First Contact Resolution (FCR)

Formula

Tickets resolved on first contact ÷ Contact tickets opened × 100

Why Track It

FCR is the cheapest resolution an MSP will ever get. A falling rate points to Tier 1 training gaps, missing documentation or permissions that force escalation, and each escalated ticket costs more labor and more client patience.

How It Is Measured

Count tickets closed during the first interaction (phone call, chat or remote session) that were not escalated to a higher tier and not reopened. Divide by all tickets opened through contact channels in the period. Exclude alerts generated by the RMM, scheduled maintenance and project tickets, since no client made contact. Pull from the PSA using a first-contact flag the technician sets at close, or by comparing open and close times against the first touch.

Constraints

Depends on technicians flagging first-contact closes consistently in the PSA. It says nothing about ticket difficulty, so an estate with complex issues will read lower without a worse desk. Pushing it hard invites premature closes, so read it beside reopen rate.

Referenced In

• How Do I Calculate Cost per Ticket?AnswerRead
• How Much Should an L1 Technician Make?AnswerRead
• What Does NOC Mean?AnswerRead
• What Should Technician Utilization Be?AnswerRead
• FCR (First Contact Resolution)Glossary TermRead

Related KPIs

• Client Satisfaction (CSAT)The share of post-ticket survey responses that rate the support experience positively.Read
• Ticket Reopen RateThe share of closed tickets that were reopened because the issue was not actually fixed.Read
• Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR)The average elapsed time from ticket creation to resolution for reactive client tickets.Read

Glossary and Answers

• PSA (Professional Services Automation)Glossary TermRead
• ITILGlossary TermRead
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)Glossary TermRead