What is an SLA: call centre service level, the 80/20 rule, a courier example and SLAs with an AI operator
Sado AI team · · 4 min read
In short
An SLA (service level agreement) is a clear promise, or a contract clause, about how fast and how well a service is delivered. In a call centre, SLA usually means “service level”: what share of calls is answered within how many seconds. For example, “80/20” means 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds. SLAs are also set for calling a new lead or replying to a complaint. An AI operator answers in about a second, so the SLA moves to the steps your staff take.
Two meanings of SLA
- A contract: an agreement with a supplier. For example, how long a provider or IT service runs without outages and how many hours it takes to react to a fault.
- An internal target: the “service level” of a sales team or call centre. For example, answer 80% of calls within 20 seconds.
- The formula: calls answered within the set time ÷ all incoming calls × 100%.
- Decide in advance whether to count callers who hang up within a couple of seconds, and count by the same rule every month.
Sample SLAs for phone calls
| What | SLA, for example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Answering an incoming call | 80% within 20 seconds | So callers don’t give up waiting |
| Calling a new lead | Within 5 minutes | Before the lead goes cold |
| Calling back a missed call | Within 1 hour | Before the customer goes elsewhere |
| A manager’s promised callback | By the end of the working day | So promises are kept |
| A complaint | Reply within 24 hours | So frustration doesn’t grow |
Example: a courier service in Tashkent
Chopar Ekspress (name invented) has three operators and an 80/20 target. Its contract with corporate clients adds one more clause: “reply to a pick-up request within 15 minutes”. On Monday morning the numbers came out like this (figures as an example):
- From 9 to 11, 180 calls came in.
- 99 of them were answered within 20 seconds: 99 ÷ 180 × 100 = 55%.
- The rest waited one to three minutes, and 30 people hung up before an answer.
- Two corporate clients’ requests were taken after more than 15 minutes: the contract clause was broken.
The average for the day may come out near 80%, but customers remember Monday morning. So look at the SLA for your busiest hour separately too.
SLAs with an AI operator
An AI operator for incoming calls answers in about a second, at night and at weekends too. There’s no queue: it takes more than ten calls at once. For the 180 calls of Monday morning, answer speed stops being the problem.
The SLA moves to the steps your staff take. When the operator doesn’t know an answer, it says a manager will call back and creates a task — give that task a deadline. Watch how fast staff pick up when a call is transferred to them by your rule. New requests, meanwhile, get a call from the operator right away. Every call’s time, recording and result sit in the portal, so you count the SLA from there. For courier and delivery firms: AI operator for delivery.
Setting your own SLA: 5 steps
- Write down what matters to customers: answer speed, callbacks, replies to complaints.
- Give each one an exact number: seconds, minutes or hours.
- Name who is responsible: operator, manager, owner.
- For a month, count once a week, with your busiest hour counted separately.
- Where the SLA was missed, find the cause in the call recording: not enough people, or not enough information?
Compare operator salaries and the queue with the AI operator’s cost in the calculator: with Sado you pay only for talked minutes, 800 so‘m a minute. Related terms: what is AHT, what is FCR. More answers: questions about Sado. Try it live or call 78 778 01 23.
Questions
What is the difference between an SLA and a KPI?
A KPI is any metric you measure, such as AHT or conversion. An SLA is a specific limit or promise for one of them: “80% within 20 seconds”.
Is 80/20 right for every business?
No, it’s only a common starting point. Choose your own based on how long your customers are willing to wait: urgent services need a shorter time.
Do I still need an SLA with an AI operator?
Yes, but in a different place. Answer speed changes, while the staff steps remain: a manager’s callback, picking up a transferred call, resolving a complaint.