It is measured by counting the conversations that ended in a resolved outcome on the first attempt and dividing by total conversations. The tricky part is defining resolved honestly. If a customer has to send a second message an hour later, that first contact did not resolve anything, however tidy the transcript looked.
High first-contact resolution usually reflects two things: the person or system answering has the information they need, and they have the authority to act on it. Low FCR often points at scattered knowledge, unclear pricing pages, or handoffs that lose context between steps.
For a small business, the practical version of this metric is simpler than the corporate one: did the visitor get their answer, or did they leave and go elsewhere? Clerkzo answers from your own website content, so most common questions about services, hours, and coverage get settled in the same conversation, and anything it should not answer goes to a human rather than round in circles.
Related guides
Related terms
Browse all 104 terms- First response timeFirst response time (FRT) is the elapsed time between a customer's first message and the first meaningful reply from the business. It is a standard support and sales metric because it measures how long someone is left waiting before they know a human or system has engaged with their request.
- Customer satisfaction scoreCustomer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a metric that measures how satisfied a customer was with a specific interaction, collected by asking them to rate the experience immediately afterwards.
- Net Promoter ScoreNet Promoter Score (NPS) is a loyalty metric based on one question, how likely a customer is to recommend you to someone else, scored by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.
- Ticket deflectionTicket deflection is when a customer gets their answer through self-service or automation and therefore never opens a support ticket or contacts a human agent.