Average handle time (AHT)

Average handle time (AHT) is a contact center metric: the average amount of time a service representative spends on each contact they handle, from the start of the interaction through the work that follows it.

How it is calculated. The generic formula is total handle time divided by the number of handled contacts. Handle time usually has three parts:

• Interaction time. Talking on a call, or actively working a chat or message thread.
• Hold time. Time the customer spends on hold during the contact.
• After-contact work. Notes, forms and follow-up tasks the representative completes after the customer leaves, also called wrap-up.

Definitions differ by platform. The components look standard, but each tool counts them its own way:

• Amazon Connect Customer’s AHT is the average time from start to finish that a contact is connected with an agent, including talk, hold, after-contact work and, for tasks, agent pause time. It covers inbound and outbound calls.
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service counts chat handle time only while the conversation is open in the representative’s active tab, and sums active time across every representative who took part.
• Microsoft Copilot Studio’s metrics reference uses AHT for conversational agents to mean the median elapsed time from session start to resolution, which measures an automated session rather than a person’s time.

So an AHT figure is only comparable with another figure calculated the same way, over the same channels.

What it tells you. AWS’s documentation presents AHT as a measure of agent efficiency and productivity, and a pointer to process and training problems. It says nothing on its own about whether the issue was solved; first contact resolution and customer satisfaction measure that.

With agents in the mix. When an AI agent handles routine contacts and escalates the rest, the contacts left for people are the harder ones, which can raise their average handle time. A structured request from a customer’s agent can also arrive with the order number, account and reason already filled in, which removes the part of a call spent collecting them.

Neighbouring terms. Containment rate measures the contacts that never reach a person’s handle time at all.