Updated as of 27/05/2019
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) define how we respond to your issues and requests. They reflect our reliability, efficiency and confidence in the support that we provide. This applies ONLY to clients on Standard, Professional and Enterprise packages only and is subject to change.
The Basics
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) essentially represent our promise to deal with your issues and requests within a given time frame. They show that we have an efficient and mature process for providing support and that you can have confidence in us. All issues are important to us but they are prioritised according to this document.
Our SLA is based on responding within working hours but this can be subject to change based on the volume of work and priority level.
Standard Hours of cover
- Our standard cover runs from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm (GMT/BST), from Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays for England.
- Our monitoring service runs 24×7 and major issues (*Global blockers only) are dealt with accordingly by our out-of-hours incident team..
- Our monitoring runs 24x7x365 regardless of your package.
Third Party API`s
- Issues with third party API`s are not subject to below.
- Arthur online will not be held liable for any issues that arise as a result of a third party API`s used to connect Arthur to their services. Any disruption in service or data will be subject to our terms and conditions. Any correction in data will be the responsibility of the client as a result of a third party API issue.
- Clients are responsible to ensure they understand any 3rd party software requirements, terms and conditions and SLA. Arthur is not responsible for imparting knowledge, know how or updates that may effect usage.
Fair Use Policy
Why do we have a Fair Usage Policy?
As part of our commitment to providing excellent quality and reliable service, Arthur Online has a Fair Usage Policy on its Support Services. The Fair Usage Policy (or FUP as its commonly referred too) contains usage guidelines for customers using the Arthur Online Support services to ensure that customers use the service reasonably.
Very often customers confuse supports services with training services. In order to manage expectation, it is important to appreciate that we do not offer training services over the phone unless previously booked. Training via a shared screen session can be arranged with the team and are free of charge or £45+VAT per session (subject to your subscription package). This time can be used to interact with the Arthur support team who can spend that dedicated time supporting you through the setup and continued use of your account. Furthermore, Arthur offers public training days and private training sessions.
What are the FUP limits?
In circumstances where extended support is required as a result of the customer not being adequately trained in using the system, the team will end the conversation in a timely manner and encourage the user to book a training session. Extended training will not be given ad-hoc on the phone without prior booking.
Clients may not receive immediate support when they call our support centre. When clients call for support and there is not an agent available to support them at that point, or they request a specific agent that is not available, they will be asked to enter their request into Arthur’s live chat provider ‘Intercom’ on the website.
Without the prior booking of a support call, clients should not expect to receive same-day support from a named customer service agent they request.
Support calls should generally not exceed 15 minutes and will be subject to the FUP, unless the support team member involved deems otherwise. Any training given will form part of the allotted monthly training limit. Where the account has already used all allotted training time, the account will be charged at a rate of £45+VAT per hour.
Support calls are subject the the FUP on all packages, including Enterprise. Where a customer is deemed to be making excessive use of the ad-hoc telephone support, they may be refused support via telephone or required to pay an additional cost of £25+VAT per hour.
Shared screen sessions are subject to the FUP only when a customer is on the Enterprise package, with both Standard and Professional clients limited to 1 and 3 per month respectively. An Enterprise account’s use of the shared screen support will be reviewed on a monthly basis. If the account is deemed to have used the shared screen sessions excessively, the account may be subject to review. * Please see pricing page for number of sessions allowed per package.
Shared screen sessions booked can be cancelled by Arthur for unforseen reasons and clients will be asked to re-book. Arthur will not be subject to any cost that the client has suffered as a result of a cancellation.
Support calls are monitored by the Lead Customer Service Agent and collated in terms of time and support quality to ensure that all customers receive the best service possible.
How we work out priorities
Our SLA timers also depend on the priority of your issue or request. When you raise an issue with us, we make an assessment based on the information you have given us. We let you know the priority we have assigned, but are happy to take extenuating circumstances into account, if you think we’ve got it wrong. Priority is based on two factors: severity and impact.
Blockers
This is where the effect on your business is at the most severe and there is no workaround. This is given a Priority 1
Critical
This where the effect on your business is medium-high and there is a less than effective workaround. This is given a priority 2
Important
This is where the effect on your business is low-medium and there is an effective workaround. This is given a Priority 3
Improvements
When a customer suggests an improvement to a current feature we will first assess the impact and the global need. We will then advise you of our decision. This is given a Priority 4
New Features
When a customer suggest a new feature it goes through a process before being approved. We will then advise you of our decision. This is given a Priority 5
In our experience most issues fall into Priority 3 so that tends to be a default. The priority assigned dictates the amount of time we give ourselves to deal with your incident or request
| Global Blocker (Customer > 1) |
Customer Blocker (Customer = 1) |
Global Critical (Customer > 1) |
Customer Critical (Customer = 1) |
Global Important (Customer > 1) |
Customer important (Customer = 1) |
Improvement (Customer > 1) |
New Feature (Customer > 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workaround = 0 Productivity = 0 |
Workaround = 0 Productivity = 0 |
Workaround = 1 Productivity = 1 |
Workaround = 1 Productivity = 1 |
Workaround = 2 Productivity = 2 |
Workaround = 2 Productivity = 2 |
Global Efficiency > 0 UI impact >= 0 |
Global Efficiency > 0 UI impact >= 0 |
| Respond to client within 1 hour |
Respond to client within 1 hour |
Respond to client within 1 hour |
Respond to client within 1 hour |
Respond to client within 3 hours |
Respond to client within 3 hours |
Scoped within 21 days and client notified within 21 days |
|
| Priority 1
Resolved within 24 hours |
Priority 1
Resolved within 24 hours |
Priority 2
Resolved within 36 hours |
Priority 2
Resolved within 36 hours |
Priority 3
Resolved within 21 days |
Priority 3
Resolved within 21 days |
Priority 4
Resolved within 30-60 days |
Priority 5
To be assessed |
Workaround; Workaround 0 = No workaround possible, Workaround 1 = Complicated, Workaround 2 = Easy
Productivity loss; Productivity 0 = Severe , Productivity 1 =Medium-Severe , Productivity 2 = Low-medium
Overriding our priorities
We aim to be flexible and recognise that sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. Perhaps the issue affects your users, or key staff are having issues with a critical arae with an impending deadline. Our technicians are able to override our standard priority assessment where there is good reason, if you have made us aware of it.
Two clocks are ticking
We have two clocks (timers) running on every issue you raise, though most of our clients are only interested in two of them (“respond within” and “resolve within”).
“Respond within…”
This is the maximum amount of time that it should take us to get back to you, and confirm who is dealing with your issue – you get to speak to a trained member of the team straight away, rather than a recorded menu system or a call-logger.
“Resolve within…”
This is the one that everyone is really interested in: the maximum time it should take to get everything up and running.
These timers represent maximums – we generally come well within these time limits. In certain circumstances we will put a clock on hold – for example when we are awaiting a response from you with further information or an approval for work that may have a temporary impact on you or your business
Sometimes, with the best will in the world, and in spite of our best efforts, there are extenuating circumstances that mean the time limit is breached. This is exceptionally rare.
Other exceptions to our priorities
The following are exceptions to our priorities and timers in the above matrix:
- Third parties– Where an issue lies with a 3rd party supplier we allocate a priority of 5 for these jobs.
- Quotes – we have no timers on these requests, but we do our best to be prompt and keep you fully up to date.
- Low priority admin requests – these have response times that match priority 4 but each request is given a bespoke fix time. Generally we get plenty of advance notice and these requests are not urgent.
- Browser specific problems – Whilst we endeavour to ensure Arthur works on all browsers, Google Chrome is our preferred browser and thus we recommend this for all Arthur usage. This means that the most vigorous testing is done on Google Chrome. Issues that arise on other browsers will be dealt with, but are not considered a priority.
If you’d like to speak further about this please contact us today or call 020 7112 4860