How to Change an MSP’s Service Delivery Culture/Performance for the better
What (or who) is at the core of any good MSP’s Operation?
The Techs.
Marketing and Sales are critical to getting the Client to sign up.
And no one gets paid without the Administrative Team.
But without the Techs satisfying all those Client Needs and Wants, there is no way to keep the lights on…and no MSP.
The (BIG) Gap Between Desire & Reality at an MSP
A Tech’s heart is all about relieving the Client’s pain and completing assignments on time with a high quality of Engineering Excellence. Sometimes, however, there is a large gap between desire and reality. And it's not the Techs’ fault.
Our experience has shown that the culprit behind this gap is often caused by four factors:
1) Lack of a good, automated toolset
2) Lack of clearly defined and documented “Best in Class” processes
3) Lack of quality coaching and mentoring leveraging data-driven accountability reporting
4) Lack of knowing how to use the Tools, Processes, and Reporting to Coach/Mentor Team Performance Improvement
While the first three can generally be designed, procured, and in implementation somewhat quickly by a motivated MSP, the lack of knowing how to use the Tools, Processes, and Reporting to Coach/Mentor Team Performance Improvement is the deal breaker. It takes the most amount of time to drive Service Delivery Operational Improvements.
Based on our years of successful MSP Process Improvements, we know that building a good automated toolset can be done in 36 hours by a knowledgeable Team - but it takes 4 months to educate a Service Delivery Team on how to use them.
It only takes a few days to copy a Service Delivery Standard Operating Procedure template, but months for the adaptation of the new processes.
Writing Advanced Live Reports and adjusting them to a specific Autotask database takes a week - but coaching/mentoring the Service Delivery Team on how to improve performance takes months.
This sounds daunting, I know. But trust me - the process is worth it. At each step in the way, you will see improvement in Service Delivery Team performance.
Results of Advanced Global’s Clients in 2021 show:
Improving the Tool Set improves performance by 10-20%
Providing Best in Class SOPs boosts performance by 15-25%
Holding the Team accountable increases performance by 5-15% (Yes, most MSPs are running at 50% efficiency)
Changing the Culture & Performance of Your Service Delivery Team
You’re probably thinking, “This is all great, but how do I change the Service Delivery Teams Culture/Performance? That’s the part I can’t just write a checklist and assign a task to my Senior Tech to fix.”
No worries – we’ve got your back. Here is a 5-step process that has been tried and proven to be very effective:
1) It starts by knowing where to put your Management time and energies. Autotask Live Reports and Dashboards are not only the best place to start; they are also the best tools in the industry.
2) The Live Reports and Dashboards will point to a group of tickets. The next step is to gather up the group of tickets and see what is common about them:
a. Same Resource
b. Same Workflow/SOP
c. Same Issue/Sub-issue
d. Client or Client Contact
e. Etc.
3) From here, the question is, why is this group of tickets underperforming? Finding the answer takes talking to the Service Delivery Team and asking the 5 “Why” questions.
4) With the answer in hand, the Management Team needs to draft an Improvement Strategy:
a. Person – is it a Culture or Individual underperforming?
i. Culture: Team Education/Training
ii. Individual: Person Education/Training or 90-day Performance Improvement program
b. Workflow/SOP – Process Improvement Initiative
c. Issue/Sub-Issue – Skill Set Training
d. Client or Client Contact – get creative
e. Etc - depends on the situation
5) Repeat the process until all KPIs are within Best in Class performance and performance is being maintained at that level. Hint: this takes a lifetime.
Summary:
As you can see, there is no magic quick fix potion (don’t we all wish). On your own, it takes 7-10 years to find, implement, and use a Culture Change Process to continuously improve the Service Delivery Team’s performance until they reach the best in class.
Most MSPs don’t have that kind of time. If you’d like a guide to shorten the time frame to less than a year, feel free to leverage Advanced Global’s 31+ years of combined Service Delivery Team Management experience, plus the network and knowledge base of working with 100’s of MSPs from around the world.
We promise to be with you every step of the way. Please email us at Info@AGMSPCoaching.com for more information.
The elephant in the room:
Who is Advanced Global, and why should we listen to them?
Recently someone we’ve been in communication with since DattoCon 2018, who was faithfully reading our articles, commented that up until a few months ago, “I really did not know what Advanced Global does.” So, here are a few bullet points to let anyone interested know who we are and what we do:
1) We Are – the Autotask Global Service Delivery Authority
2) We Help – MSPs thrive
3) We Solve – Service Delivery issues, inefficiencies, and challenges by making sure:
a. techs know what to work on next
b. someone is managing all open tickets and driving them to completion
c. the staffing levels are correct, and the workload is balanced
d. Real-Time Time Entry is a cultural habit
e. the Client has a great client experience
f. profit is maximized
g. Autotask is being fully leveraged
h. the historical data that is in the Autotask software is accessible to benchmark, track & USE effectively
i. the Service Delivery operations can scale
j. projects are completed On-Time and On-Budget
k. the company can grow
l. MSPs know what they don’t know
4) Our Tools:
a. Autotask “Best in Class” standard build
b. Our MSP robust Service Delivery SOP library
c. Advanced Autotask Live Reports
d. Expertise in providing a transformational educational experience
Note: We are not philosophers; we are doers with 31+ years of Service Delivery experience, bringing real Service Delivery Improvement change, profitability, and Best in Class performance.
We start by offering a FREE No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation