Glossary
First contact resolution (FCR)
The percentage of tickets resolved on the first reply, without follow-up exchanges or escalations.
First contact resolution measures the percentage of customer support tickets resolved on the first reply, without follow-up messages or escalations. Most teams calculate it as resolved-on-first-reply divided by total tickets, evaluated weekly or monthly. Healthy ranges sit between 70 and 85 percent for typical SaaS and ecommerce support, though the right number depends on ticket complexity. AI auto-resolution lifts FCR meaningfully because routine queries like order status and password resets resolve in seconds, freeing humans to focus on the longer threads that genuinely need them. Watch for the trap of optimizing FCR by avoiding hard cases.
Related terms
- Auto-resolution: When AI fully resolves a customer support ticket without a human reply.
- Ticket deflection rate: The percentage of customer requests resolved by self-service or AI before reaching a human agent.
- Average handle time (AHT): The average time an agent spends actively working on a single ticket, including reply and lookup time.
- Resolution time: The total elapsed time from a ticket being opened to being marked resolved, including wait periods.