How to measure lead response time

01

Define the start and finish

Start the clock when the inquiry first reaches a monitored channel, not when someone enters it into a sales system. End it at the first actual attempt to contact the person. An internal notification or automatic receipt can confirm arrival, but should be reported separately from a personal attempt.

Choose whether the target uses elapsed time or staffed business hours. Record the time zone, opening hours and treatment of holidays. Keep a separate view of after-hours inquiries so the business-hours calculation does not hide an overnight wait.

02

Count the missing attempts

Select distinct eligible inquiries received in a defined period. Record arrival, first attempt and channel, or mark the attempt as missing. Deduplicate records and report invalid details and opted-out contacts separately. Check a sample against call, message and form records to find missing timestamps.

For example, suppose 100 eligible inquiries arrive in a month. By the review cutoff, 80 have an attempt and 60 of those were attempted within one hour. The one-hour rate is 60% of all 100 eligible inquiries; 20% have no recorded attempt. The median among the 80 attempted inquiries describes their wait, but says nothing about the 20 without an attempt.

03

Use the result to assign coverage

Compare the share with a contact attempt within the target and the missing-attempt rate by source and arrival period. Inspect the actual queue before interpreting a small group or a result affected by missing data. Contact rates and sales outcomes answer different questions and should appear alongside response time, not inside it.

Assign an owner and backup for each channel, including a plan for absences. Review overdue inquiries each day and record why they waited. After changing coverage or routing, compare similar periods using the same clock and eligibility rules.

04

Choose a target the team can cover

First count arrivals by hour and day for several representative weeks, including missed calls. Compare that pattern with the hours an owner or backup can actually respond. Set an initial target for each covered period and specify what happens when the business is closed; do not promise a response your staffing cannot support.

For an inquiry with an incorrect number, record the attempted channel and move it to an exception queue. If another permitted channel is available, assign the next attempt to an owner. Check whether invalid details cluster around one form or campaign, and report them separately rather than treating them as slow responses.

05

Build a response-time worksheet

Use one row per inquiry with arrival timestamp, first human attempt timestamp, elapsed minutes, business-hours minutes and the owner. Add an exception reason. Leave both time values blank when no attempt is recorded. Add a separate flag for missing attempts at the review cutoff. A blank must not be treated as a zero-minute response.