Bar Rescue for MSPs: Why invest in a Zen Environment for MSPs using the Autotask software?
Welcome back, Autotask Warriors and Gladiators. It's a beautiful day in the Autotask neighborhood and I am so glad that you are here to enjoy it with me.
Of course, if you’re an MSP Owner or OPS Manager of an MSP in Chaos, it is not a beautiful day. But, we are here to help.
If you’ve ever watched ‘Bar Rescue,’ then you know where I am about to go. For those who haven’t, the show is about an expert in the Bar industry who every week tries to save a dying bar. John Taffer and his team use science, math, service delivery expertise, and a LOT of tough love to push bar owners to modernize, introduce relevant products, and update their service delivery to something that doesn’t have staff quitting and every customer demanding to see a manager while leaving scathing reviews. And at the end, they show a great-looking bar with a happy staff and tons of great customer reviews.
Hmmm....an expert guy with an expert team that updates and modernizes business systems while training a team on expert Service Delivery. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The bars on ‘Bar Rescue’ aren’t the only businesses full of Chaos. From our experience, the MSP Operational environment is way more chaotic than the MSP realizes. Think about the “boiling a frog or lobster” scenario. If you put a frog or lobster in cold water and then slowly raise the temperature, they will never realize the temperature is approaching boiling until they have been boiled to death. Yes, I am saying that is the situation at an MSP. They do not realize that the chaos is boiling them to death until:
They try to onboard a new Client that is above their average Seat Size
Techs start quitting due to burnout
Projects ending over-time or over-budget is killing profits
The Chaos is there, it is hurting profits, it is hurting the workforce, and it is hurting the Clients – we just put up with it, saying that is what life is like at an MSP – but does it have to be that way? NO!
Some “Best-in-Class,” Highly Profitable, Growing Rapidly, “Best Places to Work” MSPs have found a way to create a Zen Work Environment. It is the Zen Work Environment that makes this all possible, and without a Zen Work Environment, you will never be Highly Profitable, High Retention Levels, and have a high # of Raving Fan Clients.
So what does a Zen Work Environment look like?
Well, first of all, there are no surprises:
No Surprise Client Requests
No Surprise change in work assignments or scheduling
No Surprise Clients or Employees leaving
No Surprises at the end of a Project
No Surprise Client Requests:
We all know the 80/20 rule: that 80% of Client Requests are 20% of the Types of Client Requests that are received. We divide Client Requests into 11 distinct types. 20% of those 11 is 2.2 – and in this case, Medium Priority Incidents (the default and usual priority for an incident ticket) and Quick Hits Service Requests (non-incidents that can be handled under an hour), with the .2% being Monitoring Alerts that are closed with no time entry.
Confused? You must work for an MSP with a Chaotic Work Environment. Ok, let’s take a different approach. Based on the Historical Data, the Best-in-Class MSPs predict when a Type of Client Request is going to come in. Then they staff for those types of Client Requests with the right Skillset and right # of hours. They can also predict the few % of the time that something strange, unique, or unusual comes in and have a “Walkthrough” process along with Techs prepared to handle the request. No “All Hands-On-Deck,” No Disruptions, No change in Scheduling, No Chaos.
No Surprise Change in Work Assignments or Scheduling:
The primary reason there is no surprise change in work assignments or scheduling is that someone is pre-positioned/scheduled to handle surprises. Look, surprises still happen. You cannot predict everything, but if you know that a high percentage of Client Request fit into 11 Client Request Types, and you have staffing with the right skillset and process to manage the workload, then reserving someone with the flexibility to take on those 1-2% surprise tickets is a piece of cake.
No Surprise Clients or Employees Leaving:
I have worked with several Service Coordinators who could predict when a Tech or Client was leaving. There are telltale signs. And if you pay attention to the Techs and Clients, address their concerns or frustrations early in to avoid the separation, or at least have a plan B for when they leave – then there is no surprise.
Client churn in the MSP industry is 8%. Employee turnover is more unique to the MSP, and we are unaware of any industry average. 8% Clients leaving with 20% Client growth is a lot of change – almost 1/3 of your client base in a year’s time – not to mention 40% of your Sales efforts are replacement, not growth.
But with a good on/off boarding process, you can pre-position Techs with the right skillset, availability, and procedures so it is just a matter of penciling in the name of the Client. You could also invest in Building a Better Client Experience and reduce the Churn to 4%, which would increase your top-line sales by 20% and cut the offboarding Chaos in half.
Techs leaving is a different scenario. They leave because they are frustrated and tired of being confused. They came to work (both in the beginning and daily) to meet expectations, resolve Client issues, and complete engagements. What they are met with instead is Chaos, “the beatings will continue until morale improves”, and broken promises– and no amount of money is going to offset this pain or convince them to stay.
In this day and age, it takes three things to keep a Tech engaged and happy:
Find out what their passions and joys are, and make sure a significant part of their day is doing just that.
Find out what their career goals are, and make sure you are supporting them in their journey from newbie to the Go-To person.**
Make sure their work life is easy to do business with:
Clear, Concise, Repeatable Procedures.
Automate the mundane.
Performance monitoring with Atta boys (or Kick-in-the-Pants when applicable) – both will be appreciated.
** Note: Advanced Global’s recommended Skillsheet goes a long way to achieving this – Skill Sheet Sample.xlsx.
No Surprises at the End of a Project:
For a project to end on-time and on-budget, there are several mindset changes that an MSP needs to embrace:
Dumping project tickets into a queue and asking the Techs to fit it in is not going to work – there never is enough downtime available to fit it in.
Jumping into a project without planning is like running at the edge of a cliff blindfolded without knowing what is over the edge.
Sales needs to provide four pieces of information to Operations in order for a project to be scheduled – and oh ya, all projects must be scheduled – see project mindset #1.
Escalations to the Project Engineers and Out of Scope Client requests must be managed.
Once these four Projects for MSP mindset changes are embraced, vetted, and deployed, the MSP has half a chance to complete Projects on-time and on-budget. The other half takes everyone in the company honoring the Project Methodologies for MSPs.
How do You Achieve a Zen Environment and How Long Does it Take?
Let’s address the “How Long Does It Take” question first – 18-24 months, with the right:
Operational Improvement plan or roadmap
Success Criteria to guide the process and declare victory
Guide on the Side to Champion the Cause and has “Been There and Done That”
Next let’s discuss How Do You Achieve a Zen Environment. Well, the roadmap is simple, but the inner workings of each bullet point are as complex as the MSPs work environment:
Process Improvements
PSAutomation Improvements
Advanced Live Reporting
Owner, Service Manager, Service Coordinator, Project Manager willing to hold themselves and the Team accountable (Yes, I know in some MSPs one person represents one or more of these roles – but knowing which hat you are wearing is also important)
Quick sidebar: Those of you who watch a lot of Bar Rescue know the stories don’t stop at the end of the show. You’re furiously Googling while the credits roll to see if the bar kept the changes and flourished or went back to their old habits and went out of business. The PIRATZ TAVERN episode is a spectacular example of this. The Owner lost their house and was a million in the hole and dumped John’s changes because they liked playing pirate. Playing games is fine for your life, but what about your family, Clients, and Team? Like John Taffer, I will work my butt off to help you grow and flourish, but I have no time for those not willing to invest in their future. Think about that while I continue laying out the blueprint for your success.
Process Improvements
“Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.” https://www.azquotes.com/author/3858-W_Edwards_Deming
It feels like every article is quoting Deming, and if you pay attention, it is the same quote. He wrote the book on process improvement. He started preaching in the 20-30s, but no one in the US listened, so he went to post-WWII Japan, and by mid-60s Japan was kicking the US Automakers’ butt. This led to Toyota’s Kanban process improvements and the “Toyota Production System” which LEAN process improvements are based on. The US responded with Just-in-Time Inventory, and the competition remains today. (Special Note: The most prestigious award for quality improvement awarded in Japan is called the Deming Prize.)
From Advanced Global’s experience, process improvements are the key to creating a Zen environment and where a Continuous Improvement program starts. Having Standard Operating Procedures and repetitive processes consistently delivered by everyone on the Team is critical to the MSP’s survival and what it takes to deliver a Zen environment.
How many processes can there be, you ask? Well, Advanced Global’s programs deliver:
85 for the Service Delivery Team.
30 for a Streamlined Labor Invoicing.
48 for a Better Client Experience w/ Real-Time Time Entry.
20 for the Service Manager.
Note: the list is growing and improving all the time.
I think I heard you stop breathing. Please take a moment and breathe. I know I just 85 processes, but I promise you can do it. And I’m there to walk side by side with you. Keep reading.
PSAutomation Improvements
How many reconfigurations can there be, you ask? The answer is:
39 for the Service Delivery Team.
15 for Streamlined Labor Invoicing.
17 for a Better Client Experience w/ Real-Time Time Entry.
20 for the Service Manager.
Note: the list is growing and improving all the time.
Breathe. I know it sounds like a lot, but other MSPs have done it and you can too.
Advanced Live Reporting
When it comes to the power of scheduled Advanced Live Reports, the list Advanced Global recommends includes:
Resource Utilization report date stamped on Monday morning.
Real-Time Time Entry report date stamped on Monday morning.
Backlog List of Tickets report delivered on Wednesday morning.
Scheduled Tickets with no future Service Calls delivered on Thursday morning.
SLA, Workflow Distribution, and Mean Time To Resolve, all delivered on the first Tuesday of every month.
Daily QC reports for Triage and Open/Assigned/Closed reports.
Not to mention 20-30 other Advanced Live Reports to choose from. These reports take a lot of time and a lot of skill to write, so many MSPs turn to the experts at Advanced Global to write these.
But the big 4 – the ones that drive profitability – according to LEAN Process profitability KPIs/Reporting are:
Inventory => Billable Hours or Resource Utilizations
Throughput => SLA or Mean Time To Resolve (SLA w/o wait states) Performance
Efficiency => Reactive Hours (Break/Fix) per Endpoint per Month
Holding Themselves and the Team Accountable:
The #1 MSP problem is the inability to hold the Techs accountable. I mean, where else can you work 20 hours or less per week and get paid for 40 hours?
Now, I get it. Techs are highly-valuable billable resources. If you tick them off, the ability to bring in revenue or the fear the Client will leave with them is real. But let’s get real. There has to be a way to create a positive, collaborative, coaching/mentoring Tech management environment so everyone knows who is doing what by when.
How to do that is a whole article in itself and will take more room/time than we have here to discuss. But suffice it to say, that if you could achieve a positive, collaborative, coaching/mentoring Tech management environment it would be like a Buddhist heaven.
Summary:
If you started off wondering why I always capitalize Chaos, now you know. Tons of MSPs we work with that are leaving money on the table are doing so because of Chaos. Chaos is such a destroyer of MSPs that it deserves capitalization. A Zen Work Environment is worth fighting for – ask any Service Delivery Gladiator. It is Achievable – ask Advanced Global’s Past Clients. And it is Achievable within a year.
PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t be like those bar owners who refuse to change, forget they are running a business, and fail. You owe it to your Family, your Employees, your Clients, and most importantly, Yourself.
Need an MSP Rescue? Email us at Info@AGMSPCoaching.com.
Steve and Co