Are you new to the world of KPIs used in the outsourcing industry? This article will give you an in-depth look at the FRT KPI. Fast Response Time or FRT is one of the most used KPIs by businesses across the globe to monitor customer satisfaction. Continue reading to learn more.

• What is FRT KPI?
• Why is FRT important?
• How is FRT KPI calculated?
• What is a good FRT KPI score?
• How to optimize FRT?
• What are FRT KPI best practices?
• Is FRT an important KPI?

What is FRT KPI?

First Response Time or FRT is the time between a customer making a query and an agent first responding to it. It is a popularly used key performance metric by companies and service providers.

Furthermore, many companies prefer to include a baseline FRT value in the SLA (Service Level Agreement). This ensures that the outsourcing partner responds to customers within the agreed upon FRT value.

Did you know that First Response Time is also known as First Reply Time?

FRT is used to measure the time taken by an agent to respond first to a customer query. This KPI is used across different support platforms. For instance, it can be used to measure the performance of live chat support, email support, phone support, etc.

However, the baseline value of FRT differs across different platforms. For instance, the FRT value for Live chat maybe 15 seconds while it is 30 minutes for an email.

The FRT values offer a look at how long customers have to wait before getting the first response from an agent. The longer the wait, the less satisfied customers are going to be. Hence, businesses prefer to keep their FRT scores within industry standards.

Quick responses ensure customers are being taken care of. This is reflected in customer satisfaction scores. At the end of the day, customers prefer quick responses to their queries and FRT helps us ensure this happens.

Why is FRT important?

Time is an important commodity. According to Forrester, 66% of customers prefer companies that value their time.

Hence FRT plays a critical role in measuring the performance of a support team. Furthermore, it is used by outsourcing companies to measure the quality of the service they offer.

By improving FRT scores, businesses will notice a sizable difference in:

• Customer satisfaction
• Customer retention
• Conversion rate

Additionally, FRT also have a hand in brand trust. A good FRT score indicates that customers trust our brand immensely. For instance, a potential customer is more likely to complete the purchase action if they do not have to wait too long for a response from an agent.

The FRT determines customer satisfaction. After all it lets the customer know their issue is being looked into.

A long waiting time dissuades potential customers from making a purchase. So maintaining FRT is a critical business strategy. If the company is unable to do so with the existing support time, it is time to outsource.

There are numerous trustworthy outsourcing firms available. Experts recommend an outsourcing company that promises good FRT scores.

How is FRT KPI calculated?

FRT KPI can be easily calculated. We can obtain the FRT value by adding up all FRTs for a specific period and dividing it by the total number of resolved tickets in the same period.

For instance:

Suppose a team has a total of 12000 seconds over one month. If the total number of resolved tickets in that month is 800, the FRT score will be 15 seconds.

This score enables businesses to get a clear picture of the quality of customer support they are offering. If the score is way below industry standard, it is time to hire a new team. Alternatively, they can outsource support to a reliable team like Bobcares.

These outsourcing teams have a large pool of skilled agents who are trained in support services. They can improve FRT scores, thereby improving customer satisfaction and sales figures.

A good FRT score is due to good support services. This converts to better brand royalty. This is why FRT scores are considered a critical part of support services. In fact, baseline FRTs are included in SLAs by outsourcing companies.

Once we calculate the FRT score, it is important to compare it to the industry standard score for that specific platform. For instance, the FRT standard values differ for chat support and email support.

Additionally, automatic responses do not count when calculating the FRT score. A first response is the actual first response made by an agent to the customer.

If the FRT score is not on par with industry standards, it is time to get to the root cause. This involves analyzing current response patterns. For instance, it may be due to fewer agents in shift, a sudden spike in customer support requests and so on.

What is a good FRT KPI score?

A good FRT KPI score depends on the chosen platform. If the customer sends a query through live chat, a response within 45 seconds is considered exceptional. However, it can go up to 4 hours or below for email and social media.

According to these reports, around 53% of customers are willing to wait for around three minutes for the first response. However, it is a good idea to keep it 45 seconds or less for live chat. If this score seems underachieve in your current organization setup, outsourcing is the solution.

It is cost-effective and also guarantees exceptional FRT scores. In fact, most successful businesses prefer to outsource support to trustworthy partners.

Furthermore, baseline FRT KPI scores differ depending on the industry. For instance, an FRT score for a hosting company may be 15 seconds, while it may be 2 minutes for a real estate business. Hence, experts suggest understanding the industry benchmarks. This helps us set realistic FRT KPIs for each support channel.

However, improving FRT scores alone is not enough to improve customer satisfaction. Support agents have to be able to offer quick resolutions as well. This requires access to knowledge bases and appropriate technical skills.

For instance, if a customer raises a query about a server issue, the end-user agent has to be able to resolve the issue quickly. This improves customer satisfaction. At the end of the day, there are several KPIs that have a hand in overall customer satisfaction. These KPIs are co-dependent as well.

Fortunately, top outsourcing companies are able to meet these KPIs without any trouble. This is one of the reasons why businesses prefer to outsource support these days.

Outsourcing companies also analyze which agents have excellent FRT values. An analysis of their response patterns will help create a new strategy that helps improve the FRT of the overall support team.

How to optimize FRT?

Once we have an idea of our FRT scores. the next step is to set targets according to industry standards. Then, we can optimize our FRT KPI scores with these strategies:

• Outsourcing Support Agents

  The process of hiring, onboarding, and training user-end agents is time-consuming and expensive. Hence, most companies prefer to outsource this to experts. There are several outsourcing companies to choose from.

  Outsourced support agents have the required experience and skills to help improve FRT as well as other KPI scores.
• Reducing multitasking

  Support agents are often tempted to multitask by switching between platforms and customer queries. This leads to bad FRT scores and ultimately low CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores.

  Hence, one way to optimize the FRT KPI is to ensure that multitasking is taken off the table. This way, agents are able to focus completely on the customer on hand.
• Build a large knowledge base

  Support agents need to have access to a comprehensive knowledge base to be able to respond to customer queries successfully. These knowledge bases consist of information related to the products or services offered by the company.

  Additionally, these knowledge bases can contain commonly asked queries as well as additional information based on market research.
• Expand Support Team

  Another reason for a low FRT score is not enough end-user agents to answer customer queries. Hence, the solution is to expand the support team. In this scenario, outsourcing to a reliable company like Bobcares is a wise move.

What are FRT KPI best practices?

Our experts have put together a couple of the best practices to improve the FRT KPI score:

• Use fast support channels like live chat.
• Create easily accessible large knowledge bases.
• Reduce multitasking.
• Automate routine support activities to save time gradually.
• Constantly monitor support performance.

With the help of these practices, outsourcing companies are able to deliver excellent FRT scores. It’s no wonder that firms choose to outsource support rather than manage it in-house.

Is FRT an important KPI?

Although support teams use several KPIs, one of the most important is Fast Response Time. This KPI acknowledges the customers waiting for a response. Furthermore, this metric measures how prompt the support team is with their responses.

According to industry experts, this metric also helps support teams decide if they need more resources.

In fact, FRT has become a mandatory key performance indicator today. After all, the first response to a customer has the power to establish trust.

As established earlier, FRT measures the time taken for an agent to offer the first response to a customer query. The longer the customer wait, the less satisfied they will be.

In order to boost sales and improve brand loyalty, businesses have to work on their FRT scores. Hence, this is a critical KPI.

For instance,

Suppose a business has an FRT for 3 minutes, while the industry standard is 30 seconds. In this scenario, customers are likely to turn to other businesses that offer the same product or service. After all, every customer prefers to feel valued.

A good FRT score is a clear indication of how much the company values its customers. Furthermore, this KPI has a direct bearing on other important scores like CSAT.

Constantly monitoring the FRT score is one way to ensure the customer relationships strategies are going according to plan. In case of a dip in scores, experts recommend tweaking the plan.

Like other KPIs, FRT plays a key role in creating strategies to increase sales and conversion rates.

Since First Response Time scores are dependent on industries, businesses have to do market research before setting baseline values.

Once the baseline scores are in place, support teams will be able to tweak their strategies to deliver optimal results.

The Bottom Line

To wrap things up, there is no doubt that KPIs are essential. They help measure the performance of a support team. With outsourcing becoming the norm for customer support, KPIs come in handy here as well. In fact, trustworthy outsourcing companies like Bobcares rely on KPIs like FRT.

Furthermore, these KPIs also make their way into SLAs. Monitoring First Response Scores also helps plan out strategies for handling peaks in customer support requests.

One of the reasons why FRT is critical is that a bad score can cause customers to move toward competitors. This reflects poorly on the brand image of the business. After all customer satisfaction plays a key role.

Outsourcing companies rely on KPIs like FRT and CSAT to monitor the performance of the support team. This helps them detect even a slight dip in satisfaction levels and make changes immediately.

Besides that, some outsourcing companies focus on agents with excellent FRT scores and try to analyze their response patterns. This helps create a better strategy for the entire team.

At the end of the day, we can agree that FRT is very important when it comes to offering support services. After all, it offers us a foolproof way to measure if our tactics and strategies are working.

It is time for companies to outsource to experts if they plan on building brand loyalty. Outsourced support agents are one step ahead of the competition when it comes to scoring excellent FRT values.

By understanding the true nature of FRT and other KPIs, businesses can be optimized for long-term success.