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.
A Service Level Agreement is an agreement negotiated between two parties where one is the customer and the other the service provider.
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
If you’re unsure about the legal documents your business requires, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our legal team.
