Average speed of answer (ASA)
Average speed of answer is the metric showing how long, on average, queued calls wait before an agent answers them.
Average speed of answer (ASA) is the average time answered calls spent waiting in the queue. It sums up the caller's "how long did they keep me waiting?" experience in one number. Measurement usually starts when the call enters the queue and stops when an agent answers; most definitions leave out time spent in the IVR menu. Because ASA covers only answered calls, the waiting endured by callers who gave up is not part of it.
How it works
The formula is total wait time of answered calls ÷ number of answered calls. An average can hide a handful of very long waits, so track it together with the longest wait and the distribution of wait times. ASA and service level are linked but not the same: ASA shows the average, service level the share of calls answered within the target. Nor should ASA be confused with average handle time, which measures how long the call itself takes.
Why it matters
As ASA rises, the abandonment rate usually rises with it. Problems with staffing, break schedules and queue design tend to show up here first. Adding agents is not the only way to bring ASA down: letting a voice agent answer routine requests, offering callbacks at peak times and routing calls to the right queue from the start all reduce the number of callers waiting.
In Speakline
Speakline's queue reports show average and longest wait alongside service level and abandonment rate, and the same reports can be exported as CSV. See Call center for details.