In Excel or Google Sheets, first contact resolution rate for a whole period is SUM(AP2:AP7) / SUM(AO2:AO7), where each SUM covers one column of monthly figures. On the sample data it returns 67.23%.
FCR = Tickets resolved on first contact ÷ All tickets × 100
What you need
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. You need these columns, here from the sample file monthly.csv:
- Support tickets: column AO (support_tickets)
- Tickets resolved on first contact: column AP (tickets_resolved_first_contact)
Step by step
- Download monthly.csv below and open it: in Excel use File → Open; in Google Sheets use File → Import → Upload. The headers land in row 1 and the six months in rows 2 to 7.
- Click any empty cell and enter =SUM(AP2:AP7) / SUM(AO2:AO7) for the whole six months. It adds up each column first and then does the arithmetic once, which is the correct way to combine months.
- For each month, click AQ2, enter =AP2 / AO2 and drag the fill handle down to row 7.
- Format the results as a percentage (Home → %, or Format → Number → Percent in Sheets). The formula returns a fraction such as 0.45, which the format shows as 45%.
- If a month can have zero in the denominator, wrap the formula so it shows a blank instead of #DIV/0!: =IFERROR(AP2 / AO2,"").
The formulas
=SUM(AP2:AP7) / SUM(AO2:AO7)=AP2 / AO2What you should get
Run against the sample data, the code above returns these values:
| Month | support_tickets | tickets_resolved_first_contact | fcr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 310 | 198 | 63.87% |
| 2026-02 | 335 | 221 | 65.97% |
| 2026-03 | 352 | 239 | 67.90% |
| 2026-04 | 368 | 241 | 65.49% |
| 2026-05 | 381 | 260 | 68.24% |
| 2026-06 | 402 | 285 | 70.90% |
| Whole period | 2,148 | 1,444 | 67.23% |
1,444 ÷ 2,148 × 100 = 67.23%
Notes for Excel
- Google Sheets accepts the same formulas. If your spreadsheet locale uses a comma as the decimal separator, Sheets and Excel expect semicolons between function arguments instead of commas.
- Averaging the monthly results with AVERAGE() gives a different and usually wrong answer for the period, because every month counts the same however large it was.
- Excel tables (Insert → Table) let you write the same formula with column names instead of letters, which is easier to read and survives inserted columns.
Where first contact resolution rate misleads
- 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.
The full explanation, with a calculator, is on the First contact resolution rate (FCR) page.
Same metric, other tools
Related metrics in Excel and Google Sheets
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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.
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