What Is Average Handle Time?
A key metric that shows the average amount of time agents spend assisting customers.
Average handle time (AHT) is a metric used by contact centers to measure how long each agent spends interacting with a customer. It typically includes conversation time, hold time, and any after-call work required. Average handle time is measured by tallying up the total conversation, hold, and follow-up time, then dividing it by the total number of calls in a certain period, for example, per shift or per day.
Purposes of Average Handle Time
AHT is used for multiple purposes in a contact center:
As a key performance indicator (KPI) to gauge overall contact center performance
To gauge the number of transactions they can handle in a given amount of time
To measure agent and software efficiency
