Missed Calls
What Is Average Speed of Answer (ASA)?
Average speed of answer, or ASA, is the average time a caller waits before a person picks up. It is measured in seconds and usually starts after any phone menu, when the caller enters the queue. ASA only counts calls that were answered, so it does not include callers who hung up while waiting.
Key Takeaways
- Formula: total wait time of answered calls ÷ number of answered calls.
- ASA is measured in seconds, and the clock usually starts after the phone menu.
- ASA ignores callers who hung up, so it can look good while you are losing calls.
- The common call center goal is 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds.
How Average Speed of Answer Works
When a caller is waiting for a person, a clock is running. Average speed of answer adds up all those waits and divides by the number of calls. The result is the typical wait, in seconds, for a caller who actually got through.
ASA = total wait time of answered calls ÷ number of answered calls
Two details matter:
- When the clock starts. In most phone systems, ASA starts when the caller enters the queue, which is after they finish the IVR or auto attendant. Time spent pressing buttons in the menu is usually not counted. For a small business with no menu, the clock starts at the first ring.
- Which calls count. Only answered calls. If the caller hung up, their wait is not included. That is important, and we will come back to it.
Example of Average Speed of Answer
An HVAC company gets 100 calls in a day. Ninety are answered. Those 90 callers waited a combined 1,800 seconds. The ASA is:
1,800 ÷ 90 = 20 seconds
That is a solid number by call center standards. But notice the ten calls that were not answered. Those callers might have waited two minutes each before giving up. Their 1,200 seconds of waiting are not in the ASA at all. The real story is a 20-second ASA and a 10% call abandonment rate, and the second number is the one costing money.
What People Get Wrong About Average Speed of Answer
Owners treat a good ASA as proof that the phones are handled. It is not. ASA grades the calls you answered. It says nothing about the calls you lost. A business can improve its ASA by losing more callers, because the impatient ones drop out of the average. That is a number getting better while the business gets worse.
The fix is to never look at ASA alone. Pair it with abandonment rate. If ASA is low and abandonment is low, you are doing well. If ASA is low and abandonment is high, your system is answering the patient callers and losing the urgent ones. The urgent ones are the ones with jobs to book.
ASA vs. Service Level vs. Speed to Lead
Three speed metrics, three different questions:
- ASA asks, "How long did the average answered caller wait?" It is one number, in seconds.
- Service level asks, "What percent of calls were answered within a set time?" The classic goal is 80% within 20 seconds. It is stricter than ASA because a few very long waits can hide inside a decent average.
- Speed to lead asks, "How long did a new lead wait for any response?" It covers calls, forms, and texts, and it is measured in minutes or hours, not seconds.
A big call center tracks all three. A small business mostly needs to know one thing: did the phone get answered, and how fast?
Why It Matters
Long waits turn into abandoned calls, and abandoned callers rarely call back. For a small business, the practical target is not 20 seconds. It is the first ring. That is hard to hit with a crew that is on job sites all day, which is why many owners use an answering service or an AI receptionist. Either one pushes ASA toward a few seconds on every call, including the ones that come in at 9 pm.
The Bottom Line
Average speed of answer is the average seconds a caller waits before a person picks up. The formula is total wait time divided by answered calls. It is useful, but it only grades the calls you answered. Read it next to your abandonment rate, and aim for the first ring, not the industry average.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a good average speed of answer?
- The classic call center target is the "80/20 rule," which means 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds. That works out to an ASA in the range of 20 to 30 seconds for many centers. For a small business, the bar should be higher. A caller with a busted furnace wants a pickup in one or two rings, which is about 5 to 10 seconds.
- How do you calculate average speed of answer?
- Add up the total time every answered caller spent waiting. Divide by the number of calls answered. If 100 callers waited a combined 2,500 seconds, the ASA is 25 seconds. Most phone systems calculate this for you, but check whether the clock starts at the first ring or after the phone menu.
- Does average speed of answer include abandoned calls?
- No. That is its biggest blind spot. ASA only averages the calls that were answered. If a caller waits three minutes and hangs up, that wait never enters the math. So a business can have a great-looking ASA and still be losing a lot of callers. Always read ASA next to call abandonment rate.
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