Question
Can you explain why I see different information when using the metric Call wait time instead of Call answer time?
Answer
Both of these metrics are calculated from the end-user's perspective. They count the amount of time the end user waits on a call during specific moments.
The main difference is that Call answer time starts when the customer first picks up the phone to call your number and then calculates the time until the customer's first connection to an agent. Call wait time starts after the customer was initially routed in the system and then calculates the time the customer waits to reach an agent.
See additional clarifications about these two metrics below:
- Call answer time includes the initial queue wait time of the call where the end user is waiting for the first connection to your system or to an agent. Available agent recording time is also included in Call answer time.
- Once a customer is routed, Call wait time calculates the time the customer waits to speak with an agent after that initial route.
- Call wait time does not include the time a customer has spent on hold.
- Call wait time can include the total duration a call spends in various queues. This includes any subsequent queue times for example, when a call is transferred from one group to another. In certain scenarios, the Call wait time may be greater than the Call answer time.
- Call answer time would not include the time a customer spends waiting while being transferred or any voicemails left by the same number.
For more available metrics and attributes, see the article: Metrics and attributes for Zendesk Talk.
Examples
For example, if a call is abandoned by the end user in the IVR, Call answer time becomes null. After IVR, Call wait time would start calculating the time until the agent answered or the end user gave up and disconnected the call.
The following customer experience below highlights another example of these metrics.
- A customer dials your customer support number and the phone rings.
- The call is answered by a welcome message or IVR.
- The customer selects their routing option and waits for the next available agent.
- Your Talk account locates an available agent and starts to ring the agent.
- The agent answers and the call begins.
Steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 are counted when calculating Call answer time. Steps 3 and 4 are counted to calculate Call wait time.
The definitions of these two metrics are listed in the article: Key call metrics.
13 Comments
Is there a way in Explore to show a call that had the longest Call Wait time for a specific day?
Hi Andres,
You can build a query with the native metric Call wait time, sliced by Ticket or Call ID and any other attributes that you need to display. Filter the query by the date that you need to report on. Then, head over to the Result Manipulation menu → Top/bottom, and then set the query to only display the Top 1 result. (see Creating a top/bottom filter). The report should now show the call/ticket with the highest Call wait time.
Hope this helps. Thanks Andres!
Hi,
Is it possible to subtract the time spent in queue from the Call wait time so I would have just the agent routing and pick up? Is there a way to build a calculated metric for that?
Thanks,
Bruno
Hey @...! The time spent in the queue is the same time it takes for the call to be routed to the agent and for them to pick up, which is the Call wait time metric. The Call wait time does not include the time spend in the IVR, rather wait time starts calculating once out of the IVR, until the time the agent picks up (assuming the call was actually routed to available agents via the options selected in the IVR).
In other words, subtracting "time spent in queue" from Call wait time would always be 0, as that is the same thing.
Hey @..., thanks for getting back to me.
I got it. Still, I am not quite sure that's what I need. What I am actually looking for is how long an agent takes to pick up a call once it has been routed to them. In other words, the call "ringing" time.
I have marked the image below with two red arrows on the exact interval I would like to report on.
Does that make sense? Would it be possible?
Thanks!
Thanks for the graphic, as that does help illustrate what you are wanting to measure. At this time, we don't have a way to report on the time it takes for the agent to accept the call once they are shown it in Zendesk.
No worries @.... Thanks a lot anyway :)
I would like some help to understand Call Wait Time. In my settings, I have a maximum queue wait time of 10 minutes, or 600 seconds. Why then do I see some calls have a Call Wait Time of 800 seconds or greater? I would assume since it disregards voicemail that nothing else could really add to this number.
The only other thing I can think of is Callback is factored into this metric, which wouldn't be very helpful as we're using Callback to alleviate the time customers wait in queue.
Is there a good way of showing only the time customers are actually on the line waiting for a call to be received?
Maximum queue wait time is ignored when a call is transferred – could that explain what you're seeing? When is maximum queue wait time ignored?
Our calls are not set up to transfer at any point. I think my issue for some reason what that I was using the metric SUM(call wait time). I changed to MAX(call wait time) and it looks much more akin to my expectations.
I checked this with MAX(call talk time) as well and it seems more accurate.
Do you know why using the SUM option seems to double the listed time?
Can I ask if there are any plans to provide the Pick-Up or Speed to Answer time (as Bruno had asked earlier in the thread) for agents in the future? - Thanks!
Hi Sabra is there any update on the request from Bruno Menezes and Whitney? I would also really like the ability on how quickly agents answer after a call is routed to them. Thank you!
Please sign in to leave a comment.