What a ten per cent cut in handle time is worth
Handle time multiplies every interval's workload. What a 10% reduction does to agents required, occupancy and FTE, and why it beats most forecast improvements.
Published
Every staffing chain on this site multiplies contacts by handle time before it does anything else. That makes handle time the one input that moves every interval at once, and a small change to it worth more than most planners expect. This guide puts numbers on a ten per cent reduction, from one interval to the FTE figure, and explains which reductions are real.
One interval
The reference interval: 200 contacts in thirty minutes at a 300-second handle time, an 80/20 target.
| Handle time | Erlangs | Agents for 80/20 | Occupancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 s | 33.3 | 39 | 85.5% |
| 270 s | 30.0 | 35 | 85.7% |
Ten per cent off handle time takes ten per cent off the erlangs and four agents off the requirement, which is also ten per cent. The relationship is close to linear near the operating point: Erlang slack stays roughly proportional, and occupancy barely moves.
The whole week
Run the same change through the week planner with the reference day, 3,000 contacts across 08:00 to 20:00 with a double peak, 85 per cent occupancy ceiling, 30 per cent shrinkage and 90 per cent roster efficiency:
| Handle time | Peak scheduled | Agent-hours a week | FTE at 90% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 s | 53 | 2,225 | 65.9 |
| 270 s | 48 | 2,028 | 60.1 |
Nearly six FTE. Not from a better forecast, not from a cleverer roster: from thirty seconds a call. A forecast improvement of the same size, ten per cent less error, is worth a fraction of that, because forecast error only costs you in the intervals where it lands, while handle time costs you in all of them.
Where the thirty seconds come from
The AHT calculator splits handle time into talk, hold and after-call work, and the split tells you where to look.
- Hold is the cleanest target. Time on hold is time the agent is looking something up or asking someone. A knowledge base that answers the question, or a screen that shows the account, removes it without asking the agent to do anything faster.
- After-call work is the second. Wrap-up that is typing notes a system could pre-fill, or a disposition code list of forty items, is minutes a day per agent.
- Talk time is the one to leave alone. Reductions here come from scripts and pressure, and they come back as repeat contacts and attrition. A call that takes thirty seconds longer and resolves the issue is cheaper than two calls.
- Repeat contacts are handle time’s hidden partner. A ten per cent cut in repeat contacts is a ten per cent cut in volume, which is worth exactly the same as a ten per cent cut in handle time, and it usually comes from the same fix.
Try it with your own numbers
Enter your talk, hold and wrap totals. Then take thirty seconds off hold and see what the day’s workload does.
Talk plus hold plus after-call work, per contact.
- Talk per contact
- 4.0 min
- Hold per contact
- 30.0 s
- After-call work per contact
- 45.0 s
- Handling work per day
- 262.5 h
Before shrinkage and Erlang slack.
Show the working
- AHT = (240000 talk + 30000 hold + 45000 wrap) ÷ 1000 contacts = 315.0 s.
- Talk is 76.2% of handle time, hold 9.5%, wrap 14.3%.
- 3000 contacts × 315.0 s ÷ 3,600 = 262.5 hours of handling a day.
Doing this for every interval of the week? Pebble WFM computes the requirement from your forecast and builds the roster. Free month, no card needed.
Where next
- How to calculate Erlang C staffing: why the agent count moves in step with the erlangs.
- How to calculate FTE from contact volume: the chain that turned thirty seconds into six FTE.
Frequently asked questions
- Is reducing AHT always worth it?
- Only if it comes from removing waste: hold time spent looking things up, wrap-up that a better system would do, repeat contacts from unresolved first calls. Cutting it by pressing agents to talk faster raises repeat contacts and attrition, and both cost more than the seconds saved.
- Should I reduce AHT or add agents?
- They are the same currency. Ten per cent off handle time is worth about ten per cent of the requirement, so a centre of 60 FTE is looking at roughly six FTE. Compare the cost of the process change against six salaries and the answer is usually the process change, once.
Stop doing this one interval at a time
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