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Customers still waiting hours for a reply? Fix routing, not headcount

Whether you're exploring support platforms or already using Zendesk, slow response times come from unclear routing and poor queue visibility, not lack of agents. Smart assignment and SLAs put the right requests in front of the right people immediately.

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Most waiting happens before agents even see the ticket. Without routing rules, SLAs, or queue visibility, issues sit unassigned for hours. Even teams with Zendesk often skip these workflows and manually distribute work, creating bottlenecks instead of flow.

Why customers wait

No automated assignment

Tickets sit unassigned in a shared queue waiting for someone to manually pick them up and distribute.

Unclear ownership

Multiple agents see the same ticket but nobody takes responsibility, assuming someone else will handle it first.

Missing SLAs or prioritisation

All tickets look equally important, so urgent issues get buried behind routine requests that arrived slightly earlier.

Limited visibility into queue health

Managers can't see bottlenecks forming until customers complain, making it impossible to intervene proactively when needed.

What this means for teams

Customers expect quick replies. By removing manual steps, teams react faster without increasing workload.

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Practical ways to reduce wait times

Impact

30%
Faster first reply time
25%
Fewer SLA breaches
Noticeable CSAT improvement

 

"We cannot express enough gratitude to Premium Plus for their exceptional support and guidance. They went above and beyond, not only by actively listening to our needs but also by revealing the full potential of Zendesk. Our Zendesk platform has become an indispensable asset for our business. We are grateful for the incredible results they helped us achieve. We couldn't have asked for better support, and we are thrilled to have such a fantastic team on our side."

Maryse LandrevilleSupervisor, LifeWorks

Common questions about reducing wait times

Deep dive into the challenges teams face when dealing with slow response times. 

Why do automated routing rules reduce wait times more than adding agents? Adding agents increases capacity but doesn't fix the underlying distribution problem. If tickets sit unassigned for 2 hours before anyone picks them up, more agents just means more people looking at the same queue. Automated routing assigns tickets instantly based on skills, availability, and workload. A 5-person team with smart routing outperforms a 10-person team doing manual assignment. The wait happens in assignment, not resolution.
How do we prioritise tickets without making every customer feel important?

Effective prioritisation isn't about ignoring low-priority tickets—it's about clear SLA tiers. Set response targets: VIP customers within 1 hour, standard within 4 hours, billing issues within 2 hours. Customers see these commitments upfront. Most accept different tiers when expectations are transparent. What damages trust is inconsistency: responding to easy questions first while urgent issues wait. SLAs create structure, not hierarchy.
Our agents manually distribute work because they know who's best at what. Won't automation break that?

Manual distribution based on expertise is smart—but it doesn't scale and it creates single points of failure. The solution is encoding that knowledge into routing rules. Tag agents with skills (billing, technical, account management) and route tickets accordingly. You preserve expertise-based assignment while eliminating the manual bottleneck. Add round-robin within skill groups to balance workload. The best teams combine human knowledge with automated execution.
What's the difference between first response time and resolution time?

First response time measures how quickly a customer hears back after submitting a ticket. Resolution time measures how long it takes to fully solve their issue. Both matter, but first response time has a disproportionate impact on satisfaction. A customer who waits 6 hours for any reply feels ignored. A customer who gets a reply in 10 minutes but waits 2 days for resolution at least knows someone is working on it. Start by optimising the first response.
How do we measure if our wait time improvements are actually working?

Track three metrics: median first response time (not average—medians ignore outliers), SLA compliance rate (% of tickets meeting target), and assignment time (how long tickets wait unassigned). Set baselines before changes, measure weekly, and look for trends over 4-6 weeks. Also monitor CSAT scores and ticket reopens. Faster responses should correlate with higher satisfaction and fewer follow-ups. If response time improves but CSAT drops, you're rushing quality.
What if we don't have enough specialised agents to route effectively?

Start with broad categories, not specialist roles. Route by ticket type (billing, technical, account) rather than hyper-specific skills. Use a fallback: if no specialist is available, route to a general queue. As your team grows, refine routing rules. Even basic routing (billing vs. non-billing) cuts wait times because it eliminates the triage step. Perfect routing isn't the goal—better-than-manual routing is the goal.
Reduce wait times fast

Get expert help redesigning your routing, SLAs, and queues so customers hear back in minutes, not hours.

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