Time to first response (FRT) is the elapsed time between a customer submitting a request and receiving the first reply. It measures how quickly a support team acknowledges contact, not how long it takes to fully resolve the issue.
FRT is usually averaged across all tickets in a period and is one of the most common service-level targets, because a fast first reply reassures the customer that their request was received. It is distinct from average resolution time, which measures the full journey to a closed issue. A team can have a strong FRT and still resolve issues slowly, which is why the two are tracked together.
FRT measures acknowledgment, and acknowledgment is easy to automate badly. An autoresponder that says nothing useful posts a great FRT and helps no one. Aide, the agentic AI platform for customer experience, treats a first response as worth measuring only when it moves the issue forward.
Aide ties FRT to the resolution rate and treats intent coverage as the diagnostic underneath. When a customer intent has deployed, verified automation, the first response can also be the resolution, so the two metrics converge instead of competing. No automated reply goes out on an intent whose coverage is unverified: a fast first reply is also an accurate one. Contacts that need human judgment route to people who still see the full picture of demand. A fast first response should be a real one.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good time to first response?
- It varies by channel and customer expectation. Live chat targets are often measured in seconds or minutes, while email targets are measured in hours. The right benchmark depends on what your customers expect on each channel.
- What is the difference between time to first response and average resolution time?
- Time to first response measures how long until the first reply. Average resolution time measures how long until the issue is fully resolved. A fast first reply does not guarantee a fast resolution.