68% of our support tickets were answered by the user's second message.

We analyzed 9,300 support conversations over 8 months. Median first-response time: 4h 20m.

But 68% of tickets contained a follow-up from the user that included the answer — a screenshot, an error code, a version number, or a clarification that made the original question answerable. The user had solved it themselves, or had found the missing detail, while waiting.

Median time between the user's first message and their second: 2h 10m. In other words, the user was doing our triage for us, slowly, because we asked too late.

We added a short intake form with three required fields: what you did, what you expected, what happened. Tickets dropped 18%. First-response time dropped to 1h 40m. The conversations that remained were more answerable on the first try.

How much of your support volume is really just missing context, and who is paying for that delay?