# Understanding Next Reply Time SLA > Source: https://help.kustomer.com/en_us/understanding-next-reply-time-sla-r1A0LqjMx Last updated: 2026-10-06T19:01:59.861Z Next Reply Time is a recurring SLA metric that measures the time between the latest inbound message from a customer and the next qualifying outbound reply from your organization. Unlike most SLA metrics, Next Reply Time doesn't measure a conversation once and stop — it starts a new measurement cycle every time the customer sends another message. **Who can access this feature?** Admins can access the SLA page. ## In this article * [What is Next Reply Time?](#what-is-next-reply-time) * [How a Next Reply Time cycle works](#how-a-next-reply-time-cycle-works) * [Next Reply Time compared to other SLA metrics](#next-reply-time-compared-to-other-sla-metrics) * [Enabling Next Reply Time on an SLA](#enabling-next-reply-time-on-an-sla) * [Basing Next Reply Time on human interaction](#basing-next-reply-time-on-human-interaction) * [Setting a Next Reply Time alert](#setting-a-next-reply-time-alert) * [Finding Next Reply Time data for compliance reporting](#finding-next-reply-time-data-for-compliance-reporting) ### What is Next Reply Time? Kustomer SLA policies support several metrics, and admins can enable any combination of them on a policy: Metric What it measures Pattern First Response Time (FRT) Conversation start to the first outbound reply. One-shot. Longest Unresponded Message (LUM) The oldest unanswered inbound message to an outbound reply. One-shot. Next Reply Time The latest inbound message to the next qualifying outbound reply. Recurring — restarts on every customer reply. Total Conversation Open Time How long a conversation stayed open, from creation to close (excludes snoozed time). One-shot duration. Total Customer Wait Time The total time a customer waited for replies (includes snoozed time). Accumulating duration. FRT and LUM each measure a conversation once. Once either one breaches — or is satisfied — a customer's later follow-up message doesn't start a new timer for that metric. This can make a conversation look breached in reporting even if your team is replying promptly to everything the customer sends after that point. Next Reply Time closes that gap. Every new inbound message starts a fresh deadline for the next reply, so your compliance reporting reflects how responsive your team is to the current conversation, not just its first message. Next Reply Time doesn't replace the other metrics — you can enable it alongside FRT, LUM, open time, and wait time on the same policy. ### How a Next Reply Time cycle works Each Next Reply Time measurement window is called a cycle: * A cycle starts when a customer sends an inbound message on a conversation covered by an SLA that has Next Reply Time enabled. * The cycle is anchored to the latest customer inbound message, not the oldest unanswered one. Longest Unresponded Message tracks the oldest unanswered message. * The cycle runs until a qualifying outbound reply is sent. * The cycle breaches if the deadline passes without a timely reply. A late reply can still satisfy that cycle afterward. * The cycle restarts the next time the customer sends another inbound message. Under **Next Reply Time** in SLA settings, the helper text reads: "Measured again each time the customer replies." By default, any successfully sent, customer-visible outbound reply satisfies a cycle — this includes replies from a human agent, AI, a bot, or an automation. Drafts, internal notes, system events, and failed sends never satisfy a cycle. See Basing Next Reply Time on human interaction below for narrowing this to human replies only. ### Next Reply Time compared to other SLA metrics First Response Time Longest Unresponded Message Next Reply Time Question it answers How fast was the first reply? How long has the oldest unanswered message waited? How long until we reply to the latest message? Recurrence Once per conversation. One-shot. Recurring — a new inbound message starts a new cycle. Anchor Conversation start. Oldest unanswered inbound. Latest inbound. Based on human interaction option Yes. No. Yes. ### Enabling Next Reply Time on an SLA To enable Next Reply Time on an SLA policy: 1. In the left navigation panel, click **Settings**. 2. Under **Workspace**, click **Service Level Agreements**. 3. Open the SLA policy you want to edit, or create a new one. 4. Beneath **Set SLA Metrics**, check the **Next Reply Time** box. 5. Set target hours and minutes for each priority level, 1 through 5. If you leave a priority's target blank, Next Reply Time won't apply to conversations at that priority. 6. Save your changes. Next Reply Time uses the policy's **Business or Calendar Hours** setting. ### Basing Next Reply Time on human interaction Next Reply Time supports an option to base its results on human interaction. The **Based on human interaction** box sits under **Next Reply Time** and stays disabled until **Next Reply Time** is checked. * Unchecked (default): any qualifying customer-visible, successfully sent outbound reply satisfies the cycle — human agent, AI, bot, or automation. * Checked: only a successfully sent reply from a human agent satisfies the cycle. Automated or bot replies no longer clear the Next Reply Time timer. Use this setting for organizations that only want SLA credit when a person replies — not when an AI agent, bot, or automation sends the first customer-visible reply after an inbound message. ### Setting a Next Reply Time alert Next Reply Time uses the same **Set SLA alerts** section as the other metrics on the policy. 1. On the SLA policy, under **Set SLA alerts**, click **Add SLA Alert**. 2. In **Select Metric**, choose **Next Reply Time**. **Next Reply Time** stays unavailable in that list until the metric is checked under **Set SLA Metrics**. The alert tells selected users and teams about conversations that are close to breaching Next Reply Time. ### Finding Next Reply Time data for compliance reporting Once Next Reply Time is enabled, you can review it in a few places: * **Conversation SLA badge.** Next Reply Time appears alongside your policy's other enabled metrics on the conversation, including tallies of on-time versus late completed cycles where available. * **Inbox and queue sorting.** When agents sort by SLA breach, conversations sort by Next Reply Time's current cycle — a conversation whose current cycle is on track won't stay flagged at breach urgency because of an earlier, already-satisfied cycle. * **SLAs report.** On the **SLAs** report, the **Conversations by Metric** chart includes Next Reply when the feature is available. Use the **Breached** and **Satisfied** toggles to switch between **Next Reply Breached** and **Next Reply Satisfied**. * **Conversation search.** Search includes **Next Reply SLA Breach At** and **Next Reply SLA Satisfied At** alongside the equivalent fields for your other SLA metrics. * **Conversation exports.** Exports can include Next Reply Time breach and satisfied columns, the same way exports support the other SLA metrics. Important for compliance reporting: because Next Reply Time is recurring, a single conversation can breach the metric more than once over its lifetime. Reporting, search, and exports currently reflect a snapshot of the current cycle only — not a full history of every cycle a conversation has gone through. A completed cycle's result can remain on that snapshot until a new inbound message makes the cycle pending again. If your compliance process expects a complete historical log of every cycle, confirm with your Kustomer representative whether that level of detail is available before relying on this reporting alone.