What is average handle time (AHT)?
Average handle time (AHT) is the average length of a customer interaction from start to finish, including talk time, hold time and the after-call work an agent does to wrap up. It is calculated as total talk, hold and after-call time divided by the number of calls handled.
AHT drives staffing: every extra minute per call multiplies across the queue. Pushing it down too hard backfires, because rushed calls come back as repeat calls. The full explanation, with benchmarks by industry, is in What is average handle time?, and the Erlang calculator shows how AHT changes the number of agents you need.