What is first response time?

First response time (FRT), explained

FRT is the metric customers feel most directly: how long they wait before anyone responds. On live chat that might be seconds; on email it might be hours. Teams typically set targets by channel and track them in their help desk.

The tricky question is what counts as a response. An auto-reply saying “we got your message” is not help, so most teams exclude it. An AI agent that answers the question is a real response, which is why teams that add AI chat often report FRT separately for bot and human replies. Mixing them hides how long people wait once a conversation reaches the team.

Use the median as well as the average. A few conversations that waited overnight can drag the average far above what most customers experience, and business-hours versus calendar-hours measurement can change the number dramatically.

FRT is a speed metric, not a quality metric. A fast first reply that asks the customer to repeat themselves only delays resolution.

How to measure it

Report the median and the average, per channel, and state whether you measure in business hours. Report bot and human first responses separately.

Common mistake

How SuperBot relates

SuperBot answers website visitors from your own content in the chat widget, and escalated chats land in a shared team inbox with the full transcript, so the person who picks up does not ask the customer to repeat themselves.

• Human handoff rules that keep an AI agent from annoying customers
• Support cost calculator

Related terms

• Average handle time (AHT)Average handle time (AHT) is the average amount of time an agent spends on one customer interaction from start to finish, including talking or typing, any hold time, and the follow-up work after the conversation ends. Contact centres use it for staffing and cost planning, but pushing it down too hard can hurt resolution and satisfaction.
• Service level agreement (SLA)A service level agreement (SLA) in customer support is a defined commitment for how quickly a team will respond to or resolve customer requests, such as a first reply within four business hours. SLAs can be contractual promises to customers or internal targets, and are usually set per channel and priority level.
• Live chatLive chat is a support channel where customers exchange real-time text messages with a business, usually through a widget on its website or app. Traditionally the replies came from human agents; many live chat tools now put an AI agent first and bring in a person when needed, so “live” increasingly means immediate rather than necessarily human.
• Shared inboxA shared inbox is a single queue where a whole team can see, assign and reply to customer conversations, instead of messages sitting in one person's email. It shows who is handling what, keeps the conversation history in one place, and prevents both duplicate replies and conversations that nobody answers.
• Human handoff (escalation)Human handoff is the point where an automated system such as a chatbot passes a conversation to a person, ideally with the full conversation history and context attached. Good handoff rules trigger on low confidence, sensitive topics, explicit requests for a human or signs of frustration, and tell the customer what happens next and how long it will take.