Mathew Dickerson, author of SLAM (service level agreement model), has taken the stage at the Managed Services International Seminar Series here in Melbourne, Australia. Many of the tips he’s sharing are applicable worldwide.
For instance, Dickerson offered these five key items to include in a modern Service Level Agreement (SLA):
- Get a fixed priced policy (FPP) in place. Hours no longer exist.
- Base all work around outcomes. (Outcome Based Service Work). And if you don’t deliver on outcomes, you really don’t deserve to charge for your services.
- Minimize variables in price calculations; don’t get hung up quoting prices. Instead, sell the value of your services and your company’s expertise.
- Promote money back guarantees. Dickerson’s technicians initially balked at this approach. But gradually, they saw positive responses from customers. For instance, when Dickerson’s company misses an SLA response time, he offers 5 percent of the monthly service fee back to the customer. That approach builds confidence and trust with the customer.
- Focus on proactive maintenance and consultancy — and be sure consulting meetings offer the opportunity to soft sell your customers on new solutions.
Once customers have agreed to go on a SLA, they generally don’t react negatively to price increases, Dickerson says. Generally speaking, he sends out an SLA price increase the first of July every year (the start of Australia’s business year), and increases have ranged from 5 percent to 8 percent in the past three years.
The Managed Services International Seminar Series stops next in Sydney, Australia.
Do you plan to follow any of Dickerson’s SLA tips or are you pursuing a different path?
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Posted In: Australia | Service Level Agreements
Tags: Managed Service Providers | Managed Services | Mathew Dickerson | MSPs | Service Level Agreement Model | Service Level Agreements
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Take a look at our 
I’m with you every step of the way except #4. There’s no way I’d do that because traffic fluctuates greatly around our customer sites and that can impact service times.
I use Matt’s SLAM model here in the US and I can tell you it works great. We actually use the money back guarantee as a major selling point. It’s easy to tell a client you have a Service Level Agreement, but how do you back it up? Offering money back is a perfect incentive for our clients to know we are serious. I have yet to have a client ask for money back, once they realize we are doing our best to accomodate. It also keeps my techs on their toes, as they know if we miss the sla, the techs don’t get bonuses. I met Matt in Dallas last year and bought his SLAM book on the spot. It is a unique model and we are the only ones in our area that use it. It sets us apart from the crowd, and makes it easy to bill as well.
Tim Beard
Networthy Systems
Tim, what are you using to measure your performance against the SLA’s?
Autotask currently, but we are in the middle of a migration to Connectwise. It takes a little planning in the beginning, but it really simplifies billing, and gets rid of the “you took too long to fix this” comment you might hear. I think most of us tend to adjust a bill for break/fix anyway if we think the tech spent too much time on the job. It’s really a game of averages. Most you win, some you lose. Eventually you get ahead of the game with the proactive maintenance and find that your techs are working less on the reactive side, and automating the proactive side.
We really have not had any issues regarding the sla. I even tell the client we don’t hit the sla 100% of the time. But we TRY to hit it 100% of the time. I just think this model offers a unique angle to seperate your business from the rest. At least, it works in our area.
Tim
Thanks Tim, sounds about like we’ve been handling them. We’ve been on ConnectWise for the past year, we transitioned from a home grown tool that had basic SLA tracking. I have found the billing more of a challenge in ConnectWise, but the other advantages that CW has made the switch pretty attractive.
No problem. I just want to make my previous post clear, as there seems to be some confusion (judging by the private posts I’ve gotten) regarding the post. The comments I made regarding billing and sla pertained to Matt’s SLAM model he sells to MSP’s. It was not a comparison of Autotask and Connectwise. When I said it simplifies billing, I meant the SLAM model simplifies billing. It has nothing to do with what msp sofware you use. I just wanted to clear that up.
Tim B
Networthy Systems