Set a response-time target you can keep, save tested replies for the questions you answer every day, and let a timer warn you before a promise is missed.
For anyone asking: How do I answer customers faster and keep my response-time promise?
Each one's way of doing it, and the point where it stops.
SLA policies keyed off the Priority field time first reply, next reply, periodic update, requester wait, agent work and total resolution; each ticket gets one SLA from the first matching policy. Where it stops: Not on the Team plans; SLAs do not apply to AI agent tickets, and group SLAs and business hours per priority are Suite Enterprise only.
Build SLAs per department with response and resolution escalation levels that notify before, on or after the due time, reassign the ticket or change its priority; business hours and holiday lists shape the clock. Where it stops: Free and Express run default SLAs only; SLA dashboards start on Professional, and On Hold freezes the timer.
SLA policies with goals from 1 minute to 14 days match tickets by tags or ticket fields, business hours pause the timers, and reports show the SLA achievement rate and median first response time. Where it stops: Only the first matching policy applies, and editing a policy does not rewrite past tickets.
Set first response, next response and resolution targets in an SLA policy, choose which statuses pause the clock, and on Pro add reminders and escalations per policy or per company. Where it stops: Growth has one SLA policy and one set of business hours; a private note never stops the first-response clock.
One SLA policy sets response and resolution targets for all conversations; Plus adds conditional policies by company, email domain, custom field or customer property. Where it stops: Free has no SLAs; a policy applies only to conversations created after it.
Internal first-reply and next-reply targets on email tickets, set per mailbox or ticket source, keep the team aware of how long each ticket has waited. Where it stops: The targets run on calendar hours and are not shown to customers.
Routing rules and working hours send each chat to an available teammate, and ticket reports show first response time and resolution time for tracking the promise. Where it stops: Essential has no routing rules or working hours.
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