Response and resolution targets in working hours
Response-time policies set how fast your team must reply and solve, per priority, for chosen teams, kinds of issue, customers and tags. Targets count in working hours and holidays or round the clock, pause while a ticket waits, and are never typed by hand.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- You promise a 4-hour response to a customer but have no way to show whether you kept it.
- Deadlines are worked out in a spreadsheet, and an agent can quietly push one back.
- Time spent waiting for the customer's reply is counted against your team.
- A breach is found at the end of the month, when nothing can be done about it.
How it works
- A Helpdesk Administrator opens Helpdesk > Configuration > Routing and Service Levels > SLA Policies and creates a policy, for example Standard Support.
- Under Applies To, choose the Teams, Issue Types, Customers and Tags it is for. An empty field means any.
- In Targets add one line per priority and target: First Response or Resolution, Within so many hours, and the Clock: Working Hours or 24x7.
- When a ticket is raised, the most specific policy that fits gives it its deadlines, counted from the moment it was raised.
- The team's first public reply meets First Response; solving meets Resolution. Every 15 minutes the system marks missed targets as failed.
- The ticket's SLA tab shows each target, its deadline, when it was met and its status: Ongoing, Reached or Failed.
Everything it does
Policies
- Applies To: Teams, Issue Types (with their sub-types), Customers and Tags; empty means any
- Entity: empty means every Entity
- Several policies can fit: the one with the most criteria filled in wins, then the one higher in the list (drag to order)
- Only Through a Contract: the policy applies only to tickets whose contract names it (Growth)
- No limit on the number of policies on any plan
Targets
- One line per priority (Low, Normal, High, Urgent) and target; a policy has one target per priority and kind
- Targets: First Response, Resolution, and from Growth On-site Arrival
- Within (hours): more than 0; decimals allowed
- Clock: Working Hours (the default) or 24x7
- A priority with no line gets no target
How the clock counts
- Working Hours means the team's working-hours calendar, skipping its days off; a contract's service hours replace it (Growth)
- A waiting stage that pauses the SLA stops every target not yet met; leaving it moves the deadlines on by the waiting time
- A target that had failed becomes Ongoing again if a pause moves its deadline past the present
- Changing the priority, kind of issue, team, customer, tags or contract works out the targets not yet met again; met targets stay
- Deadlines are never edited by hand
- Preventive maintenance tickets get no targets: their due date is what counts
What people see
- Ticket: Next SLA Deadline, a red SLA Failed ribbon, and the SLA tab
- Customer: the expected times in the Ticket Received email and on the ticket page
- Reports: SLA Compliance, and response and resolution hours in the ticket reports
- The wall screen shows tickets with a deadline coming soon (Growth)
Who uses it
Helpdesk AdministratorCreates the policies and their targets.
Technician / AgentSees the next deadline on each ticket and the queue, and replies or solves in time.
Team LeadWatches deadlines coming up and failed targets, and is told by escalation before one is missed.
RequesterIs told the expected response and resolution times when the ticket is raised.
Where you use it
- Web: Helpdesk > Configuration > Routing and Service Levels > SLA Policies; the SLA tab on each ticket; Helpdesk > Reports > Tickets and Service > SLA Compliance
- Customer portal: the expected times on the ticket page
- The SmartMy Desk app: a countdown on each ticket in the technician's Queue (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
What you control
Settings
- Clock: Working Hours to start with, or 24x7 per target
- Working hours and holidays: the team's calendar, or a contract's service hours (Growth)
- Pauses the SLA: on for the waiting stages
- Missed targets checked every 15 minutes
Notifications
- Ticket Received: to the requester, by email, with the expected response and resolution times
- Ticket Escalated: to the people of an escalation level when a share of a target has passed (see Escalation)
Questions
What counts as the first response?
The first public message from your team to the requester, with Send message, on the web or in the app. Internal notes do not count.Can a technician extend a deadline?
No. Deadlines are worked out by the system. Only a waiting stage moves them, by the time spent waiting, and that is in the ticket's history.We give premium customers faster times. How?
Make a policy with those customers under Applies To. It has more criteria filled in than the general policy, so it wins for their tickets. From Growth, you can also put a policy on the customer's contract.Do night hours count?
Only on targets with the 24x7 clock. Working Hours targets count the team's working hours and skip its holidays.Is there a limit on policies in Starter?
No. Policies are not counted on any plan.Related features
RESPONSE TIMESEscalation before a target is missedEscalation rules act when a share of a response-time target has passed, such as 75 % or 100 %. Each level tells the team lead, the customer's account manager or people you name, and can hand the ticket to them.RESPONSE TIMESArrival-on-site targets and a contract's own response timesFor work at the customer's site, set how fast a technician must arrive; the target is met when the technician checks in on the visit. A contract can carry its own response times and service hours, which take the place of your general ones for that customer.SET-UPTeams, working hours and stagesEach service team has its members, a lead, its own working hours and holidays, and its own email address. Tickets move through stages you name, and a waiting stage stops the response-time clock while you wait on the customer, parts or a quote.REPORTSTicket, response-time, time and rating reportsSee how fast your desk answers and fixes, which targets were met or missed and where your technicians' hours go. See also what customers think of each team and technician. Every report is a table you can regroup, chart or open as a list.MORE IN THE PRODUCTWall screen for a TV and the board in the appPut a live board of your service office on a TV. It shows open and unassigned tickets, targets due soon and missed, who is on site and where, each technician's load and today's visits. Team leads see the same board in the app.
See one of your own jobs run through it.
Tell us how a complaint reaches you today and what you bill for. We will show you the same job in SmartMy Desk.