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AurionAI

SLA policies

7 min readBy Emmanuel Yazbeck

An SLA policy sets how fast your team must answer and solve a conversation. For each priority, it holds a first response time, a resolution time and an optional next response time. Escalation rules warn people or move the conversation when time runs out.

Availability: Helpdesk and AI Voice + Helpdesk profiles. Administrators only.

Prerequisites

  • You have the Owner or Admin role. Other users see Access Denied on the configuration pages.
  • Your organization uses the Helpdesk or the AI Voice + Helpdesk profile.
  • Optional: a business hours schedule, if the times must count only during working hours. Read Business hours and holidays.

Two pages for the same policies

  • SLA Policies in the configuration is the complete page. It has the matching conditions, the policy order, and the edit and delete actions for escalation rules. Use this page.
  • SLA Policies in the tenant settings shows the same policies with fewer controls. It has no matching conditions and no policy order. A policy created there without the Default policy option never matches a conversation.

Open the SLA policies page

  1. In the sidebar, select Configuration.
  2. Open the System category.
  3. Select SLA Policies.

The page shows a form to create a policy and the Configured Policies list.

The SLA Policies page with the policy form and the list of policies.

Create a policy

  1. In Policy name, enter a name, for example "Northwind standard support".
  2. In Business hours, select a schedule. Select (none) to count all hours of every day.
  3. Optional: enter a Description.
  4. Under Matching conditions, fill in the fields that a conversation must match: Priority, Channel, Team ID and Company SLA tier. Separate several values with commas, for example high, urgent. A conversation must match every field that you fill in.
  5. Optional: select Default policy. The default policy applies when no other policy matches.
  6. Select Create policy.

AurionAI shows SLA policy created. A policy that has no conditions and is not the default shows the Never matches badge.

The Team ID field takes the internal identifier of a team, not its name. The Company SLA tier field compares with the SLA tier of the company of the contact.

Set the targets

A target sets the times for one priority. When the policy has no target for the conversation priority, AurionAI uses the Medium target, or else the first target of the policy. A policy without any target starts no timers.

  1. In the list, select View on the row of the policy.
  2. Under Targets, select the priority, for example High.
  3. Enter the First response (min) and the Resolution (min) in minutes.
  4. Optional: enter the Next response (optional) in minutes.
  5. Select Save target.

AurionAI shows SLA target saved. Save a target again for the same priority to change it. A time of 0 starts no timer.

Add an escalation rule

An escalation rule acts when a timer reaches a percentage of its time. Below 100%, it acts before the deadline. At 100%, it acts at the deadline. Above 100%, it acts after the deadline. A paused timer does not escalate, and the paused time moves the rule's time too.

  1. Open the policy with View.
  2. Under Escalations, enter a name, for example "Warn the team lead".
  3. In Trigger %, enter a value from 1 to 500, for example 75.
  4. In Action, select Notify, Reassign, Set priority or Notify & reassign.
  5. Optional: enter a Sort order.
  6. In SLA metric, select the timer: First Response, Resolution or Next Response.
  7. Fill in the options of the action:
    • To notify, select Notify assignee, Notify team, or users in Also notify these users.
    • To reassign, select a Target team and a user in Reassign to user. Keep Auto-assign to let AurionAI choose an agent.
    • To change the priority, select the New priority.
  8. Select Add escalation.

AurionAI shows Escalation rule created. In the list of rules, you can edit, delete and move a rule.

A notification goes to the bell and by email, as the notification preferences of each person allow. Read Notification preferences.

Order the policies

AurionAI checks the active policies from the top of the list to the bottom. The first policy whose conditions all match applies. A default policy without conditions applies as soon as AurionAI reaches it, so keep it at the bottom of the list.

  1. In the list, use Move up and Move down on the row of a policy.

AurionAI shows Policy order updated.

Delete a policy

  1. In the list, select the delete button on the row of the policy.
  2. Confirm.

AurionAI shows SLA policy deleted. The policy is archived and no longer applies. Select Show archived to see archived policies. If you delete the default policy, the first active policy in the list becomes the default. Check which policy that is afterwards.

How SLA timers work

  • Start. When a conversation is created, AurionAI chooses the policy and starts the first response and resolution timers of the target for the conversation priority. Without such a target, it uses the Medium target, or else the first target of the policy.
  • First response. The timer stops as met when an agent first replies.
  • Next response. When the target has a next response time, a next response timer starts each time the customer replies. It stops as met when an agent replies.
  • Pause. When the status changes to Waiting or Snoozed, the timers pause. They start again when the status changes back to Open. AurionAI adds the paused time to the deadline.
  • Priority change. When the priority changes, AurionAI chooses the policy again and starts new timers from that moment, with the target of the new priority. A first response that was already met is not timed again.
  • Resolved. When the status changes to Resolved, the resolution timer stops as met. The other timers stop.
  • Closed. When the status changes to Closed, all timers stop.
  • Breach. AurionAI checks the timers every two minutes. When a deadline passes, the conversation is marked as breached and its assignee gets a notification. The escalation rules of the policy run when their percentage is reached.

Result

A new or changed policy and its targets apply to conversations that are created after you save. Timers that already run keep their deadlines.

If something goes wrong

  • This policy has no conditions and is not the default — it will never match a conversation. Fill in at least one condition, or select Default policy.
  • This policy uses advanced conditions that can only be edited through the API. They are left unchanged when you save here. You can still change the other fields of the policy here.
  • Cannot delete — policy has active SLA instances Wait until the conversations that use the policy are resolved or closed, then delete it again.
  • First response minutes must be a valid non-negative number. Enter a whole number of minutes, 0 or more. The same rule applies to the resolution and next response times.
  • This user is not a member of the selected team, so the reassignment would be refused. Pick a member of the team, or another team. Change the user or the team of the rule.
  • Nothing happens when you select Add escalation. Check that the rule has a name.
  • Trigger percent must be between 1 and 500. Enter a Trigger % from 1 to 500.
  • A conversation has no SLA. No active policy matched it and there is no default policy, or the policy that matched has no target at all.

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