Customer support terms and metrics every team should know

Customer support has its own language. Terms like FRT, NRT, CSAT, and SLA get thrown around in meetings, documentation, and support tools. But what do they actually mean? And why should you care?

Understanding these terms isn't just about speaking the same language. It's about measuring what matters, setting realistic goals, and building a support operation that actually helps your customers.

Here's a comprehensive glossary of the essential customer support terms every team should know.

Response Time Metrics

FRT (First Response Time)

What it is: The time between when a customer sends their first message and when they receive their first response from your team.

Why it matters: First impressions matter. Customers form opinions about your support quality within minutes. A fast first response shows you care, even if resolving the issue takes longer.

Industry benchmarks:

• Email: Under 6 hours (excellent), under 24 hours (acceptable)
• Live chat: Under 1 minute (excellent), under 2 minutes (acceptable)
• Social media: Under 1 hour (excellent), under 4 hours (acceptable)

How to improve: Set clear expectations, use automation for acknowledgments, prioritize urgent issues, and ensure your team has the right tools to respond quickly.

NRT (Next Response Time)

What it is: The time between a customer's follow-up message and your team's next response. This measures how quickly you continue the conversation after the initial reply. Note: While less standardized than FRT, NRT is increasingly recognized as an important metric for ongoing conversations.

Why it matters: Many issues require multiple exchanges. Fast first responses are great, but slow follow-up responses kill momentum and frustrate customers who are already engaged.

How to improve: Keep conversations active, don't let tickets sit after customer replies, use internal notes to maintain context, and set reminders for follow-ups.

Average Response Time (ART)

What it is: The average time it takes your team to respond to customer messages across all channels and interactions.

Why it matters: Provides an overall view of your responsiveness. Useful for tracking trends over time and comparing performance across channels.

Calculation: Sum of all response times divided by the number of responses.

Time to First Response (TFR)

What it is: Often synonymous with FRT. Some teams use TFR to refer specifically to the time until the first human response (excluding automated acknowledgments), while others use it interchangeably with FRT.

Why it matters: Helps you understand if your automation is working effectively and whether human responses are truly fast or just automated.

Resolution Metrics

MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution)

What it is: The average time it takes to completely resolve a customer issue from first contact to final resolution.

Why it matters: This is what customers actually care about. Fast responses are great, but fast resolutions build loyalty. Customers want their problems solved, not just acknowledged.

Calculation: Sum of all resolution times divided by the number of resolved tickets.

How to improve: Focus on root causes, create comprehensive knowledge bases, empower agents with solutions, and streamline escalation processes.

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)

What it is: Primarily a reliability engineering term that measures the average time between system failures. In customer support contexts, it's sometimes used to track the average time between customer-reported issues, though this is less common.

Why it matters: Helps identify patterns. If customers frequently return with new issues, it might indicate product problems or unclear communication.

First Contact Resolution (FCR)

What it is: The percentage of customer issues resolved in a single interaction without requiring follow-up.

Why it matters: The gold standard of support efficiency. High FCR means customers get their answers immediately, reducing workload and increasing satisfaction.

Industry benchmark: 70-79% for most support teams, with higher rates in B2C and lower rates in complex B2B environments.

How to improve: Train agents thoroughly, provide easy access to knowledge bases, use escalation paths wisely, and track why issues aren't resolved on first contact.

Customer Satisfaction Metrics

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

What it is: A metric that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction or overall experience. Usually collected via a simple survey: "How satisfied were you with this interaction?" on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10.

Why it matters: Direct feedback from customers about their experience. High CSAT scores correlate with customer retention and loyalty.

Calculation: (Number of satisfied customers / Total responses) × 100. Typically, scores of 4-5 on a 5-point scale are considered "satisfied." Strong CSAT scores range from 75% to 85%.

How to improve: Respond quickly, listen actively, solve problems effectively, follow up after resolution, and act on feedback.

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

What it is: A metric that measures customer loyalty by asking: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?"

Why it matters: NPS predicts business growth. Customers who would recommend you are more likely to stay, buy more, and bring new customers.

Calculation: % of Promoters (9-10) - % of Detractors (0-6). Scores range from -100 to +100. Above 50 is excellent, above 70 is world-class.

How to improve: Focus on creating exceptional experiences, not just solving problems. Build relationships, exceed expectations, and make customers feel valued.

CES (Customer Effort Score)

What it is: Measures how easy it was for customers to get their issue resolved. The question: "How easy was it to resolve your issue?" on a scale of 1-7.

Why it matters: Low effort experiences lead to higher loyalty than high satisfaction alone. Customers remember easy experiences positively.

How to improve: Simplify processes, reduce steps to resolution, provide self-service options, and make it easy to reach the right person.

Service Level Metrics

SLA (Service Level Agreement)

What it is: A commitment to a specific level of service, usually defined by response time and resolution time targets. Can be internal (team goals) or external (customer contracts).

Why it matters: Sets clear expectations and accountability. Helps teams prioritize and allocate resources effectively.

Common SLA targets:

• Critical issues: 15 minutes response, 4 hours resolution
• High priority: 1 hour response, 24 hours resolution
• Standard: 4 hours response, 48 hours resolution
• Low priority: 24 hours response, 72 hours resolution

SLO (Service Level Objective)

What it is: Internal goals for service levels, often more ambitious than SLAs. Used to drive performance improvement.

Why it matters: Helps teams push beyond minimum commitments to deliver exceptional service.

SLI (Service Level Indicator)

What it is: The specific metrics used to measure whether SLAs and SLOs are being met (e.g., response time, availability).

Why it matters: Provides the data needed to track performance against commitments.

Volume and Efficiency Metrics

Ticket Volume

What it is: The total number of customer support requests received over a period of time.

Why it matters: Helps with capacity planning, staffing decisions, and identifying trends or issues.

How to use it: Track volume by day, week, month, channel, and category. Identify patterns to optimize staffing and prevent overload.

Ticket Backlog

What it is: The number of open tickets waiting to be resolved.

Why it matters: High backlogs indicate capacity issues or inefficiencies. Can lead to slower response times and customer frustration.

How to manage: Set target backlog levels, prioritize effectively, and ensure backlog doesn't grow faster than resolution rate.

Agent Utilization

What it is: The percentage of time agents spend actively handling customer interactions versus idle time.

Why it matters: Helps optimize staffing and ensure team capacity is used effectively. Too high leads to burnout, too low indicates overstaffing.

Target: 70-85% utilization is generally considered optimal.

Handle Time

What it is: The total time an agent spends working on a ticket, including active conversation time and work done outside of conversation.

Why it matters: Helps understand agent efficiency and identify training opportunities. Lower handle time with maintained quality indicates better efficiency.

Average Handle Time (AHT)

What it is: The average time agents spend handling customer interactions from start to finish.

Why it matters: Balances efficiency with quality. Too low might indicate rushed interactions, too high might indicate inefficiency or complex issues.

Channel-Specific Terms

Live Chat

Features: Real-time text conversations, typically with sub-minute response expectations. Can include chatbots, co-browsing, and file sharing.

Best for: Quick questions, immediate assistance, sales support, website visitors.

Email Support

Features: Asynchronous communication, allows for detailed responses, can include attachments and formatting.

Best for: Complex issues, documentation, non-urgent questions, customers who prefer written communication.

Social Media Support

Features: Public-facing support on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Requires quick response and careful communication.

Best for: Brand visibility, public issue resolution, reaching younger demographics.

Phone Support

Features: Voice conversations, allows for immediate clarification and rapport building.

Best for: Complex issues, emotional situations, high-value customers, technical troubleshooting.

Self-Service

Features: Knowledge bases, FAQs, help centers, chatbots, community forums.

Best for: Common questions, 24/7 availability, reducing ticket volume, empowering customers.

Quality Metrics

Quality Score

What it is: A rating of support interaction quality, usually based on predefined criteria like accuracy, tone, completeness, and compliance.

Why it matters: Ensures consistent quality across all interactions, identifies training needs, and maintains brand standards.

Common criteria: Response accuracy, professional tone, solution completeness, policy compliance, empathy.

Escalation Rate

What it is: The percentage of tickets that require escalation to a higher level of support or specialized team.

Why it matters: High escalation rates might indicate training gaps, unclear processes, or product issues. Low rates might indicate agents are handling too much.

Industry benchmark: 10-15% escalation rate is generally considered acceptable. Higher rates may require review of training or processes.

Reopened Ticket Rate

What it is: The percentage of tickets that are reopened after being marked as resolved.

Why it matters: Indicates whether issues are truly resolved or if agents are closing tickets prematurely. High rates suggest quality or training issues.

Operational Terms

Ticket Triage

What it is: The process of categorizing, prioritizing, and routing incoming support requests to the right agent or team.

Why it matters: Ensures urgent issues get fast attention and complex issues go to the right experts.

Canned Responses

What it is: Pre-written templates for common questions that agents can personalize and use to respond faster.

Why it matters: Improves consistency and speed, but must be personalized to avoid sounding robotic.

Knowledge Base

What it is: A searchable repository of information, guides, FAQs, and documentation that helps both customers (self-service) and agents (internal reference).

Why it matters: Reduces ticket volume, improves FCR, ensures consistent information, and empowers customers.

Escalation Path

What it is: The defined process for moving tickets to higher levels of support when agents can't resolve them.

Why it matters: Ensures complex issues reach the right expertise quickly and prevents tickets from getting stuck.

Omnichannel Support

What it is: Providing support across multiple channels (email, chat, phone, social) with a unified customer history and consistent experience.

Why it matters: Customers expect to reach you on their preferred channel and have context follow them across channels.

Putting It All Together

Understanding these terms is just the beginning. The real value comes from using them to:

1. Set realistic goals: Know what "good" looks like for your industry and channel
2. Track what matters: Don't measure everything, focus on metrics that drive customer outcomes
3. Identify improvements: Use data to find bottlenecks and training opportunities
4. Communicate effectively: Speak the same language as your team and stakeholders
5. Make informed decisions: Use metrics to guide staffing, tooling, and process improvements

Remember: metrics are tools, not goals. The goal is happy customers who trust your business. Metrics help you get there.

Start Measuring What Matters

If you're just getting started, focus on these three metrics:

1. First Response Time (FRT): Are you acknowledging customers quickly?
2. Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR): Are you solving problems efficiently?
3. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Are customers happy with the experience?

Once you're tracking these consistently, add metrics that matter for your specific business and goals.

Your customers deserve support teams that understand what good service looks like. These terms are your starting point.