Leveraging the Service Coordinator Dashboard as a KPI
How many open tickets are too many? How many open tickets are there?
Can an MSP have too few tickets (Don’t laugh, it really does happen – think Covid on the Car Dealerships or MSPs supporting the hospitality industry)?
How do you know when it’s time to schedule a call with the Autotask experts at Advanced Global?
When there are twice as many open tickets (40 per Tech) and twice as many overdue tickets (10 per Tech) than is healthy – We can guide you back to health in less than 4 months GUARANTEED. Click here to schedule a call.
In this article, we continue talking about an MSP’s #1 KPI – Dashboards - by taking a deeper look at the Service Coordinator Dashboards.
Let’s get right to it…here is how to read the Service Coordinator’s #1 Dashboard…
Sub-KPI: All Open Tickets
Open Tickets are the lifeblood of the MSP, much like how an accountant looks at cash flow. As long as you have Tickets, the Techs have work, and the MSP has business.
We often feel that Tickets are a bad thing and too many Tickets are an evil thing. In reality - if you have:
· Fewer than 12 Non-Project Tickets per Tech, there is not enough work to keep everyone busy.
· Between 12 and 20 Non-Project Tickets per Tech, the Service Delivery Operation is in good shape.
· More than 20 Tickets per Tech, there could be trouble brewing.
· Over 25 Tickets per Tech, you’re looking at Management Intervention to correct.
Even though it sounds nice to have a slower pace, there’s a big issue: With not enough work, relaxed habits begin to form over time. Then when things pick up (think 4th qtr. or new high seat count Customer), the Techs are not able to keep up effectively – think Zen descending into Chaos. And no one wants that.
Sub-KPI: Overdue Tickets
Overdue Tickets are a bit of a misnomer. The sub-widget indicates how many Tickets are past their due date, which we all know can be pushed out and then, viola, no longer overdue.
So, what’s the problem? With proper SLA Management, the SLA sets the due date, and the ticket boomerangs back as an Overdue Ticket. The bigger problem is how Overdue Tickets negatively impact the Customers’ Experience.
Now we are talking about the perception of Overdue and not the metric on the Dashboard. With a good Customer-Facing Communications Protocol, you can mitigate the perception.
With proper SLA Management, you can track performance against either contractual or reasonable expectations. Also, with proper SLA Management you can take proactive, interventional steps before the Customer is disappointed.
At the end of the day, Overdue Tickets is always a negative, although not a very important negative. But since you asked, a rule of thumb is that if there are less than 5 Tickets per Tech overdue, the Service Delivery Team on their own can dig the MSP out of the hole they are in. Having more than 5 Tickets per Tech takes Management intervention to correct the problem.
If Overdue Tickets Aren’t Important, What Is?
I know what you’re thinking. If Overdue Tickets are not critical, what is important when it comes to disappointing Customers?
A list of Backlog Tickets, where a target of 0 is much more important. In other words:
· No Incident (Break/Fix) Tickets should be over 7 days old
· No Service Request (Moves/Adds/Changes) Tickets over 30 days old
This does not apply to Projects, which have negotiated start and end dates. Again, if the list is less than 5 Tickets per Tech, they should be able to clean it up in a week or so, but if it is more, it will take Management Intervention to correct the problem.
In both Open Tickets, more than 20 per Tech and Overdue/Backlog Tickets more than 5 per Tech, the Management intervention to correct the problem comes in the form of a concentrated collaboration effort to bring the counts down.
Technology Black-Outs Can Be Effective
We have written about the Wednesday Backlog Ticket Killing Party several times, so we will not take up space here to reiterate. Recently Datto had a Technology Black-Out period for their developers from 1-3:30 pm every day. They were able to reduce the Product Development Time by 75% (8 months to 2).
Is the same true for MSPs? Can you ask, encourage, demand, threaten, cattle prod to have them shut down Teams/Slack/Jabber, phones, emails, etc. from 10 am to 11:30 am every day, so they can concentrate on their work? My guess is they would never need to focus on the oldest Non-Project Ticket in their name. But in the short run, they may need to focus on their Backlog Ticket list.
The Wednesday afternoon party works so well because of the prep work and collaboration. By sending the list the morning before, the Techs have time to plan the engagement, reach out for help, and make sure they are ready to engage by 1 pm the next day.
The Technology Black-Out time works effectively because of the quiet uninterrupted concentration that is enjoyed. In both cases, having someone standing by to take Critical and High Priority Incidents is crucial to the success of either program. And who is to say they cannot work together?
Now the all-important question: How can you tell if either one is effective?Schedule the Backlog Ticket List report to run at the end of the period.
In other words, for the Wednesday afternoon ticket killing party, you want to schedule it for:
· 8am the day before,
and
· 5pm the day of
For the Technology Black-Out time, schedule the report at:
· 9:45 am, and
· Once again at Noon
In both cases, there should be significant reduction in the list, or the Techs are focusing on other things – just saying.
In Summary, 2 of the 10 sub-KPIs available on the dashboard are:
· Open Tickets – 12 to 20 Tickets per Tech
· Overdue Tickets - <5 Tickets per Tech
How do you know when it’s time to schedule a call with the Autotask experts at Advanced Global?
When there are twice as many open tickets (40 per Tech) and twice as many overdue tickets (10 per Tech) than is healthy – We can guide you back to health in less than 4 months GUARANTEED. Click here to schedule a call.
Next week, we will continue working through the Dashboards by discussing SLAs, Waiting Tickets, On Hold Tickets, Team Hours Worked this Week and a whole lot more, which can be gleaned from a great Autotask Dashboard.