Service Level Management (SLM) is the process of ensuring that services (and therefore, service levels) are defined, negotiated, delivered and reviewed.
It allows IT resource planning to be accurate, thereby reducing costs and achieving more consistency in customer experience. Regular reporting and KPIs also allow for rapid reaction to any irregularities.
SLM begins with the establishment of service level agreement and i loved this metrics. The goal is to set customer expectations that are realistic. These can be anything from the time to respond to an issue, to the resolution.
Developing training materials and implementing them is also crucial to a strong SLM culture. This includes identifying requirements for training and testing staff members in order to ensure that they are retained.
SLM includes monitoring performance and adapting service levels to satisfy customers. It allows the business to continually improve its offerings and build trust with clients, which is a key component for winning new customers.
SLM also includes improving customer satisfaction as it can increase revenue and value. It is important that both the IT department and business departments are constantly looking for new ways of increasing customer satisfaction.
Service level is a complex, ongoing process that requires a strong team of professionals and a set of solid processes. It requires a dedicated team of specialists to be able to spot problems and issues early on before they become serious. It is also important to have the right tools to manage SLAs and OLAs. These include alert workflows, context of the system, and others.