Response and Resolution times - Glossary

Response and Resolution Times - Glossary

  1. Agent reply – A response provided by an agent to a customer inquiry or ticket.
  2. Business hours – The operational hours set by an organization to manage time-bound activities effectively.
  3. Non-business hours – The hours outside of designated business or operational hours when support may be limited or unavailable.
  4. Business hours - 24/7 – Refers to organizations that operate around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  5. Calendar hours – The total hours in a day, including both business and non-business hours.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

    IdeaLearn in detail about default rules in Response and Resolution:

    Response Time
    Resolution Time
  1. 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.

  2. 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.
  3. Move department – Transfers a ticket from one department to another for better handling.
  4. Specific business hours – Defined working hours for selected days in a week.
    Example: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
  5. Split ticket – Converts an incoming reply containing a new issue into a separate ticket to ensure each concern is tracked and resolved independently.
  6. Ticket assigned time – The most recent time a ticket was assigned to an agent.
  7. Ticket resolution time – The duration between ticket creation and closure.
  8. Resolution time in business hours - When excluding non-business hours, it is referred to as "Resolution Time in Business Hours."
  9. Ticket created time – The timestamp when a ticket was initially generated.
  10. Ticket response time – The duration between when a customer submits a ticket and when an agent replies.
  11. Timezone – The geographical time setting that determines ticket timestamps and operational hours.
  12. User timezone – The specific timezone set by a user, ensuring their ticket timestamps align with their local time.
  13. 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:
    1. SLAs (Service Level Agreements) won’t count these holidays when calculating deadlines.
    2. Blueprint workflows won’t trigger actions based on these dates.
    3. Time-based rules won’t run or escalate tickets on these holidays.
  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.