Question
In the Messaging tickets dataset, how is the Handle time metric being calculated?
Answer
The Handle time metric is the time agents spend interacting with an end user on a messaging ticket. The metric is measured per ticket.
The handle time of a ticket is an aggregation of the time between the start/restart and pause events (mentioned below) with at least one agent message sent.
The timer starts or restarts when:
- The agent is first assigned to the ticket. (Start)
- The end user sends a response, reopening the ticket. (Restart)
- The agent sends a message to a Pending, On-hold, or Solved ticket. (Restart)
The timer pauses when:
- The ticket is submitted as Pending, On-hold, or Solved.
- The ticket is unassigned from the agent or re-assigned to another group or agent.
- The ticket is deleted.
- The agent’s capacity is released automatically after 10 minutes of no messages from the end user.
If an agent sends a message to a Pending/On-hold/Solved ticket, the few seconds involved in sending the message counts toward the Handle time metric. If an end user sends a message to a Pending/On-hold/Solved ticket, the few seconds involved in sending the message also counts toward the Handle time metric. The end user’s message counts because it reopens the ticket, restarting the timer. However, because the agent is not available at the moment, the timer pauses when the message is received.
Consider the following example:
- At 9:00 AM, an agent is assigned to a ticket.
At 9:05 AM, the agent responds to the ticket.
At 9:06 AM, the agent solves the ticket.
At 9:06, the handle time for that ticket is calculated as being 6 minutes. Prior to 9:06, the handle time couldn’t have been calculated because not all the required steps had been completed yet (start event, agent message, and pause/end event).
If the agent didn’t respond and instead simply solved the ticket, no handle time would be calculated because no agent reply was sent.
For more information, see these articles:
13 comments
Nick
Erin O'Callaghan Is the handle time calculated for each agent separately in case there is more than one agent working with the same messaging ticket?
For example, agent A started working with a ticket, in 15 minutes agent's shift is over and the ticket is reassigned to agent B who worked with the ticket for another 10 minutes. In the ZD statistics, will both numbers be added to the median handle time calculation of each agent?
1
Prakruti Hindia
Hi Nick,
Handle time is measured per messaging ticket, not per agent. In this example, the handle time of the ticket should be the total time spent by Agent A and Agent B and median handle time would be median of total handle time per messaging ticket across all messaging tickets.
Thanks,
Prakruti
-1
Cam
Prakruti Hindia Is there a way to measure handling time per agent in messaging?
1
Alex Zheng
The best way to split it up would be to use the assignee name attribute. The only issue would be tickets if the assignee is changed later on or if there are multiple agents on the ticket itself.
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Ryen Manes
If the ticket is idle for 10 minutes and no messages are sent so the agents capacity is released, is the 10 min of idle time included in the handle time?
Or is the 10 min of idle time subtracted from their handle time?
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Alex Zheng
If the agent does not send a single message while the end user was there then no handle time is considered. If the agent sends a message and then 10 minutes go by without any messages then those 10 minutes would be included in the handle time as long as none of the other pause conditions are met.
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Katleen Crawley
Hey Alex,
Just want to make sure I understand more about the idle tickets.
If an agent sent a first reply on a message that an end user was already idle on, and the end user then never responds this would have no handle time associated to it because the user was not there to receive/respond to the first reply? Or does the 10 minute idle count down restart because the agent sent a message so it would show a minimum of 10 minute handle time so long as the other pause conditions are not met.
Thanks!
0
Elaine
If an agent sends a first reply to an idle user who doesn't respond afterward, usually, there won't be much or any Handle Time. The 10-minute idle countdown doesn't restart because the agent replied. If the user remains idle without responding, the Handle Time will likely be minimal or zero as the user wasn't active to receive or reply to the agent's message.
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Ahmed Helmy
How can I calculate the AHT for each agent separately? for example if I have a messaging ticket that got reopened. Agent A and B worked on it, I want the handle time for agent A and B.
If there's no way for this, is there any work around I can do?
2
Chad Mitrado
Ahmed Helmy. Did you find any workaround for this?
ZD Team, any update on this, please? I have the same concern.
2
Danielle
Hi! Could this be defined more clearly please ‘because the agent is not available at the moment?’
What defines unavailable? They are in a status that is offline for messaging? Thank you
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Akshay Gupta
Zendesk Team - This is left unanswered, is there any way to calculate AHT/CSAT at a agent level ?
1
Elaine
To calculate the Average Handle Time (AHT) for each agent individually on a ticket that has been reopened and worked on by multiple agents, you can leverage the Time Tracking app in Zendesk. The app measures the time spent per update or per ticket, which allows you to track the handling time per agent separately. Here's how it works:
More details on setting up and using the Time Tracking app to generate these reports can be found in Zendesk's guide on time tracking metric.
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