A service level agreement can be an extremely effective communications tool for creating a common understanding between two parties regarding services, expectations, responsibilities and priorities. However, if it is established at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, or in the wrong way, it can create bigger problems than those it is trying to solve.

In presenting seminars internationally, I've repeatedly met people who needed to rethink their timing, their reasons or their way.

The wrong time
Service providers sometimes want to create an SLA to suppress customer complaints; however, attempting to establish an SLA with complaining customers usually backfires because customers will see it as just one more thing to complain about. Before engaging in SLA efforts, the service provider should obtain customer feedback, seek to understand the complaints, and take some small but visible steps to resolve the complaints. The timing may then be better to establish an SLA.

Sometimes it's the complaining customer who initiates the SLA. Dissatisfied customers may hope to use an SLA as a sledgehammer with which to bludgeon the service provider whenever service slips. But just as the service provider won't win customer favor by using an SLA as a complaint-stopper, neither will the customer experience service improvements by using the SLA as a club. Before engaging in SLA efforts, the customer must clearly communicate the impact of the faulty service and the changes needed. The customer must also try to appreciate what the service provider realistically can and cannot accomplish.

When a relationship is plagued by distrust and fingerpointing, it is not the right time to establish an SLA. First fix the underlying problems, then establish the SLA.

The wrong reason
An effort is sometimes undertaken to establish an SLA when something less complex will suffice. For example, in many companies the division of roles and responsibilities between offices or departments is vague at best.

A manager at one of my SLA seminars provided a perfect example. The confusion within his own regional office about who did what was compounded by the confusion between regions – including those in other countries. He described a situation of redundant responsibilities across organizational boundaries, gaps in responsibilities across geographical boundaries, ambiguous job descriptions, and roles that changed daily. Sound familiar?

This fellow came to the seminar thinking that an SLA would solve these problems. By the end, he concluded that what was needed was not an SLA, but clarification within and between offices. Since achieving clarity about services, functions and responsibilities is essential to SLA success, it's a worthwhile starting point whether or not a full-blown SLA is ultimately needed. And if clarity solves the immediate problem, investing the additional effort to develop an SLA may be unnecessary.

The wrong way
Most SLAs are initiated and unilaterally established by service providers. The customer is given little or no say about either the content of the SLA or the process by which it is established or managed. This is the wrong way to be successful with an SLA. Very simply, if the two parties have not agreed, it's not an agreement, and it shouldn't be called an agreement. The resulting document may still serve a useful purpose, but it's not an agreement.

The very essence of an SLA is that both parties have a say. In practice, it is rarely practical or feasible for both parties to be involved in every step of creating the agreement. However, a successful SLA is one in which the two parties collaborate. When the process is truly collaborative, the resulting document can be filed away and largely ignored because the two parties have already succeeded in learning how to work together. And that's the right way.


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