SLAs in Zoho Desk only work if they reflect commitments your business can actually keep. Start by reviewing your current support performance: what's your average first response time? Resolution time? Which ticket types take longest?
Define SLA policies by ticket type, not globally. A billing enquiry might need a 4-hour response. A technical bug might need 24 hours. A feature request might be 72 hours. One SLA for everything either sets impossible targets or meaningless ones.
Configure business hours to match your team's actual availability. Australian businesses often support east coast hours (9am–5pm AEST) even if the team is spread nationally. If you have after-hours coverage, create a separate business hours profile for that team.
Escalation rules should notify the right person, not everyone. Level 1: ticket breaches 80% of SLA → notify assigned agent. Level 2: ticket breaches 100% → notify team lead. Level 3: ticket breaches 150% → notify support manager. Avoid the trap of escalating to the CEO on every overdue ticket.
Use SLA dashboards to review performance weekly, not just when a client complains. Track: percentage of tickets resolved within SLA, average resolution time by category, and agent-level compliance. This data tells you whether SLAs are realistic or need adjustment.
Integrate Desk with CRM so agents see the customer's deal value and account history when handling tickets. A support ticket from a $500/month client and a $50,000/month client should not be treated identically, even if the SLA is the same.
Published 28 February 2026