It comes from contact centre operations, where it feeds directly into staffing forecasts. Total handling time divided by number of interactions gives the figure, and it usually includes after-call work, the notes and admin that happen once the customer has gone.
AHT is the classic metric that goes wrong when treated as a target. Push it down hard enough and people start rushing customers off, which raises repeat contacts and wrecks first-contact resolution. It is best used as a capacity planning input, not a performance scoreboard.
The version that matters for a small business is your own time. Every repeat question about opening hours or service area is handling time you are personally paying for, which is why automating the repetitive questions frees more capacity than shaving seconds off the conversations that genuinely need you.
Related guides
Related terms
Browse all 104 terms- Speed to leadSpeed to lead is how quickly a business responds to a new enquiry, and it's one of the strongest predictors of whether that enquiry becomes a customer.
- Buffer TimeBuffer time is the gap deliberately left between appointments to absorb travel, setup, paperwork and jobs that run over. It is scheduled empty space that exists so the rest of the day stays on time.
- First response timeFirst response time (FRT) is the elapsed time between a customer's first message and the first meaningful reply from the business. It is a standard support and sales metric because it measures how long someone is left waiting before they know a human or system has engaged with their request.
- Customer effort scoreCustomer effort score (CES) measures how much effort a customer had to expend to get their issue resolved, based on the idea that making things easy predicts loyalty better than delighting people does.