Response time

Time to first response is how long a customer waits before any human or AI reply arrives. It is the most visible service measure to the customer and the easiest to improve with automation, which is why it should always be read alongside resolution quality.

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.

A service level agreement sets the committed response and resolution targets for a customer, tier, or contract, often with financial penalties attached. Support operations design queues, routing, and escalation around SLA thresholds, which makes the agreement a structural constraint rather than a reporting line.

Latency is the delay between a customer’s message and the first useful response. In live chat and voice it directly shapes perceived quality, and it is one of the few AI quality measures a customer notices immediately, well before judging whether the answer was correct.