Finding Freedom From: All Those Tickets - Part 3

Oct 18

DattoCon is Coming! Are You Prepared?

Hello, Autotask Gladiator. Welcome back to this little section of the world where I try and use all my years of MSP Operational Improvement and Service Delivery experience to help you grow your MSP without going insane or working yourself to do it.

We’ve talked this year a couple of times about the mental health crisis going on in the MSP world, so I won’t go over that again . But I am serious when I say that you can run or manage an MSP without needing daily therapy or working 100 hours a week.

How? It starts with the Autotask Software. I assume we can put a big checkmark in that column. If not, that’s okay - the Advanced Global team speaks business process, and much of what we talk about today should fit nicely in your Halo, Kaseya, or ConnectWise PSA.

The basis for this guide comes from discussions we’ve been having lately about creating version 2.0 of our Small MSP Improvement plan (SMIP) to make it more relevant, more effective, more affordable, and faster to implement so you can get your ROI quicker. I talked about this a couple weeks ago, so I won’t go into it again, other than to say that this has made us look all the way back to the core fundamentals of being an MSP.

You see, we work with a lot of MSPs who purchase our programs. This includes everything from videos on service delivery improvement to Service Coordinator Training to full-blown Autotask rebuilds from scratch and months of time training your team. One constant is that most MSPs don’t have the fundamentals down, and we have to spend a lot of time fixing and teaching – time that could be better spend actually helping the MSP team grow the business, earn raving fan clients, and being able to take a vacation without a laptop.

So, we thought, “Hey, let’s write a book for MSPs on how to build out the fundamentals so they can get instant value when we engage.” We figured $500, and we could do it in the spring.

And then we realized DattoCon is coming up fast, with all those vendors hawking their shiny new tools. Tools that MSP owners, already buried in tickets and Service Delivery Chaos will buy - further distracting them from the fundamentals of MSP Service Delivery and profitability.

So, we decided spring was too late. Here we are. Let’s go!

First off, let me speak to the elephant in the room: we don’t care if you have been an MSP for 10 years. Our experience is that you’re probably not following the fundamentals of the game and are losing out to your competitors because of it. Trust me when I say that fundamentals of being a successful MSP with happy Techs, raving fan clients, and the elusive work/life balance apply to small AND large MSPs. If you get the fundamentals down, you can then decide how far you grow.

Second, you may think that this information won’t apply to you as a small MSP (less than 5 Techs) is a completely different beast than a large MSP. Yes and No. A small MSP may utilize less reporting, fewer queues, workflow rules, and such, but the fundamentals are the fundamentals are the fundamentals. So, while this is geared more for the small MSP, the following is for ALL MSPs.

Speaking of the fundamentals, legendary basketball coach John Wooden had members of his national championship UCLA team, and his star recruits, spend their first practice learning how to put their socks and shoes on. There were high level athletes, but he knew his players couldn’t bring their A-game if they had blisters. Wooden knew that excellence started with the fundamentals.

If Wooden’s team can practice putting their socks on, I think you can listen to Coach Buyze for a bit.

Take Control

Last week, we talked about taking back control of all those tickets that are overwhelming you. As an Owner, you can hopefully control the Sales Process, which Clients you choose to work with, which products you sell, etc. But what can your Techs control? The Service Delivery process.

We start with the Intake process. Our experience shows that 80% of the Chaos can be driven out of the work environment with a good intake process. That is why many of our articles focus on the Service Coordinator role, as they are the core of the Service Delivery Team. They should be your 4th hire.

If you are a one-man band or just have a couple Techs, someone should still be designated during your working hours to handle ticket triage. The Owner can do it if they have the time, or you can split the day amongst your techs. The important thing is that everyone knows who has the intake duty for that time block, and that is on the schedule. Every business hour should have a designated Intake person.

In week 1, I gave an overview of the Triage process. This is taking a new, raw ticket, distilling it to the just the facts, classifying it, and sending it on its way. Please see that for the fundamentals of what to do when a ticket comes in.

Fundamentals – SLA events and Status

Now that you have an intake person to handle triage, they need to know what to do with the ticket. Last week, we started by clicking the Create Ticket button and going over the options on the left side of the ticket. Hopefully, you all did your homework, and you now have a complete and accurate Autotask database of all your Clients and their Contacts. A fundamental of Autotask (or any PSA) is having all your Clients and contacts in the system. (If you didn’t, you can watch this video on how to export what you have and send it to your clients so they can correct).

With Autotask now containing up to date records of your Clients and all their staff, you can now move to the next blank to fill in on the ticket: The Status.

We will be working in the Admin module. Your navigation is: Autotask Menu > Admin > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Task & Ticket Statuses.

Autotask comes with some default statuses. These are barely adequate for a small MSP, however we recommend that even a new/small MSP start out with our recommended list:

New: A new ticket should always be entered as new UNLESS the ticket is immediately being assigned to a technician. Workflow rule notification to contact. SLA Event: None.

Ready to Engage: This means the Tech will engage at will within SLA. Workflow notification to contact that the ticket has been reviewed and assigned. SLA Event: First Response.

Customer Note Added - The contact has provided additional information for the tech. SLA Event: Resolution Plan.

In Progress: The ticket is being actively worked on, and time is being recorded by a tech. Techs should normally never have more than one ticket In Progress. SLA Event: Resolution Plan.

Waiting Customer: We have attempted contact and gotten no response or are waiting for contact to provide us some information. Starts a workflow notification process and, ultimately, kicks ticket to Service Coordinator or auto-closes. Stops the SLA clock. SLA Event: Waiting Customer.

On Hold: Used to stop the SLA clocks when the Customer requests. Set the due date for when the Customer wants the work to be done, and when that date arrives, schedule the work with the Customer. SLA Event: Waiting Customer.

Waiting on Materials: Similar to the above. We are waiting on parts. Stops the SLA clock. SLA Event: Waiting Customer.

Waiting Vendor: Similar to the above. We are waiting on a vendor to do something. SLA Event: Waiting Customer.

C. Verification Requested: We believe the work is complete and are requesting the user to bless it. Different workflow rules fire depending on response. SLA Event: Resolved.

Pending Close: Automated next step after the above. Friendly reminder that you are allowing the Customer to verify completion, but without their participation, the ticket is going to close tomorrow. SLA Event: Resolved.

Complete: If the Tech knows the engagement has been completed (either by verifying on the phone or by all green lights on the server), then just complete the ticket and let the Customer know. SLA Event: Resolved.

Dispatched Remote –The ticket has been scheduled for work by a tech. Workflow rule notifies end of user of time/date and sends reminder 5 days out. SLA Event: First Response.

Dispatched Onsite – Same as Dispatched-Remote, but has the additional caveat that the Customer can expect a doorbell rather than a phone call. SLA Event: First Response.

Escalated: The Primary Resource notifies the Customer that they are reaching out for internal technical assistance but they retain ownership, including all communication with the Customer. Escalation resource is assigned as secondary on the ticket. (Can be skipped for small MSPs). SLA Event: Resolution Plan3

Request for Information: Primarily used by the Service Coordinator to request more information before a technician works on a ticket. Workflow notification to ticket contact. (May be skipped for small MSPs). SLA Event: Waiting Customer.

Make sense? Now, go add those into your Autotask, and you’ll be one step further along.

“SLA event,” you ask? Oh yes.

SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. This is literally an agreement between the MSP and the Client on the services to be delivered and the timeframes they will be delivered. We will talk about this in the future. For the overachievers, I wrote about them here, and Autotask talks about them here.

Autotask maps to a service delivery framework called ITIL, which Wikipedia quotes IBM defining as: “The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of practices and a framework for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of the business.”

Under ITIL, “First Response” is the time to Triage, “Resolution Plan” is the time when a ticket goes "In Progress,” and “Resolve” is when it goes in a Complete Status.

That’s a lot to grasp. For now, just know that the ITIL Framework is used by Autotask and is great for measuring performance against the SLAs.

You may also have noticed the mention of workflow notifications. That’s where we start using the Automation in Autotask to do some really cool things. But patience, we’re still putting our socks on. Overachievers, click here.

So, you can just create the Ticket Statuses as outlined above. Pick colors and icons that make sense to you, or email us, and we will be happy to build out the appropriate Autotask setup for your size MSP.

With your Autotask ticket now containing the Clients and contact name, and a status of New, you can now move to the next blank to fill in on the ticket: The Priority. But that’s a topic for next week.

Summary

The foundation of a successful MSP, small or large, is the fundamentals. So, we’re going back to the basics to make sure we’re all on the same page. Take this week to get your Statuses set up in Autotask and come back next week as we continue with Chapter 4.

Go do it now. DattoCon is coming soon, and that room full of vendors will have some great deals. Better hurry and develop a Triage Mindset before that next new tool shows up on the credit card. Not enough time? No worries - drop us a line, and we can help. 

Talk to us: info@agmspcoaching.com

Stephen & Co

Resources: 