Experience-level agreements (XLAs) are the way of the future, argues Yolanden Moodley, Head: Centralised Warehouse, Logistics & Rework at Altron Managed Solutions. One of the most significant shifts in economic fundamentals over the past few years has been the growing emphasis on experience – customer experience and employee experience. This shift, which is closely tied to the move onto digital platforms, is prompting a move away from traditional SLAs to XLAs or a combination of both.

“SLAs are essentially quite crude measures of performance and take limited account of customer satisfaction, which is a product of the customer experience. It’s common for service providers to have met or exceeded their SLAs and still have dissatisfied customers,” Moodley says. “Service providers have to accept that the game is changing, and customer expectations are higher.”