All About Sub-KPIs (#1 KPI Dashboards, Cont.)
As you are well aware by now, Advanced Global has declared WAR on underperforming KPIs. We have been busy writing about the #1 KPI - that is, the dashboards right in front of us (at least, I hope it’s in front of you).
After all, MSPs need proactive, dynamic dashboards in order to be profitable.
That’s why it’s time for an in-depth discussion of the Sub-KPIs of SLA, Waiting Tickets, On-Hold, and Customer Responded to Widgets and Sub-Widgets.
For a sample of KPI reports that help you drive Service Delivery Improvements, subscribe and download below.
The sample reports include:
An Advanced SLA Performance report
An Advanced Resource Utilization report
An Advanced Real-Time Entry report, that no only shows the delay in putting in the time entries, it also shows the gap between Time Entries and the duration of each
A Technician Balanced Score Card
And much, much more – OK, 7 more.
SLA Summary Widget:
SLA is a full KPI that we will discuss carefully in a later article within this series. What we are talking about here is the SLA Summary Widget. The difference is that the SLA report looks at historical information and grades the Service Coordinator (Triage/First Response), the Techs (Tech Engagement/Resolution Plan), and Finally the Company’s overall performance (Completion/Resolved) on their response time performance.
Here we are talking about a proactive widget that can indicate when intervention is needed. By intervention, we mean - a specific request is coming up on the Next SLA Event Due Date, with enough time for the Service Coordinator to look and see if the ticket is in trouble. If so, they need to know:
· Who is the ticket on?
· What is the workload on that Tech?
· Is the Tech going to meet expectations?
· …Or is intervention needed?
If intervention is needed:
1) Is there another Tech with the right skill level available to take the ticket?
2) Can the existing assigned Tech’s workload be adjusted to make room for the request?
3) Does the Service Manager have any ideas?
4) Call the Customer and let them know:
a. We have not forgotten about you or this request.
b. Things are busy today, and we are not getting to all tickets as expected.
c. You are on the list, and we will get to you asap.
d. Thank you for your patience.
Note: All the SLA Summary widget responses are done without contacting a Tech. Now we will cover how/when we review the Service Coordinator Dashboard #2.
Waiting Tickets:
Waiting Tickets are fine, not a problem, and part of the normal course of business. Until they are more than 2 days old. From our experience, if the Customer, Vendor, or Distributor has not responded in 2 days, they are not going to. It Behooves the MSP to take proactive action.
Calling the Customer and leaving a VM again is all non-billable work, so it is best to have a non-billable person doing the work. It is very easy for a Service Coordinator to pick up the phone and call the Customer, Vendor, or Distributor.
If the call is to the Customer, 8 out of 10 times, the Customer will say they did not know the MSP was waiting on them (this is greatly reduced by a good Customer-Facing Communications Protocol, the quality of which is the #2 KPI in our series). At which point, the Service Coordinator can respond with, “Well, it is good I called you then, here is the information we need. If you can provide it, we can get this going again for you.”
If the call is to the Vendor, then it is the Service Coordinator’s job to schedule a time when the Vendor’s Tech is available for a time when the assigned Tech is also available - to get it in the Calendars and out of the Waiting Tickets widget.
For waiting parts, within a few hours after notifying the Distributor and placing an order, an ETA is available. At this point, the Waiting Ticket can be scheduled, not for the ETA date, not for the next day after the ETA, but two or three days after the ETA date.
The reason for scheduling the assigned Tech to do the work 2-3 days after the ETA date is:
1) The E stands for Estimated.
2) Time is needed to intake the part, and maybe benchwork (but we need a policy that works 100% of the time - not just when a part needs benchwork before delivery).
3) The Tech needs a day to read the Sales Order (yes, one does exist) and make sure they have all the parts needed, before going out the door. This cuts down on Courier services.
Note: Not using Couriers? You should schedule a call with us because using Couriers is a whole lot cheaper than dispatching a Tech to deliver a part.
On-Hold Tickets:
On-Hold Tickets are also not a problem unless the Due Date is in the past. Then the Service Coordinator simply needs to set the Due Date in the future.
The reason for this is that the On-Hold Mechanism removes the On-Hold from the Techs view, making it easier for them to concentrate on work that can progress. Then a WFR returns the ticket to the Tech on the Due Date or a day before, which is my preference.
Customer Responded to:
How many times does a Customer Respond to a Tech, and no one does anything about it? Is it because we are so shocked that the Customer Responded in the first place - or because it happens so seldom that we do not have an SOP for what to do next?
Well, let us help you out. First, there is a sub-widget that alerts the Tech that a Customer has responded. Second, the ticket moves from the waiting widget to the Ready to Engage widget. Then the Next SLA Event Due Date automatically adjusts the list of tickets and places the Customer Responded to the ticket in the correct place in the order.
The problem is, the Tech might not be readily available. What to do then? We expect the Service Coordinator to look at who responded to what ticket, and ask:
1) Is the Tech working today or on PTO (yes, there is a widget for that)?
2) Is the Tech working the Ready to Engage widget or scheduled with the Customer (yes, there is a calendar for that)?
3) Where in the Ready to Engage list is the ticket at, and will the Tech be responding to the Customer soon or not (again, there is a widget for that on the Service Coordinator’s #3 dashboard)?
Then pick up the phone, thank the Customer for the response, let them know where the Tech is, what they are working on (generically), and when the Customer can expect to hear from the Tech – this is assuming it is not within the hour, because then there is no point in calling.
We hope this information has been helpful. If there is anything mentioned in this article that is confusing or there’s a term you have never heard of, such as: Service Coordinator Dashboard #2 or #3, On-Hold Mechanism, Calendar, or even KPI, we recommend you schedule a call.
Oh and don’t forget!
For a sample of KPI reports that help you drive Service Delivery Improvements, subscribe and download below.
The sample reports include:
An Advanced SLA Performance report
An Advanced Resource Utilization report
An Advanced Real-Time Entry report, that no only shows the delay in putting in the time entries, it also shows the gap between Time Entries and the duration of each
A Technician Balanced Score Card
And much, much more – OK, 7 more.