Reducing Wrap-Up Time and increasing efficiency with AI

• Technology

| September 7, 2026

 

Wrap-Up time: what is it and which activities does it include?

Wrap-Up Time, also known as After Call Work (ACW), refers to the time after a call has ended during which a Contact Centre agent needs to record, classify and complete the handling of the interaction.

 

Wrap-Up Time generally begins when the conversation with a customer ends and concludes when the agent becomes available to handle a new contact. During this period, the agent may be required to:

 

• Update customer data: enter notes about the conversation, the outcome of the contact, classification codes and any additional information collected during the call into the CRM;

 

• Classify and code the call: assign the conversation the correct category, reason for contact and closure code, according to the procedures defined by the organisation;

 

• Manage tickets and cases: close, update or forward tickets and cases to other agents, departments or support levels when required;

 

• Complete follow-up actions: send any necessary follow-up communications, schedule callbacks or plan the next steps required as a result of the call;

 

• Document the interaction: record all relevant information needed to ensure traceability and enable agents handling subsequent contacts to reconstruct the interaction;

 

• Close the conversation: check that all information has been recorded correctly and archive or close the case before becoming available for the next call;

 

• Update the request status: change the status of the case or request in the system – for example, open, in progress, resolved, forwarded or awaiting action – when required by the relevant procedure;

 

• Review and verify information: check any data, documents or information needed to complete the request correctly after the conversation has ended.

 

How is After Call Work calculated?

To calculate the duration of this post-interaction work, divide the total number of minutes spent on post-call activities by the number of calls handled during the same period.

 

Although there is no single average post-call time that applies to every Contact Centre, it can generally range from 20 seconds in sales and retail environments to 180 seconds in healthcare and financial services.

 

Together with talk time and hold time, Wrap-Up Time contributes to the AHT (Average Handling Time). Contact Centre managers often look for ways to reduce it in order to improve efficiency without compromising service quality.

 

What determines the duration of Wrap-Up Time?

The time spent on post-call activities can vary significantly depending on a range of factors, including:

 

• Type and complexity of the request: the type of service, customer characteristics and industry;

• Post-interaction activities: entering notes and information, opening or updating tickets, transfers and follow-ups;

• Systems and tools used: including their level of integration;

• Internal procedures and record-keeping requirements;

• Agent familiarity with procedures and systems;

• Contact channel used;

• How ACW is measured.

 

Why is post-call time important for a Contact Centre?

The time spent on post-call activities is a significant component of resource management in a Contact Centre. While these activities are necessary to ensure that interactions are properly recorded and managed, excessive post-call time can affect operational efficiency, agent availability, and the Contact Centre’s overall capacity.

 

For this reason, monitoring and optimising this metric is particularly important, both.

 

Key areas to consider include:

 

• Efficiency and operational capacity: reducing post-call time allows agents to become available again more quickly;

 

• Service quality and continuity: accurately recording information reduces errors and makes it easier to manage subsequent interactions;

 

• Traceability and case management: correctly updating, transferring and closing tickets ensures complete and traceable case management;

 

• Performance monitoring: ACW and Average Handle Time data help assess performance and identify potential inefficiencies;

 

• Identifying opportunities for improvement: identifying repetitive procedures and processes that could be simplified, automated, or eliminated.

 

Average Handle Time: why reduce it

Reducing Wrap-Up Time represents an important optimisation opportunity for Contact Centres. Addressing post-call activities can reduce overall handling time without necessarily shortening the conversation with the customer or compromising the quality of the interaction.

 

Even seemingly small differences can have a significant impact when multiplied across a high volume of contacts. For example, assuming 200 calls per day, an additional 30 seconds of post-call activity amounts to 100 minutes of work per day – equivalent to 1 hour and 40 minutes of operational capacity. Reducing the time spent on these activities therefore allows agents to become available more quickly for the next contact, increasing the Contact Centre’s overall capacity.

 

The goal is not to eliminate necessary activities or simply perform them faster. Instead, it is about reducing the time agents need to spend on repetitive, low-value tasks. One of the key opportunities for reducing post-call time is to automate the activities that follow the conversation. Transcribing the interaction, identifying relevant information, creating a summary, classifying the reason for contact and updating the CRM can all take up valuable agent time – particularly when these tasks have to be completed manually for every interaction.

 

How to reduce post-call activities

This is where BeInContact by BeCloud Solutions comes in, integrating AI Transcription & Summarization capabilities designed to automate post-interaction activities.

 

At the end of the conversation, AI automatically generates a transcription and a customisable summary, extracting information such as Reason for Contact, Outcome and Next Step and transforming it into structured content for the CRM. Agents can therefore access the key information from a conversation within seconds, without having to listen back to the recording or manually write a summary.

 

Potential Use Cases

• Healthcare: AI can extract relevant information from the conversation, recognise medications and other details mentioned by the patient, and automatically organise the content into a structured summary ready to be reviewed and used within the organisation’s systems;

 

• E-commerce: AI identifies the reason for contact — for example, a request to change a size or a faulty product — and generates a structured CRM note including the outcome and any subsequent actions, such as a refund or replacement shipment;

 

• Automotive: AI can identify mechanical issues described by the customer during the conversation and organise the relevant information, helping teams prepare the activities and checks to be carried out in the workshop.

 

The benefit is therefore not simply the automatic transcription of a conversation, but the ability to turn what the customer says into structured, immediately usable information.

 

This means that part of the manual work that would normally make up Wrap-Up Time can be automated, leaving agents to verify the information and focus on higher-value activities.

 

Click here to download for free the eBook.