What does a contact cost, and what does a resolution cost?
A $7 call that takes three contacts to resolve is a $21 resolution. This tool separates the cost of handling a contact from the cost of resolving an issue, and keeps four figures apart: the cost you report, the repeat-demand burden, the capacity an FCR gain releases, and the savings you can realize.
The burden is the marginal cost of all repeat demand. Read it as a ceiling: FCR never reaches 100%, so you will never release all of it. Below are the capacity a realistic FCR gain releases and the part your capacity action can turn into savings.
Integrity checks
Repeat demand is 28% of all contacts. At this level it is a resolution problem: raising FCR reduces it, while a lower price per contact leaves every repeat in place.
Unknown
Your choice is still openNo capacity action selected: realizable savings are $0. Choose how freed time will be used (less overtime, hiring avoided, vendor reduction or headcount) before you present any savings figure.
What an FCR gain releases, and what you can realize
Released is the agent time the gain frees, valued at marginal cost ($4.20 a contact). Realizable is the part your capacity action turns into savings (Not selected).
FCR +5 to 77%Operational
Released
$127K/yr
Realizable (0%)
$0/yr
2,514 contacts avoided a month · 1.8 FTE
FCR +10 to 82%Root-cause work
Released
$253K/yr
Realizable (0%)
$0/yr
5,029 contacts avoided a month · 3.5 FTE
FCR +15 to 87%Transformation
Released
$380K/yr
Realizable (0%)
$0/yr
7,543 contacts avoided a month · 5.3 FTE
Channel handle economics
Agent labor only. Chat costs less per contact than voice because an agent can handle several chats at once (concurrency). Blended across your mix: $2.73 a contact. An average hides complexity, so move only simple contacts that the new channel can resolve. Model a move in Channel Shift.
Voice60% of volume
AHT (average handle time)
7m
Per contact at 1 at once
7.0m
Handle cost
$3.27
Handle spend
$98K
Chat25% of volume
AHT (average handle time)
9m
Per contact at 2.5 at once
3.6m
Handle cost
$1.68
Handle spend
$21K
Email15% of volume
AHT (average handle time)
5m
Per contact at 1 at once
5.0m
Handle cost
$2.33
Handle spend
$17K
What it means
The cost you report, the capacity you release and the savings you realize are separate figures.
Each contact costs $7.00 fully loaded, and each resolved issue costs $9.74, 39% more. The difference is repeat demand: 28% of handled contacts are repeats about an issue that was not resolved the first time. The repeat rate drives the cost of a resolution, so that is the lever to study first.
The repeat-demand burden is $59K/mo, the marginal cost of handling every repeat contact, or 9.8 FTE (full-time equivalents) of agent time. Read it as a ceiling. You will not release all of it, because FCR never reaches 100%, and none of it is a saving on its own. The FCR steps below show what a realistic improvement releases.
Lifting FCR 10 points to 82% releases $21K/mo of that burden as agent capacity, which becomes cash only through the capacity action you choose. That is $0 for now because no capacity action is selected: the capacity action above still reads "Not selected". A 10 point FCR gain usually takes root-cause work on processes, knowledge and systems. Treat +15 as a transformation case and plan on smaller steps.
Cost per contact and cost per resolution use the fully loaded cost, which is the right basis for unit costs. The burden and the released figures use the marginal cost. Realizable is the released figure scaled by the capacity action. These are four different numbers, and the report keeps them apart so that a saving is never read off a unit cost.
Why FCR Leakage gives a different repeat cost
Both tools price the same repeat contacts. On your inputs here, each model gives:
$710K a yearCost per ContactThis pageYour M of 2.4 contacts per unresolved issue, each repeat at marginal cost
$551K a yearFCR LeakageOne callback: each unresolved issue comes back once (M of 2)
$706K a yearFCR LeakageGeometric: a callback can fail too (M of 2.39)
Why they differ
The tools agree on first contact resolution and on volume. They differ on what an unresolved issue does next: Cost per Contact asks you how many contacts it takes in all (M), and FCR Leakage picks a model, where one callback is the same as an M of 2 and geometric the same as an M of 1 plus 1 over your FCR.
Both price a repeat at your marginal cost here, because the repeat complexity multiplier is 1.0.
Use the row whose model matches what your own data shows about repeat contacts. Neither is a saving: both are the cost of all repeat demand, and a saving needs an action that removes it.
Published figures to hold your result against. Each measures something slightly different, so read what it counts before you compare. None of them changes your result or its grade.
First contact resolution by industryBenchmark study
SQM Group's 2026 averages, from a post-call customer survey of SQM's benchmarked North American inbound customer service call centers. Industries SQM does not publish, such as manufacturing, education and travel, have no figure here.
SQM Group, updated 20 Aug 2026. First Call Resolution Benchmark (FCR Benchmarking by Industry 2026).
71%All industries
77%Retail
75%Insurance
70%Financial
70%Energy and utilities
70%Government
69%Health insurance
56%Telco
73%Not-for-profit
64%Tech support
69%All industries, 2024 resultsSQM Group, 6 Feb 2025. Call Center FCR Benchmark 2024 Results by Industry.
Cost of an inbound callBenchmark study
A cross-industry US average reported by contact centers. No free source publishes cost per contact by industry, so none is shown.
$7.20Average cost of an inbound call, US47% more than an email and 23% more than a web chat, as ContactBabel states it.ContactBabel, 2026. The 2026 US Contact Center Decision-Makers' Guide, key findings.
Agent pay where your agents workOfficial statistic
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics median for customer service representatives, May 2025. The tool opens at the national median; if you know your own pay, enter it in the tool.
$21.53Median hourly wage, customer service representatives, United States$44,770 a year, before benefits. Half earn more, half less.US Bureau of Labor Statistics, read on O*NET OnLine, May 2025. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Customer Service Representatives (43-4051), by state.
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Cost per resolution
$9.74
$9.74
$7.00 per contact, 1.39 contacts per issue
How sureDirectionalHeld by evidence and realizationShows the direction and rough size. Something behind it is still a default, an estimate or an open choice.
Contact volume, FCR and M are still at the tool default. Loaded cost and marginal cost are still at the tool default. No capacity action is selected, so no released capacity converts to cash.
The four numbers
Cost per contact, fully loaded$7.00
Cost per resolution1.39 contacts per issue, 39% above$9.74