What is the difference between the answered and handle metrics?

Answered and Handle metrics measure two different actions during an interaction.

• Answered counts how many times an agent accepted an ACD routed conversation that was waiting in the queue.
• Handle counts how many interactions an agent took part in where they spent time contacting, dialing, talking, placing holds, or engaging in after call work.

For example:

Scenario 1: Transferred to Agent
Agent A is the first to accept an incoming call. Agent A talks to the customer and transfers the call to Agent B, who also talks to the customer and completes the interaction.
For this interaction: Agent A has one Answered, and one Handle. Agent B has zero Answered, and one Handle.

Scenario 2: Transferred to Queue
Agent A is the first to accept an incoming call inbound from Queue A. Agent A talks to the customer and transfers the call to Queue B. Agent B receives the ACD routed call from Queue B who also talks to the customer and completes the interaction.
For this interaction: Agent A has one Answered, and one Handle. Agent B has one Answered, and one Handle.

Answered and Handle also differ when Genesys Cloud counts them.

• Answered counts the interval when the agent answered the interaction.
• Handle counts in the interval when all segments for the agent’s handle time (contacting, dialing, talking, hold, and ACW) have been completed. Typically, this occurs when wrap up is submitted.

For example, an agent answers a call at 10:25 AM and ends the call at 10:45 AM. The answered metric for the agent and interaction would count in the 10:00 AM interval. The handle metric would count in the 10:30 interval.