Average speed of answer
Updated
Average speed of answer, often shortened to ASA, is a call metric showing how long callers typically wait before someone picks up, counting ringing and queue time on answered calls.
Call centers have used ASA for years, but it is just as useful for a small clinic with two or three phone lines. It turns a vague feeling, "the phones feel slow this week", into a figure the team can track and improve.
How to calculate it
Take every answered call in the period. For each one, note the time between the call arriving and the moment a person or system picked up. Add those waiting times together, then divide by the number of answered calls. The result is the average wait in seconds.
Notice what ASA leaves out. Calls that were never answered do not appear in it at all, because they have no answer time. That means a clinic can show a fast ASA while plenty of callers give up. Always read ASA next to the call abandonment rate and the answer rate.
What it tells a vet clinic
ASA is a good early warning. When it starts to creep up, abandonment usually follows. Tracking it by hour shows when the desk is stretched: opening time, lunch cover, the after-school rush and the last hour before closing. It also helps when planning rotas, because you can see whether adding one person to the phones at a particular hour changes the wait.
ASA measures waiting before pickup, which is different from hold time. Hold time covers the pauses after someone has answered, such as "let me just check the schedule".
Keeping it honest
Averages can hide a long tail. A handful of very long waits can sit behind a reasonable average. If your phone system allows it, look at the longest waits each day as well, and ask what was happening at the desk at those moments.
An example
At a two-vet clinic, the practice manager notices that ASA on Monday mornings is several times the weekday afternoon figure. Looking at the rota, the morning receptionist is also checking in surgical admissions at that hour. The clinic moves surgical check-in a little later and the Monday wait comes down.
How Tilly handles it
Tilly answers every call that reaches it, in whichever answer mode you choose. In overflow mode, it takes the calls your team can't reach in time, and every call appears in your dashboard with a summary.
For a structured way to measure waits, read the missed-call audit guide.