Setting a first-reply target for WhatsApp leads: how to choose and track one
Choose a first-reply target for WhatsApp enquiries, count it in working hours, escalate before it is missed, and why no tool can promise a response time.
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- By WavesFlo team
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Pick a first-reply target you can meet at your busiest hour, count it in your working hours, and watch how many enquiries met it. Reply speed matters most for a new enquiry, because the customer is comparing you with someone else at that moment. The number is yours to choose; neither WavesFlo nor anyone else guarantees a response time, and the examples here are invented.
How do you choose the number?
- Measure first. For a week, record when each enquiry arrived and when someone first answered; the formulas in first response time in Google Sheets do it.
- Look at the median and the 90th percentile, not the average.
- Set a target a little better than your 90th percentile today, so most enquiries can meet it.
- Tighten it only when you meet it for a month.
How should it be counted?
- In working hours. A message at 11 pm should not start a night of lateness.
- From when the enquiry opens, until a team member answers.
- Never paused. A first-reply clock that stops lets a ticket sit out of its first answer.
In WavesFlo's tickets the first-reply clock never pauses, the resolution clock pauses while the ticket waits on the customer, and both run on your working calendar. A manager can override a ticket's due date by hand.
What should happen before it is missed?
A policy names who is told, and when, as a target gets close and when it is missed. Each rung fires once, and a target that has already been missed never sends the early warning late. Keep it short: one early warning to the owner and one breach notice to the manager.
Does it apply to every chat?
Choose where it applies. A number set up for tickets opens one for each new customer message; other numbers stay plain chats with no clock. Put the target where lateness costs money, such as a sales number, and leave chats with friends and suppliers alone.
On a sales number a late first reply often costs the lead, so set the target there first and let the other numbers stay plain chats. WavesFlo for sales teams covers how those leads are owned and followed through the pipeline.
Questions
How fast should I reply to a WhatsApp lead?
As fast as you can meet at your busiest hour. Measure your median and 90th percentile first, then set a target a little better than the latter.
Does WavesFlo guarantee a response time?
No. A target is a goal you set, and the reports tell you how you did against it.
Does the first-reply clock pause?
No. The resolution clock pauses while a ticket waits on the customer, but the first-reply clock never does.