Connect to Intercom— Efficiency —FRT
First Response Time
— Definition —
First Response Time (FRT) measures the time between when a customer submits a support request and when they receive the first substantive reply from a human agent (or AI). It is one of the most customer-visible metrics in support — customers notice wait times more than almost any other service dimension.
— Formula —
FRT = First agent reply timestamp − Conversation creation timestamp
FRT is calculated per conversation. The team metric is typically reported as median FRT (more useful than mean because it is not skewed by outlier long waits). Always specify the unit — hours, minutes — and whether you are reporting mean or median.
— Benchmark ranges —
B2B SaaS, async channels (email/in-app)
ExcellentUnder 1 hour
Good1–4 hours
Needs work4–24 hours
SLA riskOver 24 hours
— Calculator —
Estimate your median FRT
Average FRT10
— Common mistakes —
- 1Reporting mean instead of median — a handful of very long waits inflates the mean and obscures the typical experience.
- 2Including bot replies as first responses — auto-replies and bot acknowledgements should not count as FRT.
- 3Comparing FRT across channels without separating them — live chat FRT (target: seconds) is incomparable to email FRT (target: hours).
- 4Optimizing FRT at the expense of resolution quality — a fast first reply that does not actually help the customer harms CSAT without improving FRT perception.
— Related metrics —
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