Support metrics glossary
Eight numbers. One page each.
The definition in the first sentence, then the formula, a worked example, and the way the number gets inflated without a single extra customer being helped.
All eight terms
- Speed How fast the team answers.
- Outcome Whether the answer worked.
- Cost What each answer costs.
- Automation What never needed a person.
First response time
The elapsed time between a customer's first support message and the first reply that addresses the question.
first reply time − first message time
Average handle time
The average total time one customer support contact takes to handle: talk time plus hold time plus after-call work, divided by contacts handled.
(talk + hold + after-call work) ÷ contacts handled
First contact resolution
First contact resolution (FCR) is the share of resolved support tickets solved in a single contact, with the ticket staying closed through an agreed re-open window, commonly 24 to 72 hours.
solved in one contact ÷ tickets resolved
Resolution rate
The percentage of tickets received in a period that the support team resolves in that same period: tickets resolved divided by tickets received, times 100.
tickets resolved ÷ tickets received
Cost per ticket
The average fully loaded cost of resolving one customer support ticket: total support spend, including salaries, tools and management overhead, divided by tickets resolved.
total support spend ÷ tickets resolved
Deflection rate
The share of customer issues that are fully resolved without reaching a human agent, out of all issues raised in the same period.
resolved without a human ÷ all issues raised
Containment rate
The percentage of bot conversations that end without escalating to a human agent, calculated as contained conversations divided by total bot conversations.
contained ÷ all bot conversations
Agent assist
AI software that drafts replies, surfaces answers and summarizes threads for a human support agent, who reviews the output and sends the final response.
not a number: the AI beside the agent
Read them in pairs
No single number here is honest on its own
A fast first reply means nothing if every contact then drags. Read speed as a pair.
Resolution rate counts what got closed; FCR asks whether one contact was enough.
A bot can contain almost everything it sees while deflecting very little of the queue.
Cost per ticket moves when any of the others move. Read it next to all of them.
The article that reads all eight together: Customer service metrics: the eight worth tracking.
See resolution rate, handoffs and containment on your own conversations.
Connect a knowledge base, ask it what your customers ask, and read the numbers it produces. The public benchmark shows what those numbers look like in production, denominator included.
Keep reading
Customer service metrics: the eight worth tracking
What each one measures, the pair it must be read with, and how each gets gamed.
All guides
Chatbots, automation, conversational AI, canned responses, hypercare and handoff.
The Outlearn blog
Articles, roundups and comparisons, with the sources and the date each one was checked.
Book a demo
Walk through a real support scenario with someone who builds the thing.