Tender measures three times for each discussion. You'll find them in Reports › Support History, the Response Times and Resolution Times reports, and the CSV export.
| Time | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Initial response | when the discussion was started | your team's first reply |
| Resolution | when the discussion was started | when it was closed |
| Average response (CSV only) | each message from the customer | your team's next reply, averaged over the whole discussion |
All of them are plain clock time: nights and weekends count, as your customers experience them.
Which discussions are counted
A discussion counts in the period it was started, whenever it was answered. A discussion that came in last Friday and was answered on Monday is in last week's numbers, with an initial response of three days.
A discussion that hasn't had a reply yet has no initial response time, and one that's still open has no resolution time. They're left out of those averages, and the Count and Percent columns of the Support History summary show how many discussions did have one. In the detailed list, a discussion still waiting for a first reply after 72 hours is shown in red.
Spam and deleted discussions are left out altogether, so marking spam as spam (rather than just closing it) keeps your numbers honest.
Average or median?
The Support History summary gives the average, the standard deviation and the median of each time. One discussion that waited a week pulls the average up a long way, while the median (the time half your discussions beat) barely moves. If the average is much higher than the median, a few discussions waited much longer than the rest; the detailed list shows which.
For example: you answer nine discussions about an hour after they arrive, then find a tenth that has waited a week. The average initial response is now almost 18 hours; the median is still about an hour.
The Response Times and Resolution Times reports
These sort each discussion into a time band (under an hour, 1 to 4 hours, 4 to 8, 8 to 12, 12 to 16, 16 to 24, 1 to 2 days, over 2 days) and show how many fell in each, beside the same bands for the period before. They're part of the advanced reports, which depend on your plan.
To weigh your times your own way, such as counting business hours only, use the CSV export: every time in it is in seconds.