How to report on first reply time in Zendesk
Reporting on first reply time (or first response time) in Zendesk means defining the metric, choosing business or calendar hours, and building a report (e.g. in Explore) that you can use weekly. This guide gives you the steps and points to a simpler dashboard option for small teams.
Step-by-step: first reply time in Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore has recipes and attributes for first reply / first response time. In outline:
- Create or open a report — Use the Support - Tickets dataset (or the one that matches your Zendesk product).
- Add the metric — Use the built-in “First reply time” or “Time to first response” metric (or equivalent). Ensure it measures time from ticket creation to first agent reply (excluding automated replies if that’s your definition).
- Set the time dimension — By day, week, or month so you see trend.
- Choose business vs calendar hours — In the metric or dataset settings, select business hours or calendar hours. For teams that don’t work 24/7, business hours usually give a fairer picture. See first reply time in Zendesk for why this matters.
- Choose aggregation — Median (recommended to reduce skew) or average. Use the same in all reports and in your SLA.
- Add breakdowns (optional) — By group, tag, assignee, or channel so you can see where first reply time is slow.
- Save and add to a dashboard — So you can review it in your weekly support metrics dashboard cadence.
Exact menu names may vary by Zendesk plan; the logic above applies across plans.
Business hours vs calendar hours
- Calendar hours — Every hour counts (including nights and weekends). If you don’t work 24/7, a ticket that arrives Friday evening and is answered Monday morning will count as ~60+ hours, which can distort your average.
- Business hours — Only hours inside your defined schedule count. That same ticket might count as a few business hours. For first reply time targets and reporting, business hours are usually better for small teams.
Set this once in Explore (and in any external dashboard) and document it so everyone interprets the number the same way.
A simpler dashboard option for small teams
Building and maintaining Explore reports takes time. If you want a ready-made view of first reply time (and related metrics like backlog, resolution time, reopen rate) that links to the underlying tickets, see the Zendesk analytics dashboard guide and the Zendesk Explore alternative comparison for a lightweight ops dashboard.
FAQ
What counts as “first reply”?
Usually the first public comment from an agent (not a bot or auto-reply). Some teams exclude certain macro replies; define it once and use it in both Explore and your SLA. See first response time.
Why use median instead of average?
A few very long tickets can skew the average. Median (50th percentile) is more stable and often used for first reply time targets.
We have multiple groups; can we see first reply time by group?
Yes. In Explore, add the Group dimension to your report so you can see first reply time per group and spot bottlenecks.
Where does this fit in our weekly review?
Include first reply time in your support metrics dashboard or support dashboard template and review it in the same order each week (e.g. volume → backlog → first reply → resolution → reopens).