A simple operations dashboard for any service business
You do not need many charts. A handful of numbers, tied to actions, helps a manager run the day and the week.
Service levels that teams actually keep
A service level is a promise. Set it too tight and people stop believing it; set it too loose and it means nothing.
Service level agreements, usually shortened to SLAs, are promises about how quickly you will respond and resolve. Many are written once, filed away and ignored. The ones that work are realistic, simple and reviewed.
Begin with real data
Before promising anything, look at what actually happens today. For each type of request, how long does it take to respond and to resolve? Use the typical time and the slow end, not the best case. A target that your team can only meet on a good day will be missed often, and a missed target soon stops mattering.
Separate response from resolution
Response is when the customer hears from a person and knows the request is being handled. Resolution is when the work is complete. Both matter, and they are usually different. Response targets are short and almost always achievable. Resolution targets depend on the type of work.
Keep the number of levels small
Three or four categories are enough. Give each a plain description and an example:
- Urgent: risk to safety or a major service stopped. Respond immediately.
- High: serious disruption. Respond within hours.
- Normal: routine problem. Respond within a working day.
- Planned: scheduled or non-urgent work. Agree a date.
Be clear about when the clock stops
Some delays are outside your control: waiting for access, for the customer's reply or for a part. Decide in advance which situations pause the clock, and record the reason when it happens. Without this, the numbers are either unfair or meaningless.
Make the targets visible
Show the team how they are doing, daily or weekly, against the agreed levels. A simple view of overdue and at-risk items lets supervisors act before a miss.
Use misses to learn
When a target is missed, ask what happened, without blame. Was the target unrealistic? Was there a shortage of people at a certain time? Did a handover fail? Fix the cause and you improve the next hundred cases.
Tell customers what to expect
A target is only useful if the customer knows it. Put it in the first confirmation message: "We will respond within X and aim to complete within Y." Then keep to it.
Review a few times a year
Work changes. Review the levels periodically, adjust where the data shows they are wrong, and keep the whole thing short enough that people remember it.