What is Average Handle Time?
Average duration to handle a customer contact.
How to calculate it
Calculate Average Handle Time as: Total handling time / Number of contacts. Pull the inputs from your connected data and track the trend over time in your dashboard.
Examples
Example 1
1,000 contacts handled in 7,500 minutes -> 7.5-minute AHT; don't cut it at the cost of resolution.
Example 2
1,000 contacts handled in 7,000 minutes -> 7-minute AHT. A new knowledge base trims it to 6 minutes while FCR holds steady, a genuine efficiency gain.
Why it matters
Average handle time (AHT) is the average duration to handle a customer contact and balances efficiency against resolution quality. It helps with staffing and capacity planning, but it must never be optimized in isolation. Cutting AHT at the expense of first contact resolution simply shifts cost to repeat contacts.
Benchmark context
Varies by channel and complexity; optimize it only alongside FCR and CSAT so faster handling doesn't degrade outcomes.
Common pitfalls
Cutting AHT at the expense of resolution.
Related KPI guides
Turn KPI definitions into governed dashboards
Metricwise helps teams define metrics once, reuse them across dashboards, and ask trusted business questions in plain English.
Get Started