customer relationships, it’s time to move beyond FCR and embrace Customer Effort Score. Lowering customer effort is not just a metric—it’s a strategy for long-term success, and Alta is ready to help your brand lead the way.