Giva Blog

The effort to create a Service Level Management System is very significant. Organizations that have a system in place have higher customer and employee satisfaction ratings. After all, when every case is considered severity level one and every day is a fire drill, it is hard to enjoy your job for very long. That is why the turnover in support organizations where Service Management Systems are in place is lower than organizations where they are not. So, with higher customer and employee satisfaction, lower turnover, greater productivity and reduced cost, why would you not want to have a Service Management System guiding your organization?

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

Incident Surveys

Incident surveys are surveys sent to the customer after each case is closed. The advantage to this is that you can capture perceptions immediately and you can link the feedback to both the Service Group and to the Assignee. This is extremely valuable information because both rewards and training can be tailor-made based on the results. The disadvantage is that customers will get usually one survey a week and they might not respond with as great regularity. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Incident surveys are preferable to periodic surveys.

Here is an example of an Incident Survey:

It is short and to the point. Always ask for feedback in a free form field to encourage customers to openly share their thoughts. Customers will tell you things that you will never hear from anybody else. This unfiltered feedback is extremely valuable to help you improve customer service. Also, always ask if you would like a manager to call you. When you get a survey like this, it tells you the perspective of the customer service organization. When the customer reads this they will think, "Wow, these guys actually would have a manager call me, if I ask them to." Many will not request a call.  Those that request a call will tell you much more then you will ever get from a written survey. Are you ready for these gold nuggets from customer who care enough to want to have a call?  Ask probing questions and "peel the onion". See through any emotion and find the "signal" in all the surrounding "noise" and you are on to becoming a master in learning how to get actionable feedback which can be used to effect change in your organization.

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

Periodic Surveys

Quarterly or annually a survey should be sent to all customers asking them their general opinions of the support they receive. You cannot ask for specific information when you do periodic surveys because customers only remember their last one or two incidents. Periodic surveys are not a good measurement of how your organization did for the year. Another limitation of periodic surveys is that survey responses will not be specific to each Support Group or person assigned the case. Customers do not really know, or care, what group handles their request.

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

Checks and Balances

There is a tendency when first starting service level management to focus in on the response performance. It is easy to make the numbers look good. All you have to do is close a case within the time specified without doing anything. While this makes the numbers look good, in the end you will have customers upset. Customers do not really care about the numbers. They only want their issues taken care of to their satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys are one way to provide checks and balances to the empirical numbers of SLA compliance reports. Another way to make sure customers are taken care of is to have a policy for re-opening a case if the customer calls in to say they are dissatisfied. You should then have a report that shows re-opened cases. Management should use this for continued training.

Here is an example of a good Customer Satisfaction Survey Report:

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

This report shows SLA compliance over a period of time. Managing trends toward a higher goal can dramatically increase customer satisfaction. This SLA Compliance Trends Report should be part of your standard reports that you study every week.

Example SLA Compliance Trends Report

Implementing Service Level Agreements takes time and effort. Bring people along with the process. The IT department should be the place to start first. Let your employees (customers) know how they are going to be affected by the new Service Level Agreements. There will be significant benefits. When they really need help, they will be able to get it because your team is going to differentiate between service requests. Is the firm's business halted due to this service request?

Examples of Service Level Agreement  

Some Helpful approaches to implementing Service Level Agreements:

1) Implementing within IT first

a) Apply appropriate Severity Levels.

b) Escalate cases according to SLA rules.

c) Report on performance.

2) Send out the formal announcement to employees

a) Purpose of SLAs

b) How Severity Levels are applied

c) Responsibilities of support organization

d) Responsibilities of customers

e) Performance reporting

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

Need help in implementing your Service Level Agreements?

1) Pre-SLA. Before you announce the SLA, practice as if you have an SLA. This includes the following:

a. training the Support Center staff,

b. monitoring response time to ensure SLA compliance,

c. resolving cases in accordance with the SLA,

d. setting customer expectations,

e. managing the work flow within the Support Center and between the second level.

2) Training the rest of the department.

a) Weekly meetings. For the first month it is beneficial to meet regularly to find ways to improve communications and workflow, review Cycle Time Reports and exception reports.

b) Service Group Feedback. Ask other service groups to review their cases for the proper Severity Levels. If they find discrepancies, ask them to provide a list of case types and the appropriate Severity Levels. This will be the basis for Support Center training and documentation.

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

Every day each one of us experiences the setting of expectations. The following are all examples of setting expectations: setting an appointment time, asking for a delivery time and asking for the wait time at a restaurant or car repair shop. Why should your customer service/call center or help desk organization be any different?

The benefits of an SLA are many for the Internal IT help desk or service desk:

· Improves customer service. You will find that cycle times (time to resolve cases) dramatically decrease.

· Facilitates communication. The Support Center staff will be able to set customer expectations in two ways. First, they can refer to the SLA document for definitions on how priorities are set and the maximum time the support organization has to resolve the case. Secondly, they can refer to periodic performance reports to inform customers how the support organization is actually performing. Average time to resolve is usually much less than the maximum time goal.

· Negotiated and mutually accepted. Since internal customers and the support center jointly created the SLA all customers will more easily accept the SLA.

· Documents agreements. With the SLA posted to your Intranet or in customer handouts, it becomes an “official” agreement.

· Defines procedures. Procedures should be defined and followed by both the service groups and customers. When there is a question or disagreement, the SLA can be used as a written reference.

· Sets standards for customer service. This is a powerful tool. It says “Mr./Ms. Customer, this is how I am going to provide support to you and this is what you must do in order to receive my support. I am ready to be measured on how I do and I will provide everyone with a report on my performance.”

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm 

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"

Marketing your SLA

No one likes to be surprised, including your employees. Once you have your project team working on the structure, wording and goals of the Service Level Agreement, it is time to begin telling your employees about the project. You can do this while on the phone with them in the Support Center. Another approach is to email periodic “Progress Updates” that explains the project, benefits and implementation plan. Sending these out every other week will get them prepared. They will be ready to support the Service Level Agreement when it is approved.

Here is a great White Paper on Implementing Service Level Agreements. See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm

Select Implementing Service Level Agreements: "The Critical Element in Service Delivery"