What is Average Speed of Answer (ASA)?

Average Speed of Answer (ASA) is the average number of seconds an inbound call spends in the queue between joining it and being connected to a live agent. It is one of the headline contact-center KPIs because it directly captures how long the customer waited before service started, in plain seconds rather than a percentile or a target band.

How ASA is calculated

The standard formula is:

ASA = Total queue wait time (seconds) ÷ Number of calls answered

Only answered calls are included in the denominator. Abandoned calls are excluded — those go into abandon rate. Some operations also exclude time spent in the IVR before queue entry, because routing time is a different problem from wait time.

A call that enters the queue and is answered after 47 seconds contributes 47 seconds. The ASA for the shift is the mean of every answered call’s wait.

ASA vs. service level

The two metrics measure the same waiting period but in different shapes:

• ASA is a single average number — the mean wait.
• Service level is a percentage of calls answered within a fixed threshold — typically “80% in 20 seconds” (the 80/20 target).

A median-friendly ASA can hide a tail of very long waits, which is why service level is usually the primary commitment in an SLA and ASA is the supporting metric. Reporting both prevents either from being gamed in isolation.

What is a good ASA?

Benchmarks vary by sector but the conventional bands are:

• High-touch service and sales: under 20 seconds — feels immediate to the caller.
• Standard customer service: 20 to 40 seconds — the typical operating band.
• High-volume transactional support: 40 to 60 seconds when paired with a strong callback and a clear estimated-wait announcement.

ASA over 60 seconds without an offered callback is a strong predictor of climbing abandon rate and falling CSAT.

What drives ASA up or down

• Staffing accuracy vs. forecast — the primary lever, owned by workforce management.
• Average handle time changes — longer calls hold agents longer and lengthen everyone else’s wait.
• Skills-based routing tuning — narrow routing protects specialists but pushes ASA up on niche queues; cross-training generalists pulls it down.
• Schedule adherence — agents off-phone during a peak push ASA up fast.
• Volume spikes vs. forecast — outages, weather, marketing campaigns; the operation either flexes or the ASA balloons.

Average speed of answer frequently asked questions

What does ASA mean in a call center?

ASA stands for Average Speed of Answer. It is the mean number of seconds an inbound call spends waiting in queue before a live agent picks up. ASA is a primary KPI alongside service level and abandon rate.

How is ASA calculated?

ASA equals total queue wait time across answered calls divided by the number of answered calls. Only calls that an agent actually picked up are included; abandons are tracked separately. Some operations also subtract IVR time so the metric reflects queue wait only.

What is a good average speed of answer?

A widely used target is under 30 seconds for standard customer service and under 20 seconds for sales or high-touch service. The right ASA depends on the agreed service-level target — usually 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds — and the cost of each lost contact.

Is ASA the same as service level?

No. ASA is a single average — the mean wait in seconds. Service level is the percentage of calls answered within a fixed threshold. ASA can look healthy while service level is missed if long-tail waits are dragging the percentile but not the mean. Both should be reported together.

See how DialPhone fits

DialPhone’s contact center reports ASA by queue, time of day, and skill alongside service level, abandon rate, and occupancy — so the operations team can see why ASA moved on any given interval, not just that it moved.