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Service Level Agreement
Agency Responsibilities
“This agreement sets out clearly what you have a right to expect from Hillsgreen Marketing Ltd as your marketing agency.
Equally it explains the limits of our liability and responsibility. This agreement forms part of our commitment to transparency and openness that we believe is vital to any business relationship.
By clarifying entitlements and responsibilities up front it also helps to streamline projects and ensure their timely delivery.
We are delighted you have chosen us to support you with your marketing activity and can promise you service of the highest standard for as long as you need it.”
Andy Venables
Managing Director
Hillsgreen Marketing Ltd
Definitions
“Marketing Agreement” the agreement signed which outlines a detailed specification of the work to be provided by Hillsgreen
“Agreement Start Date” the date of the commencement of these Terms as detailed on the Marketing Agreement
Hosting Company refers to the specialist companies from whom Hillsgreen contract their dedicated web servers
A Project can be any service provided by Hillsgreen Marketing to the Client. (Examples include but are not limited to web design and development, branding & creative works, paid search management, email marketing, social media, search engine optimisation work and hosting)
“Frustrates” is a term used to describe a situation in which one party to a contract acts in such a way so as to make it unrealistic for the other party to carry out their part of the contract.
The word “agreement” as it appears shall mean the contract between Hillsgreen and the Client, which will be based on the terms and conditions contained within this Service Level Agreement (SLA).
“Go-Live” the process of publishing a new website live on the internet or activating programming code
Quotes and Estimates
Whenever possible, Hillsgreen will provide clients with a fixed price quotation and detailed specification for a project.
If required Hillsgreen will provide clients with initial estimates for projects on request. The final project sum may vary from the initial estimate. An estimate as opposed to fixed price quotation is useful when the actual project sum cannot be reasonably or accurately ascertained at the outset.
If required a scoping project can be quoted in order to push forward from an estimate to a final quote with a detailed specification
Marketing Agreements
Before any work commences Hillsgreen will provide a detailed marketing agreement outlining all deliverables and costs, this must be signed by the client before work commences.
Payment terms, deposits required and work start dates will be outlined within the agreement
Variations
Work that is in addition to that detailed in a fixed price quotation, will be valued and added to the final project sum.
Hillsgreen does not accept liability where delays in reaching a deadline are caused by the client for example in the supplying of essential content and/or sign off for work to continue
Hourly Rates
Hillsgreen will charge for services provided that are not included in any marketing agreement. The amount charged will be based on Hillsgreen standard hourly rate unless a different hourly rate has otherwise been agreed in writing.
Hillsgreen will review and may increase their standard hourly rate on an annual basis.
There will be a minimum charge of 30 minutes.
Communication and Updates
Meeting summaries will be generated and sent to all parties in attendance within 24 (working) hours.
A monthly report will be generated and made available to the client via email, along with a summary of Hillsgreen actions (dependant on your contract) before the end of the 6th working day of each month.
All emails will be responded to within 24 (working) hours of receipt and all missed phone calls will be returned before the end of the working day.
Clients will be kept up to date on relevant information about ongoing projects and status on a weekly or bi-weekly basis depending on requirements.
We expect you to respond to all reasonable requests for information that are necessary for the effective progress needed for your project, within seven (7) working days of a request, unless expressly agreed by both parties beforehand.
In the event that (i). we do not hear from you or (ii). you do not respond in a satisfactory manner to our requests above, then the following will apply:
In the event that a client “frustrates” the progress of a project contract with Hillsgreen then Hillsgreen will be entitled to give 14 days’ written notice to the client of the contract being terminated. If the client does not satisfactorily remedy the cause(s) of the frustration, within the 14 day notice period, then Hillsgreen will have the right to terminate the contract. Hillsgreen will invoice the Client for the full value of works carried out to-date.
Pre-Inform clients of planned absence or leave. There will then be a replacement agency contact in place with handover notes and an introduction made to the client 48 hours prior to absence – where possible
Regular update meetings will be set out during the onboarding process, at the beginning of the project. These will include a summary of monthly performance and a chance to discuss any other matters for both client and Hillsgreen.
Hillsgreen working hours are from 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday.
Digital Marketing Services
We offer consultancy and retained services in Digital Marketing, Paid Media, Digital PR, Social Media, Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation. These services are offered on either a retainer basis, at an agreed monthly rate to be negotiated between us, or on an ad hoc basis, at a fee to be agreed between us.
For all digital marketing services including, but not limited to, content writing, copywriting, optimisation, marketing strategy, analytics, SEO/SEM, PPC, marketing consultation, brand development, business development, lead generation, public relations, etc – an estimate and quote is calculated on a project or monthly basis and then submitted to the Client.
If changes are needed to a project after the outstanding invoice has been paid then the extra charges will be confirmed with the Client, and the Client will be further invoiced for the work carried out, based on the Hillsgreen hourly rate.
If changes are needed in an ongoing monthly service, the extra charges will be confirmed with the Client, an updated marketing agreement will be issued and the Client will be invoiced for these changes in subsequent invoices, payable in advance of the period.
Our standard retainers allow for one creative update per month on paid campaigns whether this is advert assets or content, anything additional to this will be confirmed as an extra charge and invoiced accordingly.
The Client is entitled to one round of amends on any strategy/creative completed within the retainer anything over and above this will be communicated and charged accordingly.
In the event that the client does not pay an invoice within 28 days of the due date, i.e. within 44 days of the date of the invoice, then Hillsgreen have the right to suspend all activity for that client until such time as payment is made in full.
Creative work
For all design services including, but not limited to, print design, web design, infographics, brand materials, signage, animation, display adverts etc – an estimate is calculated and then submitted to the Client for approval before work commences.
If changes are needed to a project after the outstanding invoice has been paid then the extra charges will be confirmed with the Client, and the Client will be further invoiced for the work carried out.
The client will receive draft designs for sign off prior to final creative being completed. All clients will have the opportunity to make 2 amends to any design created. After this the client will be charged at the Hillsgreen standard hourly rate.
In the event that the client does not pay an invoice within 28 days of the due date, i.e. within 44 days of the date of the invoice, then Hillsgreen have the right to suspend all further works for that client until such time as payment is made in full.
Websites Development
All websites are designed on a bespoke basis for the Client unless use of a template is indicated in the original specification. The Client acknowledges that ‘bespoke’ in this context does not describe the features of the Website’s Content Management System (CMS), unless Hillsgreen specifically agrees in writing to provide the Client with a bespoke Content Management System.
If there are extensive changes and updates that exceed the original specification, these will be seen as additional costs and will be quoted accordingly. Items added to the website specification AFTER the Client signed it off may incur extra charges, but the Client will be notified of these extra charges via email before commencement of the Works or Services.
Please note that, as with the nature of web development, the scope of work often increases as the project progresses. With this in mind, the initial specification and estimate are subject to change and so Hillsgreen encourages all Clients to include a contingency to their web project budget in order to cover any unforeseen Works or Services and their associated costs. Hillsgreen will inform and discuss any change in specification or cost with the Client via email, prior to commencement of the extra Works or Services.
Hillsgreen reserves the right to charge an hourly or daily rate for work that exceeds any initial agreed upon scope.
Hillsgreen will design websites to perform well with search engines of Google and Bing and will recommend additional (chargeable) optimisation techniques to the Client should they wish to achieve high rankings.
Hillsgreen accepts no responsibility or liability to the customer for the rankings achieved or how such rankings may vary over time if the Client chooses not to request or undertake additional optimisation work.
Hillsgreen will offer to Clients third party services such as those offered by Google to enhance the performance of their websites. Hillsgreen may include in quotations the setup and maintenance of such third-party services. Hillsgreen will not be liable to the Client for any interruption, non-performance, or cancellation of the provision by third parties of any such services.
Should a client have or gain access to their website code files and make changes themselves or edit settings in their content management system during an open project without advising or consulting Hillsgreen, this will be classed as frustrating the progress of a project contract and the current project may become invalid. Any subsequent work to rectify any issues caused and to bring the website back to state it was before would be chargeable.
In the event that the client does not pay an invoice within 28 days of the due date, i.e. within 44 days of the date of the invoice, then Hillsgreen have the right to suspend all further works for that client until such time as payment is made in full.
Websites will be built and tested for use on the following browsers;
Chrome (including mobile)
Firefox
iOS
Safari Edge
Hosting and Maintenance
Hosting is supplied by a third party and Hillsgreen will advise on the server specification required to meet clients’ needs, this may change over time if a website grows significantly or has increases in traffic.
Hillsgreen will not host any website without a support package in place.
A support or maintenance package will be agreed with the Client outlining the period of the support and/or maintenance and this will be detailed in a written agreement, usually based on a set number of hours over a month-by-month rolling basis. The Client cannot accrue support or maintenance hours and transfer them to any following month.
Support Availability: Hillsgreen is a 24/365 agency unless unavailability is anticipated and noted to a Client in advance. Depending on the level of support purchased, the Client will have access to this support via phone or email depending on their designated time zone.
If Hillsgreen feels a request is outside what is covered by the maintenance agreement, they will let the Client know and discuss the request as additional development and propose a solution and cost. Work on such a request would not be undertaken until agreement with the Client on the additional cost and approach.
Response Times: Hillsgreen will assess all requests as one of the following and as such each will aim to resolve within the given times:
In the event that the Customer does not pay a hosting subscription invoice within 30 days of the due date, i.e. 44 days after the invoice date, then Hillsgreen reserve the right to turn off any website hosting until such time as the invoice is paid in full.
Confidentiality
At the point of commencing work the client understands that we do not operate exclusivity agreements, it is possible we will work with more than one company within a given sector. We guarantee our professionalism and confidentiality, no sensitive information will be shared to give either party an unfair advantage or disadvantage.
Damages
Hillsgreen do not have any liability to the client for the performance of a website, database, or any other entity/service developed/setup for the client by anyone other than Hillsgreen.
Refunds
In the event that Hillsgreen terminates a contract prior to work commencing, a full refund of the upfront payment will be made to the Client.
In the event that the Client terminates a contract after a quote or agreement has been signed and the upfront payment has been paid, no refund will be given.
No refunds will be given on Works or Services completed and/or delivered/published
