The simple answer to this question is as fast as possible, but we know that’s easier said than done. The time required to answer a customer request should be established internally in your customer service team and, if possible, confirmed by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) signed by customer service agents. Response times may vary from industry to industry and from company to company depending on many variables.
These variables may include the number of agents in a customer service team, the quantity of help desk tickets submitted in a given period of time, the complexity of customer requests, the level of automation of your help desk operations, and the quality of your customer service software, just to name a few.
Regardless of internal conditions within your team, your customer service agents should aim to answer customer requests as soon as they are submitted, with the best interests of your customers in mind.