Hold Time

Hold Time refers to the time when a customer is already talking with an agent, but the agent puts them on "pause" (usually listening to music) while researching or asking a supervisor for help. This is different than muting the microphone or not talking at all (Dead Air).

Hold Time is a part of the Average Handle Time because it extends the total time of the interactions. If the Hold Time is high, the AHT goes up, which directly impacts both agents and account metrics.

If a specific agent has a very high Hold Time compared to the rest of the team, it usually means they don't know the answers and are spending too much time looking up information. It can also indicate some form of work avoidance.

The Hold Time is normally calculated per interaction, but it can lead to another metric called Average Hold Time. This is calculated very similarly to the Average Handle Time (AHT):

Average Hold Time = Sum of all Hold durations ÷ Total Interactions.

Let's do a quick example:

• Imagine you took 10 calls today.
• On 5 calls, you didn't use hold at all.
• On the other 5 calls, you put customers on hold for various amounts of time.
• In total, your "Total Hold Time" for the day was 300 seconds (5 minutes).
• Average Hold Time = (300 ÷ 10) = 30 seconds.

It is to be noted that QA can evaluate the way the Hold is made, the courtesy around it, and the duration or amount of holds. In many cases, it might be required to ask the customer to be placed on hold and provide expectations about it. For example:

    "May I please place you on a 2-minute hold while I check your invoice for details?".

In this hold script example, we covered three things:

1. Asking the customer for permission to be placed on hold.
2. Providing the amount of time the customer will be on hold.
3. Informing the customer what the hold is going to be used for.

Each client determines if Holds can be used or not, the duration of Holds, the number of Holds per call, and the process to follow before, during, and after a Hold.

Make sure you actually work during a Hold. Most companies nowadays track and record everything we do on our computers (especially if they are company-owned). So if an agent uses the Hold time to talk with a peer or browse their favorite websites while the customer is waiting for that agent to come back, be careful, as someone can be watching this. Such behavior can be considered work avoidance.

Put yourself on the other side: Imagine you call your bank because your card is not working while you are buying groceries, and the agent puts you on hold for several minutes to "research". While you wait, listening to elevator music, the agent is finishing reading the last chapter of a book.

Let's see some more examples to calculate Hold times, assuming the maximum hold time is 3 minutes. Do the math first on your own and then compare the result:

In these examples, even when Agent 1 had several Hold times above the 3-minute restriction, his average Hold time is still within the acceptable range, while Agent 3 is definitely above the expected time (below the goal).