Tip: calculating Next Reply Time (non-messaging/chat channels)

Hi everyone! 

This method got me extremely close to an accurate Next Reply Time metric in Explore and without having to rely on ticket status updates.

It only applies to the usual async channels, however (i.e. doesn't apply to messaging or chat as this depends on trigger 'Comment' conditions).

Disclaimer on accuracy

Please bear in mind that this is a 'nice-to-have'. My own tests came pretty close to reality as I confirmed things across many individual tickets: my NRT durations diverged approx. 2% on average from reality in a few cases. That said, please note that things can differ between accounts and depend on external factors (e.g. how agents adhere to conventional usage of ticket statuses and updates; Explore's own calculation limitations; etc).

In other words, I highly recommend you take some time to properly analyze the data and confirm things on your end.

The setup

This configuration requires a custom field and a few triggers to be setup in Support, and then a standard calculated metric in Explore (under the Updates history dataset).

Custom field

Includes five values: active FRT, fulfilled FRT, active NRT, inactive NRT, and done:

Triggers

These triggers should change our custom field to the appropriate value, depending on the scenario:

1. Activate FRT. When an inbound ticket is created, activate FTT
2. Fulfill FRT. When an agent updates the ticket with the first public comment (ie. there is still no NRT applicable)
3. Activate NRT. When the end-user replies and the custom field's value is 'FRT fulfilled' or 'NRT inactive'
4. NRT inactive. When active and an agent responds (and the custom field's value is 'NRT active'
5. Set to ‘Done’. If a ticket is updated as Solved and any drop-down option is active, fulfilled or inactive, set the drop-down value to 'done'

Explore metric

Create the following standard calculated metric (I'm multiplying by 60 to convert it to seconds, so that I can display the format as duration, but that is optional of course):

IF [Changes - Field name]="⏱️ Reply Metric"
AND ([Changes - Previous value] = "kpi_reply_nrt-active" 
OR [Changes - Previous value] = "kpi_reply_done") 
AND ([Changes - New value] = "kpi_reply_nrt-inactive" 
OR [Changes - New value] = "kpi_reply_done")
THEN VALUE(Field changes time (min))*60
ENDIF

Limitations

• Can’t calculate this NRT for Messaging/Chat tickets
• The calculation isn’t retroactive, it will only apply to new tickets where those triggers have fired
• The NRT calculation isn’t 100% accurate because (1) some seconds are excluded from Explore calculations (details in the article linked below) and (2) there can be situations where our triggers will not measure very specific scenarios and therefore contribute to an incorrect time measurement or absence of firing our triggers
• Can’t calculate NRT in business hours but please do feel free to upvote this feature request!

For a more in-depth explanation and analysis, examples of the triggers above and more, please check out this blog article (external link to my blog).

I'd love to know how it goes for you, of course, so please do share your results below 🙂

Happy Zendeskin'!