How we measure response times

What we measure

When a family submits an enquiry through Carevo, the platform notifies a shortlist of matched providers. The first provider to accept the enquiry is recorded as a "provider connection". The response-time metric is the time between when the enquiry was sent and when the first provider connected.

Two timestamps drive every number on this site:

• Enquiry sent: the moment the platform notified providers about a new family enquiry.
• Provider connection: the moment the first provider accepted that enquiry.

The difference between those two timestamps, in minutes, is what we call the response time. We aggregate it three ways: per suburb, per state, and per service.

How the median is computed

We use the median response time, not the average. Median is the middle value when every connection time is sorted from fastest to slowest. We chose median because it is not skewed by a single very slow connection or a single instant one. It reflects the typical experience.

We also report two percentile figures: the share of enquiries connected within 1 hour, and the share connected within 24 hours. These are absolute counts divided by total connections in the relevant scope.

Sample threshold

We only show suburb-level response-time data when a suburb has at least 5 verified provider connections. Below that threshold, a single outlier could distort the median, so we fall back to the state-level number, which is always backed by hundreds of connections.

We also apply a sanity cap: any suburb with a median above 24 hours is treated as anomalous and falls back to the state value. This prevents pathological samples from misleading visitors.

• 331 suburbs currently meet the threshold and show suburb-specific numbers.
• 8 Australian states have state-level data (always available as fallback).
• 145 service taxonomies have service-level numbers used on hub pages.

How often the data refreshes

Statistics are recomputed from scratch every time the Carevo site is rebuilt. Builds are triggered by content updates and run at least once per day. The "last verified" date shown across the site reflects the most recent rebuild.

The most recent refresh: 3 June 2026.

What we exclude

To keep the metric meaningful, we exclude:

• Test enquiries: any enquiry flagged as testing or staff-generated.
• Spam: enquiries the platform classified as spam or non-genuine.
• Time-out enquiries: enquiries that were never claimed by any provider are not counted in the response-time metric (they appear separately in our coverage stats).
• Negative durations: any record where the connection timestamp is earlier than the enquiry timestamp (data error) is excluded.
• Records over 100,000 minutes: connections that took more than ~70 days are treated as broken records and excluded.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the data come from?

Every provider connection is recorded by the Carevo platform when the provider accepts an enquiry. We aggregate the timestamps in our nightly extract and surface the medians on every relevant service and suburb page.

Is this data audited?

The numbers are produced directly from platform records, not self-reported by providers. We publish the formula on this page so anyone can verify our methodology. We do not currently have an external audit.

Why median rather than average?

A single very slow connection (for example, a provider responding 7 days late) would distort an average. The median represents the experience of the typical family.

What if a provider responds outside business hours?

Response times are calculated end-to-end, including overnight and weekends. We don't pause the clock outside business hours because families don't either.

Where can I see the underlying number for my suburb?

Every service page shows the response time relevant to that page. If your suburb has fewer than 5 connections on record, you will see your state's number instead.