How do you calculate first contact resolution?

Divide the number of issues resolved on first contact by the total number of issues handled, then multiply by 100. If your team handles 400 issues in a month and 300 of them needed no further contact, FCR is 75%.

The hard part is deciding what counts as resolved and what counts as the first contact. Teams use three main methods, and a rate measured one way isn’t directly comparable with a rate measured another way:

  • Ticket data: count tickets solved without the customer having to reply again. Freshservice, for example, counts a resolved ticket towards FCR only when the customer sent nothing further after raising it, however many replies the agent sent, according to its documentation checked on 8 October 2026.
  • Repeat contacts: treat an issue as unresolved if the same customer gets in touch about the same thing within a set window, such as seven days.
  • Surveys: ask the customer “Was your issue resolved?” after the interaction.
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How does first contact resolution work for AI agents?

For an AI agent, resolution is harder to see because nobody closes a ticket. Some platforms ask the user and otherwise infer it. Microsoft Copilot Studio, for example, labels a session “Resolved confirmed” when the user confirms the interaction was a success, and “Resolved implied” when it ends without that confirmation, based on the agent’s own logic.

A conversation that ends quietly may be a solved problem, or a customer who gave up and emailed instead. To measure FCR for an AI agent, check whether the same customer contacted your team about the same issue afterwards, and read a sample of conversations each week.

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Does Kawl Now measure first contact resolution?

No. Kawl Now doesn’t calculate FCR or mark conversations as resolved. It doesn’t identify callers or connect to a help desk, so it can’t tell whether someone contacted your team again after a call.

The transcripts give you the raw material. Each conversation is saved with its topic, status and length. The status is Completed or Interrupted, or Escalated if you’ve turned on handover to your team, which is an early release. Escalated means a handover call was started, not that someone answered. Reading what the agent said shows whether it answered, said it didn’t know, pointed the caller to your usual contact options or offered a person.

Some issues can’t be resolved in the conversation at all. The agent can’t look up or change accounts, so billing and account problems will always need your team. Leave them out of any FCR figure you work out for the agent, and count escalated calls as transfers.

Common questions

What is the difference between first contact resolution and first call resolution?

They measure the same thing. First call resolution is the older contact-centre name for phone calls, and first contact resolution covers any channel, including email, chat and AI agents. Check which channels a figure includes before you compare it with another.

What is a good first contact resolution rate?

It depends on how you define resolved and which issues you include, so published benchmarks rarely compare like with like. Track your own rate with one definition over time, and break it down by type of issue to see where customers have to come back.