Handle time metrics

Plans and permissions:

• View metrics in Team performance: Admin or Manager role, or a custom role with Team performance set to Can view and export
• View metrics on anyone’s scorecard: Admin, Manager, or Team Lead role, or a custom role with Agent scorecard set to View all scorecards

Use these definitions to understand how Assembled measures how long contacts take to handle. Case-based handle time comes from your contact platform’s start and end times, which each platform defines differently. Handle time per team member comes from the time each person spends with Zendesk tickets open.

Handle time

Total time to resolve contacts in the selected time range (typically using cases or contacts by created date, depending on the report).

General calculation: time contact ended − time contact started (definition varies by platform and channel)

Note: Case-based handle time isn’t calculated for email. For time your team spends on email cases in Zendesk, use the handle time metrics per team member, such as Agent average handle time.

Platform-specific definitions:

Kustomer

• Phone: conversation end time − first response time, usually Kustomer’s ended time minus the first response time. The exact fields depend on the conversation’s attributes.
• Chat: conversation end time − first response time. If your company ignores bot messages when finding the first response, time handled by a bot isn’t included.

Zendesk

• Zendesk Talk (phone): call end time − call start time, where the end is usually the call’s creation time plus its duration. Waiting and wrap-up time can be excluded, depending on your setup.
• Zendesk Chat: chat end time − first response time, from the Zendesk Chat API and ticket data. Waiting time before the first response and wrap-up time after the chat can be excluded.
• Zendesk messaging and ticket-based chat: usually the solved time minus the first reply time from the ticket’s metrics.

Salesforce

• Case (phone and chat): closed date − first responded time.
• Live chat transcript (chat): end time − start time.

Talkdesk

• Phone: end time − start time. The first response is either the start time plus the wait time, or the start time plus the total time minus the talk time, depending on your setup.

UJET

• Phone: end time − connected time, or queue timing, depending on the call flow.
• Chat: end time − first message sent, starting from the first handling segment.

Five9

• Phone: the call’s duration: (timestamp + call time) − timestamp.

Amazon Connect

• Phone: agent interaction duration + customer hold duration + after contact work duration.

Intercom

• Chat: time of the last admin, lead, or user conversation part − time of the first admin response. Parts written by a bot can be filtered out, depending on the conversation.

Average handle time

Average time to resolve a phone, chat, or SMS contact in the selected time range.

Calculation: sum(handle time) ÷ number of contacts

Notes:

• Excludes email.
• If your company tracks units of work, you see Average handle time per case or Average handle time per unit of work instead.

Average handle time per case

Average time to resolve a phone, chat, or SMS case in the selected time range, if your company tracks units of work.

Calculation: sum(handle time) ÷ number of cases

Average handle time per unit of work

Average time to handle one unit of work within a case (from when that unit of work started to when it ended).

Calculation: sum(handle time for units of work) ÷ number of units of work

Notes:

• Used when cases contain multiple segments (for example reopens, transfers, or multiple handling periods).

Total handle time (units of work)

Total time spent handling all units of work in the selected time range.

Calculation: sum(handle time across units of work)

Handle time per team member

These metrics measure handle time from the team member’s side, using the time people spend viewing tickets, tracked by the Assembled App for Zendesk and, if it’s turned on, the Assembled Chrome extension’s Zendesk activity tracking. They’re available for Zendesk only. For how time is tracked and a worked example, see Agent average handle time.

Common issues

• Handle time in Assembled doesn’t match your platform’s reports: Each platform defines when a contact starts and ends differently. For what to check, see Metric mismatches between reports.