A Contact Trace Record (CTR) is an immutable JSON document that Amazon Connect generates for every contact — voice call, chat, or task. It captures the complete lifecycle of a contact: when it initiated, how long it waited in queue, which agent handled it, how long they spoke, hold times, ACW duration, disconnect reason, and much more. CTRs are essential for quality management, compliance, billing reconciliation, and performance analytics.
What is an Amazon Connect CTR and where do I find it?
A CTR (Contact Trace Record) is the official JSON record for every contact in Amazon Connect. You can access CTRs via: Amazon Kinesis Data Stream (real-time), Amazon S3 (storage), Amazon Connect APIs (GetContactAttributes, DescribeContact), or the Contact Search UI in the Connect console. CTRs are retained for 24 months by default.
What is the difference between AgentInteractionDuration and ConnectedToAgentTimestamp?
ConnectedToAgentTimestamp is the wall-clock time when the agent accepted the contact. AgentInteractionDuration is the total seconds the agent was actively talking (excluding hold time). A contact with 300s AgentInteractionDuration and 60s CustomerHoldDuration had a total connected time of 360s. ACW (After Contact Work) is tracked separately as AfterContactWorkDuration.
What are the possible values for InitiationMethod in a CTR?
INBOUND (customer called), OUTBOUND (agent/auto-dialer initiated call), TRANSFER (transferred from another agent), CALLBACK (customer requested callback), API (initiated via CreateContact API), QUEUE_TRANSFER (transferred to a different queue), DISCONNECT (contact was ended), MONITOR (supervisor barge-in), EXTERNAL_OUTBOUND (outbound to external party).
What is handle time in Amazon Connect and how is it calculated?
Handle Time = AgentInteractionDuration + CustomerHoldDuration + AfterContactWorkDuration. It represents the total time an agent spent on a contact from pickup to completing ACW. Amazon Connect also reports Average Handle Time (AHT) as a real-time and historical metric in the Contact Control Panel and reporting dashboards.
What does DisconnectReason tell you about a contact?
CUSTOMER_DISCONNECT: customer hung up. AGENT_DISCONNECT: agent ended the call. CONTACT_FLOW_DISCONNECT: the flow ended the contact (often abandoned in queue). EXPIRED: contact exceeded timeout. OUTBOUND_CONTACT_ABANDONED: nobody answered an outbound call. API: programmatically ended. TRANSFER_FAILED: transfer attempt failed. High CONTACT_FLOW_DISCONNECT rates usually indicate queue abandonment issues.
What Contact Lens data appears in a CTR?
When Contact Lens is enabled, CTRs include: SentimentScore (per-turn sentiment for agent and customer, -5 to +5), Categories (matched rules like "complaints" or "escalations"), Issues (auto-detected topics), OutcomeCodes (call outcomes), ActionItems (follow-up tasks), and ConversationalCharacteristics (talk time, interruptions, non-talk time). Contact Lens data is appended after the recording is processed, typically within minutes.
