# Response times

URL: /systems/customer-service/response-times · Id: `page:systems/customer-service/response-times`

> The three clocks on every Conversation, the first answer, a reply from a person and any intake deadline, and the Settings and terms that hold them.

Every [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) knows how fast the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) answers before they ask. Three clocks run on every [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation): the first answer, a reply from a person, and any legal intake deadline.

## Three clocks
| Clock | [Setting](/business/nouns/setting) | Default | Starts at | Recorded as |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| First answer | `support.firstResponseWithin` | 4 business hours | The Conversation's first [Message](/business/nouns/message) | `respondBy`, then `firstAnsweredAt` |
| A person replies | `support.humanReplyWithin` | 1 business day | The request for a person | The due time of a [Task](/business/nouns/task) for a [Human](/business/nouns/human) |
| Intake deadline | The intake's own deadline | 3 days to 10 business days | The Conversation's first Message | The intake's [Thread](/business/nouns/thread) |

Hours count on the Startup's own business-hours calendar. A Message that arrives after hours starts its clock when the next working day opens.

## Settings hold the numbers
Each clock reads a Setting, held per [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) and inherited down from the [Studio](/business/nouns/studio). A child may only tighten: an Offer may promise 1 business hour for a first answer, never 8.

The [terms of service](/systems/legal-and-corporate/paper) state both support numbers for each Offer, read from the same Settings. The first automatic acknowledgment repeats them, so the Customer never guesses.

A [Service](/business/nouns/service) Offer can also promise an outcome and uptime in its service-level terms. Those bind the delivered work; the three clocks bind every answer, on every Offer.

## The first answer
Every Conversation gets `respondBy` when its first Message arrives, counted from the Offer's Setting on the business-hours calendar. The [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead) answers before then through [Answer a message](/workflows/processes/support/answer-message).

`firstAnsweredAt` records the first answer once and is never overwritten; `answeredAt` keeps the latest. A quick follow-up question cannot make a slow first answer look fast.

## Reaching a person
A request for a person always reaches one. The support [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) stops answering the substance and opens a Task for a Human, due by `support.humanReplyWithin`, with a summary of the Conversation attached.

The Task goes to the Startup's own Human when it has one. Otherwise it goes to the owner of record of the Startup's [Company](/business/nouns/company).
For a Studio Startup that is the officer desk; for a self-serve one, the person who holds its Stripe account.

The Customer hears the due time in the next answer. A Task past due escalates through [`Task.escalate`](/business/nouns/task/escalate), and the overdue Task is the record of the miss. No other work waits on the Human: the Agent keeps answering every other Conversation.

## Intakes keep their own deadline
A privacy request, legal notice or security report can arrive as an ordinary support Conversation. The support Agent matches it to its [intake](/systems/trust-and-governance/intakes), opens that intake's Thread at its address, and links the Conversation.

The intake deadline counts from the Conversation's first Message, not from the handover. The owning [Role](/business/nouns/role) answers in the intake's Thread, and the Customer hears in the Conversation who holds the request and by when.

## What the Startup measures
| [Metric](/business/nouns/metric) | What it reads |
| --- | --- |
| [First response time](/agents/customer#first-response-time) | Median business hours from the first Message to `firstAnsweredAt` |
| [First responses on time](/agents/customer#first-responses-on-time) | Conversations first answered before `respondBy`, as a percent |
| [Intakes answered on time](/agents/legal#intakes-on-time) | Intake Threads, opened at the address or from a Conversation, answered before their deadline, as a percent |
| [Resolution time](/agents/customer#resolution-time) | Median business hours from the first Message to a resolution that held for 7 days |

A meal-planning app for households managing diabetes promises a first answer within 2 business hours. A parent writes after hours asking for a person. The Agent answers at once with the next morning's due time, and the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) replies at 9:40.

## Next
- [Answers](/systems/customer-service/answers): what every answer checks before it is sent.
- [Customer guarantees](/systems/trust-and-governance/customer-guarantees): the promises these clocks keep.
- [Intakes](/systems/trust-and-governance/intakes): the eight addresses and their deadlines.