Response and Resolution Times - Glossary
- Agent reply – A response provided by an agent to a customer inquiry or ticket.
- Business hours – The operational hours set by an organization to manage time-bound activities effectively.
- Non-business hours – The hours outside of designated business or operational hours when support may be limited or unavailable.
- Business hours - 24/7 – Refers to organizations that operate around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Calendar hours – The total hours in a day, including both business and non-business hours.
- Custom business hours – Allows organizations to set different operational hours as per their requirement. Categorized under calendar hours.
Example: Monday 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Tuesday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, etc. - Default rules – Predefined settings or conditions that govern how business processes operate. For response and resolution times, these rules determine how calculations vary across different scenarios.
Learn in detail about default rules in Response and Resolution:
Response Time
Resolution Time
- First response time – The time elapsed between when a customer submits a ticket and when an agent provides the first response. Only the time from ticket creation to the initial response is counted.
Example:
A customer submits a ticket at 10:00 AM on Monday.
An agent sends the first response to the customer at 11:30 AM the same day.
In this case, the first response time is 1 hour and 30 minutes, measured from the ticket creation time (10:00 AM) to the initial agent response (11:30 AM).
Only this time is considered for the first response SLA, regardless of when the ticket is finally resolved. - Merging tickets – Combining multiple tickets created by the same or other customers for the same issue across different channels helps prevent duplicate efforts, ensures consistent communication, and streamlines resolution. By merging tickets while preserving the communication history in a single thread, support teams can efficiently manage customer inquiries. The merged ticket is called a Master Ticket.
- Move department – Transfers a ticket from one department to another for better handling.
- Specific business hours – Defined working hours for selected days in a week.
Example: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. - Split ticket – Converts an incoming reply containing a new issue into a separate ticket to ensure each concern is tracked and resolved independently.
- Ticket assigned time – The most recent time a ticket was assigned to an agent.
- Ticket resolution time – The duration between ticket creation and closure.
- Resolution time in business hours - When excluding non-business hours, it is referred to as "Resolution Time in Business Hours."
- Ticket created time – The timestamp when a ticket was initially generated.
- Ticket response time – The duration between when a customer submits a ticket and when an agent replies.
- Timezone – The geographical time setting that determines ticket timestamps and operational hours.
- User timezone – The specific timezone set by a user, ensuring their ticket timestamps align with their local time.
- Holiday list - A list of holidays that can be scheduled to the business hours configured in your help desk.
The system will skip these holidays when determining due dates or triggering automated actions. Specifically: - SLAs (Service Level Agreements) won’t count these holidays when calculating deadlines.
- Blueprint workflows won’t trigger actions based on these dates.
- Time-based rules won’t run or escalate tickets on these holidays.
- Response SLA - Tracks the time taken by the support team to acknowledge a customer's issue and assign it for action.
Formula:
Response Time = SLA Execution Time + Allowed Response Time
Example:
A customer submits a support ticket at 10:00 AM.
The company's SLA states that customer issues must be acknowledged within 4 business hours.
The system starts tracking from the SLA Execution Time (when the SLA countdown begins) and adds the Allowed Response Time as per the SLA policy.
If the SLA Execution Time is 10:00 AM and the Allowed Response Time is 4 hours, the Response SLA deadline would be 2:00 PM.
The support team must acknowledge and assign the ticket to an agent by 2:00 PM to meet the SLA.
Where:
SLA Execution Time = Time when the system starts SLA tracking after ticket creation.
Allowed Response Time = Predefined duration (example: 4 business hours) within which the ticket must be acknowledged. - Resolution SLA -
The maximum time committed to resolving a customer issue or problem. Ensuring that the issue is resolved within a defined timeframe.
Formula:
Resolution SLA = Time when the issue is resolved – Time when the issue is created
Example:
A customer raises a support ticket at 9:00 AM on Monday.
According to the company's Resolution SLA, all customer issues must be fully resolved within 12 business hours.
The system tracks from the ticket creation time (9:00 AM Monday) and expects the issue to be resolved by 9:00 AM Tuesday, factoring in business hours (e.g., Monday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM, then continues Tuesday morning if needed).
If the support agent resolves the ticket by 11:00 AM Tuesday, the Resolution SLA is breached, because the issue exceeded the committed time.
If it is resolved by 8:30 AM Tuesday, it meets the SLA.
Where:
Time when the issue is created = Ticket creation timestamp.
Time when the issue is resolved = Ticket closure timestamp. - Ticket modified time:
The date and time when a support ticket was last updated or edited. This includes any changes made to the ticket’s status, priority, assigned agent, comments, or any other field.
- Ticket overdue:
A status indicating that a support ticket has not been resolved or closed by its assigned due date and time. An overdue ticket typically signifies a breach of the expected resolution timeline, which are often based on SLAs or selected automation rules.
- Ticket due date:
The specified date and time by which a ticket is expected to be resolved. It is often set based on SLAs (Service Level Agreements) or selected automation rules and helps prioritize and manage timely customer support.
Access your files securely from anywhere
Zoho CRM Training Programs
Learn how to use the best tools for sales force automation and better customer engagement from Zoho's implementation specialists.
Zoho DataPrep Personalized Demo
If you'd like a personalized walk-through of our data preparation tool, please request a demo and we'll be happy to show you how to get the best out of Zoho DataPrep.
- Zoho Workerly Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
- Zoho Recruit Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
Zoho FSM Video Tutorials
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
New to Zoho Writer?
Create. Review. Publish.
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
You are currently viewing the help pages of Qntrl’s earlier version. Click here to view our latest version—Qntrl 3.0's help articles.
New to Zoho Survey?
Zoho Sheet Resources
Zoho Forms Resources
New to Zoho Sign?
Zoho Sign Resources
Sign, Paperless!
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
New to Zoho ZeptoMail?
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
New to Zoho Workerly?
New to Zoho Recruit?
New to Zoho CRM?
New to Zoho Projects?
New to Zoho Sprints?
New to Zoho Assist?
New to Bigin?
Related Articles
FAQs: SLA (Service Level Agreement)
1. What is an SLA An SLA (Service Level Agreement) defines the response and resolution time commitments your support team makes to customers when handling their requests. It sets measurable expectations for how quickly a customer's issue should be ...Resolution time - Cases, Example, and Important Notes
An overview: Resolution time Resolution Time refers to the time taken to resolve a ticket, calculated from when the ticket is created until it is marked as closed. This metric helps measure how efficiently customer issues are handled from start to ...Response time - Cases, Example, and Important Notes
An overview: Response Time in Zoho Desk Response Time refers to the time taken to respond to a ticket, calculated from when the ticket is created until an agent sends a reply. This metric is generally used to understand the overall responsiveness of ...SLAs - Scope, Purpose, Understanding, and Setting up
Service-level agreements (SLAs) are a critical component in any contract that is signed between the service providers and the customer or external supplier. They define the type and quality of service that a business provider agrees to give its ...Overview Dashboard
The overview dashboard is placed under the Popular Dashboards. It is the default dashboard that is displayed when a user navigates to the Analytics module > Dashboards. The dashboard displays data that helps support managers manage their daily ...
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources