Should You Remove Average Handling Time (AHT) as an Agent Target?

Ben Booth at MaxContact answers the important question on whether or not contact centres should remove AHT as an agent target.

Should You Remove Average Handling Time (AHT) as an Agent Target?

Absolutely not. But it also shouldn’t be used in isolation.

If you use average handle time as a single KPI, it typically drives more customer experience behaviour within the contact centre.

When you target your agents to get off the interaction, that’s not a good customer experience and typically increases the average handle time of the whole journey with repeat interactions.

But it should be used as a leading indicator of problems. So if the average handle time is high, you could look at what’s the reason those interactions are high? Is it a training issue? Is it a certain type of case that people don’t know how to solve?

And you can do something about that. I’d say no KPI should be used in isolation and should always be used in conjunction to give you a full view of what’s going on in the contact centre.

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