orkaFirst Response Time Calculator
Measure the elapsed time between a customer’s first message and the first public agent reply. Paste timestamps from your ticket export to see the typical wait and the slower end of the queue.
Worked example
Three tickets receive replies after 4, 8 and 18 minutes. Their median is 8 minutes, their mean is 10 minutes and their nearest-rank 90th percentile is 18 minutes. A fourth ticket with an empty reply cell appears in the unanswered count.
How the calculation works
Subtract the received timestamp from the first reply timestamp for each answered ticket. The mean uses all measured waits. The median is the middle wait, averaging the two middle values for an even sample. The 90th percentile uses the nearest-rank method. Hourly averages group answered tickets by their UTC arrival hour.
How Zendesk measures first reply time ↗Frequently asked questions
Which reply should I use from my help desk export?
For human first response time, use the first public human reply. Keep internal notes and automatic acknowledgments out of the reply column. For a bot-inclusive report, apply that definition consistently across the entire sample.
Does first response time include nights and weekends?
This calculator measures elapsed clock time, including nights and weekends. A separate business-hours metric requires your support schedule and holiday calendar.
Can I paste timestamps from different time zones?
Yes. Include an explicit timezone in each cell, using Z or an offset such as -05:00. Durations are compared on the same timeline, and the hourly breakdown uses UTC.