What is first response time?

First response time, often shortened to FRT, is one of the most common support and sales metrics. It measures the wait for the first reply, not how long the whole issue takes to resolve. An automatic "we received your message" email does not usually count, because it does not answer anything.

How to measure it

For a single conversation, subtract the time the message arrived from the time the first reply was sent. For a team, look at the average or the median across a period. The median is often more honest, because a few very slow replies can distort an average.

Decide whether you are counting clock hours or business hours, and keep it consistent. A message that arrives on Friday evening and is answered Monday morning looks very different under each method.

Why it matters

A fast first reply tells the sender they were heard. How much that is worth in money depends on your business, so use your own figures instead of a general rule.

inboxr shortens the gap by having a draft ready when you open the review queue, and its analytics page reports average response time from received to replied.