Most companies and service providers understand the importance of Service Level Agreements with customers and partners; however, creating one might feel daunting since they don’t know what’s included or where to start. This post explains Service Level Agreement, the types, and how to manage SLA for IT Support.
Service Level Agreements in customer service are set by both the provider and client to ensure that they deliver on time. Time is essential in resolving any problems or issues, so SLAs generally define how long a trial should take before resolution.
To achieve this goal of providing high-quality support for all customers at once without sacrificing personal touch, most companies go beyond just meeting their agreed-upon deadline.
What is a Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
A Service Level Agreement is a contract that defines the level of service you expect from your vendor, laying out metrics by which will measure their performance. It’s an essential part of any outsourcing or technology deal with one company providing services on behalf of other businesses/organizations contracting them out. These fields include accounting, Data entry, programming, design, web development, mobile application support, etc.
It’s an important contract between a customer and supplier that defines the level of service to be delivered. By layering this document, both parties can have peace of mind knowing what’s expected in terms of metrics. They measure their performance with remedies or penalties if the agreed-upon if the stipulation isn’t met.
It is a contract between two parties detailing the level of quality expected from each party. SLAs are used for external suppliers, but they can be applied internally within companies as well.
It ensures that you get what you expect and not more or less! It is a contract between a company and customers which outlines:
- What standards should be met in regards to the availability
- How fast will responses come through when contacted by phone/email.
- The allocated duration time before Support expires
This agreement ensures all users know exactly where they stand regarding these matters, so there aren’t any surprises later down the road. It is efficient in helping with customer support because it helps guarantee that customers will receive appropriate attention quickly without any delay!
What are the Types of Service Level Agreement
Below are the different types of SLAs:
Response SLA
Incoming inquiries from the customer end are provided a dedicated response SLA and deadline. To respond, an IT Technician must have well-defined procedures to get back with customers as soon as possible without letting anyone down or neglecting any responsibilities!
This SLA ensures that no one gets left unattended when they need help, so you must make sure all incoming emails are responded to quickly and thoroughly!
Resolution SLAs
SLAs are the foundation of every business, providing customers with a certain level of service. These SLA’s can be set by any number or combination: time and quality standards to meet an individual’s needs, as well as those who expect constant updates on how their problems will eventually get resolved within a given timeline. The resolution SLA does not exceed either deadline, so there is a minimal hassle for both parties involved!
Issue-based SLAs
This SLA requires immediate attention to service or power outages issues. It assigns a particular timeline a service provider can use to resolve a specific issue.
Multiple SLAs
With multiple service level agreements, there is an increased possibility of achieving customer satisfaction. Each agreement should be defined based on a different time zone and location and various issues raised by the end-customer; this way, the technician can prioritize which issue he attends without further ado to avoid missed opportunities or abandoned work!
How to set SLAs in Customer Support?
Setting a timeline for SLAs is tedious and very important. From the enterprise point of view, providing rapid responses and appropriate resolutions to end-customer needs will help them feel more confident in your company’s ability to deliver on promises made by way of reliability or trustworthiness.
Though this can sometimes be difficult, it makes sense not to commit until everything has been taken care of (including penalties) before delivering service. This may lead some customers away instead of building up a good reputation through quality services provided without delays or failures along delivery paths. To this end, there are certain factors to consider. These include:
Prioritize All issues
Every customer issue is important and must be resolved accordingly. However, certain issues are pretty common among various customers; this can have a stipulated timeline for resolution without requesting much from their busy schedule.
Know Your Customer
You have many customers that are all special in their way. It’s important to know your customer and what they need because the best option for you would be personalizing SLAs with high-end clients who can afford multiple service levels.
Accept Customer Criticism
When setting up SLAs, it is important to include customer feedback. This will allow you to understand more about your customers and where any dissatisfaction can be resolved accordingly. Negative comments aren’t necessarily bad in every case; you can work with them to ensure 100% satisfaction is reached by accepting criticism from a service or product!
How to manage SLAs in Customer Support?
You can manage SLAs in customer support by:
- Continuous monitoring
- Prioritizing the issues;
- Escalating when an SLA is breached;
- Reporting
- Setting up email notifications about incoming inquiries from the customers
What is to be done – when an SLA is breached?
No matter how hard you try, a breach is inevitable. The good news? If your SLAs are successfully met, and an incident like this doesn’t happen regularly from your end – the chances are that customers might understand the inevitable crisis. Consider the following steps when handling a SLAs breach:
- Always keep your clients/ customers in the loop. Customers appreciate honesty when profiling a solution to their problem doesn’t pan out.
- All escalation setups must be redefined, prioritized, and handled by professional technicians.
- The legal team should be included as an integral part of any contract. Legal teams help set standards in place for unexpected and unfortunate SLAs breaches, to this end, reducing penalties when there is a SLAs breach.
- If the breach reoccurs frequently, it’s best to redefine SLA and take appropriate action to make things right.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity is essential to the success of any company. Without it, your business may be at risk for hacks or other cyberattacks that could lead to financial ruin and even personal injury!
There are only two things you can do to keep yourself safe from these dangers: being mindful about what information might compromise us if taken improperly. Secondly – always have strong passwords on all devices connected with work-related tasks.
The only way to protect what you’ve worked hard to build is by being vigilant when it comes to cybersecurity. Are you looking for a service Level Agreement in Ottawa? Contact Us Today. If your company wants more information on how they can benefit from managed services, contact us for a consultation today!
References
https://www.cio.com/article/2438284/outsourcing-sla-definitions-and-solutions.html
https://www.contractscounsel.com/t/us/service-level-agreement