SLA Tracking and Escalations: Nothing Falls Through the Cracks

Strong insurance operations run on clarity, consistency, and follow-through. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) make expectations explicit-but only if they are tied to real outcomes and enforced through process. With Expert Insured, teams operationalize SLAs across the policy lifecycle to maintain speed, quality, and compliance without guesswork.

Anchor SLAs to outcomes, not just timers

Effective SLAs support business and regulatory commitments-not just internal deadlines.

• Response SLAs: First-touch times for broker inquiries, loss notices, or submissions
• Resolution SLAs: Completion times for endorsements, COIs, or evidence of insurance
• Throughput SLAs: Submission to quote, quote to bind, and bind to issue cycles
• Compliance SLAs: Statutory or market deadlines, such as filings and tax submissions

Define clear start and stop events. For example, start when a complete submission is received, stop when a bindable quote is sent. Capture pause reasons to ensure cycle time reflects reality-not time spent waiting.

Set clear triggers, tiers, and ownership

Each SLA should be owned, tracked, and escalated with intention.

• Triggers: Define what starts the clock, what pauses it, and what resolves it
• Tiers: Set checkpoints at 50% and 75% of time budget, with final breach alerts
• Routing: Notify by role, product, or region depending on where action is needed
• Scope: Clarify which lines, partners, and jurisdictions the SLA applies to

In Expert Insured, you can configure these elements through timers, pause rules, and escalation queues. See how it works in practice.

Build escalations that drive action-not noise

Escalations are not just alerts. They are interventions to keep work moving.

• Auto-reroute high-risk tasks to overflow or escalation queues
• Attach runbook steps to each alert so the assignee knows what to do
• Include full context: SLA timer, last activity, dependencies, blockers
• Reduce alert fatigue with quiet hours, bundling, and role-specific filters

For statutory deadlines like surplus lines filings, connect operational SLAs to SLA Filings so compliance-driven dates take priority automatically.

Instrument for audit and improvement

You can’t improve what you don’t measure-and you can’t defend it during audits either.

• Log breach reasons, pause causes, and resolution actions
• Track early signals like queue aging, handoffs, and rework rate
• Analyze breaches by team, carrier, or line to find bottlenecks
• Maintain a full audit trail: who did what, when, and why

Use this data to improve templates, broker checklists, and intake standards-small changes upstream often eliminate delays downstream.

Apply SLAs across the entire lifecycle

SLAs vary by stage, but the principle is the same: define, track, act.

• Submissions and quoting: Intake to review, quote turnaround time. See Policy Lifecycle Overview and Quote Creation
• New business and renewals: Quote to bind, bind to issue, outreach to renewal decision. Learn more in New Business and Renewals
• Servicing and endorsements: Request to completion, certificate issuance
• Cancellations and reinstatements: Notice to effective action, with compliance checks

Set tailored SLAs per workflow-then monitor and adjust them as risk appetite and regulatory obligations evolve.

Run SLAs as an operating cadence

Don’t treat SLAs as a fire drill. Build them into your daily rhythm.

• Daily: Review at-risk items, reroute blockers, unblock stuck tasks
• Weekly: Analyze breaches, spot trends, assign root-cause fixes
• Monthly: Reset targets, recalibrate WIP limits, adjust staffing as needed

When SLAs, escalations, and visibility live inside the same system that powers your policy operations, nothing falls through the cracks-and everyone knows what to do next.