Performing the job of a call centre agent is never easy. From handling customer requests to resolving their queries, the calls received by the call centre agents per day are extensive and varied. Therefore, accomplishing success in their profile essentially depends on their average time to end a call or resolve a query. In call centre metrics, this is known as Average Handle Time (AHT).
Call centre metrics industry standards:
- First call resolution (FCR) – 70-79%
- Average Handling Time (AHT) – 2-4 minutes (varies significantly by industry and channel)
- Abandonment Rate – 5-10%
FCR benchmark per SQM Group’s 2024 research; AHT and abandonment rate ranges are directional industry conventions and vary by sector.
What is Average Handle Time (AHT)?
Average Handle Time is a call centre metric that measures the time a call centre executive takes to complete a specific task or help a caller resolve. An important parameter to measure efficiency, AHT is not solely based on the call duration but also on several other factors, such as:
- Talk time: An agent’s time while talking to a customer until resolution.
- Hold time: The amount of time the agent put the caller on hold to gather the requisite information. This does not include the time the customer spends waiting in a queue.
- After-call time: The time spent completing the paperwork and other related tasks after the call ends. It is also known as the total wrap time or post-call work time.
How is Average Handle Time Calculated?
Since the call centres need to keep a close track of their agents’ AHT, a standard formula has been devised to calculate this metric:
Average Handling Time = (Total Talk Time + Total Hold Time + Total Wrap Time) / Number Of Calls Handled
Why AHT Alone Doesn’t Define Performance
While measuring AHT is necessary occasionally, the call centres must remember that it is not the only criterion to measure productivity. Setting benchmarks and tracking the agents’ performance is vital to help identify the steps that can be taken to improve the company’s growth and performance. It is also important to remember that a lower AHT does not necessarily benefit the company. A lower AHT can also imply a significant compromise on quality, as over-emphasising the need to reduce the call duration may push the agents to compromise on service quality.
Improving AHT: Easy Fixes with Significant Impact
There are certain situations when an agent’s AHT is exceptionally high. Several factors, such as a slow computer system, longer call duration, extended hold time, and various others, can cause this. In such a situation, the call centres need to take necessary measures that can help improve the AHT. Some of these are mentioned below:
- Improving the Agent Training Process: Providing adequate training to the call centre agents is essential to equip them with the correct information to deliver the best customer service. Eliminating the agents’ need for fumbling between different software, this process provides the agents with adequate information to handle the most challenging cases that may arrive.
According to an article by Harver, The 4 Leading Causes of Contact Center Attrition & How to Overcome Them, deficient training contributes immensely to the call centre industry’s elevated employee attrition rate of 20% to 30%.
- Monitoring Calls & Identifying Weak Areas: Recording and monitoring the calls handled by the agents can help identify their weak performance areas. Focusing on these areas and working towards improving the same can play a crucial role in boosting the team’s performance and morale.
- Accurate Call Routing: Adopting this technology in a call centre can play a crucial role in improving AHT. This is because routing the calls to the most suitable agent affirms that the customer’s query would be resolved in the best possible manner in the minimum time possible.
- Arming with Requisite Knowledge Base: It is crucial to provide the call centre agents with all the necessary information to help them resolve customer queries quickly and rapidly. Providing them with the requisite details in one place saves much of their and the customer’s time. Instead of spending time searching for information while keeping the caller on hold, they can offer an immediate resolution to the customer’s problem.
- Use an Internal Communication System: An internal communication system that can access instant messaging can help reduce AHT. This system provides agents easy access to help from other agents via chat while the customer is still on the phone. This, in turn, not only saves their time but also assists the agents in delivering an improved performance.
Quicker Calls, Larger Gains: The Hidden Power of AHT
As per the data provided by Phonexia in the article The New Normal for Call Centers Unleashed by COVID-19, reducing the average handle time by 30 seconds can result in USD 2.5 million in daily savings for a call centre with 50 workers that answer five thousand calls every day.
Benefits of Improved AHT
The benefits of improved AHT are not limited to attaining maximum customer satisfaction. This metric is beneficial in several other ways:
- Evaluate Employees’ Performance: The measurement of AHT is beneficial in analysing how the employees are supporting the customers. While keeping this metric as low as possible is essential, avoiding forcing the agents to attain its lowest number is also crucial. This is because doing so is likely to deteriorate the customer service quality.
- Identify Staffing Needs: Determining the average time an employee takes to complete a task or handle a customer’s query can help determine the organisation’s staffing needs. For instance, a long waiting queue implies that a number of customers are kept waiting, signifying the need to add more staff members.
- Reduce Costs & Increase in Revenue: A reduction in AHT implies increased revenue. This is because reduced AHT helps improve the productivity level of the call centre agents and streamlines the overall workflow process. This, in turn, culminates the extra costs, leading to improved overall.
How Bill Gosling Approaches AHT and Service Quality
The tension in this metric is real: push AHT down too hard and quality drops with it. Our approach uses NEQQO’s speech analytics to monitor 100% of interactions rather than a sample, which means we can identify exactly where time is being lost in a call – hold time waiting on a system, repeated information requests, unclear escalation paths – and fix the specific cause rather than pressuring agents to simply talk faster. Because this runs across all seven of our operating countries, we can also compare how the same process performs in different markets and apply what works best across the whole account, rather than solving the same AHT problem independently in each location.
Conclusion
AHT goals vary in different organisations. While spending four minutes per call is fine for a few, others might prefer to spend between one to two minutes per call. Therefore, there can never be a defined standard for AHT.
The best way to improve AHT is by effectively planning an organisation’s long-term goals. This, in turn, would be beneficial in defining how the available resources can be used to the best of their ability and allow the delivery of improved customer experience. Above all, it’s best to use AHT and its parameters to attain long-term profitable growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a good AHT benchmark differ across industries?
AHT benchmarks vary significantly by sector because call complexity differs. Financial services and healthcare calls typically run longer due to identity verification and compliance requirements, while retail and telecom support calls tend to be shorter. Comparing your AHT to a generic industry-wide number is less useful than comparing it to businesses handling similarly complex interactions.
How does AHT interact with First Call Resolution (FCR)?
AHT and FCR should always be read together, not in isolation. A short AHT paired with low FCR usually means calls are being resolved too quickly, leading to repeat contacts that cost more in total handling time than one slightly longer, fully resolved call. The healthiest contact centres treat a rising AHT as acceptable if FCR is improving alongside it.
What role does AI play in reducing AHT?
AI can shorten AHT by surfacing relevant knowledge-base articles to agents in real time, automating routine after-call documentation, and routing calls to the agent best suited to resolve them on the first attempt. Used well, AI removes friction from the call rather than pressuring agents to rush the customer conversation itself.
How is AHT tracked and reported in real time?
Modern contact centres use speech analytics and quality monitoring platforms to track AHT continuously across every interaction, rather than relying on periodic manual sampling. This makes it possible to spot AHT spikes tied to a specific issue, agent, or time period as they happen, rather than discovering the trend weeks later in a monthly report.
What’s a realistic AHT target when launching a new support program?
New programs should expect AHT to run higher than mature benchmarks for the first several weeks while agents build familiarity with products and systems. A realistic approach sets an initial target based on comparable programs’ ramp curves, then tightens it in stages as call volume and agent tenure build, rather than expecting benchmark performance from day one.
