Importance of service-level agreements in business

1. Better alignment of service delivery and customer expectations. SLAs allow the service provider and the customers to agree upon the type of service that will be provided. They help to find the right balance between the service delivery and support parameters.
   
2. Prioritization. SLAs define what needs quick attention and faster resolution.
   
3. Standardized support delivery. The business can ensure the approach that will be taken in delivering a service and that it is followed across the organization. This reduces slippages and inadvertent operational errors.
   
4. Improved customer happiness. SLAs will list down how quickly critical issues will be resolved and the type of support that will be provided for non-critical issues to ensure quick resolution. Adhering to the predefined timelines will improve customer satisfaction.
   
5. Upgrading and improving service parameters. Analyzing service performance data will help identify improvement opportunities, accommodate changes to services in the SLA, and revise SLA targets to better deliver against business needs and expectations.
   

Types of SLAs

1. The kind of service that will be provided to the customer. These are listed in the service-level agreement (SLAs). Common examples include implementation services, incidence management, or support ticket management.
   
2. The actions different teams will take in order to maintain performance and deliver the service that is agreed upon. These are referred to as operational-level agreement (OLAs). OLAs are particularly useful in larger organizations where the teams are interdependent in delivering the service. Some examples include compliance management, upgrade in fault detection system, or network management guidelines. 
   

Best practices for creating robust SLAs

1. Clearly define the services the business will provide the customer and at what level 
   
2. Measure and periodically monitor actual service levels   
   
3. Continuously improve the service levels
   
4. Manage service levels through SLAs (SLA management)   
   
5. Communicating service levels to customers
   

Business scenarios for SLAs and OLAs

Managing resolution time for product-level issues

Streamlining incidence communication

Asset tracking, distribution, and inventory management

Better customer management through proper ticket triage

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Understanding SLAs in Zoho Desk

SLAs can be standalone or associated with Support Plan and Contracts, depending on the business structure. SLAs can be created to manage response and resolution of specific tickets based on various conditions, such as the severity, service needed, product, and so on. In such cases, once a ticket enters the system and satisfies the SLA criteria, it will be applied to the ticket automatically. Smaller businesses or start-ups can particularly benefit from non-contractual SLAs.

Creating SLAs

Points to remember

1. SLAs are department specific.
   
2. They are applicable only for the Tickets module.
   
3. SLAs can be standalone, that is applicable to all accounts or associated with specific accounts.
   
4. SLAs can be associated with contracts via support plans.
   
5. Whenever the ticket is updated or created, the automations will be applied in the following order: Direct assignment rules > workflow rules > SLA > Round robin rule (sequential > load balancing > skill based) > Blueprint > Notifications. 
   

Setting up SLAs consists of the following steps:

Choose when to execute

1. Ticket creation - The SLA will apply to all the tickets as soon as they are created from any channel.
   
2. Ticket update - Whenever a field is edited or modified in the ticket.
   
3. Field update - Whenever a particular field, e.g., priority, status or category is updated to the defined value.
   
4. Customer reply - Whenever the customer replies to the ticket.
   
5. Agent response - When the agent replies to the ticket.
   
6. Private thread - When a private response is sent or received in the ticket.
   
7. Comment - When a comment is added to the ticket. It includes public, private, and customer comments.

Note:
If multiple options are selected, the SLA will reset for each update. Only the required option must be selected to trigger the SLA. 

For example, the Ticket Update is a generic option that gets updated often, resulting in reset of the SLA frequently. Whereas, the Priority Change is a specific field that gets updated only when the ticket priority is updated. 

Selecting a specific field will reset the SLA only for important updates allowing to manage the response and resolution time efficiently. 

Execution on association with Account

Calculate response and resolution time from ticket created time

Define SLA Targets

1. Response time - The time within which the agent should respond to the ticket as soon as the SLA is executed. For example, respond within one hour of receiving customer reply. You can only apply this rule to the first response. In other words, the agent will reply to the customer within one hour only if it is the first response (after SLA execution). The subsequent responses will not adhere to this limit. If the option is disabled, then the response time will apply to all the replies.
   
2. Resolution time - The time until which the ticket must be resolved and closed. You can choose in hours, days, or minutes.

Note:

1. The ticket will be considered closed only when the default field "Ticket status" is marked as "Closed".
   
2. When an SLA is applied, the response and the resolution times are reset, regardless of any prior SLA activities. Any response sent after the SLA is triggered will be considered as the first response time. 

1. Escalations - If the response or resolution time violates the SLA or is close to the due time, then you can escalate it to the superiors or the agent. Select the users who would be notified, and at what time frame. You can choose to be notified before, on, or after the resolution time.
   
2. Agent notification template - An email notification is sent to the selected users when the SLA is violated. You can select one of the "Escalation email templates" to send the alert.
   
3. Actions on Escalation - Upon escalation, the ticket can be reassigned to another agent and the priority level of the ticket can be changed. In this step, you can select the agent and also define the priority level upon escalation.

Note:

1. A maximum of 10 targets can be added to an SLA.
   
2. A maximum of two response and four resolution escalations can be configured. Each level of escalation can have its set of actions.
   

To create SLAs

1. Navigate to Setup () > Automation > SLA (Escalate).
   
2. Click New SLA.
   
3. In Create SLA page, enter the SLA Name and Description.
   
4. Under When do do you want to execute the SLA?, select an option (ticket create, customer reply, ticket update, private thread, etc.).
   
1. If you choose Customer Reply, select Incoming or Outgoing Responses.
   
2. If you choose Comment, select Agent comment (Private/Public) or Customer Comment.
   
5. Toggle Execute only when associated with an Account, if required.
   
6. Toggle Calculate response and resolution time for ticket created time, if required.
   Note that this option will not be displayed if you choose execution on Ticket Creation.
7. Click Next.
   
8. Click Add Targets.
   
9. Under Select conditions for this Target, select fields and a corresponding value to set a criteria.
   Click the + icon to add more conditions.
10. Under Set the response and resolution time, enter a value for Respond and Resolve within and select Minutes, Hours, or Days.
    
11. In Operational hours, select Calendar Hours or Business Hour from the drop-down.
    All the business hours created in the Desk account will be listed here.
12. Toggle Response Escalation, in Level 1 escalation, do the following:
    
1. Select When to escalate: On time, Before, or After.
   
2. Under Whom to escalate, select the listed roles/ticket owner/contacts/etc. and the corresponding users in it. You can select more than one user.
   
3. Select an Agent Notification Template from the drop-down.
   
4. Under Actions on Escalation, select an Agent as the new Ticket Owner.
   
5. Set the priority of the ticket to high, medium, or low.
   
13. Click Add Level 2 escalation, if required, and repeat Step 12 (a to e).
    
14. Toggle Resolution Escalation and follow Step 12 (a to e). 
    
15. Click Save. 
    

Associating SLAs to Account

1. Direct association with an Account.
   
2. Indirect association via support plans and contracts. When a contract is created and associated with an Account, the Support plan and the SLA mapped with it is automatically associated with the Account. 
   

1. Go to the Customers module.
   
2. Click the Accounts tab in the bottom-left corner.
   
3. In the Accounts Home page, select an account to view its details.
   
4. In the Accounts Details page, click the SLA & Contract icon ( ) from the floating widgets on the left of the screen.
   
5. Under the SLA & Contract Information section, click New SLA/Contract.
   
6. Select the SLA from the drop-down menu.
   
7. Click Save.
   

Deactivating or deleting SLAs

1. In the SLAs list view, hover on the desired SLA and click the Deactivate ( ) or Delete icons ().
   
2. Click Ok to confirm.