First response time (FRT)
First response time (FRT) is the time between a client first writing and a sales rep first answering. It often decides whether the conversation continues at all.
What it looks like
A client writes in the evening. One rep answers in a minute. Another answers the next morning. On paper both are “replied”, but the client of the second one has already talked to someone else. The average hides this: the spread between people is where the loss sits.
The formula is simple: the time of the first answer on substance minus the time of the client’s first message. Count it in working hours if that is how the team is staffed, and look at the median next to the average, because a few very late replies distort the mean.
Why it matters
In messengers the client expects a conversation, not a ticket. A slow first answer reads as indifference, and the attention that cost money to win is gone. A polite “we will get back to you” is not an answer in the client’s eyes, so it should not be one in yours either. Slow answers are usually a process problem, not a character flaw in the person.
What to do
Know your figure honestly, and know it for each person, not as a team average. Look for the pattern: nights, lunch breaks, handovers. Agree on a standard and review the misses right away, not at the end of the month. Teams usually set the target from their own current figures and tighten it step by step. The goal is not speed for its own sake but fewer clients left waiting.
More in Signals
- Reply speed to clients in messengers: why one minute decides and how to keep it across the whole teamIn messengers a client goes to whoever replied first, because chat feels like live conversation and a pause of hours reads as a refusal. Count the first real answer from a person: a “we got your message” receipt is not a conversation. Speed rests on a manager’s decisions: a norm per department, balanced workload, cover for absent reps and a clear rule for nights. Slow replies quietly cost deals.
- What a messenger sales team really costs and where it loses moneyA sales team in messengers costs more than salaries: money also leaks out through seven channels. These are slow replies, abandoned conversations, forgotten follow-ups, a sales rep leaving with the client base, blocked numbers, broadcasts with no result and broken payment promises. Each leak can be sized on your own numbers: lost conversations times your close rate times your average deal.