Creating and Managing Service Level Agreements with Empress

Guides & Tutorials
1

Introduction

In the world of business, commitments are crucial. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) feature in Empress helps to manage these commitments effectively. An SLA is a contract that defines the level of service a customer can expect from a service provider. This feature is instrumental to businesses as it ensures that service providers adhere to the defined quality and timeline of service delivery.

Accessing the SLA Feature

The SLA feature can be accessed by navigating to the following path in Empress:

Home > Support > Service Level Agreement > Service Level Agreement

Setting Up an SLA

Before creating an SLA, you need to have a Holiday List and ensure that Track Service Level Agreement is enabled in Support Settings.

To create a new SLA:

  1. Go to the SLA list and click on New.
  2. Give your SLA a unique name.
  3. Choose the Employee group responsible for this SLA.
  4. Assign a Holiday List. The SLA won’t apply on the dates specified in this list.
  5. Use the Enable checkbox to activate the SLA.
  6. If you want this SLA to apply to a customer who doesn’t have a specific SLA assigned, check the Default Service Level Agreement box.
  7. Define the Entity Type: SLAs can be associated with a Customer, Customer Group, or Territory.
  8. Select the specific Customer, Customer Group, or Territory in the Entity field.
  9. Specify the validity period of the agreement with Start and End Dates.
  10. Define multiple Issue Priorities along with their Time to Respond and Resolve (in hours and minutes).
  11. Choose a Default Priority to be applied in the SLA.
  12. Define Support Hours, outlining the days and hours when support is available.
  13. Click Save.

SLA Features and Applications

SLA Application to New Issues

Once an SLA is saved, it applies to issues raised by Customers or Territories based on the ‘Entity Type’ defined.

Resetting an SLA

You can reset an SLA within its specified timeframe. For instance, if the SLA duration is 3 days, you can reset it within 3 days of issue creation. After this period, the SLA status will show as failed.

Time to Respond / Resolve in Issues

The SLA feature displays the time to respond to an issue and the time to resolve it. These times are based on the settings in the ‘Priority’ field of the SLA’s Priorities table.

Pausing SLA on Statuses

Empress allows you to pause an SLA on issues when waiting for an event or action to occur. You can configure this by selecting a status in the “Pause SLA On” table. When the status changes to any of the selected statuses, the SLA timers pause. When the issue status reverts to a non-hold status, the SLA timers restart, taking into account the hold time.

The Service Level Agreement feature in Empress provides a robust system for businesses to manage their service commitments effectively. It ensures that service delivery is timely and of the agreed quality, enhancing customer satisfaction and trust.

For further assistance or additional resources, please refer to our non-technical support or visit our community forum.