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When you use Zendesk to support customers, a question that people commonly ask is “How long does it typically take for one of my agents to respond to a ticket after it’s first created?”
Zendesk Support records the time from when a ticket was created to the first public agent response. Zendesk Explore reads this value and makes it available in a metric named First reply time.
This article describes how first reply time works and how you can use it in your reports.
This article contains the following sections:
Related article:
How first reply time is calculated
The Zendesk first reply time metric measures the time between ticket creation and the first public agent comment after that.
After the first public reply, the system calculates the first reply time in calendar hours and business hours. Both metrics are stored with the ticket data, so you can use either (or both) to build reports.
First reply time works essentially the same way regardless of the channel from which the ticket originated. For example:
- A customer email creates a ticket. Timing starts when the ticket is created and ends at the first public agent comment.
- An agent creates a ticket. Timing starts when the ticket is created and ends at the agent's next public comment.
- An agent takes a phone call that creates a ticket and solves the ticket with no new comment. The customer later re-opens the ticket, and the agent then responds with a public comment. First reply time ends when that comment is posted.
When an agent adds a public comment from another account using ticket sharing, this doesn't count toward your account's first reply time.
Additional details for messaging and live chat first reply time
First reply time is calculated exclusively based on agent replies. That means automated or bot-related actions in conversations aren’t considered when calculating the first reply time. Across all channels, ticket creation starts the first reply timer. Live conversation channels are no exception. However, because public replies aren’t an agent response option for live chat and messaging tickets, the actions that stop the timer are different:
-
On messaging tickets, the timer stops
when the agent clicks Send on their first
Messaging reply to the conversation.
-
On live chat tickets with reply-time SLAs
turned on, the timer stops when the agent
clicks Send on their first comment in the
conversation.
Messaging and live chat tickets also have an additional metric: First reply time (sec). This metric is often a more accurate measure of first reply times for tickets from live conversations, which tend to move more quickly than tickets from other channels. Unlike the standard First reply time metrics, the First reply time (sec) metric ignores your messaging business hours and live chat operating hours settings.
Reporting first reply time
The following sections describe how to use the Zendesk reporting tools to read first reply time information.
Reporting using Explore
Explore reads first reply time information from Support. The reports:
- Read data from Support using the Zendesk API. They do not calculate calendar hours or business hours.
- Display information on pre-built reports in calendar hours. However, metrics for business hours are available and can be used in your own reports.
See Metrics and attributes for Zendesk Support, Metrics and attributes for Zendesk messaging, and Metrics and attributes for live chat.
Reporting using External analytic tools
If you're not using any Zendesk reporting methods, you can still read first reply time information using the Zendesk API. The first reply time information in calendar hours is stored together with the first reply time in business hours and clearly labelled. See API metrics documentation.
Reporting using the legacy Reporting Overview
The legacy Reporting Overview is not available if your plan includes Zendesk Explore.
The reporting overview can:
- Display the first reply time metric directly from Zendesk Support
- Display calendar hours only; business hours are not displayed
- Display average reply time for all tickets
Zendesk SLAs and first reply time
A service level agreement, or SLA, is a policy you define that specifies and measures the response and resolution times that your support team delivers to your customers. To determine these times, your SLA policies may also use the first reply time metric.
However, there are differences in the way that the first reply time metric work with SLAs:
- If a ticket is created with a public comment from an agent, the SLA first reply time target is not run.
- If a ticket is created with a private comment, the SLA
first reply time target will not start until the ticket gets
a first public comment from an end user.
An exception to this rule is that if the requester is a light agent, the first reply time SLA target starts at creation even without a public comment.
- SLA first reply time targets are fulfilled when a ticket is solved, even if the ticket never had a public comment from an agent.
- SLA targets can be run in calendar or business hours, but not both.
- Business hour SLA targets pause outside business hours, then restart when business hours begin.
For more information, see Defining SLA policies.
70 comments
Patrick Beebe
WHY on earth would this target not be fulfilled during the UNsolved status of a ticket:
“SLA first reply time targets are fulfilled when a ticket is solved, even if the ticket never had a public comment from an agent.”
A 1st reply time MEANS when a ticket is created as NEW by an end-user (customer) and the Agent REPLIES to that ticket = THAT is a First Reply Time, REGARDLESS of the ticket's time span to Solved.
1
Mayra
In some of the tickets from our team, agents leave an internal note to let us know they are working on that ticket. How can we have this view on Explore, considering that it only looks at public replies as first message?
0
John Ara
Hi Zendesk Team,
Is it possible to solve for the first reply time from the time the ticket was assigned to the agent up to the first public comment?
I've tried to subtract the “First Assignment” to the “First Reply Time” via custom metric, but I am not sure if I got the formula correct.
0
Charles Gresula
Hi 7152532747418 ,
At the moment, the native reply time metric/attributes are tied to the ticket, not to the agent who replied. If you are trying to measure the reply times on a per agent basis, you will need to explore work arounds like using tags as described here: Getting resolution times (first reply, first resolution, and full resolution) based on tags.
0
Sarthak Sahu
Hi team,
I have a query.
Our process is such that each ticket goes through 3 assignees. Currently in Explore, we only get reports on First response time and Full resolution time.
I wanted to know if there's a way through which we can get individual times of the three assignees. We are not able to track the time that is spent in each of the processes.
Thanks in advance!
0
Amy Dee
Hi Jon!
At this time, there's no way to adjust how first reply time is measured. The system metric will start at ticket creation and end at the first public agent comment after that. The SLA target will wait for a public end user comment to get started (if the ticket was created with a private note).
You could create separate SLA policies for phone tickets. That wouldn't change the first reply target behavior, but it would allow you to manage those tickets and agent expectations separately.
I do have some good news. Our SLA team is hard at work on enhancements that will give users more flexibility over reply time SLA targets. That could help for workflows like yours. I recommend following our Announcements page for more information.
I hope this helps!
0
Jon Durlauf
Would there be a way to disable or mark the First Reply Time SLA as achieved when the ticket is created by an answered incoming phone/voice call from an end user? Since that initial phone conversation from the end user is marked as private/internal the First Reply Time SLA does not fire. However, First Reply Time will initiate later unexpectedly if the end user adds a public comment.
This is confusing. We are trying to measure how often our agents to initially reply to our customers within the targeted time. It is hard to trust the data if we are getting First Reply Time breaches on tickets after we have already corresponded with the customer by phone.
0
Gab
I'm afraid it is not possible to create a true First reply time SLA on agent-created tickets. Depending on how the ticket is created, the target will either not activate or will behave differently.
Take a look at this article for your reference: Defining SLA policies.
I've marked this conversation as product feedback for review, which means that your input will be aggregated as a part of our Voice of the Customer program that provides customer feedback to our product development teams.
I encourage you to create a new post in the General Product Feedback topic in our community to engage with other users who have similar needs and discuss possible workarounds. Conversations with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Specific examples, details about impact, and how you currently handle things are helpful for our product teams to understand the full scope of the need when working on solutions.
We truly value customer feedback and your voice and votes in the forums help influence future Zendesk functionality.
0
Manthan Bhosale
Hi Gab,
Thanks for replying, I want first reply time to be shown in SLA badge for tickets created by agents. Or anything like that so agents can know they have to respond to that ticket before SLA breach. As of now Zendesk says that first reply time is not applicable for tickets created by agents. So any alternative to show first reply time in badge?
0
Gab
Assuming you are an administrator or have access to Zendesk Explore with the necessary permissions, here’s how you can run this report:
Once you run this report, Zendesk Explore will display the average first reply time for tickets where the submitter role is 'Agent', thereby giving you insights into the response times for tickets created by your agents.
Remember that every Zendesk setup can be slightly different based on the custom fields, tags, or roles you have. Always consider the specific configurations of your instance when building reports in Zendesk Explore.
Similar report can be found here: Explore recipe: Reporting on first reply time
I hope this helps.
0
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