First Response Time (FRT)

First Response Time (FRT): Time from ticket creation to first human response.

Also known as: FRT

Formula

FRT = Median of (First response timestamp - Ticket created timestamp)

Computable definition

The canonical formula in the GASP formula grammar. The MCP server compiles it to SQL over the datasets listed below.

(median(field.first_response_at - field.created_at)) * 1440

Unit: minutes

Notes: Median, not average, to resist outlier skew.

Data requirements

Grain: Per event · Frequency: Per ticket · Aggregation: event · Staged: no · Main source: Help Desk.

Field	Dataset	Type
`created_at`	ticket	timestamp
`first_response_at`	ticket	timestamp

Example SQL (Postgres)

SELECT ((SELECT PERCENTILE_CONT(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY (EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM (first_response_at - created_at)) / 86400.0)) FROM ticket WHERE created_at >= :period_start AND created_at < (:period_end + INTERVAL '1 day')) * 1440) AS frt

Access: recommended sensitivity tier internal, access scope department-scoped. Guidance your policy engine enforces.

From an agent: with the GASP MCP server, call lookup_metric({ "name": "First Response Time (FRT)" }) or generate_query({ "metric": "First Response Time (FRT)", "adapter": "<your adapter JSON>" }).

Benchmarks

| Channel | Target | Reality | |---------|--------|---------| | Chat | < 1 minute | Best channel for speed | | Email (B2B) | 4-6 hours | Industry average is 12+ hours | | Email (Enterprise) | < 1 hour | Premium SLA expected | | Phone | < 30 seconds (80% within 20 sec) | "80/20 rule" standard |

What It Tells You

How quickly customers get acknowledged. Impacts satisfaction.

Connected in the GASP relationship graph.

Downstream: what this drives

First Response Time reduces CSAT (Support)
First Response Time measures Ticket (Entity)

Sources

← Back to Support metrics