Free founder toolkit
First reply time, from the times you enter
First human reply time here means the elapsed time between a customer message and the first reply from a person. Type the two timestamps for each conversation. The page does the arithmetic and leaves the judgment to you.
What this measures
Use one row per conversation, not per message. If a customer sends three messages before anyone answers, the received time is the first of those messages and the reply time is the first human answer. An automated “we got your message” is not that reply. Leave those out, or put the later human reply in the second field.
The result is calendar time. A message at 17:50 and a reply at 09:20 the next morning is a long elapsed wait even if your team was off the clock. If you also want a working-hours number, write down the schedule and calculate that separately. This tool will not invent a business calendar.
A handful of conversations is enough to see the shape. Look at the median for the typical wait and the average for the effect of one long one. The worked example in live chat metrics for small teams uses the same idea with made-up minutes, not customer data. Do not paste message text into this page. Times are enough, and they stay in this tab.
Calculator
| Received | First reply | Elapsed |
|---|---|---|
| — | ||
| — | ||
| — |
- Conversations counted
- 0
- Average elapsed time
- —
- Median elapsed time
- —
The median is the middle elapsed time after sorting. With an even count, it is the average of the two middle times. A long wait pulls the average up and leaves the median closer to the typical case. These times are calendar time between the two fields you enter, not a business-hours clock, and they are not stored.
What to do with the number
A fast median does not excuse a conversation that is still waiting. Keep unanswered threads in a separate list instead of dropping them or scoring them as zero minutes. If the longest waits are overnight, the next change is coverage or a clearer greeting, not a new chart.
The shared inbox is where those conversations land once the widget is on the site. This calculator does not read your inbox, and it does not need an account.