SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

McCrossen Marketing & Consulting

mccrossenmarketing.com

Effective Date: February 21, 2026

Last Updated: February 21, 2026

1. Overview and Scope

This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) defines the service commitments, performance standards, support expectations, and remedies provided by McCrossen Marketing & Consulting (“McCrossen,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) to customers (“you” or “Customer”) who purchase services, subscriptions, or software plugin licenses through our Platform.

This SLA is incorporated by reference into the McCrossen Terms of Service. In the event of a conflict between this SLA and the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service shall control unless this SLA explicitly states otherwise.

This SLA applies to the following service categories:

McCrossen Marketing Platform (SaaS) — customer portal, AI Advisor, Dashboard, and associated tools
Software Plugins — McCrossenSEO™, McCrossen Security Shield™, and future licensed plugins
Managed Services — website hosting, email hosting, DNS management, and related infrastructure services provided to managed service customers
Consulting and Agency Services — marketing consulting, SEO services, advertising management, and strategy engagements

2. Service Tiers and Commitments

Service levels vary based on the type of service and subscription tier. The following table summarizes our commitments by service category:

Service	Uptime Target	Response Time	Resolution Target	Support Hours
Platform (SaaS)	99.5%	4 business hours	24 business hours	M-F 9am-5pm CT
Chatbot	99.0%	4 business hours	24 business hours	M-F 9am-5pm CT
Plugin License Server	99.5%	4 business hours	24 business hours	M-F 9am-5pm CT
Plugin Updates	N/A	2 business days	Varies	M-F 9am-5pm CT
Managed Hosting	Per Liquid Web	2 business hours	8 business hours	24/7 Critical
Email Hosting	Per Vendor	2 business hours	8 business hours	24/7 Critical
Consulting Services	N/A	1 business day	Per engagement	M-F 9am-5pm CT

3. Uptime and Availability

3.1 Uptime Calculation

Uptime percentage is calculated monthly using the following formula:

Uptime % = ((Total Minutes in Month – Downtime Minutes) / Total Minutes in Month) x 100

“Downtime” means the period during which the applicable service is materially unavailable to you, as measured by our monitoring systems. Downtime begins when the issue is detected or reported and ends when the service is restored.

3.2 Excluded Downtime

The following events are excluded from uptime calculations:

Scheduled maintenance windows with at least 48 hours advance notice
Emergency maintenance required to address critical security vulnerabilities (reasonable effort to provide advance notice will be made)
Force majeure events as defined in the Terms of Service
Issues caused by third-party service providers underlying infrastructure providers)
Issues caused by customer actions, including misconfiguration of connected services, plugin conflicts on customer-managed WordPress sites, or exceeding usage limits
DNS propagation delays following authorized record changes
Internet connectivity issues between the customer and our servers

3.3 Scheduled Maintenance

Routine maintenance will be scheduled during low-traffic periods, typically between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM Central Time, with at least 48 hours advance notice via email. Emergency maintenance for critical security issues may occur at any time with best-effort advance notice.

4. Support Services

4.1 Support Channels

Support is available through the following channels:

Support Tickets: Submit through the customer portal at any time. This is the primary and preferred support channel.
Email: support@mccrossenmarketing.com for general inquiries and non-urgent issues.
AI Advisor: The AI-powered chatbot provides immediate self-service support for common questions, marketing guidance, and platform navigation.

4.2 Priority Classification

Priority	Definition	Response Target	Resolution Target
P1 – Critical	Complete service outage, data breach, or security incident affecting all users or customer websites	1 hour (24/7)	4 hours
P2 – High	Major feature unavailable, payment processing failure, email delivery failure, or DNS misconfiguration affecting service	2 business hours	8 business hours
P3 – Normal	Feature degradation, non-critical bug, dashboard data not refreshing, plugin update request	4 business hours	24 business hours
P4 – Low	Feature request, cosmetic issue, documentation question, general inquiry	1 business day	Best effort

4.3 Business Hours

Standard business hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Time, excluding federal holidays observed in the State of Texas. P1 Critical issues are monitored 24/7 for managed hosting and email hosting customers.

4.4 Escalation Process

If you believe your issue is not being addressed within the stated response or resolution targets, you may escalate by:

Updating your support ticket with an escalation request and justification for higher priority
Emailing support@mccrossenmarketing.com directly with the ticket number and escalation reason

Escalation requests will be reviewed within 2 business hours during business hours.

5. McCrossen Marketing Platform (SaaS)

5.1 Platform Availability

We target 99.5% monthly uptime for the McCrossen Marketing Platform, including the customer portal, Service Catalog, CRM features, billing system, support ticketing, and administrative tools. This equates to no more than approximately 3.6 hours of unscheduled downtime per month.

5.2 AI Advisor Availability

We target 99.0% monthly uptime for the AI Advisor chatbot. The AI Advisor depends on third-party AI model providers. Outages or degraded performance from these providers are excluded from our uptime calculation but will be communicated to affected users when known.

During AI provider outages, the chatbot interface may remain accessible but unable to generate AI responses. Lead qualification and account management features that do not require AI processing will continue to function.

5.3 Data Refresh and Connected Services

Dashboard data from connected services (is refreshed on scheduled intervals. We do not guarantee real-time data availability. Data refresh failures due to third-party API outages, rate limits, or OAuth token expiration are excluded from SLA commitments. We will notify you if a persistent data refresh failure is detected.

5.4 Stripe Payment Processing

Payment processing availability depends on Stripe’s infrastructure. We do not guarantee payment processing uptime independent of Stripe’s service status. Stripe maintains its own SLA which governs their service availability.

6. Software Plugin Service Levels

6.1 License Server Availability

We target 99.5% monthly uptime for the plugin license validation server. If the license server is temporarily unavailable, plugins are designed to continue operating with their most recently validated license state. A brief license server outage will not cause immediate deactivation of premium features.

6.2 Plugin Updates

We provide updates for licensed plugins including bug fixes, security patches, and feature enhancements. Update commitments:

Critical security patches: Released within 48 hours of confirmed vulnerability discovery
High-priority bug fixes: Released within 5 business days
Standard bug fixes and improvements: Included in the next scheduled release
Feature enhancements: At our discretion, included in major version releases

Updates are delivered through our plugin update server. Customers are responsible for applying updates to their WordPress installations. We recommend enabling update notifications.

6.3 Plugin Compatibility

We test plugins for compatibility with the current stable version of WordPress and the two most recent prior major versions. We test with PHP versions 8.1 and higher. Compatibility with specific themes, page builders, or third-party plugins is not guaranteed. If a conflict is identified, we will make reasonable efforts to resolve it, but resolution is not guaranteed for conflicts caused by third-party code.

6.4 Plugin Support Scope

Plugin support covers:

License key and validation issues
Configuration guidance for documented features
Bug reports and troubleshooting for confirmed plugin defects

Plugin support does not cover:

Installation and activation assistance
Conflicts with third-party themes, plugins, or custom code not developed by McCrossen
Server configuration, PHP settings, or hosting environment issues on customer-managed servers
Customization or modification of plugin code beyond documented settings
Training or education on WordPress administration, SEO concepts, or marketing strategy (these may be available as separate consulting services)

7. Managed Hosting Services

This section applies only to customers who have purchased managed hosting services from McCrossen. Managed hosting includes website hosting, server management, and related infrastructure services.

7.1 Hosting Uptime

Hosting availability depends on the underlying hosting providers. We do not independently guarantee uptime beyond what Liquid Web provides under their own SLA.

7.2 Hosting Support

Managed hosting support includes:

WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates (with customer approval for major updates)
SSL certificate management and renewal
Automated backups
Performance optimization and caching configuration
DNS record management for hosted domains
Cloudflare management

Managed hosting support does not include:

Server monitoring and proactive issue detection
Security monitoring, malware scanning, and incident response
Custom development or code changes to customer websites
Content creation, editing, or management
SEO optimization (available as a separate service)
Third-party plugin support beyond basic compatibility troubleshooting

8. Email Hosting Services

This section applies to customers whose email hosting is managed by McCrossen, including Rackspace and Microsoft 365 administration, DNS record management for email delivery, and email security configuration.

8.1 Email Availability

Email hosting availability depends on the underlying email platform providers. We do not independently guarantee email uptime beyond what Microsoft provides under their own SLA.

8.2 Email Support Scope

McCrossen’s email hosting support includes:

DNS record configuration for email delivery (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC records)
Rackspace and Microsoft 365 domain setup and verification
Mailbox provisioning and basic user management
Email deliverability troubleshooting (SPF/DKIM/DMARC validation)
Spam filtering configuration guidance

Email support does not include:

End-user email client configuration (Outlook, mobile apps, etc.)
Email content, marketing campaigns, or bulk email services
Recovery of deleted emails beyond Microsoft 365’s built-in retention
Advanced Exchange Online configuration (DLP policies, retention labels, eDiscovery)

8.3 Email Security

We implement industry-standard email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for managed email domains. We maintain and monitor these records as part of DNS management. Changes to email authentication records require authorization from the domain owner.

9. DNS Management Services

9.1 DNS Availability

DNS is managed through our infrastructure provider’s nameservers with a target of 99.99% availability. DNS resolution depends on the authoritative nameservers and is cached by recursive resolvers worldwide. We are not responsible for DNS propagation delays, ISP-level DNS caching, or end-user DNS resolver behavior.

9.2 DNS Changes

Authorized DNS record changes will be applied within 2 business hours of a verified request during business hours. Emergency DNS changes (such as pointing a domain to a new server during an outage) will be prioritized as P1 Critical issues.

All DNS changes require written authorization from the domain owner or an authorized representative. We maintain records of all DNS changes for audit purposes.

9.3 DNS Record Types Managed

We manage the following DNS record types for customer domains:

A and AAAA records (website hosting)
CNAME records (aliases and service verification)
MX records (email routing)
TXT records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, domain verification)
NS records (nameserver delegation)
CAA records (SSL certificate authority authorization)
SRV records (service discovery, as needed)

10. Security Incident Response

10.1 Incident Classification

Severity	Description	Response
Critical	Confirmed data breach, active exploitation, ransomware, or unauthorized access to customer data	Immediate response. Customer notification within 24 hours. Remediation initiated within 4 hours.
High	Attempted breach detected and blocked, vulnerability discovered in production, or sustained DDoS attack	Response within 2 hours. Customer notification within 48 hours if data was at risk.
Medium	Suspicious activity detected, failed intrusion attempts, or security configuration issue identified	Response within 8 business hours. Customer notification if action is required.
Low	Security advisory from vendor, routine vulnerability scan findings, or minor configuration improvement	Addressed in next maintenance window. No customer notification unless action required.

10.2 Customer Notification

In the event of a security incident that affects your data or services, we will notify you via email within the timeframes specified above. Notification will include: a description of the incident, the data or services affected, actions taken to contain and remediate, and recommended actions for you to take (such as password changes).

10.3 Post-Incident Review

Following any Critical or High severity security incident, we will conduct a post-incident review and provide a summary report to affected customers within 10 business days. The report will include root cause analysis, remediation actions taken, and preventive measures implemented.

11. SLA Remedies

11.1 Service Credits

If we fail to meet the uptime targets specified in this SLA, you may be eligible for service credits as follows:

Monthly Uptime	Service Credit	Maximum Credit
99.0% – 99.49% (Platform)	5% of monthly fee	Applied to next invoice
95.0% – 98.99%	10% of monthly fee	Applied to next invoice
90.0% – 94.99%	25% of monthly fee	Applied to next invoice
Below 90.0%	50% of monthly fee	Applied to next invoice

Service credits are not available for hosting, email or DNS services.

11.2 Claiming Service Credits

To claim a service credit, you must submit a support ticket within 30 days of the end of the month in which the SLA was not met. The ticket must include the dates and times of the outage and a description of the impact. We will verify the claim against our monitoring data and apply any eligible credit to your next invoice.

11.3 Credit Limitations

Service credits are your sole and exclusive remedy for our failure to meet the SLA commitments described in this agreement. Service credits:

May not exceed 50% of the monthly fee for the affected service in any single month
Are not redeemable for cash and have no cash value
Do not accumulate across months
Do not apply to free-tier services, promotional credits, or one-time purchases
Do not apply to downtime excluded under Section 3.2

12. Customer Responsibilities

To ensure optimal service delivery, you agree to:

Maintain accurate and current account information, including a valid email address for notifications
Apply plugin updates in a timely manner, particularly security updates
Maintain secure credentials and enable two-factor authentication where available
Provide timely access and information when requested for troubleshooting
Report issues promptly through designated support channels
Maintain independent backups of critical data (we recommend not relying solely on our backup systems)
Comply with the Acceptable Use Policy in the Terms of Service
Authorize DNS changes in writing before they are implemented
Ensure that Connected Services (Google OAuth) remain authorized and tokens are valid

13. Third-Party Service Dependencies

Our Platform relies on several third-party services. Service levels for these components are subject to the respective provider’s own SLA and are excluded from McCrossen’s uptime and performance commitments:

Provider	Service	Our Dependency
Anthropic	Claude AI API	AI Advisor responses, content generation, insights classification
OpenAI	GPT API	Secondary AI provider via AI Gateway
Stripe	Payment processing	All payment transactions, subscriptions, invoicing
Cloudflare	CDN, WAF, DNS, CAPTCHA	Content delivery, security, DNS resolution, bot protection
Google	Analytics, Search Console, GBP APIs	Dashboard connected services data
DataForSEO	SEO data API	Domain authority, backlinks, SERP tracking
LiquidWeb	Managed VPS hosting	Server infrastructure, network, hardware
Microsoft	Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online	Email hosting infrastructure
TaxJar	Sales tax calculation	Tax rate lookup and compliance

We will make reasonable efforts to communicate known third-party outages to affected customers and will work with providers to expedite resolution. However, we cannot guarantee resolution timelines for issues caused by third-party providers.

14. SLA Modifications

We may modify this SLA at any time with at least 30 days advance written notice to affected customers. Modifications will not apply retroactively to service credits already earned. Material reductions in service commitments will be communicated clearly, and you may terminate affected services without early termination penalty if you do not agree to the modified terms.

15. Contact Information

For SLA-related inquiries, service credit claims, or escalations: