SLA (Service-level Agreement) overview

SLA (Service-level Agreement) is an arrangement to meet target times for replying to the tickets or answering chats or calls by your agents. SLA defines how fast a support provider has to answer a customer’s service request.
 
To have your SLA Levels applied, you have to assign them to tickets by rules. You can create SLA rules which are however only applied when a ticket is created OR if you need to apply SLA level for example when a tag is added to a ticket then you can use the default Rules engine or even Time rules.

SLA Setup

Step 1: In LiveAgent navigate to Configuration > Automation > SLA.


Step 2: Click on Create Level and define the desired action to be taken in the contracted delivery time of service. You can also define your business (working) hours.

Note: Here you can find each SLA level action description:
  • First answer -  Time for agent answer on New ticket (Time is counting from moment when customer submit new ticket till agent answer)
  • Next answer -  Time for agent answer on Open ticket (Time is counting from moment when customer reply in ticket till agent answer)
  • Chat answer -  Time for agent to answer chat (Time is counting from moment when customer initiate a chat till agent answer a chat)
  • Call answer -   Time for agent to answer call (Time is counting from moment when customer initial a call till agent answer a call) 


Tip: Why sould you define your business hours? If you wish to ensure the answers to be done e.g. in 3 hours, but you (your support) does not work during weekends, then the time for the answer would be counted only within the business hours you defined.

Example: If an SLA Level with a First answer due 4 hours is created in LiveAgent for your Pre-Sale department, then the tickets which are applied that SLA Level must be answered within 4 hours, during specified Business hours, otherwise they will be marked as Overdue.
 
Once you have some SLA Levels created, you may proceed to creat SLA Rules, by which the certain SLA Levels will be applied. 

Step 3: Click on Create rule.
 
Step 4: Define the condition(s) to be met by clicking Add condition and then the action to be taken.

Important note: "Postpone" action pauses all applied SLAs for a certain time (you can set specific a time-frame to your liking and leave a note). After specified 'postpone time' (or when a customer writes another message) a ticket gets "reopened" and becomes part of the workflow of the department where the ticket is.  Example:

- time: 17:00 and example ticket is 5 hours "old", which means the ticket arrived at 12:00
- SLA for the first answer is set to 8 hours in your agent panel > Configuration > Automation > SLA
- do "postpone" action on this example ticket at 17:05 and choose 4 hours to postpone
- at 21:05, the example ticket will be reopened as "New/Open" and it will be 5 hours and 5 minutes "old" as it was already opened from 12:00 to 17:05 before the postpone action. 

Remember that if you wish to apply SLA level in a different time than when a ticket is created you can use Rules or Time rules.