What to put in a help desk statement of work.
A vague statement of work leads to vague proposals and disputes after award. These are the elements that make help desk and contact center bids comparable — and performance measurable.
Scope and volumes
Describe the users, the channels (phone, email, chat, portal), the types of requests and — most important — historical volumes by month, weekday and hour. Without volume data, every bidder guesses differently.
Hours and coverage
State the coverage window (for example, weekdays 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, extended hours or 24/7), holidays and how peaks such as enrollment periods or deadlines should be handled.
Service levels
Define a small number of measurable service levels, for example:
- Service level: share of calls answered within a set number of seconds.
- Abandonment rate: share of callers who hang up before being answered.
- First-contact resolution: share of requests resolved without escalation.
- Response and resolution time by ticket priority.
- Quality score from sampled reviews against a checklist.
Say how each is measured, over what period, and what happens when targets are missed.
Systems and knowledge
Specify whether agents work in your ticketing and telephony systems or the contractor’s, who maintains the knowledge base, and which approvals changes require.
Reporting and governance
Require a monthly report with the agreed metrics, contact reasons and improvement proposals; a regular governance meeting; and an escalation path for incidents.
Transition in and out
Ask for a dated transition plan — knowledge transfer, training, pilot and go-live — and an exit plan that hands over knowledge articles, data and documentation to you or the next provider.
Estimate staffing before you publish
Our staffing estimator gives a first figure for the agents your volumes and hours require — useful for budgeting and for checking whether proposals are realistic.
General information, not legal advice. Always check the clauses of the specific solicitation.
Quick answers.
Question not listed? Ask us directly — a person answers, not a chatbot.
Few and meaningful. A handful of measurable targets tied to user experience work better than long lists that nobody reports on.
If you need the data, the audit trail and continuity after the contract ends, yes. Many public buyers require it.
