Average Speed to Answer (ASA)
Average time a customer waits in queue before being connected to an agent
What is Average Speed to Answer (ASA)?
Average speed to answer is the average time customers wait in a queue before an agent responds. It shows how quickly a service picks up contacts.
Long waits frustrate customers and increase abandonment, so it is a core service level measure.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Customer Success & Service
- Sub-function
- Service Delivery
- Industry
- All Industries
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- Efficiency
- Unit
- sec/min
- Measurement frequency
- Daily / Weekly
- Formula
- Total wait time in queue / Number of interactions answered
How to calculate it
Divide total wait time in the queue by the number of interactions answered.
For example, if customers waited a combined 6,000 seconds across 200 answered calls, ASA is 30 seconds.
Measure by time of day and channel, since waits usually peak at certain times, and consider the share answered within a target time as well as the average.
Where it is used
Managing service levels
Track responsiveness.
Planning staffing
Match agents to demand.
Reducing abandonment
Shorten waits.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- The average can hide long waits. Also measure the share answered within target.
- Different channels have different expectations.
- Read with abandonment rate.
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