First contact resolution

Resolution rate is the share of contacts closed with the customer’s issue actually solved, as distinct from contacts merely closed. The gap between the two is where reopened tickets and repeat contacts live, so the measure is only trustworthy when reopens are tracked against it.

Average handle time is the mean time an agent spends on a single contact, including talk or chat time and after-contact work. Because the definition varies between teams, comparisons are only meaningful when both sides confirm whether wrap-up time is included inside the calculation being reported.

Customer effort score measures how hard customers say it was to get their issue resolved, usually on a seven-point scale asked immediately after contact. Effort predicts loyalty more reliably than satisfaction, because a customer can be satisfied with an outcome yet exhausted by the process of reaching it.

Full resolution time is the total elapsed time from a customer’s first message to a confirmed resolution, including waiting, escalation, and overnight gaps. Unlike response time, it reflects the experience of waiting for an answer rather than the speed of the first reply alone.