SLA (Service level agreement)
An SLA (service level agreement) is a commitment to respond to or resolve customer issues within a defined timeframe.
SLAs set explicit expectations: for example, "all email inquiries receive a first reply within 4 business hours" or "critical issues are resolved within 8 hours." They can be internal team targets or external commitments written into contracts with customers.
Common SLA targets include first response time and time to resolution, broken out by priority level. High-priority or enterprise accounts often get faster SLA tiers than standard customers.
Tracking SLA compliance — the percentage of tickets where the team met the time commitment — gives a structured way to spot staffing gaps or workflows that create delays. An SLA breach is when a ticket misses the defined window.