Quality and analytics
Outcomes and reasons for contact
How every conversation is recorded with its outcome and the reason the customer got in touch, and how resolution, first contact resolution and repeat contact are measured.
On this page
Two questions sit behind almost every operational decision about customer contact: why are customers getting in touch, and did they get what they needed? Telonic records the answer to both on every conversation. Each one is tagged with the reason for contact, from a category set built around your business, and with its outcome. Together they show what is driving your contact volume, what is being resolved, and where customers are having to come back.
The outcome of every conversation
When a conversation ends, its outcome is recorded against it and against the issue it belongs to. An issue is the thing the customer got in touch about, from first contact to resolution, however many conversations or channels it takes. See Issues and threading.
| Outcome | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Resolved | The customer's request was completed in the conversation, within your limits | A guest's check-in time confirmed and an early check-in request logged |
| Handed to your team | The conversation went to a person, with a brief, because a rule or the customer's request required it | A policyholder asks why part of a claim is not covered and wants to complain |
| Unresolved | The request was not completed and has not yet gone to a person, for example because the customer left before confirming | A buyer stops replying before choosing a viewing slot |
Outcomes are recorded from what happened in the conversation and in your systems, such as a booking changed or a claim created, not only from what was said. A conversation that ends with "thanks, bye" is not counted as resolved if the change the customer asked for was never made.
Why customers get in touch
Each conversation is tagged with its reason for contact, against a set of categories agreed with you during implementation. The set starts from the industry model, so it already uses the terms your business runs on, and your team adjusts it to match how you report.
| Industry | Example reasons for contact |
|---|---|
| Property | Next instalment amount and date · Handover date · Snagging item report · Service charge query · Viewing request · Registration and title deed |
| Travel and hospitality | Booking change · Flight status · Refund status · Baggage · Pre-arrival request · Loyalty points |
| Insurance | Claim status · New claim · Documents for a claim · Coverage question · Renewal price · Network hospital |
A conversation can carry more than one reason, because customers often raise two things at once. When your category set changes, the change is recorded, so a new category does not quietly distort comparisons with earlier months.
Resolution, measured against what you agreed
Resolution is reported as the share of conversations resolved without needing a person, by channel, by reason for contact and over time. What counts as resolved differs by industry and by queue, so the measures are agreed with you before go-live and reported against those same definitions afterwards. At your first review, you look at your own conversations, measured the way you agreed to measure them.
A conversation handed to your team is not a failure. For many reasons for contact, such as a complaint or a claims decision, handing over with a complete brief is exactly the right outcome. Reporting separates the two, so a rise in handovers for complaints reads differently from a rise in handovers for instalment questions.
First contact resolution and repeat contact
First contact resolution counts the issues resolved in the first conversation, with no need for the customer to come back. Because every channel writes to the same customer record, a customer who calls on Sunday and messages on Tuesday about the same issue is counted as one issue with two contacts, not two separate resolved conversations.
Repeat contact is the other side of the same measure: how many customers got in touch again about the same issue, and how quickly. Where one reason for contact produces far more repeat contact than the rest, it usually points to something outside the conversation, such as a handover schedule nobody can confirm, or a document customers cannot find.
The technical detail
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How is a later conversation linked to an earlier issue? | Through the customer record: the customer is matched on verified identifiers such as phone number, email address, customer ID or booking or policy reference, and the conversation is linked to the open issue it concerns. See Matching contacts to customers |
| Where do outcomes and reasons go? | Into the customer record and the console, and written back to your CRM (the system that holds your customer records) where you choose |
| Can the category set differ by department? | Yes. Each department or queue can have its own set, reported separately or together |
| Can our team correct a tag? | Yes. An authorised reviewer can correct a reason or outcome, and the correction is logged |
In practice
A regional airline starts with booking changes on WhatsApp for one market.
- Before go-live, its customer experience team agrees three measures with Telonic: conversations resolved without a person, issues resolved at first contact, and customers who come back about the same issue within seven days.
- The reason-for-contact set starts from the travel industry model. The team adds "Visa and entry question", which it reports on separately.
- After the first month, the console shows that "Refund status" produces more repeat contact than any other reason.
- Hamza, the operations manager, opens those conversations. Customers are told a refund has been approved, but not when it will arrive, because the refund system does not hold a payment date.
- The airline adds the expected payment date to its refund system, and the agent gives it from there. The following month, Hamza checks repeat contact on refund status against the same measure.
What your team controls
- The measures agreed before go-live, and how each is defined.
- The reason-for-contact categories, for each department or queue.
- What is written back to your CRM.
- Who can see and correct outcomes and reasons, by role.
Related
- Insights and trendsQuality and analytics
- The consoleQuality and analytics
- Issues and threadingCustomer record
- Reports and exportsQuality and analytics
- How a deployment worksGetting started
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