Benchmarks
Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
ASA is driven as much by how it's measured as by how good the team is: efficient cloud-contact-center panels report single-digit seconds, while live mystery-shopped consumer wait times run past three minutes — so compare only within the same channel, sector, and measurement window, and treat percent-within-seconds targets (the 80/20 rule, 911 standards) as a different animal from a raw average.
What is ASA (Average Speed of Answer)? Read the definition| Figure | Segment | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 seconds | Global cross-industry average (commonly cited benchmark) | LiveAgent, 35+ Call Center Statistics for 2025 | 2025 |
| 45 seconds | Internet / telecom providers (Australia, live mystery-shopped wait) | ACXPA Australian Call Centre Rankings 2025, via ACXPA ASA guide | 2025 |
| 72 seconds | Energy / utilities (Australia, live mystery-shopped wait) | ACXPA Australian Call Centre Rankings 2025, via ACXPA ASA guide | 2025 |
| 228 seconds (3 min 48 sec) | Retail banks (Australia, live mystery-shopped wait) | ACXPA Australian Call Centre Rankings 2025, via ACXPA ASA guide | 2025 |
| 115 seconds | General customer-service lines (Australia, benchmark survey) | Smaart Recruitment 2024 Australian Contact Centre Best Practice Report, via ACXPA | 2024 |
| 130 seconds | Tech support / helpdesk lines (Australia, benchmark survey) | Smaart Recruitment 2024 Australian Contact Centre Best Practice Report, via ACXPA | 2024 |
| 8.7 seconds (down 13% YoY) | Talkdesk global customer base, all industries | Talkdesk Contact Center KPI Benchmarking Report 2024 (2023 data) | 2023 |
| 90% answered within 15 seconds (target; 95% within 20 sec) | Emergency 911 / PSAP answering standard | NENA Standard for 9-1-1 Call Processing (NENA-STA-020.1-2020) | 2020 |
| 80% of calls within 20 seconds (traditional "80/20" target) | Commonly cited service-level target | Talkdesk, An Overview of Average Speed of Answer in the Call Center | 2018 |
Benchmarks describe other teams, not yours. Read them as a sanity check on direction, not a target to hit — the right number depends on your channel mix, customers, and how you define the metric.
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