Glossary
ASA (average speed of answer)
Average speed of answer (ASA) is how long a caller waits in the queue, on average, before an agent picks up. Together with service level, it shows whether you have enough agents for your call volume.
Why it mattersLonger waits mean more abandoned calls and unhappy customers.
Also called: Average speed of answer, Average wait time to answer, Average time to answer
ASA = total queue wait time of answered calls / number of answered callsWait time runs from entering the queue to the agent's answer. Calls answered right away count with zero wait. Abandoned calls are excluded.Example
Formula and example
In one day, agents answered 500 calls. Together, those callers spent 7,500 seconds in the queue. ASA = 7,500 / 500 = 15 seconds.
ASA counts only answered calls. How long callers waited before hanging up is measured separately, as average time to abandon. So when the abandonment rate is high, ASA looks better than reality: the longest waits drop out of it.
Metrics
Why ASA alone is not enough
An average hides the spread. An ASA of 15 seconds can mean everyone waited about 15 seconds, or that most callers were answered at once while a few waited several minutes. That is why ASA is read together with other metrics.
- Service level – share of calls answered within the target time
- Longest wait in the interval – the worst case
- Abandonment rate – how many callers hung up while in the queue
Comparison
ASA and service level
Both metrics come from the same wait times, so they are linked. Take a half-hour interval with 100 three-minute calls. With 13 agents, Erlang C gives 79.6% of calls answered within 20 seconds and an ASA of about 17 seconds. With 14 agents, it is 88.8% and about 8 seconds: one more agent cuts the average wait in half.
So with a target of 80% of calls in 20 seconds, ASA usually comes out below 20 seconds. The ASA target of 20-30 seconds that many teams use is noticeably softer. Urgent and premium lines keep ASA under 10 seconds.
Practice
How to cut waiting time
- Calculate the number of agents you need separately for each half hour
- Cut handle time with AI suggestions for agents and an easy-to-use knowledge base
- Offer a callback instead of a long wait
- Hand routine questions to the IVR, a chatbot, or an AI voice agent
- At peak hours, add a backup group to the queue
In CONTACT.WORK
How CONTACT.WORK uses it
Live dashboards show supervisors the queues, the number of waiting callers, and the current service level, so they spot growing waits right away. Callers who have waited too long get an IVR offer to hang up and receive a callback later instead of holding. Shift planning sets staffing for each interval to hit your service level target.
More
Where to use it
Backlinks
Where it appears on the site 3
Glossary