Metrics in Detail

Before You Begin

The Metrics in Detail below assume that you have a good understanding of the basic Key Concepts. If not, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the basic Key Concepts and Reporting Concepts first.

About Metrics in Detail

It’s important to understand how reports are calculated. Specific metrics used in reports are provided and described on a report’s help page. For metrics that require more explanation, Metrics in Detail provides dimensionality to help you understand better how each metric is used to provide data.

Diagrams

Use the legend below to help you understand how to read help diagrams on certain definitions.

Agent Status

Logged In Time

Duration from when an Agent is logged in to when they are logged out.

Away Time

Duration from when an Agent goes away to when they are returned from away or when they are logged out (by either choosing to log out or being logged out automatically after being idle).

Active (Utilized) Time

Duration from when an Agent is logged in to when they are logged out MINUS their Away Time.

Selecting Status

An Agent can select the active status or away status from their profile. Active and Away reasons are configurable.

Automatic Away and Logout

If an Agent is not on a phone call and hasn't moved their mouse within a configurable number of minutes, they will be automatically marked as Away. If the Agent is idle (doesn't move their mouse) for an even longer time, they'll be automatically logged out as set in the Idle Time configuration. Both of the configured Idle time periods begin when the Agent last moved their mouse and/or was no longer on a phone call.

Idle Time

Once the Agent has been automatically marked Away, that moment will be used in reporting their Away time. For example, let's say the configuration marks Agents as Away after 10 minutes of not moving their mouse. If an Agent is idle for 9 minutes, then starts moving their mouse, they will not be marked Away, and the 9 minutes will appear as the time they were active in the system (Active Time). If an Agent is idle for 10 minutes, they'll be marked Away, and the 10 minutes will count towards their Active Time.

To continue the example, imagine that the configuration logs Agents out after 60 minutes of idle time. At 10 minutes, they are marked Away, and if they stay idle for 50 more minutes, the Agent will be automatically logged out.

Reply Time

Average Agent Reply Time

Duration from when a Customer sends a message to when a message is sent by an Agent, including all messages sent between the Contact being fulfilled and ended. If the Customer sends more than one message before the Agent responds, the reply span will be measured from the first Customer message to the first Agent message. As shown in the diagram below as a Duration, those spans are averaged across all the spans in a Contact to arrive at an average.

Average Customer Reply Time

Duration from when an Agent sends a message to when a Customer sends a message, including all messages sent between the Contact being fulfilled and ended. If the Agent sends more than one message before the Customer responds, the reply span will be measured from the first Agent message to the first Customer message. As shown in the diagram below as a Duration, those spans are averaged across all the spans in a Contact to arrive at an average.

Contact Durations

Queued-to-Fulfilled Time

 Duration from when a Contact is queued to when it is fulfilled.

Talk Time

Duration from when an Inbound Contact is fulfilled to ended or an Outbound Contact is answered to ended, minus any Hold Time. This measurement is specific to the Phone Call Channel. 

Hold Time

Duration from when a Hold is started to when it is ended. This measurement is specific to the Phone Call Channel. For Contacts that have multiple Hold spans, the durations are aggregated into a total.

First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First Contact Resolution is when a reported issue is resolved on the Agent’s first interaction with the Customer without any additional follow-up. This metric helps you see, out of Conversations where an Agent and Customer interact, whether the team was able to resolve the Customer’s ask in one interaction.

Calculation

Conversations need to be closed to be considered for the metric, as active Conversations may require followup. 

When calculating a % of Conversations that are FCR, we look at:

FCR Conversations / FCR Eligible Conversations

Not all Closed Conversations are eligible for First Contact Resolution, as outlined in the Denominator section below.

Denominator

Closed Conversations with at least one Contact that are fulfilled by response qualify as FCR Eligible. This helps narrow down the set of Conversations to only those where an Agent and a Customer interacted.

The following are examples of Conversations not FCR eligible, and therefore not included in the denominator:

• If a Conversation only has outbound communications (from Agent to the Customer), and there are no responses from the Customer, the assumption here is that the Customer might not have had an issue to be resolved.
• If a Conversation has only incoming contacts but no response from Agents, the assumption here is that the Agent determined that there wasn’t an issue to resolve. For example, SPAM conversations that are automatically closed would fall in this category and be excluded from the calculation. In these cases, the Agent or a Rule either closed the Conversation or selected “No Reply Needed” rather than responding.
• If a Conversation only has inbound phone calls that were abandoned or forwarded outside of Gladly, the assumption here is that the Customer reached out but did not interact with an Agent.

Click here to learn more about how Contacts are fulfilled and what qualifies for fulfillment.

Numerator

FCR Success is demonstrated in a few ways:

• Closed Conversations with only one Contact fulfilled by a response. For example, if a Customer calls and talks to an Agent and the Conversation is closed at the end of the call. Another example is if the call is answered and transferred outside of the Gladly and the Conversation is closed.
• Closed Conversations with more than one Contact fulfilled by the response, where fulfilling one Contact fulfilled multiple Contacts. For example, if a Customer sends in an email and then chats in when the Agent responds to the chat, it fulfills both the chat Contact and the email Contact.
• Closed Conversations like the two types above, also have outbound Contacts before the fulfillment happened on the inbound Contact(s). For example, if an Agent sent an outbound email, and then the Customer called in and got their questions answered. If, on the other hand, there are outbound Contacts after the fulfillment, the Conversation will be considered non-FCR, because the outbound Contacts are likely to signal that the Customer’s issue was not resolved and required follow-up.

Notes

FCR metrics are attributed to the interval in which the Conversation closed. However, if that Conversation reopens & closes again, the FCR metrics may change as a result.

This definition accounts for the majority of cross-channel scenarios. For example, if the Customer sends an SMS during a phone call or if the customer starts a second messaging Contact just to say “thanks” (after the first contact was ended), these would still be considered an FCR success.

There are some rare scenarios where the above definition is known to have gaps, though these are considered edge cases, and the metric will remain directionally quite accurate.

• Outbound Contacts after the inbound Contacts are fulfilled usually signal follow-up. However, for example, an Agent may decide to send helpful information on a new Channel like SMS after fulfilling a phone call or sending an email after fulfilling a chat session. This definition would consider that as non-FCR.
• Typically, simultaneous active Contacts tend to be fulfilled by the same Contact. However, for example, an Agent and Customer may be interacting on SMS, and then the Customer may initiate a Chat. In this case, if the Agent fulfills the Chat on the first Channel (SMS), the Conversation will be considered FCR Success. But if the Agent fulfills the Chat on the second channel (Chat), it will be considered non-FCR.

Handle Time

Handle Time is a key contact center metric used to assess how efficient your Agents are when they work on Customer questions. 

Customer Handle Time

Time spent on a Customer Profile, whether the Conversation is open or closed.

Conversation Handle Time

Time spent on a Customer Profile during an open Conversation which includes Contact Handle Time and After Contact Time

Contact Handle Time 

Time spent on a Customer Profile during an active Contact. Any Gladly user regardless of role, who views a Customer Profile during an active Contact session contributes to handle time.

When Contact Handle Time is reported on a per-Agent basis, it is labeled as Work Session Handle Time. This refers to the part of the total Contact Handle Time contributed by that specific Agent and is not limited to Contacts accepted on a particular day.

Because Contacts are Channel-specific, and sometimes Contacts on different Channels can overlap or occur simultaneously, Contact Handle Time is attributed to only one Channel/Contact at a given time. Gladly determines which Contact to attribute the handle time to based on a sorted list of Channels, starting with the most synchronous Channel, and ending with the least synchronous. Specifically, that sorted list is:

1.  Phone Call
2.  Chat
3.  SMS
4.  Instagram Direct
5.  Facebook Messenger
6.  Twitter DM
7.  WhatsApp
8.  Email
9.  Voicemail

So, for example, if an Agent is viewing a Customer Profile with an active Phone Call and active SMS exchange, the Contact Handle Time will be attributed to the phone call.

After Contact Time 

Time spent on a Customer Profile after a Contact has ended, but before the Conversation is closed or before another Contact begins. Not limited to Contacts accepted on a particular day. Closing a Conversation stops After Contact Time tracking.

Work Session Handle Time 

See Contact Handle Time above.  

Task Handle Time 

Time spent on a Customer Profile with the right-side panel open to a Task (instead of Answers). Note that any time spent handling a Task is also eligible to count towards Customer Handle Time, Conversation  Handle Time, Contact  Handle Time, or After Contact Time. For example, if an Agent opens the Task panel during a phone call, that time will count towards the Task Handle Time and the Contact (phone call), Conversation, and Customer Handle Times.

Work

When an Agent is logged into Gladly, we can tell what that Agent is viewing on the screen. When an Agent views a Customer’s Profile, we assume that the Agent is working to help that Customer. When the Agent navigates away from the Profile, we assume that the Agent is no longer working to help that Customer. Thus, when an Agent is viewing a Customer’s Profile, we track this time as time an Agent is working on a Customer.  This is the time that we use to calculate handle times.

For Work Sessions reporting, Handle Time is calculated any time an Agent spends on the Customer Profile during an active Contact, regardless of whether they are assigned or have joined. For outbound Contacts, Agents can be assigned manually or are automatically assigned once they send the first message. If an Agent views the Customer's Profile before joining, that Handle Time is tracked for Conversation Handle Time but will not appear in the Work Sessions reports.

Using this definition of work, we can:

• Calculate handle time in an omnichannel world
• Compare handle times across Channels
• Account for Agents working on concurrent Customers without needing an additional Avg. Concurrency metric
• Track a second-by-second view of Agent activity which results in a more accurate handle time

Conversation Handle Time is defined at a high level in the Data Dictionary.

Examples

You may be interested in even more detail on how time is tracked for those situations where Agents’ workflows are more complex. Below are a few scenarios that might occur and how time is tracked in each. Keep in mind the limitations mentioned above if you are looking at Conversation-level or Work Session-level reports.

• Viewing other pages in Gladly – Agent views a Customer Profile on Gladly, then navigates to their Inbox or a Search page. The time before the Agent navigates away from the Profile is tracked as Handle Time for that Customer.
• Viewing other tools – Agent views a Customer Profile on Gladly, then opens a different program to pull up information for that Customer. They have not closed their Gladly tab or navigated to a different page in Gladly, and they have not been marked Away. This time is tracked as Handle Time for that Customer.
• Viewing a new tab – Agent views a Customer Profile on Gladly, then opens a new tab in their browser. They have not closed their Gladly tab or navigated to a different page in Gladly, and they have not been marked Away. This time is tracked as Handle Time for that Customer.
• Multiple tabs with different Customers in Gladly – Agent views Customer Profile A on Gladly in one tab, then opens a new tab with Customer Profile B on Gladly. The time after the Agent opens Profile B is tracked as Handle Time for Customer B.

• Multitasking on a phone call – Agent is on a phone call with Customer A while viewing their Customer Profile on Gladly, then they navigate in Gladly to the Profile for Customer B while they are still on the phone. The time that the Agent is viewing Customer A’s Profile is tracked as Handle Time for Customer A, and the time the Agent is viewing Customer B’s Profile is tracked as Handle Time for Customer B.
• Going idle to Away – Agent views a Customer Profile on Gladly, then walks away from their computer. They have not closed their Gladly tab or navigated to a different page in Gladly, and they have not marked themselves Away. After a period of inactivity (configured by an Administrator), the Agent is marked Away. The time before the Agent is marked Away is tracked as Handle Time for that Customer.
• Going idle to Logged Out – Agent views a Customer Profile on Gladly, then walks away from their computer. They have not closed their Gladly tab or navigated to a different page in Gladly, and they have not marked themselves Away. After a period of inactivity (configured by an Administrator), the Agent is marked Away. Then, after a further period of inactivity, the Agent is logged out. The time before the Agent is marked Away is tracked as Handle Time for that Customer.

Concurrency

Concurrency is a measurement of multi-tasking and is best seen as part of a suite of measurements that, together, help create a picture of Agent efficiency. Concurrency refers to Agents working on more than one Contact at a time, which in back-and-forth messaging exchanges can help cut down on the time Agents are waiting for the Customer to read and type a response. This may be less desirable for voice Channels, where the Agent is expected to remain focused on one Customer to provide a quality experience, or on mail Channels, where it may be more efficient to focus on one Customer at a time.

One helpful way to calculate concurrency is by dividing one-time duration by another time duration. The numerator should be a duration that represents the time an Agent would have needed to spend with a Customer if they were only focusing on one thing. The denominator should be a duration that represents the time an Agent spent working.

Gladly provides one option for the numerator and two options for the denominator.

Numerator:

1. Messaging Work Session Time – Aggregate

Denominator:

1. Messaging Contact Handle Time
2. Messaging Work Session Time – Union

The "Messaging Concurrency" metric provided is a pre-calculated ratio of the numerator with denominator #1 above.

You may be interested in seeing how these ratios impact the overall concurrency metric and see that you can review the detailed examples provided below in more detail.

Concurrency Basic Example

Taking a simplified scenario, in which the bars represent a Contact the Agent is working on. Gray means the Contact is ongoing, and green means the Agent is actively working on that Customer’s Profile. “S” signals when the Agent started working on the Contact and the “E” is when they were done with the Contact.

In this case, the Agent is working on 3 Contacts between 1:00 and 1:12 PM. They spend 4 minutes actively working on each Contact.

As mentioned above, the numerator represents the time an Agent would have needed to spend with a Customer if they were only focusing on one thing.

If you line those up, you would see that the numerator is actually longer than the time span from 1:00 to 1:12. Stacked end-to-end, the numerator is 12+12+12 = 36min.

Meanwhile, for the denominator, we take the green durations and add them together. The green spans never extend beyond the window of time we're examining because they represent the Agent’s work, and the Agent can only ever be in one place at a time.

Together, the denominator is the sum of these times. So, 4+4+4 = 12min.
We then take those two values and divide them:

So, in this case, during the window of time from 1:00-1:12 PM, the Agent’s concurrency is 3.

Concurrency Increasing

You would expect, by extension, that the concurrency would go up (from the concurrency of 3 in the Basic Example above) if the Agent had to do less work overall or if the Agent was juggling even more Contacts.

Here’s an example where the Agent does less work to manage the same number of Contacts:

Here’s an example of an Agent juggling more Contacts:

Concurrency Decreasing

On the other hand, you would expect the concurrency to go down (from the concurrency of 3 in the Basic Example above) if an Agent had fewer Contacts to manage, or those Contacts didn’t take the full span of time you’re looking at.

Here’s an example where the Agent is working on fewer Contacts:

Here’s an example of an Agent working on Contacts that don’t last the full time:

Concurrency Complex Example

Now that we’ve seen the basic principles in play, we can think about a more complex example and see that the same general principles apply. (Gray times represent the amount during the 1-1:12 PM window we’re looking at.)

Concurrency with Union Denominator

One approach to measuring the denominator is only to count the time the Agent is actively working on Customer Profiles, as shown above with the green bars. Another approach is to union, or de-duplicate, any of the times when the Contacts are ongoing for that Agent (the gray bars). The thinking behind this approach is to account for the time the Agent spends away from the Customer Profile as still contributing to working on their active Contacts, though it can account for time not spent working.

If we take the example above, instead of using the green bars, you could union the gray bars into one “flat” purple bar.

So that, instead of 10min, the denominator is now 12min.

So, you can see the impact of using the Messaging Handle Time (green bars) approach as compared to the Union (purple bar) approach. In the former example, the concurrency is 2.8, while in the latter, the concurrency is 2.33.

Note that the Union example above has only overlapping Contacts, but the Union approach could also involve Contacts that do not overlap.

So that in this case, the denominator is 9min.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A Service Level Agreement (or SLA) is the ideal length of time defined by an organization until a Customer is responded to. This includes when a Conversation is marked as “No reply needed.” There are a few other essential things to note about Service Level Agreements in Gladly:  

• The SLA Achievement for a given time period or Channel is the percentage of Inbound Contacts responded to within the defined timeframe. 
• SLAs can be broadly defined for a Channel, specifically for an Inbox, or down to specific Conversations, via Rules. 
• Gladly currently uses the SLA for the most recent Contact within a Conversation to prioritize Customers within an Inbox. In more concrete terms, the closest a Contact is to its defined SLA (or the more above it), the higher it is in the priority list. 
  • The SLA is set (the ‘stopwatch starts’):
    • For phone calls, this is when the Customer completes the IVR session and is forwarded to an endpoint. 
    • For messages (e.g., SMS), it's when it’s received by Gladly. 
    • For voicemails, it's when the Customer finishes leaving their message. 
  • The SLA is fulfilled (the ‘stopwatch ends’ and there is "no reply needed"):
    • For phone calls, this is when it’s answered (or forwarded from the in-queue IVR). 
    • For messages or voicemails, it’s when they're responded to (it doesn’t matter the response Channel).

While there are default SLAs configured in Gladly, you can change these values as needed.