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Call centers face a unique dilemma created by conflicting priorities. On the one hand, customer satisfaction is a crucial goal that must be achieved by the end of a call to keep the caller’s business. On the other, each call must be handled as promptly as possible to ensure that the next caller has a short wait time. Given these opposing demands, how can a center ensure that agents handle each call as efficiently as possible? A classic call center metric to measure this is the Average Handle Time (AHT).

1. What is the AHT formula in call centres?

The average handle time (AHT) formula in call centres is simple to measure. To calculate AHT, add up your total talk time + your total hold time + your total time spent on after-call tasks. Then, divide this combined number by the number of total calls. Now you have your average handle time.

1.1. What is AHT calculation?

AHT is calculated by measuring the amount of time each call takes from start to finish, and then averaging it by the total number of calls.

 

(Total call talk time + total hold time + post-call work time) / total number of calls. AHT can be measured for individual agents as well as across a certain team, division, or for the whole company.

 

Now that you have the formula, let’s break it down into each component. Talk time refers to the duration of time spent talking on the phone between the caller and the agent. Hold time is the length of time the caller spends on hold while the agent is busy doing call work. After-call work time includes any follow-up actions the agent must do to complete the caller’s request. The total number of calls refers to the total number of calls taken either by the entire call center or by a particular agent, depending on the calculation.

2. What does AHT mean in text?

Average handle time’s use as a performance metric has continued as less phone-centric, omnichannel contact centers have become more prolific. While these centers often replace phone calls with text-based chats, we can still calculate AHT by replacing “talk time” with text conversation time. Sometimes this metric is also referred to as “Average Chat Handle Time.” The agent will still have similar post-call work to do after the conversation ends.

2.1. What is a good AHT?

What is a good average handle time? This depends on the issue being resolved and on the industry, as more technically-complex problems often require more steps and, as a result, more time. According to a report from Cornell, the average handle time for retail is 3:24 minutes, while the benchmark for the telecommunications industry is 8:48 minutes.

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Call center supervisor providing feedback to support agents

3. Why is Average Handle Time (AHT) important?

AHT is important because lower AHT correlates to more efficient call center operations. Typically, lower AHT implies that an agent is able to successfully handle more calls and help more customers. This can also lead to higher customer satisfaction rates. When support agents can resolve customer issues quickly, customers feel they are well taken care of, which will increase retention. 

 

AHT is a metric that has been widely used in call centers to reduce the amount of time spent on each call. By reducing the average duration of the call, AHT helps improve customer service by cutting down wait times for the next customer. Thus reducing average handle time implies, at least in theory, that the agent addresses customer’s needs as quickly as possible.

When implemented correctly, AHT also saves call center resources and money for the call center. AHT can help identify individual agents who are taking longer on the phone than the call center average. If measured over a long period, AHT can also pinpoint particular days or even specific hours when the AHT is higher than average. All in all, AHT is very useful for keeping an eye on call times from a higher level.   

4. How do you find AHT?

While it helps to understand how AHT works, you may not need to calculate it by hand. AHT is often calculated automatically by call center software making complicated calculations with large amounts of data. AHT is usually found on the manager’s dashboard of call center software. The manager can see different kinds of metrics in real-time. Individual agents may be able to see the metric too, depending on the software.

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AHT is an important metric used in call centers to reduce call times

5. How to reduce AHT?

There are many different ways to reduce AHT, so let’s focus on three common issues impacting AHT: agent training, the knowledge base, and call routing. Effective agent training, including monitoring of agent performance, is crucial to reducing AHT. This training cuts down on AHT because a trained agent will act more quickly and decisively. Next, by implementing knowledge bases that are logically organized and easily accessible, agents can find responses promptly and keep hold times to a minimum. Finally, call routing should be optimized to ensure the caller is put in touch with the most qualified person to handle their call from the beginning.

5.1. How can I improve my AHT in a call center?

There are several ways to improve AHT. Here are 10 quick tips to help you reduce your average handle time.

 

   1.   Automate customer self-service with FAQs and forums

   2.  If possible, record phone calls for review and best practices

   3.  Use customer-preferred channels, whether it’s social media, chatbots, visual support, etc.

   4.  Focus on employee training and upskilling

   5.  Implement a knowledge management base

   6.  Analyze the workflow to find pressure points and areas for improvement

   7.  Promote internal communication with regular product updates

   8.  Value customer feedback and implement suggested changes

Call center support agent
Call center support agent helping a customer while working from home

6. The benefits of AHT

AHT is crucial for gauging call center performance and planning for the future. This metric allows managers to measure the call center’s overall performance as well as an individual agent’s performance. Any discrepancies can then be flagged and investigated to see if there is an issue causing delays. By its very design, AHT is focused on shortening call duration. It seems like a simple way to boil down the different factors affecting call duration into one number that’s easy to calculate. This simplicity, however, can be deceiving.

7. The drawbacks of AHT

While AHT has long been an essential part of a call center’s toolkit, excessive focus on call duration can reduce call quality. More than anything, call centers are built on human interaction. While a majority of calls can be expected to stay within certain time limits, there will always be outliers that take longer to arrive at the closing. The benefit of AHT’s reduced call time must not come at the expense of the customer’s experience. If AHT is over-emphasized, it could cause center agents to rush callers and negatively impact customer satisfaction.

successful call center must prioritize both speed and quality in order to ensure customer satisfaction. AHT’s main strength, improved speed, is also its Achilles’ heel. By pursuing speed above all else, AHT sacrifices quality. Many issues that increase call duration are technical, such as insufficient agent training or lack of access to a centralized knowledge base. The truth is that AHT alone is too limited in scope to address these kinds of issues effectively.

These complex cases often take longer than average to resolve, but this can be reduced by adding another communication channel, such as escalating to an expert via live visual support. While AHT remains a useful performance metric for measuring call duration, newer technologies can complement AHT by enhancing call quality.

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8. Alternatives

ViiBE’s virtual call center and ticketing solutions offer an array of tools to enhance call speeds while simultaneously improving quality. By organizing multiple calls under one ticket, ViiBE immediately reduces call times by improving access to past interactions. ViiBE attaches tags to each call to track trends with deep search algorithms, providing a more impactful long-term improvement in call quality. It also improves internal communications by facilitating call routing to experts when an escalation is necessary. ViiBE’s software increases flexibility by allowing multi-entity management for teams located in different parts of the world. That means that a manager can access statistics across a variety of call centers at once.

9. Conclusion

While AHT has remained a useful performance metric for many years, call centers have evolved into complex organisms that may be harder to quantify with such a simple metric. New technologies like ViiBE improve the customer experience in a meaningful and sustainable way. While some have decried AHT as an outdated metric, AHT has not outlived its usefulness. Alongside newer technologies, AHT will continue to help call centers achieve faster speeds while improving quality. Finally, AHT may no longer enjoy the prominence it once had but will likely remain an important performance indicator for call centers.

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