Handle time (avg)

Track the amount of time spent crafting a response. This is an internal/productivity point-of-view metric focused solely on how long a teammate works on writing a message.

Example use case: Charlie always has a much lower handle time because he leverages message templates to reduce the time spent writing each reply.

The average handle time is how long a teammate spends actively working with the conversation open, from the time a draft is started to the time the message is sent.
 

Starting a draft is a requirement for registering handle time. The timer does not begin to record the metric until you open a draft. This is a crucial productivity metric that helps you track how long your teammates spend working on conversations.

• Overview report
  • Main Metrics cards
  • Changes Over Time graph
• Team Performance report
  • Main Metrics cards
  • Team Performance table - Time is counted for the teammate who sent the message.
• Tags report
  • Tag Details table - Time is counted for a tag if currently labeled with the tag.
• Message Templates report
  • Message Template Details table - Attributed to the message template used.

• 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.
• Handle time is used to measure the time spent actually working on crafting a reply. It is a great tool to measure the work a teammate has to put into answering an individual email.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.