Service Level Agreement Template (UK)
Create Your Professional Contract in Minutes

A comprehensive Service Level Agreement must clearly define:

• Parties and effective date - Service provider, customer, and SLA commencement date
• Services covered - Detailed description of services subject to the SLA (IT support, hosting, managed services, etc.)
• Service hours - When services are available (24/7, business hours, etc.) and time zone
• Availability/uptime targets - Percentage uptime commitments (99.9%, 99.5%, etc.) with scheduled maintenance exclusions
• Performance metrics - Specific, measurable KPIs: - System availability percentage - Response time targets - Resolution time targets - Transaction processing speeds - Error rates and tolerances - Throughput metrics
• Incident priority definitions - Clear criteria for classifying issues: - Critical/P1: Complete service outage, security breach - High/P2: Major functionality impaired, significant user impact - Medium/P3: Minor functionality issue, workaround available - Low/P4: Cosmetic issue, feature request
• Response time commitments - Maximum time to acknowledge and begin work by priority level
• Resolution time commitments - Maximum time to resolve issues by priority level
• Support channels - How customers submit requests (phone, email, portal, chat) and availability by channel
• Escalation procedures - How unresolved issues are escalated internally and when customers can escalate
• Monitoring and reporting - How performance is measured, tracked, and reported to customers
• Scheduled maintenance - Advance notice requirements, permitted maintenance windows, and uptime calculation exclusions
• Exclusions from SLA - Events that don't count against SLA (force majeure, customer-caused outages, third-party failures)
• Service credits/remedies - Financial compensation or credits when performance falls below targets: - Credit calculation methods (percentage of fees) - Credit caps (maximum monthly credits) - Claim procedures and deadlines - Sole and exclusive remedy language
• Customer responsibilities - Customer obligations required for provider to meet SLA (network access, accurate information, timely cooperation)
• Review and adjustment - Periodic SLA review schedule and amendment procedures
• Measurement methodology - How metrics are calculated, measurement tools used, and data retention

Our SLA includes all essential elements for comprehensive performance accountability and customer protection.

Legal and Commercial Risks:

• No enforceable performance standards: Without written SLA commitments, customers have no recourse when service quality is poor - providers can deliver substandard service with no consequences.
• Expectation mismatches: Customers expect 24/7 support and instant responses while providers plan for business hours only - leading to constant disappointment and disputes.
• No accountability mechanism: Without defined metrics and remedies, poor performance has no financial consequences - removing incentives to maintain quality.
• Unlimited liability exposure: Without SLA credit caps and "sole remedy" language, service failures can trigger unlimited damages claims instead of limited service credits.
• Competitive disadvantage: Enterprise customers require SLAs - without one, you lose business to competitors who provide performance guarantees.
• Support prioritization chaos: Without defined priority levels and response times, every customer believes their issue is critical - making effective support impossible.
• Dispute escalation: Every service hiccup becomes a major dispute when performance expectations aren't documented - minor issues escalate to contract terminations.
• No maintenance protection: Without scheduled maintenance provisions, every system update results in customer complaints and SLA breach allegations.
• Customer churn: Unclear performance standards and no accountability lead to customer dissatisfaction and cancellations - destroying recurring revenue.
• Support cost explosion: Without defined response times and channels, customers demand instant responses via all channels simultaneously - making support economically unsustainable.
• No proof of compliance: When disputes arise, providers can't demonstrate they met performance standards because none were defined and measured.
• Regulatory issues: Some industries require documented SLAs for compliance (financial services, healthcare) - operating without them violates regulations.

Common Service Provider Problems:

Operating without SLAs results in: customers demanding compensation for every minor issue; disputes over whether service was "good enough"; inability to defend against breach of contract claims; customers claiming verbal promises of "guaranteed uptime" that were never made; support teams overwhelmed by unrealistic customer demands; inability to plan resources because every request is "urgent"; and losing enterprise deals because procurement requires SLA commitments. Written SLAs prevent these operational nightmares.

A £10 SLA prevents £50,000+ in service credits, lost revenue, and damages claims while enabling sustainable service delivery.

Comprehensive SLA Framework:

• ✓ Parties identification and effective date
• ✓ Services scope and coverage
• ✓ Service hours and time zone definitions
• ✓ Availability/uptime commitments with target percentages
• ✓ Comprehensive performance metrics: - System availability and uptime tracking - Response time standards - Resolution time standards - Transaction processing benchmarks - Error rate tolerances - Performance degradation thresholds
• ✓ Incident priority classification system: - Critical (P1): Complete outage, immediate response - High (P2): Major impact, 2-hour response - Medium (P3): Moderate impact, 8-hour response - Low (P4): Minor impact, 24-hour response
• ✓ Response time commitments by priority level
• ✓ Resolution time commitments by priority level
• ✓ Support channels and availability: - Phone support hours and numbers - Email support and response times - Web portal access and procedures - Emergency contact escalation
• ✓ Escalation procedures and management contacts
• ✓ Performance monitoring and measurement: - Monitoring tools and methods - Data collection procedures - Calculation methodologies - Monthly reporting requirements
• ✓ Scheduled maintenance provisions: - Advance notice requirements (72 hours) - Permitted maintenance windows - Emergency maintenance procedures - Uptime calculation exclusions
• ✓ SLA exclusions and force majeure: - Customer-caused incidents - Third-party service failures - Internet infrastructure issues - Acts of God and unforeseeable events
• ✓ Service credit framework: - Credit calculation by missed target - Monthly credit caps (typically 25-100% of fees) - Claim procedures and deadlines (30 days) - Credit application to future invoices - Sole and exclusive remedy provisions
• ✓ Customer responsibilities and obligations
• ✓ SLA review and adjustment schedule (annual)
• ✓ Reporting and performance documentation
• ✓ Definitions of key terms and metrics
• ✓ Amendment procedures
• ✓ Termination rights for repeated SLA failures

Professional, comprehensive, and ready to ensure service accountability and customer satisfaction.

Don't Make These Critical Errors:

• Vague performance metrics: "Best efforts" or "reasonable response time" is unenforceable and worthless - use specific numbers (99.9% uptime, 15-minute response for P1).
• Unrealistic uptime promises: Promising 100% uptime or 99.999% availability without understanding costs and architecture required - one missed target bankrupts you in service credits.
• No priority definitions: Without clear priority criteria, every customer claims every issue is "critical" - making response time commitments impossible to meet.
• Undefined response vs. resolution: Customers interpret "2-hour response time" as "problem fixed in 2 hours" not "we'll acknowledge it" - clearly distinguish response (acknowledgment) from resolution (fix).
• No maintenance exclusions: Counting scheduled maintenance against uptime SLA makes achieving targets impossible - always exclude properly-notified maintenance windows.
• Unlimited service credits: Service credits with no cap means one bad month could result in 12 months of free service - cap at 25-100% of monthly fees.
• No "sole remedy" language: Without designating service credits as the sole and exclusive remedy, customers can claim service credits AND sue for damages - doubling your exposure.
• No customer responsibilities: SLA commitments assume customer cooperation - without defining customer obligations (providing access, accurate information), you're liable for their failures.
• Measuring wrong metrics: Measuring server uptime when customers care about application availability, or measuring ticket response when they want resolution - track metrics customers actually care about.
• No force majeure protection: Being liable for AWS outages, internet failures, or natural disasters you can't control destroys profitability - exclude third-party and unforeseeable failures.
• Inconsistent service hours: Promising 24/7 coverage in SLA but only staffing business hours support - set realistic service hours or budget for round-the-clock teams.
• No claim procedures: Without defined procedures and deadlines for claiming credits (typically 30 days), you face credit claims from 2 years ago with no documentation.
• Overly complex metrics: SLAs with 47 different metrics that require PhD to calculate make compliance verification impossible - use 3-5 key metrics that matter most.
• No measurement methodology: Disputes over whether you achieved 99.8% or 99.6% uptime when measurement method isn't documented - specify monitoring tools and calculation formulas.
• Missing escalation procedures: When initial support can't resolve issues, customers have no path to management - define escalation triggers and contacts.

Our SLA prevents these costly errors with realistic, measurable, and achievable performance commitments.