Just the Facts, hold the Pickles: The Story of Detective Joe Service Coordinator
An MSP Service Coordinator is an awful lot like Detective Sergeant Joe Friday, Richard Castle, or Lieutenant Columbo (“Just one more question”). They’re asking questions, interviewing witnesses, and getting answers to ensure that when the Techs touch a ticket, that ticket is as accurate as possible, scrubbed of conflicting and confusing information - a “clean” ticket. “Just the facts.”
If you haven’t guessed, today we're jumping into the role of the service coordinator and how to triage a new client request. But first, I want to say “Welcome Back” and Happy Easter Autotask Warriors and Service Delivery Gladiators. I’m so glad you’re here to spend some quality time learning how to leverage the Autotask software. We have a lot to cover, so let’s jump in.
Triage is an art...
The Service Coordinator (SC) is the hub of the MSP and the single point of coordination. A Good Service Coordinator takes ownership of every open ticket, driving them from New to Completion while knowing where all the Techs are and what’s on their plate for the day. They own the Tech’s schedules.
A SC’s first job is triaging. Triaging is the art of creating that “clean ticket.” When a Client submits a ticket, they will usually provide too little information or too much information, neither of which is helpful to the Techs. We need to cut it down to the facts and nothing but the facts.
Once you have a clean ticket, the SC ensures the workflow is correct. In the right workflow, two things happen. One is the SLA automation of Autotask kicks in to help you rather than fight against you. And the minute somebody sees the ticket, they automatically know what's expected of them.
I said triage is an art. I should have said it’s an essential art. Why? Because a Service Coordinator will take the time to code a ticket properly and get it to the right person. Techs assigned to “watch the queue” as part of their duties will code it “just enough” and then either work it or send it down the road to be someone else’s problem. Maybe the billing code is correct, maybe it isn’t. Maybe the CEO’s dead PC is P1, maybe it’s P3. Your mileage may vary. Busy Techs are more likely to just dump the ticket on Kim, who has 97 assigned tickets, since she knows Office rather than at the skills matrix AND Tech availability like a Service Coordinator will.
Look at that ticket. At best, your Tech is going to waste a ton of time figuring out the issue, getting more information, and dealing with it. Whichever Tech is stuck with the queue for that day will probably forward it to Bobby (the client asked for him!), who already has 97 tickets, set the status to assigned, and call it a day. And Bobby will waste tons of time on this…and probably be waiting for the first Tech by his car after work. NOT a good scenario.
Call in the Detective...
Enter Detective Sergeant Service Coordinator who will clean up that description, get to the heart of the request, eliminate the noise, reach out to the Client for more information, create the 2nd ticket needed for the sales request and 3rd ticket for the lost device (you did catch that, yes?). All the contact info can go unless a specific # was requested as everything the Tech should need will be found in the left- or right-hand sections of the ticket.
So, they create a sales Ticket for the speakers and pull that out. Then the P1 lost laptop Ticket. Then junk that greeting and intro stuff and the long explanation. The SC calls the user and after a couple of questions and a quick Teams chat with a Sr. Tech learns there could be a Business Email Compromise. Note: It’s not the SC’s job to do more than that – it’s the Tech’s job to determine the actual issue and update the Issue/Sub-issue type. With that knowledge, the SC knows exactly who to assign the ticket to.
So description, title, client, and contact
Avoid these things that are often missed:
Always check the Ticket title and make sure it matches the description. My guess is 60-70% of the time, the title, which was the subject of a previous issue from 4 months ago, has nothing to do with this request.
Make sure the Account Name is NOT your Zero account. If you have problems with a lot of tickets coming in to the Zero account and you keep needing to change it to the Client account, let us know so we can figure it out.
Make sure there is a Contact on the ticket.
Then the most important thing and the heart of the Triage process is to decide what workflow it's in based on the Priority Field. We use the Priority Field to kick off the workflow. The automation can now help you push the Ticket and drive it from New to Complete, and everybody after you will know what to do with it. Plus, it's going to impact your decision tree, (another topic for another day).
So, the next thing you're going to do is Status, and that Status might be “Request for information.”
The request for information Status is used by the SC to, go figure, request more information. The rest are mostly self-explanatory: “Waiting … Statuses means Waiting, status, Scheduled … status is just that, and “Ready to Engage” means the ticket has been reviewed and assigned and is waiting for a Tech to change the Status to “In Progress” and get to work.
Next is Issue and Sub-Issue types. Advanced Global’s position is that for the Triage process, the Issue and Sub-Issue should always be TBD. Only the Tech at the end of the process knows exactly what the Issue and Sub-Issue is, so we’ll let the Tech update those.
Assign a Tech
Speaking of Tech, we need to assign one. We will use a Skill Sheet for that. A Skill Sheet is a paper or electronic list of your Techs and their skills. Match the Tech to the Ticket based on availability, Ticket description, and technical discipline.
Don't automatically go to your level three engineer. Look at your level twos, your level ones if they're available, push work there. Keep your level three focused on project work. Remember, look at your skill sheet.
Secondary resources, sometimes you need to add them. Installs almost always need them. Project work needs them.
The Work Type
The Work Type by default is Remote. We do have automation in the background that moves it to Projects. If something else is needed, the Tech can send it back to Triage for Scheduling.
Onsite Scheduled After Hours should be an automation, and Emergency After Hours is all automated, so you should need to change the Work Type very seldom. Estimated hours are an automated mechanism. We leave it there for reference, to help people understand what's going on.
Queue should be automated. You're going to put it in a Workflow. You're going to review and assign it, and that should trigger moving it to the Support Queue.
Source is an automated Intake Process. You may not even have the field available. The Due Date is locked down by the SLA, so you don't need to change that. The device should be assigned in AT to the User and will populate automatically. The SC will update it if a different configuration item is involved.
Contract and SLAs are all automated. Purchase Order numbers are very seldom used.
Summary
I know for many of you, this is just your first introduction, but a good SC will get the hang of it pretty quickly. A key mindset is summarizing the description first, then title, proper account, proper Tech, right Priority, and watch the Workflow go.
Remember the old phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out.” With a Service Coordinator in place and a strong Triage process, you can increase your Tech’s availability, productivity, and Client Satisfaction while minimizing re-work and frustrated Clients through re-assignments.
Now I know your next question - a technical or non-technical Service Coordinator, but gee, we’ve run out of time. Until next week.
Steve & Co.