What an SLA is
A service level agreement (SLA) is a promise about how quickly you will respond to and solve customer requests. For a business customer it may be written into the contract; for everyone else it is the line in your auto-reply that says when they will hear back. Either way, customers judge you against it.
Most email SLAs have two targets: a first response target and a resolution target.
Set targets from your own numbers
Start by measuring how quickly you reply today on a normal week and a busy week. Set the first response target at a level you met on the busy week, not the quiet one. A promise you always keep is worth more than a faster one you often break.
Count only business hours, and say which ones. “Within 4 working hours, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00” is a target a customer can understand and your team can measure.
Example targets by priority
Not every email deserves the same clock. A simple three-level scheme is enough for most teams; adjust the numbers to your own volume.
- Urgent (service down, travel today, payment failed): first response within 1 working hour, resolution the same day.
- Normal (a question or a problem with a workaround): first response within 4 working hours, resolution within 2 working days.
- Low (feedback, feature requests, general enquiries): first response within 1 working day, resolution when planned.
Tell customers the promise
Put the response target in your automatic acknowledgement, next to the ticket reference: “We will reply within 4 working hours.” Customers who know when to expect an answer write again far less often, which also keeps the queue smaller.
Keep it with tools, not memory
An SLA kept by memory slips on the first busy day. Use automatic assignment so no email waits to be picked up, reminders for tickets waiting on a promised update, and a live view of the oldest open tickets. Review misses every week and fix the cause, whether it is staffing at certain hours, a type of request that needs a template, or a team that needs a second person.
M-Reply supports this with auto-acknowledgements, auto-assign capping, reminders and SMS alerts, and live floor and productivity dashboards.
