# What is a good first response time for B2B support?

> A good first response time depends on severity and on what you've promised in your SLA. A common B2B pattern is about an hour for urgent issues, a few hours for high priority, and one business day for normal tickets, with faster targets for chat than email.

Canonical: https://www.decimal.app/glossary/metrics/what-is-a-good-first-response-time · Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

A good first response time depends on severity and on what you've promised in your SLA. A common B2B pattern is about an hour for urgent issues, a few hours for high priority, and one business day for normal tickets, with faster targets for chat than email.

Speed only counts if the reply is useful. A fast first response that asks for logs you could have looked up hurts more than it helps.

## Setting your targets

- Set separate targets by severity and channel
- Keep internal targets below what the SLA promises
- Track median and 90th percentile, not just the average
- Measure off-hours separately; that's where the long tail lives

## Improving it without adding headcount

- Automate a substantive first response, not just an acknowledgment
- Route technical tickets straight to people who can investigate
- Pre-pull account context so the first reply can include an answer

Omnea reached a 3.8-minute average first response with Decimal. See [first response time](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/first-response-time).

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