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Management · 6 min read

First response time is the only number your customers feel

Resolution time matters to you. Response time matters to them. The distinction changes what you optimise.

Two different clocks

Resolution time measures how long the problem took. First response time measures how long the customer sat in silence wondering whether anyone had read their message.

Customers forgive a slow resolution they were kept informed about. They do not forgive silence, even when the eventual answer is fast.

Why the average is useless

Support response times are heavily skewed. A handful of tickets answered after several days will drag any mean upwards while the typical experience is excellent — or, worse, flatter a poor typical experience because a few were answered instantly.

Report the median and the 90th percentile. The median describes the normal experience; the 90th describes the one that generates complaints.

Improving it without hiring

Automatic acknowledgement removes the perception of silence immediately. Assignment on arrival removes queue dead-time. Canned replies remove typing time on the repetitive majority. Between them these usually halve the median without anyone working harder.

Set the target from your own data

Run for a month with no target, look at your actual distribution, and set the target near your current 90th percentile. A target you miss constantly trains the team to ignore targets.

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE
Everything described here is configurable in EconomicalHelpDesk.com. Open the demo and try it, or ask us to configure it with you.