A Resolution for the New Year
Even if we overtly do not make New Year’s Resolutions, with a new year comes reflection, new thoughts, and a commitment to do better next year!
What are your do better next year spoken or unspoken resolutions?
Here are three that maybe top of mind:
1) Increase Revenue by onboarding 1, 2, or 4 new Clients per year
2) Improve the Quality of Work-Life for the Employees
3) Build a Better Client Experience
Or maybe something else is top of mind, at any rate, Advanced Global is here for you. One of the things I love to do more than anything else is to help Owners of MSPs using the Autotask software to strategize how to meet objectives and goals over the next Month, Quarter, or Year; and we do it FREE of charge – just because I love the work and helping MSPs to Thrive. Here is what a couple of people have said about our Free No-Obligation Strategy Calls:
· I always walk away with nuggets of information that I can take back and implement with my team. The time spent each with on these calls allows me gain valuable insight on how to improve my business. I highly recommend the investment of time to be on these calls.” David G- Mac IT Solutions
· “Stephen offered me, a random guy on the internet a 30-minute coaching session at no charge. It was hugely valuable and I'm implementing some of his ideas right now” Adam C, Servicemax
· “The value we received from 30 minutes of consultation was excellent and left me with a desire to work with you and your team” Ben Scoble, Logic Plus.
For a FREE No-Obligation (not a sales call I promise) Strategy Conversation CLICK HERE.
If one of the Top-of-Mind bullet points above, is what you are thinking, here are my thoughts:
Increase Revenue by onboarding 1, 2, or 4 new Clients per year
I remember the day I was tasked by the President of the MSP I was working for that we needed to:
1) Onboard Clients within 30-days of signature
2) Free the Salesperson within 24 hours of signature to go sell something else
3) Allocate Technicians so New Client Onboards created less (not more) chaos in the work environment
If this is you, you are in luck, because thanks to Hard-Knocks, Advanced Global knows how to achieve – well truth be told – how to almost achieve these expectations.
First, I was never able to get the New Client On-Boarding down to 30-days. We could get everything done, except the backups running. Today with everything in the Cloud, this may now be possible. So, what we did was compromise and had 70% completed (everything except the backups) and change the proposal to where we would start invoicing the Client once 70% of the Onboarding was completed (ie: 30 days).
We were able to free the Salesperson within 24 hours of signature, not only for New Client onboardings, but also for all closed ops. We simply scheduled a What Was Sold meeting for the next day, gathered everyone in the room that need to know, and ran through an Information Transfer agenda from the Salesperson to the Team. Wahla, problem solved, within 24 hours everyone on the Team knew everything the Salesperson knew, and he was free to go sell something.
When it came to reducing the Chaos on the Team, that was easy and a personal passion of mine that drives Advanced Global’s mission. I simple asked how many Clients does Sales plan/budgeted for the year – 1, 2, 4 New Clients per month? With this information in hand, we proceeded to Allocate Tech time, but prescheduling enough New Client Onboarding projects to meet the Sales projections for the year. As Sales closed, we converted the Allocations from the Zero Account to the New Client Account. If there were no Sales, 2 weeks before the “Boots on the Ground” Start Date, we simple released the time to other work, further driving the Chaos out of the workplace.
If how to do this sounds like a mystery or “To Good To Be True” please schedule a FREE No-Obligation (not a sales call I promise) Strategy Conversation by CLICKING HERE, so I have an opportunity to fill in the rest of the story, provide any Documents you may need, and walk you thru the results that prove it is possible and you can do this.
Improve the Quality of Work-Life for the Employees
Most of what Advanced Global does is guides MSPs to improve efficiency and profitability. We are growing at a moderate 9-13%, but way less than we should be if our incredible results were widely known or believed.
As I discuss the Qualitative and Quantitative results with our past Clients, they do not seem to get excited about:
1) Brining on 10% more MRR or Professional Services without hiring a Tech
2) Techs working 10% more for the same amount of salary
3) Client Expectations are being meet 20% more often
What they do seem to appreciate is Service Coordinator (or what ever title you are using) is able to:
1) Take a breath and not be running from Crisis to Crisis without knowing what to do in advance
2) Focused on driving all Client Requests (Tickets) from New to Complete
3) Knowing where all the Techs were and what they were working on at all times
For the Techs they appreciate:
1) Techs know what to work on next
2) Aware of all their responsibilities
3) And are highly organized for at least the next 3 days
This allows the Owner:
1) The Freedom to go sell something, knowing the Team can deliver on the promises
2) Time to work On the Business, without being dragged into working In the Business
3) Improve their golf score, by holding more Prospect and Client Referral meetings
If you are looking to provide a better work environment for the Team, freeing yourself up to go sell something, or the outside chance you are interested in efficiency and profit, please schedule a FREE No-Obligation (not a sales call I promise) Strategy Conversation by CLICKING HERE, so I have an opportunity to fill in the rest of the story, provide any Documents you may need, and walk you thru the results that prove it is possible and you can do this.
Build a Better Client Experience
When you think about improving the Client Experience, surveys show there are two components you need to wrestle with:
1) The Quality of the Client Experience
2) The Consistency of the Client Experience
Based on Net-Promoter Interviews with MSP Clients, it is not the quantity of notifications that bother them. What bothers them is that:
1) They do not understand the Techeze and therefore are not understanding why they are receiving the email
2) They see no call to action, so they are confused and uncertain what is expected of them to do with the notification
3) In this day in age of high email volume and high security risks, the tend to delete something they were not expecting or know what it is.
To combat this low-quality Autotask default notification template, and MSP needs to refresh their Templates focused on three things:
1) A title in the Subject and again in a Banner at the top of the notification informing the Client as to why they are receiving the email. For Ex: Acknowledgement, Reviewed and Assigned, Waiting … or Completed
2) Remove the Techeze and provide the message in common language that a 7 year would understand
3) Brand the document so they know it is you, and trust that is should not be deleted before read
For consistency, we look to the HDI Client Facing Communication Protocol that based on their extensive use of Client Experience surveys have develop a recommended Client Facing Communication Protocol. One that lays out when the Client is expecting to be communicated with. The secret is to educate the Techs and hold them accountable to all use the protocol so they are all providing the same Client Experience, and then automate the process using Workflow Rules based on where in the Client Journey the Request is at from New to Complete -> in other words based on Status changes.
Following and implementing these Standard Operating Procedures, will break the allegiance Clients have to their favorite Tech because they are all providing a great Client Experience, and frees the Techs from the burden of communicating non-billable voice mail message.
Summary
If any of these Top of Mind Strategic Thoughts or any other Strategic Thoughts need time blocked to focus on them, feel free to use me as an accountability partner by scheduling a FREE No-Obligation (not a sales call I promise) Strategy Conversation by CLICKING HERE.
The bottom line is in order to fulfill a reasonable New Year’s Resolution, you need to schedule the time and hold yourself (or partner with someone) accountable. We are here for you and focused on helping your MSP to Thrive
Disclaimer
Advanced Global’s mission is to Help MSPs to Thrive.
Advanced Global is the Autotask Operational Authority
Not everything we do costs money
Our focus is to be sure the Client’s receive 6-10X ROI
Everything we do starts with a FREE
· Strategy Conversation
· Autotask PSA Configuration Evaluation
· Operational Self-Survey
Our programs result in Qualitative and Quantitative improvements
The programs have been so successful that we offer Money Back guarantees
Our Free, Low-Cost, and Program offerings address such Operational Areas as:
Making sure techs know what to work on next
Making sure someone is managing all open tickets and driving them to completion
Making sure the staffing levels are correct, and the workload is balanced
Making sure Real-Time Time Entry is a cultural habit
Making sure the customer has a great customer experience
Making sure profit is maximized
Making sure Autotask is being fully leveraged
Finding, benchmarking, tracking, and using the historical data that is in the Autotask software
Making sure the Service Delivery operations can scale
Making sure the company can grow
Making sure MSPs know what they don’t know
Note: We are not philosophers; we are doers with 53+ years of Autotask and Operational Experience, bringing Real Improvements, Changes, Profitability, and Best in Class performance.
For more information on who we are and what we do, scheduling a FREE No-Obligation (not a sales call I promise) Strategy Conversation by CLICKING HERE.
