Late-stage bid support · 2 of 6
Service level agreements and service credits
When a buyer asks what service levels would apply, they are asking whether your promises have consequences. An SLA that measures the right things, from records the buyer can inspect, is one of the strongest differentiators available at late stage, and most bidders cannot produce one.
What we do
- Draft the service level agreement itself, structured for incorporation into the buyer's contract as a schedule rather than offered as a separate document they then have to reconcile.
- Design service levels that measure what the buyer actually cares about, and that are capable of being evidenced from contemporaneous records rather than assessed by the supplier's own opinion.
- Build a service credit regime that is meaningful without being reckless, including rectification, persistent failure and the relief events that protect you when the failure is genuinely the buyer's.
- Cover the parts bidders forget: governance and escalation, management information, key personnel, business continuity, and exit and handover.
- Pressure-test what you are signing up to, because a service level you cannot consistently hit is a monthly deduction and a governance problem rather than a competitive advantage.
The mistake that costs the most
Offering service levels that sound impressive and cannot be measured. If a service level depends on the supplier's own judgement of whether it was met, an experienced buyer discounts it entirely, and a naive buyer accepts it and then disputes it in month four. The discipline is to write levels that are measured from records capable of independent inspection, with a defined and automatic consequence for failure. That is harder to draft and immeasurably more persuasive.
Why this stage matters
Most consultancies and many suppliers cannot draft this document at all, and a good number will not accept meaningful credits. Being able to do both, at the point the buyer asks, separates a supplier who is confident about delivery from one who is confident about selling.
Common questions
What is a service credit?
A defined sum, usually calculated as a proportion of the charges, that becomes payable to the buyer automatically when a service level is missed. The point is not the money, which is rarely large. It is that a failure has a consequence attached without the buyer having to argue for it, which changes the supplier's incentives and tells the buyer you expect to be held to what you promised.
The buyer has asked what service levels we would offer. What do we do?
Treat it as a significant positive signal and answer properly. A buyer asking this is thinking about contract management rather than selection, which means you are being taken seriously. The weak response is a page of intentions. The strong response is a drafted schedule with measurable levels, defined credits, rectification and escalation, offered for incorporation into their contract. Very few bidders do this, which is exactly why it works.
Are service credits risky for a supplier?
They carry real financial exposure and should be priced and modelled rather than accepted casually. The genuine risk is not the credit rate, it is agreeing to a level you cannot consistently hit, or accepting levels without relief events for circumstances outside your control. Model your actual historic performance against any level before you offer it, and never offer one you have not measured yourself against.
Reviewed 22 August 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and commercial arrangements should be reviewed by your own advisers before you commit to them.
Mid-process and need this now?
Late-stage requests come with days, not weeks. Tell us what has been asked and when it is due, and a director will come back to you.
Service level agreements and service credits
What has the buyer asked for, and what is the deadline?