Agency Desk service levels
Four service-level targets for your agency account
Your agency account has four service-level targets, each within one working day on China time: quote acknowledgement, quote completion, release to dispatch for stock already in the Guangzhou warehouse, and issue acknowledgement. Each clock has a defined start, finish and missing-information pause. We do not yet offer a standard credit schedule or severity-update cadence; confirm those terms in your partner agreement.
Use the targets below with their start events, pauses and peak-season exceptions when setting your client expectations. The founding pilot lasts 90 days. Delivery transit is separate: it remains a route-specific estimate, never a guarantee.
- Four defined operational clocks
- Historical first-reply measurement
- Working-day targets; credit terms by agreement
- Delivery stays an estimate, not a guarantee
This expands the response-time note and the onboarding-speed answer summarised on the Agency Desk overview. The seller-side measurement it draws on is on the main FAQ.
Targets and scope
What each service-level target covers
Onboarding time depends on the product, route and completeness of your brief. Once a request meets the start conditions below, its service-level clock applies. These targets do not promise a fixed onboarding or delivery date.
A target starts at a defined event.
The four targets cover quote acknowledgement, quote completion, warehouse-stock release to dispatch and issue acknowledgement. Each is one working day, subject to its own start event, pauses and declared peak-season exceptions below.
Targets are commitments; the median is history
The targets are what we commit to. They do not claim every past request met them. The first-reply median below describes a past period; it does not replace the acknowledgement targets, and it says nothing about how long completion takes.
What you actually get during the pilot
The four targets below apply with their stated conditions. We do not offer a standard credit amount or severity-update interval yet, so confirm any service-credit terms and issue-update cadence before you promise them to your client.
Historical response time
First-reply time in working hours
The first-reply measurement below describes historical performance, not a service commitment.
Median first reply: 23 minutes, in working hours
Across client requests that arrived inside working hours, the median first reply was 23 minutes. That is the middle of the distribution, not a ceiling, and it is a reply — not a resolution.
The half of that number that matters when you are the one waiting: about one in five in-hours messages still took more than half a day; a message arriving at 10pm China time is answered the next morning, not the same evening; and a first reply is not a resolved problem. The full measurement, and what it does not cover, is on the main FAQ.
Why this is a baseline, not an SLA
A median describes what usually happens; a target commits to what will happen every time, and the gap between them is the one-in-five tail above. This figure is the starting point for two of the clocks below — quote acknowledgement and issue acknowledgement both begin with a first reply — but it is not itself the target for either. The published target for both is one working day, set well above the median on purpose: it is the ceiling we commit to, and the pilot distribution, tail included, is what we measure against it.
A first reply is not the finish line
Acknowledging a quote request in minutes says nothing about how long the quote takes. Acknowledging a lost parcel says nothing about how long the carrier investigation runs. That is precisely why the framework splits acknowledgement from completion into separate clocks, so a fast reply can never stand in for slow work.
The structure
Four clocks, from a brief to a resolved issue
These are the four things a partner actually waits on. Each is measured separately, because bundling them hides the slow one behind the fast one. Read the sequence first, then the definition table below it.
- 1. Quote acknowledgement Starts when you submit a product, route and volume brief. Stops when we confirm receipt and either accept the brief or name exactly what is missing. This is the clock the 23-minute median feeds into. RyanFulfil
- 2. Quote completion Starts when the brief is complete enough to price. Stops when you have the net quote and its written assumptions in hand. It counts only the time we hold a complete brief, which is why a vague brief costs you the pause, not us the clock. RyanFulfil
- 3. Order release to dispatch Starts when an order is released to fulfilment, meaning paid or confirmed, with stock and a valid address. Stops when the parcel is handed to the carrier and a tracking number is returned to the connected store. This is processing time only. Carrier transit after it is a route estimate, not a clock. RyanFulfil
- 4. Issue acknowledgement and next update Starts when you raise a fulfilment issue. Stops, for acknowledgement, when we confirm it and open an investigation. After that we send updates at the cadence agreed for your account until it is resolved. You still take the first line with the end customer; we return the evidence. RyanFulfil
| Quote acknowledgement | Quote completion | Order release to dispatch | Issue acknowledgement + next update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start event | You submit a product, route and volume brief. | The brief is complete enough to price. | An order is released to fulfilment: paid or confirmed, with stock and a valid address. | You raise a fulfilment issue through the partner channel. |
| Stop event | We confirm receipt and accept the brief or name what is missing. | You receive the net quote and its written assumptions. | The parcel is handed to the carrier and tracking returns to the store. | We acknowledge and open an investigation, then update you at the cadence agreed for your account until it is resolved. |
| Business hours and timezone | Counts working hours only, CST (UTC+8). | Counts working hours only, CST (UTC+8). | Counts working hours only, CST (UTC+8). | Acknowledgement counts working hours, CST (UTC+8); a critical issue is handled outside them. |
| Missing-info pause | Paused until the brief detail we asked for arrives. | Paused while awaiting a spec, variant or approval only you can give. | Paused on a bad address, a stock hold or an unconfirmed payment. | Paused while awaiting evidence, an approval or a decision from you. |
| Peak-season exception | Extended per a declared peak window. | Extended per a declared peak window. | Extended or suspended per a declared peak window. | Acknowledgement holds; resolution stretches with the carriers. |
| Severity applies | No. Standard handling. | No. Expedite only by agreement. | No. Expedite only by agreement. | Yes. Severity sets the update cadence. |
| Credit applies | No. | No. | Possible under an agreed credit schedule: a controllable clock. | Possible where the cause is controllable, never for a carrier outcome. |
| Published target | Within one working day of the request reaching the desk. Measured so far: median first reply 23 minutes in working hours, August 2026. | Within one working day of a complete brief. | Within one working day when the stock is already in the Guangzhou warehouse. Factory-sourced orders follow the lead time stated in the quote. | Within one working day of the report reaching the desk, with the severity set. Confirm the update cadence by severity in your agreement. |
The issue clock is the seller-side workflow you already know, reached through your account. The status meanings and the evidence we return are documented at the order issue centre, and it is the same material partners work from.
Two conventions that decide every number
Working hours, and the pause that stops the clock
Before any target means anything, two rules have to be fixed: what time counts, and what time does not. Both are the same across all four clocks, so a partner is never guessing which convention a given number was measured under.
Working hours are China hours
Every clock counts working hours on China Standard Time (UTC+8), because that is where the Guangzhou desk and the suppliers are. A request that lands outside working hours starts its clock at the next working-hour boundary. That is the whole reason a 10pm China-time message is answered the next morning rather than the same evening, and is part of interpreting the 23-minute historical figure. When your client is in another timezone, this is the arithmetic to build their expectation on, not a promise that the desk is awake at their midnight.
The clock pauses when it is waiting on you
Any clock that is waiting on something only you can supply — a missing variant, a sample approval, a corrected address, a confirmed payment — pauses until the information arrives. We log every pause, so when you ask where the time went, we can show you. It is not a loophole: we still acknowledge and tell you what is missing. It means a completion target is measured against the time we held a workable brief, not the days a brief sat half-finished.
A worked example, without a single hour in it
You submit a quote brief that names the product and the variants but not the destination country. The quote-acknowledgement clock starts, and stops when we reply that we have it and need the country. The quote-completion clock does not start yet, because the brief is not workable. You send the country the next day; completion starts then. When the quote lands, the completion time we report covers only the stretch we held a complete brief. The day we waited for the country shows as a pause on your side, not a slow quote on ours. Same order, two clocks, no argument about which delay belonged to whom.
What changes when it is urgent
Severity: defined by impact, not by a stopwatch
Severity attaches to the fourth clock, the issue clock. It is defined by what is at stake, not by a promised number of hours, because incidents differ in urgency and dependency on suppliers or carriers. Confirm the update cadence for each severity level in your agreement; it is separate from the one-working-day acknowledgement target.
| Level | What it covers | A typical example | What tightens | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | Safety, compliance, or a stranded or mis-routed shipment where waiting makes the outcome worse. | A shipment held at customs; a product-safety signal on a live line. | Handled outside working hours, on the fastest cadence, and may trigger the emergency direct-contact exception in the partner terms. | Considered where the cause is controllable. |
| Major | A live order or batch blocked, or a defect affecting a run that has already shipped. | A wrong item across a shipped batch; a sustained address-correction backlog. | Prioritised investigation, with updates at the cadence agreed for your account until it is resolved. | Subject to the agreed credit schedule. |
| Standard | Routine questions, single-parcel queries and status checks. | A where-is-my-parcel query on one order. | Nothing beyond the normal issue clock. | Not applicable. |
Severity does not move the client-contact line
A critical severity can let us act fast; it does not let us go around you. The one place direct contact with your client is permitted is a defined emergency — a safety, compliance or stranded-shipment case where waiting would make things worse — and that exception is written into the partner terms rather than decided in the moment. The full set of controls is on the client-protection page.
The exception written down in advance
The peak-season and Chinese New Year exception
Chinese New Year is the single most predictable way a first year of fulfilment goes wrong, and the honest response is to plan for it rather than absorb it. So it is an exception in the framework, declared before it starts, not discovered in February.
What actually moves
Factory closures and carrier congestion move the whole timeline, not one clock. During a declared peak window the dispatch clock is extended or suspended, and the two quote clocks are extended, per the service policy. The issue clock keeps its acknowledgement but resolution stretches with the carriers, because a congested network is outside anyone’s control and pretending otherwise is how partners get blindsided.
How you hear about it
A peak window is declared in advance through the partner operations channel, with the dates and what changes, so your client-facing checkout copy and delivery promises can be adjusted before the orders come in rather than after they are late. The planning material — cut-off timing, pre-stock decisions, how to word the change to a client — is part of the partner kit built with our founding partners.
Delivery estimates already widen at peak
Separate from these clocks, the route transit estimates on the maintained destination table widen during peak, and a quote reflects the window for the route at the time it is issued. Delivery was never a clock and never a guarantee, so peak does not break a promise there — it changes an estimate, which is exactly what an estimate is for. The per-route working ranges are on the shipping-times page, and what each carrier scan means is on tracking status.
When a miss costs us, and when it cannot
Where a service credit can apply
A service credit can apply only to a controllable service failure under an agreed credit schedule. Confirm the trigger and amount in your partner agreement; the four service-level targets do not create an automatic credit.
A credit can apply
Against a controllable clock under an agreed credit schedule.
- Order release to dispatchOur processing time is the clearest controllable case.
- A controllable issue-clock missWhere the cause sat with our side, not the carrier’s.
- A credit is taken against the fulfilment feeNot a payout, and not a promise about the client’s revenue.
A credit cannot apply
Outside the service-credit scope.
- Carrier transit and delivery dateA route-specific estimate, not a guaranteed arrival date.
- Any clock while it is paused for missing infoThe clock was waiting on your side, so it was not running.
- Anything inside a declared peak windowThe exception is announced in advance for exactly this reason.
- Sales, product-market fit or profitOutside the service entirely, on every path.
Confirm the credit schedule before relying on it
No standard credit amount is available during the founding pilot. Any credit requires an agreed trigger, amount and applicable service clock in your partner agreement.
Where this sits against the paperwork
The framework here, the schedule in your agreement
Use these service-level definitions and targets to plan your account, subject to the binding schedule in your partner agreement.
What governs if the two ever differ
The binding service-level schedule lives in the agency service policy attached to your partner agreement. If this page and your signed agreement differ, the signed agreement governs. Ask the partner team to clarify any discrepancy before making a client commitment.
What needs separate agreement
The four targets above are available now. The 90-day founding pilot does not provide a standard credit schedule or severity-update cadence. Confirm any account-specific terms in writing.
Founding partner pilot
Set your client expectations against defined service levels.
Apply with your services, client count, target markets and expected volume. We will recommend the appropriate path and confirm how these clocks and any account-specific terms apply.
Delivery windows are route-specific estimates, not guarantees, and every service-level target is counted in working days on China time; any credit schedule requires agreement. The historical first-reply median is 23 minutes in working hours, with the response-time distribution described above.