If you want to better manage your customers' expectations, a service level agreement (SLA) may be worth considering. An SLA is a negotiated agreement designed to create a common understanding about services, priorities and responsibilities.

The starting point
Although an SLA is an excellent expectations-managing mechanism, it's important to manage your own expectations of what it can realistically accomplish. Unfortunately, some people view an SLA as a complaint-stifling mechanism or a quick fix to a troubled relationship; however, using it for such purposes creates more problems than it solves. Instead, think of an SLA as:

• A communications tool. The value of an agreement is not just in the final product; the very process of establishing an SLA helps to open up communications.
• A conflict-prevention tool. An agreement helps to avoid or alleviate disputes by providing a shared understanding of needs and priorities. And if conflicts do occur, they tend to be resolved more readily and with less gnashing of teeth.
• A living document. This is one of its most important benefits. The agreement isn't a dead-end document consigned to the Forget Forever file. On a predetermined frequency, the parties to the SLA review the agreement to assess service adequacy and negotiate adjustments.
• An objective basis for gauging service effectiveness. An SLA ensures that both parties use the same criteria to evaluate service quality.

Service elements
To be effective, a service level agreement must incorporate two sets of elements: service elements and management elements. The service elements clarify services by communicating such things as:

• the services provided (and perhaps certain services not provided, if customers might reasonably assume the availability of such services)
• conditions of service availability
• service standards, such as the timeframes within which services will be provided
• the responsibilities of both parties
• cost vs. service tradeoffs
• escalation procedures

Management elements
The management elements focus on such things as:

• how service effectiveness will be tracked
• how information about service effectiveness will be reported and addressed
• how service-related disagreements will be resolved
• how the parties will review and revise the agreement

When is an agreement not an agreement?
Both service and management elements are necessary if an SLA is to be effective; yet in many of the SLAs I've reviewed, the management elements are lacking. The result, typically, is an SLA that hasn't been functioning as the parties had hoped.

Even with attention to both sets of elements, a successful agreement requires much more than simply plugging the elements into an SLA template. The process of planning, establishing, and implementing an agreement is typically a many-month process of information-gathering, analyzing, documenting, presenting, educating, negotiating, and consensus-building – and the process must involve customers. If customers are not part of the process, it's not an agreement!

The assumption that creating an SLA is a start-today, done- tomorrow process is the most common misconception among participants in my SLA seminars. Before initiating an SLA effort, be sure you appreciate the effort involved and have both the time and the know-how to proceed.

Even more importantly, think carefully about whether an SLA is really what you need. Most organizations can significantly improve their ability to manage expectations with some relatively simple service improvements. One such improvement is to create service standards and to document and communicate them. Having done so, you are one step closer if you decide to establish an SLA.



About the Author
Website: www.nkarten.com

Naomi Karten has always been fascinated by human behavior. Her background includes a B.A. and M.A. in psychology and extensive corporate experience in technical, customer support and management positions.

Since forming her own business in 1984, she has presented seminars and keynotes to more than 100,000 people internationally. Her services, books and newsletters have helped organizations and groups

• Manage customer expectations,
• Enhance their communications and consulting skills,
• Provide superior customer service, and
• Establish successful service level agreements.

She is the author of several books including:

Communication Gaps and How to Close Them, which provides strategies and guidelines for improved communication in such contexts as building strong relationships, delivering superior service, fostering effective teamwork, and managing change

Managing Expectations: Working With People Who Want More, Better, Faster, Sooner, NOW!, which offers a serious, lighthearted look (yes, both!) at policies and practices for successfully managing expectations in the workplace

How to Establish Service Level Agreements, a handbook based on more than a decade of experience providing SLA consulting and seminars internationally and which is designed to help you avoid the flaws and failures she encounters so often

© Naomi Karten, www.nkarten.com