How Response Times Are Calculated

Response Time report

Response time calculations are based on the time difference between an agent's response and the previous customer message within a selected time frame. Each reply within the same conversation is calculated and factored into the average. The calculation only applies when the previous message is from the customer and the conversation is in an Unresolved or Open state. If the previous message is from a staff member, or if the conversation is Resolved or Closed, Re:amaze stops calculating response times.

If there are two consecutive customer messages, the response time is calculated based on the first message, not the second. If you need to wait an extended period before following up, you can pause response time calculations by setting a reminder on the conversation.

The Response Time report is intended as a team-wide metric for customer waiting time. It estimates how long a customer waits for a response, without accounting for whether staff were actively working on a conversation internally.

Staff response time calculations

Staff response time calculations use the same algorithm as the Response Time report but also account for office hours. Key differences include

• Response times in staff reports do not include responses to customer messages that arrive outside of office hours.
• If a customer writes in during office hours and a staff member replies during office hours, the response time is calculated.
• If a customer writes in during office hours but a staff member replies outside of office hours, the response time is still calculated.
• Internal notes also count toward staff response time metrics.

Staff response times are intended as an individual metric for how quickly a staff member reacted to a conversation or incoming message within their shift or office hours.

Here are two examples:

1. A customer writes in at 5:00 AM but office hours are set to 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and a staff member responds at 10:00 AM. The Response Time report calculates it as 5 hours. The Staff report does not count it because the customer's message arrived outside of office hours.
2. A customer writes in at 11:00 AM and office hours are set to 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and a staff member responds at 2:00 PM. Both the Response Time report and the Staff report calculate it as 3 hours.

Average response time: team vs. staff

The Average Response Time metric in the Response Time report differs from the Average Response Time metric in the Staff report.

The team-wide Average Response Time measures how long customers wait for a response and averages it across all responses, regardless of which staff member responded or who first handled the conversation.

The staff Average Response Time measures response time per message for each individual staff member independently. Here is an example:

• Customer writes in at 9:00 AM
• Agent 1 replies at 10:00 AM
• Customer replies at 10:00 AM
• Agent 2 replies at 10:30 AM

Agent 1's staff average response time is 1 hour. Agent 2's staff average response time is 30 minutes. The overall team average response time is 45 minutes (90 minutes total divided by 2 responses).

Response time only begins counting after the customer replies. If there are consecutive staff replies with no customer message in between, response times are not counted until the customer responds.