Definition
The average time between a customer opening a support request and receiving a first reply.
Formula
Sum of (First reply time - Ticket open time) / Number of tickets
How to measure
Timestamp ticket creation and first agent reply for every ticket, then average the elapsed time across the period.
Why track it
First response time strongly influences customer satisfaction scores, often more than resolution speed itself.
Example
A support team improves average first response time from 6 hours to 45 minutes after adding an auto-triage system.
FAQ
- What is First Response Time?
- The average time between a customer opening a support request and receiving a first reply.
- How do you calculate First Response Time?
- Sum of (First reply time - Ticket open time) / Number of tickets
- Why track First Response Time?
- First response time strongly influences customer satisfaction scores, often more than resolution speed itself.