Time-on-task: The technical stuff

Dig into the nitty-gritty of how time-on-task scores are calculated.

Elva avatar
Written by Elva
Updated over a week ago

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Want to dig into the technical nitty-gritty of how time-on-task scores are calculated? Let's dive in 🤿

What we track

  • Surfboard uses the metadata attached to tickets in your linked ticketing systems to identify which tickets surfers worked on and at what time.

  • We use the email addresses to match the surfers in your ticketing system to their Surfboard profile.

  • Surfboard creates a timestamp every time a 'comment' is made on a ticket or the 'status' (open, closed or on-hold) of a ticket changes. This includes the email address of the surfer who did that action.

How we work out how much time surfers spend

  • To work out how much time a surfer spent on a ticket, Surfboard uses the AHT (average handle time) for the ticket group linked to the activity that was scheduled at that time.

  • The type of action logged determines how this AHT is used. In these examples we'll assume AHT is 300s for simplicity:

    • Comments: We count backwards from the timestamp using AHT as we assume the surfer was writing before sending the comment. (e.g. comment made at 9:05. 9:05 minus 300s AHT = 9:00. We assume the surfer worked for 5 mins)

    • Open: We count forwards from the timestamp using AHT as we assume the surfer will read or work the ticket from that time. (e.g. ticket opened at 10:00. 10:00 plus 300s AHT = 10:05. We assume the surfer worked for 5 mins)

    • Closed: We count backwards from the timestamp using AHT as we assume the surfer was working the ticket before closing it. (e.g. ticket closed at 12:00. 12:00 minus 300s AHT = 11:55. We assume the surfer worked for 5 mins)

    • On hold: We count backwards from the timestamp using AHT as we assume the surfer was working the ticket before putting it on-hold. (e.g. ticket put on-hold at 13:30. 13:30 minus 300s AHT = 13:25. We assume the surfer worked for 5 mins)

  • Surfers get a 120s (2min) grace period after closing a ticket. This time will always be counted on-task. This is to reflect the natural time lost when closing a ticket and opening a new one to work.

  • AHT is stretched to 125% when a surfer has opened or worked on the same ticket in succession. We assume the surfer worked on this ticket for that duration so we do this to avoid awkward gaps.

  • Surfboard uses 'friendly time' when a surfer is changing scheduled activities. Friendly time is the time the activity was scheduled plus AHT. (e.g. Sam is switching from Phone to Email at 10:00. Sam does not work any tickets until 10:04. Friendly time has applied, adding AHT of 300s to 10:00, giving a grace period of 5mins to prevent his score from dropping while he switches to the new activity)

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