# Service Level Agreement (SLA) A **Service Level Agreement (SLA)** is a documented commitment to specific levels of service. SLAs typically cover: - **First-response time** — e.g., reply within 4 business hours for high-priority tickets - **Resolution time** — e.g., resolve within 2 business days - **Uptime** — e.g., 99.9% monthly platform availability - **Penalty** — what the customer gets if you miss (credits, refunds, exec engagement) ## SLA tiers Common pattern is to tier by customer plan: - Starter — 24-hour first response, no resolution SLA - Professional — 8-hour first response, 2-day resolution - Enterprise — 1-hour first response, custom resolution, 99.9% uptime ## Why SLAs matter For enterprise procurement, SLAs are non-negotiable. For SMB, they're a trust signal. Miss them too often and renewals get harder. ## How BlueHill helps SLA timers attach to tickets automatically based on customer tier. Breaches escalate to managers. Reports show SLA-attainment rates by team, category, and customer cohort. Related: [Tickets](/glossary/tickets) · [Escalations](/glossary/escalations)