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/resources/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers/

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/resources/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers/

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/resources/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers/ 

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/resources/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers/

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

Obtaining Employee Support

At this stage you should have accurate performance metrics, IT support for the service levels and escalation procedures. Now you are ready to meet with employees to get their feedback. What employees should participate? As a suggestion, your most critical employees might be the best. They are great people to have in your customer task force because they really want to see IT meet their needs. They will not be afraid to give you their opinions. They will certainly question your current response time report. Their memories are long and they remember how hard it is to get the support they need to do their job. They will usually be fair. If you can get them to agree to the SLA, you can get anyone to agree. Also, it is better to get any arguments and concerns out of the way now before you go public with the SLA.

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

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

I was discussing creating a rough draft of the Service level Agreements and how to get all the departments in your organization on board. It will take time and work to get all the appropriate departments to agree that this is the right approach. Show them "what's in it for me". That's the best way to get cross functional consensus on your service level agreements. No customer service/call center or IT help desk software can do this work for you. Cultivate you allies in the organization. Explain the benefits of having Service Level Agreements from their perspective. Before sitting down with them, ask yourself, "how can Service level Agreements make these other departments succeed?" When you know the answer, run it by a few people to "reality test" it. Will these departments understand and believe the benefits?

If you have measured the actual case resolution times based on approximate severity levels and you have created a straw man SLA including this data, then you are ready to get the rest of your organization involved.

1. Meet with individual managers to explain how their department did on your test of priorities and response time.

2. Explain how the SLA goals will impact how they are already doing.

3. Use your existing allies within other service groups to prepare the way for broad acceptance.

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

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

1) Escalation procedures. State the escalation path and time for each severity level.

2) Telephone, Web and Email response times. For example: Phone requests will be answered in less than 20 seconds, Web requests within 30 seconds and email within four hours.

3) First contact resolution by the Support Center. For example: The Support Center will resolve at least 70% of all cases it receives.

4) Reporting methods.

a) Weekly management reports on the Web

b) Monthly performance metrics on the Web

c) Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Surveys results on the Web

5) SLA contract period.

a) When the current draft is effective

b) When it will be reviewed?

c) How to request changes

6) Examples of cases by severity level and case type.

7) Sample of the customer satisfaction survey questions.

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

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

Here is more on getting your SLA written.

1) Definition of terms. Do not assume that everyone will know what you are talking about. You need to define terms to the lowest common level. Be as specific as possible.

2) Service delivery elements

a) Service coverage times. State clearly what business hours are supported and what is supported after hours. Failure to do this will mean you can be called at any time of the night for the most minor of problems or requests. Be sure to consider the various time zones you cover. Keep consistent and list the time zone you are in (e.g., 7AM – 7PM EST).

b) Environment(s) included. What do you cover? If you only support standard hardware and software, be sure to state it here.

c) Environments excluded. If the Support Center will take cases for non-standard hardware and will charge back costs to the customer, then list that here.

d) Specific applications and network services coverage. List specific applications by name, the times they are supported and the times they are not supported. If there are maintenance windows for databases and servers when they will not be available, then make sure to list these windows.

e) Methods for requesting service. For example, for all level 1 and 2 cases the request for service may be via the phone. For example, for level 3 and 4 cases the request for service shall only be via the Web.

f) Customer responsibilities. Some examples are: How to submit a request, what standards are supported, and when customers should be available for the technician.

g) Service tracking and reporting procedures. Some examples are: IT will log 100% of all requests, phone calls will be randomly recorded for quality and performance metrics will be posted on the web.

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

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