Running the centre
SLA
An SLA (service level agreement) is a written commitment to the time and quality with which a service is delivered. In a student residence it usually sets how many hours a maintenance ticket has to be picked up or resolved by type, and it is what decides what counts as overdue.
Also known asservice level agreement · response time · resolution time · target time
What it is exactly
The term comes from contracts between a provider and its client, and a residence uses it in two places. Outwards, with the lift, cleaning or air-conditioning contractor: how quickly they come when called. Inwards, between management and the maintenance team: how many hours a leak gets and how many a light bulb. What matters is not the number but that there is one: with no deadline there is no overdue maintenance ticket, and with nothing overdue nobody knows what is falling behind.
| Concept | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Response time | From when the report comes in until someone picks it up |
| Resolution time | From when the report comes in until it is fixed |
| Overdue | A ticket that has passed its deadline without being closed |
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that the clock runs the same at three in the afternoon as at three in the morning. It is worth deciding what happens to reports that come in at night or at the weekend, and what happens when a ticket goes overdue and nobody answers: that is the handoff to a human. How Bedel applies it is explained in faults and incidents.
Sources
Related terms
- Maintenance ticketA maintenance ticket is the record of a fault in a residence's facilities (a dripping shower, a broken blind) with what is wrong, where, who reported it and when. It is used to assign the job to whoever fixes it, track the deadline and keep a record of how it was closed.
- Org chart and shiftA residence's org chart is the map of roles (management, reception, maintenance, kitchen, housekeeping) and of who holds each one; the shift says who is on duty in each time slot. Together they answer the question that matters when a message comes in: whose job is it right now.
- Handoff to a humanA handoff to a human is passing a conversation from the AI assistant to a member of staff, because the person asks for it or because the matter needs a decision. Done well, it reaches a specific phone with the context and, if nobody answers, moves up to the person in charge.