First contact resolution rate (FCR)

Why it matters

Customers care most about not having to ask twice. FCR also cuts support cost, because each extra contact is extra work.

Worked example

The table shows the columns this metric needs from six months of a made-up subscription brand. Add each column up over the six months, then put the totals into the formula:

1,444 ÷ 2,148 × 100 = 67.23%

Add up first, then divide. Averaging the six monthly figures gives a slightly different answer, because it counts a small month the same as a large one.

Month by month

FCR calculator

How to read it

Exclude tickets that cannot be solved at once (a replacement that needs shipping) or report them separately, or FCR punishes the team for things outside its control.

Common mistakes

• Decide how long a ticket must stay closed to count as resolved; a reopen a week later should not count as first-contact.
• Customers who give up and do not write again look resolved. Pair FCR with a satisfaction question.
• Spam and auto-replies inflate the ticket count; filter them out.

Calculate first contact resolution rate in Excel, SQL or Python

The quickest version, for the sample sheet laid out as in the CSV (headers in row 1, months in rows 2 to 7):

=SUM(AP2:AP7) / SUM(AO2:AO7)

• First contact resolution rate in Excel and Google Sheets — per-month formula and zero-safe version
• First contact resolution rate in SQL — query by month and for the period
• First contact resolution rate in Python (pandas) — pandas script with expected output

Related metrics

• Support contact rate
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

See all business metrics, or the statistics methods that sit behind them.

Questions people ask

What is first contact resolution rate?

First contact resolution rate (FCR) is the percentage of support tickets solved in the first reply or call, with no follow-up needed from the customer.

How do you calculate first contact resolution rate?

FCR = Tickets resolved on first contact ÷ All tickets × 100. For example, with six months of sample data: 1,444 ÷ 2,148 × 100 = 67.23%.

What is the FCR formula in Excel?

With the sample data laid out as in the downloadable CSV, =SUM(AP2:AP7) / SUM(AO2:AO7) gives the figure for the whole period (format the cell as a percentage). For one month, use =AP2 / AO2 and fill it down.

What is a good first contact resolution rate?

There is no figure that is right for every business: it depends on your products, prices and channels. Exclude tickets that cannot be solved at once (a replacement that needs shipping) or report them separately, or FCR punishes the team for things outside its control.

Check how stable it is

• Standard deviation
• Moving average
• Z-score
• Linear trend forecast

Guides

• How to find out what changed in your sales data — 2 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read
• Excel data analysis: formulas, PivotTables and the ToolPak — 3 min read

About the data on this page

The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.

To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.