Understanding the average speed of answer formula It lightens the load on your agents and allows your callers to direct themselves to the right place. ?Dialpad tip: If your business gets a lot of calls and you’re not using IVR now, you should really look into it. If we see that there’s an IVR option that no one has used in months, then that’s a sign that we can probably remove it and streamline the options for our callers so they don’t have to sit there listening to so many options. We can see usage counts for each option on the menu, and how these counts compare to each other: This is generally simple to do because we use Dialpad Contact Center’s analytics to see stats on our IVR menus. So how can you tell if your IVR is effective at helping route the caller to the customer service representative best equipped to help them? How do you know if you’ve got the right menu options? If you’re using IVR menus to manage and deflect calls, you’ll have set it up to guide the caller through different options. I'd also want any customer who calls us to go away satisfied-both with any answers and with their overall customer experience.Ī low ASA is good because it generally means your agents are answering calls as quickly as possible, dealing with issues efficiently, and not leaving a customer waiting.Ī good ASA also reflects well on your IVR or ACD ( automatic call distributor) system. And one thing to focus on is ASA.Įven though ASA isn’t the same thing as other KPIs like average handling time (AHT) and CSAT, they are related and it’s important to look at these together instead of in a vacuum.įor example, I'd want my agents to find the fastest path possible to resolving issues and answering questions. If you lead customer support in a contact center, you have to track and monitor multiple key performance indicators (as well as looking to improve those figures). But it does include the time during which an agent’s phone is ringing and also contributes to average handle time.
It excludes any wait time spent routing that caller to the correct queue, and it also excludes any time the customer spends interacting with your IVR (interactive voice response) menu. What is the average speed of answer (ASA)?īasically, ASA is how quickly a customer support agent can answer an inbound call, starting from the point the caller is placed in any queue. Missing personal calls is all well and good as there are usually no real repercussions (sorry, Auntie Jean)-but when it comes to business calls, a missed call can mean lost opportunities or a disgruntled customer.ĪSA (average speed of answer) is one of the key call center metrics to look at if you're a contact center supervisor or customer support lead.īut what exactly is it? And how can you improve it to also improve customer satisfaction in your contact center?ħ tips for optimizing your contact center’s ASA If you’re like me, there have been times when you deliberately missed a call.