Average speed of answer (ASA) is the mean time a customer waits in a queue before a support agent connects. It measures the wait between a contact arriving and someone responding to it, and it is reported in seconds or minutes.
ASA originated as a call-center metric, where it tracks how long callers wait on hold before an agent picks up. It now applies to any queued channel, including chat and messaging, where it measures how long a contact sits before an agent engages. ASA is typically calculated by dividing total wait time by the number of answered contacts in a period.
ASA vs service level at a glance
| Dimension | ASA | Service level |
|---|---|---|
| What is measured | average wait before an agent connects | share of contacts answered within a target time |
| Unit | seconds or minutes | percentage against a threshold |
| What it hides | long-tail waits buried in the average | how long the contacts that missed the target waited |
ASA describes the queue, so it is only as meaningful as the queue is necessary. Adding staff lowers ASA, but so does removing demand from the queue in the first place. Aide, the agentic AI platform for customer experience, focuses on the second path: shrinking the queue rather than just answering it faster.
Aide ties ASA to the resolution rate. When more of the real customer intents are handled by verified automation, fewer contacts need to wait for an agent at all, and ASA improves for the contacts that genuinely require a human. The queue gets shorter because demand leaves it, not because anyone rushes, and the team's attention goes to the work that needs their judgment.
Frequently asked questions
- How is average speed of answer calculated?
- Divide the total time customers spent waiting in queue by the number of answered contacts over a given period. The result is usually expressed in seconds.
- What is the difference between ASA and average resolution time?
- ASA measures how long a customer waits before an agent connects. Average resolution time measures how long it takes to fully resolve the issue once it is being worked. They describe different parts of the experience.