What is first response time (FRT)?
First response time (FRT) is the time between a customer submitting a support request and receiving the first human or meaningful reply. It is usually reported as an average or median across tickets and is one of the most watched support metrics.
Formula
FRT = total time to first response ÷ number of tickets
Median FRT is often more useful because outliers skew averages.
Typical targets
| Channel | Common target |
|---|---|
| Live chat | Under 1 minute |
| Within a few hours | |
| Social | Within an hour |
Targets vary by company and SLA.
Improving FRT
AI first responses, better routing, staffing to demand, and templates.
