Stop saying you are too busy!
Start working smarter, not harder. It starts with tracking all your time. This should be a no-brainer for billable resources, but a pad of paper works just fine for an owner. Both principles are the same, including who is responsible – always the Owner.
It is up to the Owner to make sure the timesheets report 100% of the time spent during working hours (p.s. Lunch is not working hours), and it is their responsibility to fill in the pad of paper.
Owner working smarter, not harder:
For the Owner, it is a matter of the Four D’s:
What can be Deleted because it is low-value, time-consuming work that just does not need to be done?
What can be Delegated to someone who is far better at doing the work -even if it takes them 4x longer to do it?
What can be Delayed and done at a time when it is more efficient or becomes the highest priority?
What needs to be Done by you and done this week?
Note: Before you leave the office today, write down 3-6 things that must be done by you tomorrow. Then when you start your day tomorrow, start working on the list and don’t check email until you have been at work for 2 hours or so.
If you are an owner and want to talk about your personal time management experience, please let me (Steve) know, as I have several good resources that I am aware of, and am happy to share them with you.
Techs working smarter, not harder:
In the Techs not working 50% of the time article, we laid out the 4 things that a Tech needs to work efficiently. In the Top 10 Ticket Types That Need an MSPs Intervention — Advanced Global MSP Coaching (agmspcoaching.com) article, we laid out the 10 groups of tickets that get stuck and give the Techs the feeling that they are busy. In these cases, they are working harder, not smarter.
But as an Owner, how can you tell if the problem is a staffing issue or an efficiency issue? To answer this question, refer to the How to tell if your MSP’s Service Delivery Operation is Efficient — Advanced Global MSP Coaching (agmspcoaching.com), article.
At the end of the day, we want the Techs busy. But we also want them to work on the right things and to work as efficiently as possible. Efficiency and having them working on the right things comes with equipping the Techs with:
A great intake process that creates a quality ticket
All Client-Facing non-billable work removed from their task list
A Ticket Management tool that automatically organizes their workday
Positive collaborative coaching/mentoring processes
Not having Clients yelling at you is a lagging indicator of doing the right things. Eradicating Stuck Tickets is a leading indicator that Customers will stop yelling at you. Other by-products of having the Customers stop yelling at you are:
More Profitability
More Scalability => more Revenue
Less Churn both in Clients and Employees
Improved Golf/Gaming score
More sleep for everyone
None of this is easy. It takes years (7-10) working on your own to change the Service Delivery Culture from Chaos (Reactive, Break/Fix) to a Zen (Proactive, Data-Driven) environment. The steps are easy, but take time at each milestone:
PSA Autotask Configuration Evaluation (1 week)
Service Delivery Foundational Improvements (3-4 months)
Service Delivery Process Improvements (3-4 Months
Service Delivery Performance Improvements (3-4 months)
Monitoring and Maintaining (Ongoing)
PSA Autotask Configuration Evaluation
Advanced Global’s Free No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation, takes about a week, and the Findings and Suggestions are loaded with all the Autotask configuration changes needed to fully leverage the PSAutomation; including how to configure four levels of automation (SLA, Customer Communication, Streamlining Invoicing, and QC tracking) and several automated mechanisms (Customer responded to a closed ticket, Escalation audit trail, Reopen rate audit trail, On Hold, etc.).
Service Delivery Foundational Improvements
With the PSA Config-Eval Findings and Suggestions in hand, an MSP is equipped to implement the foundational improvements needed. For those who have gone on alone, it still takes two years to implement the changes. Which is less than the 7-10 years it takes without the evaluation, way longer than the four months it takes with a guide.
How to leverage the changes is included in the eBook Unshackled: Freedom from Service Deliver Issues.
Service Delivery Process Improvements
Autotask configurations are easy, and checking the configuration checkboxes can be done in less than a week.
So there must be a catch, right? Yup.
Changing peoples’ habits takes 3-4 times longer. The Foundational Improvements include the Autotask configuration changes and education on why the changes are important.
What is missing is how to leverage the changes with new Service Delivery Standard Operating Processes (SOPs) to take advantage of all the PSAutomation software has to offer. Advanced Global has an SOP library with 60 SOPs and growing. Working through which of the SOPs are needed for any one MSP, providing training material on each one, and coaching until the new habits take hold takes time, perseverance, and accountability.
Here is a link to the Service Delivery SOP survey. Let us know how you did, and we can guide you on the next steps.
Service Delivery Performance Improvements
From experience, once the Foundational improvements are in place, the MSP’s Service Delivery Team’s efficiency improves by 10-20%. Implementing new SOPs and working through the changing of habits flatlines this improvement. Once the new habits take hold, Advanced Live Report reporting is needed to dial in and make the new habits second nature. Once this has been accomplished, there is another 10-20% Service Delivery efficiency to be had and that is easily achievable.
Monitoring and Maintaining
WOW, you did it! You spent the better part of a year (which is way less than 2 or 7-10 years) improving the Service Delivery operation. The last thing you want is for the old habits to creep back in - or as new Team Members join, they bring bad habits with them. So you will continue monitoring performance on at least a monthly basis with quarterly trend reporting to keep things running smoothly. And now, at long last, you can work on improving that golf or gaming score.
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