ChatDeskOps / Quality and SLAs
Section 07Ten measures, one composite, and a deliberate weighting
The composite is weighted so that quality carries more than speed. That is not a sentiment — it is what stops a floor buying its response times with worse answers.
| Category | Measure | Standard | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controllable | Chat first response time | ≤ 30 sec for 90% of chats | Directly service-levelled |
| Controllable | Email first response time | ≤ 4 hrs for 95% of emails | Directly service-levelled |
| Controllable | Chat resolution time | ≤ 12 min median | Directly service-levelled |
| Controllable | Email resolution time | ≤ 24 hrs for 90% | Directly service-levelled |
| Controllable | Contact quality score | ≥ 90 | Directly service-levelled; heaviest composite weight |
| Controllable | Knowledge-base citation rate | ≥ 90% | Directly service-levelled |
| Controllable | Coverage | 100% | Coverage credit — see coverage |
| Controllable | Schedule adherence | ≥ 95% | Directly service-levelled; protects coverage |
| Influenceable | First-contact resolution | ≥ 75% | Tracked; joint action plan, not penalised alone |
| Influenceable | Escalation accuracy | ≥ 92% | Tracked; reviewed with the client's engineering triage |
| Observable | Customer satisfaction | ≥ 88% | Reported; depends on the product as much as the desk |
| Observable | Contact reopen rate | ≤ 8% | Reported; watched as an early quality signal |
How the score is built, and why the weights are where they are
One number, published monthly, against a floor of 95.0. The weighting is the argument.
| Component | Weight | Why it carries that weight |
|---|---|---|
| Contact quality score | 35% | The heaviest weight, because a fast wrong answer costs the client more than a slow right one |
| Response and resolution times | 25% | Real, and deliberately below quality so that speed is never bought with accuracy |
| Knowledge-base citation rate | 15% | An answer that cannot be sourced cannot be audited or improved |
| Coverage | 15% | The obligation the client is actually buying |
| Schedule adherence | 10% | The leading indicator of a coverage failure, a week before it happens |
| Composite floor | 95.0 | Below it, a written remediation plan within five working days |
How contacts are sampled
Every new agent is audited on 100% of contacts through weeks one and two — which is straightforward because they are on email only, and reviewed before sending. From week three the sample steps down as concurrency steps up.
Steady state is a random sample per agent per week across both channels, plus 100% of any contact that was reopened, escalated incorrectly, or attached to a complaint.
Akontec re-audits a sample of the provider's own audit each month and calibrates the two scores. Where they diverge materially the provider's internal audit is treated as unreliable for that month and the Akontec score stands until calibration is restored.
Knowledge-base gaps raised by agents are counted at calibration as a positive signal. A floor that never raises a gap is not a floor with a perfect knowledge base; it is a floor that is guessing and not saying so.
A fast wrong answer costs the client more than a slow right one. The weighting says so in numbers rather than in a value statement.
What happens when the composite falls below 95
Written remediation plan within five working days
Naming the components that failed, the root cause, the actions and the dates.
Weekly review until recovery
Between the provider delivery manager and the Akontec delivery manager, with the client invited.
Audit sample increased
On the agents and queues driving the shortfall, back to 100% where the cause is individual rather than systemic.
Two consecutive months below floor escalates
To the account manager and the client, with a joint action plan and a defined recovery window.
Coverage runs on its own track
A coverage miss produces a credit in the month it occurred, regardless of where the composite lands. The two are not traded against each other.
Next step
Speed is service-levelled. Accuracy outweighs it.
That is the whole design of the composite, and it is what makes the process defensible to a client whose renewals depend on it.
Read the onboarding plan Apply to deliver