FRT (First Response Time)

FRT is the clock from ticket creation to the first response an agent sends. It shapes the customer's earliest impression and is one of the most common SLA targets.

You report it as a median or a percentile; averages get wrecked by a handful of stale tickets.

What it hides: an autoresponder or a canned "we're looking into it" can technically stop the clock while solving nothing, so teams under pressure optimise the acknowledgement rather than the answer. Pair FRT with resolution time so speed-to-hello doesn't masquerade as speed-to-help.