Manage SLAs

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As previously mentioned, SLAs aren't customer specific; they're defined at an organization level and applied to cases. Out of the box, the case record doesn't have a lookup field to the SLA entity, so an SLA isn't applied to a case unless it's set at the default SLA for your organization or associated with entitlement.

The following table explains how SLAs are applied when a new case is created.

Action Applicable SLA
Case created with no entitlement associated The organization's default SLA will be applied to the case. When no default SLA exists, no SLA will be applied to the case.
Entitlement is associated to the case When the entitlement has an active associated SLA, the associated SLA will be applied to the case. When the entitlement doesn't have an active associated SLA, the default SLA will be applied to the case. When the entitlement doesn't have an active associated SLA, and no default SLA exists, then no SLA will be applied to the case.

For more information, see how SLAs are applied and applying SLAs on demand.

An SLA can't be set as the default for an organization until it's activated. An organization can have only one SLA set as the default. Setting another SLA as the default will override the previous default. If you need to deactivate the default SLA for some reason, you'll need to define it as the default again after it's been reactivated.

SLAs will need to be deactivated whenever you want to make changes. When you deactivate an SLA, all entitlements that are associated with the SLA will remain active. While an SLA is inactive, all SLA fields on cases that are linked to the inactive SLA won't populate.

For more information, see Disable an SLA in Customer Service app and Set an SLA as the default.

Pause and resume SLAs

Consider a scenario where you're working on a case with a customer and need specific information from them. While you're waiting for the customer to get back to you, you might want to pause the calculation time on the SLA to ensure that the time when you're waiting for the customer won't affect the SLA calculation time. For example, a customer has been promised a two-hour response time, and 30 minutes into the case, it's placed into waiting for details for 45 minutes. When the timer is resumed, only the previous 30 minutes that you invested will count toward the SLA calculation. When you create SLA items, you can specify if you want to allow pausing and resuming of the timer.

In the Customer Service admin center, you can define Pause and Resume statuses for a specific table, such as Cases. This feature allows you to place a case On Hold and not have the hold time count against the timer. In the Customer Service admin center, go to Service Terms and select Manage next to Other settings. From that page, you can control if your organization wants to use the SLA functionality, and you can define which statuses will be considered paused for each entity that’s enabled for SLA. For example, you could choose to define the pause statuses for the case entity as On Hold or Waiting for Details. After you’ve set up those statuses, whenever those statuses are chosen, the SLA timer will be paused automatically.

Screenshot of Select S L A Pause Status showing Available and Selected statuses.

For more information, see System Settings Service tab where it discusses topics including setting up Pause and Resume statuses in Service Settings.

Timer control

You can add a timer control to any entity through the form customization screen to provide countdown information for any defined KPI on that entity. When a timer control is added, you can set up the following parameters:

  • Failure Time Field - Defines the date/time-based field that will be used for calculating success or failure, such as the Created On field. (Required)

  • Success Condition - Defines the field and field value that determine successful resolution, such as the First Response Sent field being set to Yes. (Required)

  • Failure Condition - Defines the field and field value that determine a failure for the time, such as the First Response Sent field being set to No.

  • Warning Condition - Defines the field and field value that determine when a warning should be triggered.

  • Cancel Condition - Defines the field and field value that determine when the timer should be canceled, such as the Status Reason being set to Resolved.

  • Pause Condition - Defines the field and field value that determine when the timer should be paused, such as the Status Reason being set to Waiting for Details.

You can add and define timer controls whenever you need to use countdown capabilities. The timer will change color to reflect the different statuses, such as Green for all is good, Yellow for warnings, and Red for failures.

For more information, see Add a timer control for SLA-enabled entities.