After Call Work (ACW)
After Call Work (ACW)
After Call Work (ACW), also known as wrap-up time, refers to the tasks an agent performs immediately after finishing a customer interaction — logging notes, tagging the conversation, sending follow-ups, or updating systems. It’s not customer-facing, but it’s still part of the job. If you don’t track it, you’re missing a big part of your operation’s reality.
What ACW Tells You
ACW is often treated as a secondary metric — something to shave down as a cost center. That’s shortsighted. High ACW could indicate poor tooling, confusing workflows, or a broken knowledge system. Low ACW might look efficient, but could just mean agents are skipping documentation or rushing to hit handle time targets.
Interpreted correctly, ACW helps you:
- Understand the true length of an interaction beyond talk time
- Diagnose process friction and UX issues in agent tools
- Detect overload or multitasking creep
- Improve forecasting accuracy by including total workload
Formula
This is usually reported in seconds or minutes per interaction.
A Few Vitalogy Notes
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Context is critical. Don’t benchmark ACW blindly across teams. A complex tech support issue requires more documentation than a password reset. Calibrate ACW expectations to conversation type.
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Design matters. If it takes 60 clicks to log a call, your ACW isn’t an agent issue — it’s a design issue.
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Coaching opportunity. High individual ACW? It might be a sign that a rep is overdocumenting, second-guessing, or lacks fluency in tooling. Or, they might just be your most thorough agent. Don’t penalize without context.
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Don’t isolate the metric. Combine ACW with AHT, FCR, and QA signals. Sometimes agents with high ACW also have high resolution and customer satisfaction scores. Let the metrics talk to each other.
What to Watch
| Signal | What It Might Mean |
|---|---|
| Rising ACW | Tooling slowdown, new systems, or complex cases |
| High ACW + Low AHT | Agent may be rushing calls and overcompensating in wrap-up |
| Low ACW + QA Failures | Agents skipping post-call diligence |
| Variance by channel | Chats typically have lower ACW than calls — if not, investigate |
Final Word
ACW isn’t fluff. It’s where the work after the work happens — and if you want a clear picture of performance, process, and pressure, you have to measure it properly. Clean workflows, smart defaults, and contextual coaching can all bring ACW into a healthy range without sacrificing quality.