Avg. Response Time vs Avg. Answer Time

Hey ​@erin.brisson - I see what you’re saying, but I do think it’s possible to have a shorter average answer time as the two metrics are looking at different sets of data.  Your average answer time is only looking at questions that have gotten a marked best answer, and depending on the situation in the community, that could be a relatively small proportion of your overall set of questions.  The average response time will be for all topics and even if you filter this for the ‘question’ content type, you’re still looking at a potentially much broader sample of all questions including the ones that don’t have a marked best answer. 

Just thinking about this a little more, it also seems to me that it could be somewhat logical that questions that did get a marked best answer could have seen better and faster engagement than questions that didn’t (just speculating here).

Thanks Kenneth! I’ve tracked it monthly and our avg response time was consistent in 2024 being 1-2 days with only 2 months being over 2 days so when looking at the full year, it seems strange that it would jump to over 4 days, would it not?

Hi ​@erin.brisson - I do the same tracking and have noticed the jump looking at full year. So far I have ignored it as it’s not what’s used in my reporting. No answer for you, just that I have seen same. 😏

​@erin.brisson Yep I see that sometimes as well.  As these are based on averages (rather than a median), I believe that what happens with the longer timeframes is that the data gets skewed by the small number of cases where the response time was WAY longer than most.  If a topic gets a reply after 11 months, it will have an outsized impact on the average, which you wouldn’t see when doing monthly reporting.

There’s comfort knowing I’m not alone lol. Thanks Chris!

Makes sense. Thank you!