A traditional Service Level Agreement (SLA) usually measures response and resolution times. Those numbers can be useful operationally, but they do not necessarily tell you whether your employees felt supported, received a clear explanation or had their underlying problem fixed.
A Customer Experience Agreement (CXA) starts with a different question: did the client have a good experience?
It measures the service from the client’s point of view. Feedback comes from the people receiving support and covers the whole interaction, from communication and ownership to the quality of the final resolution.
How is a CXA different from an SLA?
An SLA normally relies on data recorded inside the provider’s ticketing system. A response may be counted when an automated acknowledgement is sent, while a ticket may be recorded as resolved before the user feels the issue has been properly addressed.
A CXA does not replace the need for a responsive service desk. It adds the measure that matters most: whether the service actually worked for the client.
How Sereno’s Customer Experience Agreement works
Sereno gathers feedback across client interactions and uses it to calculate a Partner Experience score. This gives the whole company a clear view of how clients and their employees experience the service.
If the score falls below 95%, Sereno reviews the service history and puts a tailored improvement plan in place. The purpose is to identify what has gone wrong, agree the action needed and restore confidence in the service.
If satisfaction is not restored after the 90-day improvement period, the client can leave the contract. The guarantee keeps accountability with Sereno rather than locking a dissatisfied client into the relationship.
What does a CXA encourage an IT provider to do?
Because the score comes from client feedback, every interaction matters. Engineers and account teams are encouraged to:
- explain issues and resolutions clearly;
- take ownership instead of passing users between teams;
- look for root causes rather than repeated quick fixes;
- consider the employee’s complete experience;
- use negative feedback to improve the service.
Response and resolution data still help an IT provider manage its operation. The CXA makes sure those internal measurements are considered alongside the client’s real experience.
What should you ask a prospective IT provider?
When comparing managed IT providers, ask how they measure satisfaction and what happens when service falls below the promised standard:
- Who controls the performance score?
- Does the provider request feedback after support interactions?
- Are poor scores reviewed with the client?
- Is there a documented service improvement process?
- Can the client leave if the provider repeatedly fails to recover?
The answers will show whether the agreement is designed to protect the client experience or simply report the provider’s internal statistics.
Written by
Michael Johnson
Part of the Sereno IT team helping growing UK businesses make confident, jargon-free technology decisions. Read more managed it support guidance in our Managed IT Support library.
