First response promise calculator: what reply time can you promise?
Promising a reply time you cannot keep costs more than promising a slower one. Enter your volume and team and see the first reply time nine tickets in ten will beat.
The reply time you can promise
First reply you can promise
15m
Load on the team
36%
9 in 10 tickets wait under
1m
Longest overnight gap
16h
Words for your site
We reply within 15 minutes during working hours.
An estimate that treats tickets as arriving at random and agents as sharing one queue. Busy mornings and long tickets make real waits worse, so promise a little less than the number you see.
Questions
What first reply time should I promise customers?
The one your team beats nine times out of ten at a normal busy hour, rounded up to a clean step such as 1 hour or 4 hours. A promise you keep builds more trust than a fast one you miss.
Why does the promise jump when volume rises a little?
Queues are not linear. Once agents are busy most of the day, a small rise in tickets makes everyone wait much longer. That is why the load figure matters more than the average.
Does the promise cover nights and weekends?
No. It covers working hours. A ticket sent just after closing waits for the desk to open, so say so in the promise and use an auto reply for the gap.
What load is too high?
Past about 80 percent the waits grow quickly, and past 100 percent the queue never clears. Add people, shorten the work per ticket or cut repeat questions before you promise anything.
Can Flatdesk show whether I keep the promise?
Yes. Reports show first reply time by day, and tickets that pass your target are tagged as overdue so you can fix the cause.
Link to this page
Free to use and share. If it helped, a link back is the best thanks.
<a href="https://flatdeskfinal.vercel.app/free-tools/first-response-promise-calculator">First response promise calculator</a>Guides that go with this tool
- First response time: how to measure it, set a target and improve itWhat first response time is, how to calculate it in business hours, how to set a target you can keep, and the changes that bring it down without hiring.
- How to set up a support SLA your team can actually meetHow to choose first reply and resolution targets, handle business hours and pending tickets, and report attainment honestly.
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