A service level agreement, or SLA, is a policy you define that specifies and measures the response and resolution times that your support team delivers to your customers. There are seven metrics you can use to define SLA policies.
Advanced settings are available for the First reply time metric. They change the logic for when an SLA metric is activated or fulfilled on an individual policy basis. You can define advanced settings for both new and existing SLA policies.
Defining advanced settings for these metrics allows you to customize your SLAs so that they apply in more situations and measure what’s most relevant to your business. This leads to a more efficient support process and an improved experience for agents and end users.
This article contains the following sections:
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Defining advanced SLA settings
Advanced settings for SLAs are available for the First reply time metric. You can define advanced settings for both new and existing SLA policies.
When you define advanced settings for an existing policy, your reporting may change as SLA achievements or breaches would be measured differently than before. To compare reporting changes before and after you make changes, note the date when you update your policies.
Alternatively, create a new SLA policy with a different name, using the same criteria as before, but with the new advanced settings applied. If you choose to create a new policy, make sure you reorder your policies so that the old SLA policy doesn’t apply.
To define advanced SLA settings
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Service level agreements. - Define a new SLA policy or edit an existing policy.
Ensure that the policy you’re editing or creating has a First reply time metric defined.
- Click Advanced settings.
- Select the check boxes for the settings you want to apply to the policy.
See Understanding advanced settings to learn more.
- Click Add, then Save policy.
The advanced settings you applied to the metrics take effect the next time a ticket that matches the policy’s criteria is created or updated. If you edited an existing policy, note that SLA policy changes only apply when tickets are subsequently created or updated. They are never retroactively applied.
Understanding advanced settings for SLA metrics
This section outlines the advanced settings available for the First reply time metric. In the metric’s advanced settings, the dimmed check boxes describe the standard criteria for how the metric is activated and fulfilled. The standard criteria can’t be edited and always apply to how the metric is activated or fulfilled.
Any advanced settings that you select are applied in addition to the metric’s standard criteria.
First reply time
The First reply time metric is used to measure the time between ticket creation and the first reply from an agent.
Activating the target
The standard settings for first reply time activate the target when an end user submits a request with a public comment, an agent forwards an email from an end user to create a ticket, or when an agent creates a side conversation child ticket.
With advanced settings, the target can also be activated when:
- A ticket is created on behalf of an end user with a public comment, whether this is done by an agent, API, or other means. This also applies to voicemail tickets.
- A ticket is created on behalf of an end user by a light agent forwarding the ticket by email.
- A ticket is created where the agent is the requester. This can be helpful when an agent reaches out to an internal department for help.
Fulfilling the target
The standard settings for first reply time mark the target as fulfilled when an agent adds the first public reply.
