Average speed of answer (ASA) measures how long callers who got through waited to reach an agent. It is usually calculated per queue and per interval, for example every 30 minutes:
ASA = total wait time of answered calls ÷ number of answered calls
The clock usually starts when the call enters the queue, after any IVR menu, and stops when an agent picks up. Callers who hang up while waiting are excluded and counted in the abandon rate instead. Read the two figures together: a queue can post a low ASA simply because impatient callers gave up.
ASA moves with the service level, the share of calls answered within a target time, and with staffing. The effect is not linear. One extra agent on a busy queue cuts ASA sharply; the same agent on a quiet queue barely changes it. Erlang C models this relationship.
In OVOKY, inbound call queues hand waiting callers to agents with one of four distribution strategies, and a callback from the queue lets callers ask to be called back instead of holding.