Service Level Agreement (SLA)

What is a Service Level Agreement (SLA)?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal contract that defines the level of service expected from a provider, including specific metrics, responsibilities, and remedies if service standards aren't met.

In sales and customer success contexts, SLAs typically define:

• Response times to leads and customers
• Resolution times for issues
• Uptime and availability guarantees
• Performance benchmarks

Why SLAs Matter

For Sales and Marketing Alignment

Marketing SLA (MQL to SQL):
-承诺: Marketing delivers 500 qualified leads monthly
-承诺: Sales responds within 5 minutes during business hours
-承诺: Sales works leads for 14 days before disqualification

Benefits:

• Creates accountability for lead quality and follow-up
• Prevents finger-pointing when targets are missed
• Aligns teams around shared revenue goals

For Customer Success

Customer Support SLA:
-承诺: Response within 2 hours for critical issues
-承诺: Resolution within 24 hours for high-priority tickets
-承诺: 99.9% uptime for software services

Benefits:

• Sets clear customer expectations
• Creates metrics for team performance
• Provides recourse if service falls short

Types of SLAs

1. Customer-Based SLA

Definition:
Specific service commitments for individual customers or customer segments.

Examples:

• Enterprise customers: 1-hour response, 99.99% uptime
• SMB customers: 4-hour response, 99.9% uptime
• Free tier: 24-hour response, best-effort uptime

2. Service-Based SLA

Definition:
Standard service commitments for all customers using a particular service.

Examples:

• All software users: 99.5% uptime guarantee
• All support customers: Initial response within 24 hours
• All email customers: Delivery within 5 minutes

3. Multilevel SLA

Definition:
Different service levels based on issue severity or customer tier.

Example Severity Levels:

Key SLA Metrics

Response Time

Definition:
Time between customer contact and initial human response.

Benchmarks:

• Critical issues: 15-30 minutes
• High priority: 1-2 hours
• Standard requests: 4-24 hours

Resolution Time

Definition:
Time between issue reported and problem fully resolved.

Benchmarks:

• Critical issues: 4-8 hours
• High priority: 24 hours
• Standard requests: 3-5 business days

Uptime/Availability

Definition:
Percentage of time service is operational.

Common Standards:

• 99.9% uptime ("three nines"): 8.76 hours downtime/year
• 99.99% uptime ("four nines"): 52.56 minutes downtime/year
• 99.999% uptime ("five nines"): 5.26 minutes downtime/year

First Contact Resolution (FCR)

Definition:
Percentage of issues resolved on first contact without follow-up.

Benchmark:

• Good: 70-80%
• Industry average: 60-70%

Creating Effective SLAs

1. Be Specific and Measurable

Good SLA:
"We will respond to all critical support tickets within 30 minutes, 24/7/365"

Poor SLA:
"We'll respond to critical issues as soon as possible"

2. Set Realistic Expectations

Consider:

• Current team capacity and capabilities
• Peak volume periods
• Technical constraints
• Budget limitations

• Damaged reputation when missed
• Financial penalties
• Customer churn

3. Include Exclusions

Common Exclusions:

• Scheduled maintenance windows
• Customer-caused issues
• Third-party service failures
• Force majeure events
• Free or trial tiers

4. Define Remedies

When SLAs Are Missed:

• Service credits (percentage of monthly fee)
• Extended contracts at no cost
• Penalty payments (less common)
• Root cause analysis and improvement plan

Sales-Marketing SLA Example

Marketing Commitments:

Sales Commitments:

Review Cadence:

• Weekly: Pipeline review
• Monthly: SLA performance evaluation
• Quarterly: Target adjustments based on capacity

Monitoring and Reporting

Key Performance Indicators

Track Monthly:

• SLA compliance percentage
• Average response times
• Average resolution times
• Uptime percentage
• Customer satisfaction scores

Reporting

Internal Reports:

• Team performance against SLA
• Bottlenecks and improvement areas
• Resource allocation needs

• Monthly performance summary
• SLA compliance status
• Credits issued (if applicable)

Common SLA Mistakes

1. Vague Language – "Reasonable effort" vs specific timeframes
2. No Measurement – Can't prove compliance without tracking
3. One-Size-Fits-All – Same SLA for all customer segments
4. Ignoring Capacity – Setting targets team can't achieve
5. No Exclusions – Not accounting for maintenance or third-party failures
6. Forgetting Growth – Not updating SLAs as business scales
7. No Penalties – SLAs without teeth are just promises

Key Takeaways

• SLA defines expected service standards with specific metrics
• Types: customer-based, service-based, multilevel
• Key metrics: response time, resolution time, uptime, FCR
• Sales-marketing SLAs align teams on lead quality and follow-up
• Be specific, realistic, include exclusions and remedies
• Monitor compliance and report performance regularly
• Common mistakes: vague language, no measurement, over-promising
• Effective SLAs create accountability and set clear expectations