Macha
CX & Support Metrics

Handle Time

Definition

Handle time is the total time an agent spends handling a single customer contact, including the active conversation plus any after-contact work like notes, tagging, or follow-up.

Auch bekannt als: handling timeAHT (when averaged)

How to calculate it

For one contact, handle time = talk/chat time + hold or wait time + after-contact work (wrap-up). Averaged across many contacts, it becomes Average Handle Time (AHT): total handle time ÷ number of contacts.

For example, a call with 5 minutes of conversation, 1 minute on hold, and 2 minutes of wrap-up notes has a handle time of 8 minutes.

Why it matters

Handle time drives staffing and cost — lower handle time means each agent can serve more customers. But it's a double-edged metric: pushing it down too hard can rush interactions and hurt quality, so it's best read alongside CSAT and first-contact resolution.

Häufig gefragt

Is handle time the same as AHT?

Handle time is the measure for one contact; AHT (Average Handle Time) is that measure averaged across many contacts. They use the same components — talk, hold, and wrap-up time.

Does handle time include wait time?

It includes hold time during the interaction and after-contact wrap-up, but not the time the customer waited in queue before reaching an agent — that's tracked separately as wait time or speed of answer.

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