What is First Time Fix Rate (FTFR)?
First Time Fix Rate (FTFR) is the percentage of service jobs resolved completely on the first visit, with no follow-up visit required. It is calculated as jobs resolved on the first visit divided by total jobs, multiplied by 100. FTFR is one of the core efficiency measures in field service, because every failed first visit multiplies travel cost, technician capacity and customer downtime.
How to calculate first time fix rate
FTFR = (Jobs resolved on the first visit ÷ Total jobs) × 100
For example, a service organization that closes 1,000 jobs in a quarter and resolves 850 of them without a return visit has an FTFR of (850 ÷ 1,000) × 100 = 85%.
The measurement window changes the answer, and this is where most comparisons break down. Aquant recommends a 30-day window, noting that shorter windows such as 7 or 14 days can split related repeat visits into separate tickets and make performance “look better than it is,” while much longer windows sweep in unrelated later faults. Decide your window before you benchmark yourself against anyone.
What is a good first time fix rate?
Published figures disagree, and the disagreement is informative rather than a reason to distrust them — the sources are measuring different populations over different windows.
| Benchmark | Bottom 20% | Middle | Top 20% | Source (year) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTFR, 30-day window, 157 service organizations | 53% | 75% (median) | 86% | Aquant, 2025 Field Service Benchmark Report |
| FTFR, 30-day window, prior-year edition | 55% | 76% (average) | 87% | Aquant, 2024 Field Service Benchmark Report |
| First Visit Repair Rate, on-site incidents | — | 87% (median) | — | TSIA (2021) |
One detail worth noting if you quote these: Aquant labels the middle value “median across all companies” in its 2025 chart and “average across all companies” in the 2024 edition, so the two years are not a like-for-like trend line.
TSIA’s 87% and Aquant’s 75% are not in conflict. TSIA reports a First Visit Repair Rate for on-site incidents resolved in one visit; Aquant measures first-time fix across 21 million service events in a fixed 30-day window that deliberately captures repeat visits a shorter window would hide. A practical reading: 75–86% is the realistic working range, and a number above that usually means a narrow measurement window rather than exceptional service.
First time fix rate by industry
Aquant’s 2025 data breaks the median down by sector:
| Industry | First Time Fix Rate |
|---|---|
| High tech / electronics | 82% |
| Printing | 77% |
| Food equipment | 77% |
| All industries (median) | 75% |
| Industrial machinery | 71% |
| Medical devices | 69% |
Complex, highly configured capital equipment scores lower, which is intuitive: the harder it is to establish what is actually wrong before someone travels, the more often the first visit fails.
Note on sourcing: Aquant sells field-service AI software, so its benchmark reports are vendor-published. They are cited here because the methodology is disclosed — 157 service organizations, more than 21 million service events, 6.5 million assets, over 602,000 technicians and an average of three years of data per company — which is more than can be said for most figures circulating in this category.
What a failed first visit actually costs
The cost of a low FTFR is not one extra trip. Aquant’s 2024 benchmark data found that when the first visit fails, the job takes an average of 2.7 total visits to resolve and adds roughly 13 days to resolution time. For context, median resolution time across all companies is 5 days, with the top 20% at 3 days and the bottom 20% at 11 days.
So a failed first visit roughly triples the field effort on that job and can quadruple the time the customer’s asset is unreliable.
What drives a low first time fix rate
Failed first visits nearly always trace back to one of three things, and all three are information problems that occur before the technician arrives:
- The wrong part. The fault was diagnosed from a verbal description, so the van was loaded against a guess.
- An inaccurate diagnosis. The symptom reported by the customer and the actual failure are different things.
- A skill mismatch. The right person for that fault, on that configuration, was not the person dispatched.
Technician training, parts availability and maintenance record-keeping all matter, but they are downstream of the same root cause: nobody could see the equipment before committing a visit.
How to improve first time fix rate
- Fix the measurement first. Agree the window (30 days is a defensible default) and whether repeat visits to the same asset are grouped. You cannot improve a number that changes definition each quarter.
- See the fault before dispatch. Visual triage converts a verbal description into an observed diagnosis, so the right part and the right skill set are assigned.
- Standardize the procedure. Digital work instructions reduce variation between an experienced technician and a new one.
- Close the loop on repeat visits. Track which assets, product lines and fault codes generate returns, and treat those as root cause analysis candidates rather than scheduling problems.
- Give the technician a route to expertise on site. A large share of failed fixes are recoverable in the moment if the person on site can reach someone who has seen the fault before.
How VSight helps
Points 2 and 5 above are exactly what AR remote assistance addresses. VSight Remote puts a remote expert on the technician’s — or the customer’s — live camera view, so the actual fault and the exact part can be identified before a visit is committed, and so a less experienced technician can be guided through an unfamiliar repair with AR annotations placed directly on the equipment. Sessions run on phones, tablets and smart glasses, and customer-facing sessions open in the mobile browser with no app install. VSight Workflow delivers the procedure itself as standardized digital work instructions, checklists and SOPs. VSight is a connected worker platform, and is GDPR, HIPAA and ISO 27001 certified.
To be clear about the boundaries: remote assistance does not shorten parts lead time, does not manage inventory, and does not predict failures — it changes what you know before the van leaves.
Request a demo to see how visual diagnosis before dispatch affects your first-time fix rate.
Related terms: first-contact resolution, truck roll, MTTF and MTTR, expert utilization rate, no fault found returns.
Frequently asked questions
What does First Time Fix Rate (FTFR) mean? First Time Fix Rate (FTFR) is the percentage of service jobs resolved completely on the first visit, with no follow-up visit required. It is calculated as jobs resolved on the first visit divided by total jobs, multiplied by 100, and it is one of the core efficiency measures in field service.
How do you calculate first time fix rate? Divide the number of jobs resolved on the first visit by the total number of jobs in the period, then multiply by 100. For example, 850 first-visit resolutions out of 1,000 jobs gives an FTFR of 85%. The measurement window matters: Aquant recommends a 30-day window, because shorter windows can separate related repeat visits into new tickets and make performance look better than it is.
What is a good first time fix rate? Published benchmarks differ because organizations measure FTFR differently. Aquant’s 2025 Field Service Benchmark Report puts the median at 75%, the top 20% of organizations at 86% and the bottom 20% at 53%, measured over a 30-day window across 157 service organizations. TSIA reports a higher industry median of 87% for on-site incidents resolved in one visit. Treat 75-86% as the realistic working range and define your own measurement window before comparing.
What is a good first time fix rate for industrial machinery? Aquant’s 2025 benchmark data puts industrial machinery at 71%, below the 75% all-industry median. Medical devices sit at 69%, printing and food equipment at 77%, and high tech and electronics at 82%. Complex, highly configured equipment tends to score lower because accurate diagnosis before dispatch is harder.
What does a failed first visit actually cost? Aquant’s 2024 benchmark data found that when the first visit fails, the job takes an average of 2.7 total visits to resolve and adds roughly 13 days to resolution time. The cost is therefore not one extra trip but several, plus the customer downtime that accumulates while the asset waits.
How does VSight help improve First Time Fix Rate? The common causes of a failed first visit — the wrong part, an inaccurate fault diagnosis, or a skill mismatch — are information failures that happen before the technician arrives. VSight Remote lets an expert see the asset through a live camera view and identify the actual fault and part before dispatch, then guide the technician through the repair with AR annotation on site. VSight Workflow delivers the procedure as standardized digital work instructions. It does not shorten parts lead time and does not predict failures.
Sources
- Aquant — The 2025 Field Service Benchmark Report (vendor-published; 157 service organizations, 21M+ service events)
- Aquant — The 2024 Field Service Benchmark Report (vendor-published)
- TSIA — Top KPIs for Field Service Organizations