What is an SLA?

An SLA or Service Level Agreement underlines the minimum expected requirements for service delivery. This agreement is a promise made to  the end-user or customer by the service provider to set the right expectations for both parties. A service level agreement is usually made of several service level objectives, based on which a company can be held accountable in case of performance issues. 

As the number of customer queries increases to the point where management of all concurrent conversations and expectations becomes difficult, an SLA management software can step in to lighten the load. Customer support teams can leverage SLA management tools to ensure that timely support is provided to customers.

Here's a guide to help you understand your SLA Policies.

Why do you need an SLA Management Software?

An SLA monitoring solution offers advanced SLA management features that allow you to set up multiple SLA policies. You can even configure settings for business hours or calendar hours, and easily set up escalations and automatic reminders.

SLA monitoring tools can help you keep a check on your key customer service metrics. You can record customer data and analyze if issues are being resolved within the promised timeline. You can use your SLA monitoring software to make it easier for your team to streamline SLA workflows. This functionality allows you to automate time tracking, prioritize incoming customer inquiries and remind agents of upcoming deadlines. Once you create SLA policies and have the right service-level management system in place, everything runs smoothly.

Benefits of an SLA Management Software

Performance Monitoring 

An SLA policy (service level agreement) is like a deadline within which your team is expected to respond to customers and resolve their issues. It helps set standards for SLA performance for your support team. With the SLA functionalities in Freshdesk, you can be assured that every issue is responded to and resolved within the promised time frame.

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Select the right SLA for every ticket

You can create different types of SLA policies for different kinds of tickets. It's good practice to set SLA targets based on what your customers have communicated with you. For example, you may set shorter SLA targets for social media grievances or VIP customers. Depending on the targets, your agents will also be prompted to prioritize tickets that may likely encounter an SLA breach.

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Enable your team to adhere to SLAs

Freshdesk’s helpdesk software automatically sorts your agents’ inbox views based on the SLA due time. Your support team just needs to work their way up from the first ticket in their queue. With SLA labels for every ticket, in-app reminders, and email notifications, agents can be assured that they don’t miss any deadline and record a low response time for the tickets resolved.

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Understand your SLA policy

For every SLA policy, you can set up reminders and configure an escalation hierarchy to notify the right people in case of an SLA breach. Automations enable you to check for tickets that result in an SLA breach. Your helpdesk monitoring solution can automatically flag tickets, reassign it to another agent, and ensure your customers do not receive a late response.

Additional Resources:

1. How do you configure multiple SLA policies?

2. How to set SLA targets for every response?

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Get real-time performance insights

You can filter your performance reports based on all the ticket properties including source, priority, and type using your SLA Management Software. The tickets resolved within the SLA (Resolution SLA) widget in the customizable SLA dashboard will show the break up of tickets resolved within SLA% based on various ticket properties. You can even see which agent regularly violates the SLA and find out about groups who handled the high-priority tickets that violated the resolution SLA.

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Make remote work easy

Integrate with your favorite tools

With the Freshdesk messaging integration, it is possible to have SLA notifications delivered to your team on their favorite messaging app. You can now notify about ticket creation, publicly update events using push notifications, chat directly with an agent and improve collaboration across teams.

Enable support across time zones

If your support team is working across different time zones, you can align their SLA timers with their respective business hours. If you have special teams that rotate at your 24x7 support center by jumping in at different shifts, you might want to set definite working hours for each group.

Set up the right business hours

Multiple business hours in Freshdesk allow you to create different sets of working hours and holidays, which can then be assigned to specific groups. Set the right business hours for different teams and have service level agreements triggered based on your agents’ local business hours.