Business operations concept · updated August 9, 2026
First Response Time
First response time is the elapsed time between a client's request arriving and the first human reply, regardless of whether the issue is fully resolved.
Example
A client emails a question at 9am and gets a reply acknowledging it by 9:20am, even though the actual answer takes until the next day to fully research.
Why it matters
A fast acknowledgment reassures a client that their request was received, which matters separately from how long full resolution actually takes.
Limits and cautions
An automated or generic first reply can satisfy the metric without genuinely reassuring anyone, if it doesn't show real engagement with the request.
Relevance to Stelaah
Stelaah's inbox and client portal can timestamp when a request arrives and when it's first answered where that data is tracked.
This connection describes product intent, not a guarantee that every plan or workflow supports every related capability.