Article

    SLA Policies

    6 min read
    Last updated 4 hours ago

    SLAs help your team track time-based support commitments across conversations. You can use them to define response and resolution targets, apply different targets by priority, pause timers when a conversation is on hold, and report on where work is on track, at risk, or breached.

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    How SLA Policies work

    An SLA Policy is a reusable set of time targets. When a conversation matches an active policy, Unthread creates SLA timers for the metrics configured in that policy. Each timer tracks its own deadline, warning time, status, and completion result.

    SLA timers can be:

    • Running: The timer is active and counting toward its deadline.
    • Due soon: The timer has reached its warning time, or it is close to the deadline.
    • Breached: The deadline passed before the metric was completed.
    • Met: The metric was completed before the deadline.
    • Paused: The conversation is on hold, so the timer is not actively counting down.
    • Cancelled: The timer no longer applies, usually because the policy or metric changed.

    When a conversation is put on hold, active SLA timers pause. When the conversation resumes, Unthread moves the deadline forward by the amount of time the timer was paused.

    SLA metrics

    Each policy can include one or more metrics:

    • First Response: Time from conversation creation to the first agent response.
    • Next Reply: Time from a customer reply to the next agent response.
    • Resolution: Time from SLA policy application to conversation resolution.
    • Escalation Acknowledgement: Time from escalation creation to acknowledgement.
    • Escalation Closed: Time from escalation creation to close or resolution.

    First Response and Resolution are conversation-level metrics. Next Reply starts each time a customer reply requires a new agent response. Escalation metrics apply to escalation workflows.

    Which SLA Policy applies?

    Unthread resolves the effective SLA Policy in this order:

    1. Conversation SLA policy override
    2. Account SLA policy override
    3. Customer SLA policy
    4. Project default SLA Policy

    If none of those are set, the conversation does not have SLA enforcement.

    Project-scoped SLA Policies can only be used for conversations in that project. Global policies can be used more broadly, including as account-level overrides.

    Create or edit an SLA Policy

    1. Open an SLA Policy selector from project settings, channel or customer settings, account settings, or another SLA-enabled configuration screen.
    2. Select New SLA policy, or choose an existing policy and select Edit.
    3. Enter a policy Name and optional Description.
    4. Turn on the metrics you want to enforce.
    5. For each metric, configure target rows:
      • Priority: Use the default target for all priorities, or add specific targets for priority levels.
      • Target: The number of minutes before the SLA is due.
      • Warning: The number of minutes before the target when the SLA should be considered at risk. The warning must be less than the target.
      • Business Hours: When enabled, Unthread calculates the deadline using the conversation's effective working hours. When disabled, the timer uses calendar time.
    6. Use the Enabled toggle to make the policy active or inactive.
    7. Select Create or Save.

    When you edit metric targets on a policy that is already in use, Unthread recalculates active SLA deadlines for conversations using that policy. This happens in the background and may take a few minutes.

    Apply SLA Policies

    You can apply SLA Policies in several places:

    • Project default SLA Policy: Set the default policy for conversations in a project.
    • Channel or customer SLA Policy: Set the policy used for conversations that come through supported Slack, email, Microsoft Teams, widget, or customer-specific settings.
    • Account SLA Policy Override: Override project and customer/channel defaults for a specific account.
    • Conversation SLA policy override: Use automations or conversation-level actions to set or clear the policy for a specific conversation.
    • Automations: Use the Set Conversation SLA Policy action to apply or clear an SLA policy override based on workflow conditions.

    How SLAs appear in the UI

    SLAs appear anywhere your team needs to understand urgency:

    • In the inbox and conversation lists, Unthread shows an SLA badge with the most urgent active SLA state.
    • On the conversation details page, the status row shows the primary SLA timer.
    • In the conversation's additional information panel, Unthread shows the SLA Policy name and the list of all applicable SLA metrics.
    • SLA tooltips show the metric, status, whether business hours are used, due time, breach time, or completion time.

    Badge colors help you triage quickly:

    • Green: Running and on track, or completed successfully.
    • Yellow: Due soon or past the configured warning time.
    • Red: Breached.
    • Gray: Paused or cancelled.

    If a conversation has multiple SLA timers, Unthread highlights the most urgent one first. Breached timers take priority, followed by the active timer with the nearest deadline.

    Use analytics to understand SLA performance

    SLA analytics help you understand whether your team is meeting commitments and where work is getting stuck. Review SLA data by filtering or reporting on:

    • Status: Running, paused, breached, completed, or cancelled.
    • Metric type: First Response, Next Reply, Resolution, Escalation Acknowledgement, or Escalation Closed.
    • Deadline date range: See what is due soon, overdue, or coming up in a specific period.
    • Breach date range: Identify when breaches happened and whether they cluster around certain teams, channels, priorities, or customers.
    • Completion date range: Measure how often SLAs were met and how quickly completed work closed.
    • Policy name: Compare performance across different SLA Policies.
    • Conversation context: Segment by project, account, customer, channel, assignee, priority, or conversation status when building operational reports.

    Best practices

    • Start with a simple policy that includes First Response and Resolution targets.
    • Add Next Reply once your team is ready to enforce every customer follow-up.
    • Use priority-specific targets when urgent conversations truly need different commitments.
    • Enable Business Hours for commitments that should only count during support coverage.
    • Leave Business Hours off for 24/7 commitments.
    • Set warning times early enough for agents to take action before a breach.
    • Use account or customer overrides for premium support commitments.
    • Review breached SLA trends regularly and adjust targets or staffing before they become chronic.