Dashboard overview
What each figure on the dashboard means, and which ones actually deserve your attention.
The headline figures
| Metric | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open tickets | Waiting on you right now |
| First response time | Median time to a genuine agent or AI reply |
| Resolution time | Median time from arrival to resolved |
| Automated resolution rate | Share closed by AI with no human |
| SLA breach rate | Share that missed their target |
Read them in pairs
Single metrics mislead, and each of these has a natural counterweight.
Automated resolution rate ↔ reopen rate. Automation is only good if the tickets stay closed. A rising automation rate with a rising reopen rate means you are closing tickets that were not solved. Never celebrate the first number without checking the second.
First response time ↔ resolution time. Fast first responses with slow resolutions usually means the team is acknowledging quickly to stop the SLA clock, then not progressing anything. That is worse than a slower, complete first reply.
Ticket volume ↔ contacts. Volume rising faster than your customer base means something is generating confusion — a change to shipping, a broken page, a policy nobody can find.
Rates, not counts
During growth, every count rises. Breach count going up while breach rate falls is a team doing well under more load. Judge on rates.
What good looks like
Rough starting points, not targets to game:
| Metric | Reasonable |
|---|---|
| First response (with AI) | Under 5 minutes |
| First response (human only) | Under 2 hours |
| SLA breach rate | Under 5% |
| Reopen rate | Under 10% |
| Automated resolution | 30–60% once trained |
An automated resolution rate near 90% deserves suspicion, not congratulation. Check the reopen rate.
Time ranges
Compare like with like. Support volume is strongly weekly — comparing a Monday with a Sunday tells you about the calendar, not your team. Use week-over-week or month-over-month.