VoIP Service Level Agreement: How an SLA Predicts Your Vendor

A service level agreement says a lot about how a vendor will treat you long before anything goes wrong. Will your provider use it as a defensive shield, or as a way to prove their value? The answer often predicts the entire relationship.

When the VoIP service you chose just is not working out, you and your vendor end up reading from completely different scripts. Your employees, meanwhile, are not happy either. They are busy grumbling about dropped calls and slow support.

Something is wrong when you and your VoIP vendor are not on the same page, and it usually traces back to one thing. There is a crucial part of any successful vendor relationship that has to be settled up front, and most buyers skip it.

Doing your homework on a VoIP vendor

This is where most articles pontificate about the importance of vetting your VoIP vendor. The usual checklist looks like this:

• Did you read the fine print in the contract?
• Do they charge for things that other providers include as part of the service?
• Does their website make boasts or promises that reviews do not back up?
• Is VoIP a focus for them, or just a value-added service?
• Does their "we will never let you down" technical support come with so many asterisks and caveats that you cannot keep track of them?

Some of these points are genuinely useful advice that can save you from buyer's remorse. For a deeper version of this list, see our guide to questions to ask potential VoIP providers. But on their own they are a bit like going to the doctor and being treated for the symptoms instead of finding the cause of the ailment.

What a service level agreement really is

Before you get married, you may choose to enter into a prenuptial agreement. It is an agreement about your commitment, and its most notable feature is that it settles beforehand who is entitled to what if the marriage fails.

You have a similar agreement with your VoIP vendor. While it may spell out obligations in the event of a breakup, which makes it sort of a VoIP prenup, its main and more important purpose is to clearly state what you should expect to get.

Your Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a pivotal element in the relationship with your VoIP vendor. It is like a warranty, in a way. Your SLA is a set of ground rules that establish the expectations you and your vendor have about the services provided.

There are three important things to keep in mind about it:

1. The service levels should be clear and understandable, so there is no room for issues caused by differing interpretations.
2. The agreement is not all about your VoIP vendor. It can also include responsibilities and expectations that fall on your shoulders.
3. SLAs often keep their focus on minimum measurable criteria, meaning you cannot challenge your vendor to improve service if you have agreed that these levels are the best they must achieve.

Sticks and carrots: the metrics that matter

Most of a VoIP SLA is written from a highly technical perspective. Some areas need no explanation, such as a statement that a troubleshooting technician will contact you within a few minutes. Other sections are far more complex.

What is your level of understanding of data throughput, latency, or packet loss? Your VoIP vendor may want their performance measured on criteria that could leave you guessing. How would you know if their minimum level is acceptable when you do not know what they are measuring or why it matters?

The single number worth fighting for is uptime. A strong provider runs on a resilient backbone and states that clearly. CallSprout, for example, delivers its cloud phone system on a 99.999% uptime network, and you can read how that is built on our reliability page. When uptime is spelled out in plain language, the rest of the SLA usually follows.

Read the SLA before you sign

You are about to enter a partnership with a vendor who will supply a highly technical service. Should they not take the time to make sure you understand everything they are about to guarantee? It is a good sign if your vendor takes the proactive step of inviting you to an unrushed review of the SLA before they push a cost proposal your way.

You can apply this approach to any vendor where an SLA is part of the relationship, and you should hold us to the same standard. A good agreement is also a fair place to confirm the savings you were promised, since switching to VoIP often costs around 30% less than legacy phone service.

A modern provider should give you more than a list of guarantees on paper. CallSprout pairs a dependable cloud business phone system with an AI Voice Agent that answers, transcribes, and routes every call, so the value shows up on day one rather than in a clause you hope you never need to invoke.

Ready to compare the fine print? See everything our platform includes and check pricing to find out exactly how much you can save.