Handle time is not impacted by business hours or any shifts that teammate is on.
Handle time will start from the time a teammate clicks on the Reply button in a message, meaning a draft has been started.
If you open conversation A for 5 minutes, then open conversation B, but then return to conversation A and start a draft, the first 5 minutes would not be counted toward conversation A's handle time, since a draft was not started in the first session.
Handle time is counted only for the time a conversation is viewed by a teammate. Ex: Jane opens conversation A, starts a draft and works on it for 1 minute but does not send it. She moves to conversation B for 10 min, goes back to conversation A, works on it for 2 more min and hits send. The handle time recorded will be 3 min.
Handle time is counted for a teammate even if they create a draft, delete it, create a new draft, and send it for the same conversation. Ex: Sophia starts a draft and works on it for 2 minutes then deletes it. She later starts a new draft and works on it for 5 minutes, then sends it. The handle time recorded will be 7 minutes.
Handle time is not recorded if you don't send a reply. If Jane opens conversation 1, read it for 10 min and then moves on, there will be no handle time recorded.
With shared drafts, all handle times are tracked for each teammate separately, but only the handle time of the sender is recorded. Ex: Jane and Mary both work on a shared draft. Jane works on it for 4 min before Mary takes over the draft, works on it for 2 min and hits send. The handle time recorded will be attributed to Mary and will be 2 min.
If multiple teammates draft and send separate replies to the same inbound message, each reply will have its own handle time. e.g. For the same inbound message, if Jane works on a draft for 2 min and sends it, then Sophia works on a new draft for 3 min and sends it, each handle time is recorded and attributed to the teammate who sent each draft.
The analytics track each teammate who replies in a conversation, regardless of the official assignee of the conversation. If a conversation is assigned to Mary, but Sophia responds because she is unavailable, Sophia will get a reaction time, a reply time, and a handle time.
The handle time counter continues to run if you start a draft, then switch browser tabs (if logged into Front via web browser) or switch between apps (if logged into Front via desktop app).
Handle time is capped at 60 min, to eliminate outliers (computer goes to sleep, multiple tabs open, lunch break, etc.). If you take a 59 min lunch break, the best way to handle that is to look at another conversation and then go back to the initial one and start your draft.
See this article for more examples in action.
