First-time fix rate

First-time fix rate (FTFR) is the share of service calls completed on the first dispatch — the technician arrives, diagnoses the issue, has the right parts and skills on the truck, and finishes the job before leaving. Anything that requires a return trip — wrong part, missing access, undiagnosed second issue, customer not home — fails the FTFR metric.

FTFR is one of the highest-leverage operational metrics in field service because every truck-roll has a fixed cost (drive time, fuel, technician labor, scheduling overhead) but only the productive visit produces revenue. A 60% FTFR business is paying for 40% of its trips twice. The levers that move FTFR are pre-visit triage (asking the right diagnostic questions on the inbound call), parts inventory on the truck, technician training, and dispatch matching jobs to the right skill level. Tracking FTFR requires linking second visits back to their original call, which is where most paper-based shops lose the data.