A Service Level Agreement is an agreement negotiated between two parties where one is the customer and the other the service provider.
Your customers have confidence in you and you want to keep it that way? A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the key to never disappoint your customers.
What is a Service Level Agreement?
A Service Level Agreement or SLA will explain the specific terms of the Terms of Business between you as service provider and your service user – quality, availability, responsibilities.
It defines the service levels that have to be achieved and provide remedies and penalties in the event of non-fulfilment of such services levels.
It usually specifies a “target” (average) or “minimum” value for service level performance.
Who needs a Service Level Agreement?
The use of SLAs is common in outsourcing, cloud computing, and other areas where the responsibility of an organization is transferred out to another supplier.
Why do I need it?
Your Terms of Business does not provide with objective criterias assessing your service. What is the risk then?
Let’s say you’re a platform giving some accounting advices and your customer is expecting you to answer throughout the entire week, including weekends. But you are only working 5 days a week. There is a misunderstanding which can lead to a client disappointment. This situation could have been avoided by a Service Level Agreement.
What do you need to cover in your Service Level Agreement?
Every Service Level Agreement is customised to each business, but it needs to cover:
- Delivery timelines or Responsiveness – support service hours, duty of supplier to give the customer regular updates of the nature and status of its effort to correct any fault.
- Reliability – when the service is available?
- Quality of work – precision and accuracy
- Procedure to reporting problems – who you can contact, what are the steps?
- Escape clause – under which circumstances the level of service does not apply? Customer cause might be any improper use, misuse or unauthorised
- Remedies – service credit, reimbursement, termination
I hope this helps! If you’re unsure about the legal documents your business requires, book a call with our legal team and we’ll talk you through your needs and answer the questions you may have.
