Taming the Jungle of Chaos with Easy Ticket Scheduling

Here's what we’ll cover today:  

  • You should be seeing improvements by now 

  • Ticket scheduling ain’t glam, but… 

  • The good & bad about scheduling tickets 

  • Remembering to schedule 

  • Determine the skill set 

  • Figure out availablity 

  • A great tool for Automatic Scheduling 

  • Here is your 3-step process to Get’r Done! 

  • Need help? Talk to a Trailblazer… 

 

Greetings, Autotask Warriors!  “Welcome to the jungle” of PSAutomation, as Guns N’ Roses might say.  If this is your first time here, know that you’ve entered a safe place. The MSP world can certainly feel like a jungle, but on these virtual pages, we bring order out of Chaos to improve Service Delivery and profitability in your MSP. 

Regular readers may recall that we began 2023 with a promise: this was the year of articles showing you a blueprint for growth with immediately actionable things you can implement and call done THIS year. If you’ve been implementing the things we talked about, Resource Utilization, SLA Performance, and profit should all be improved. (If not, it’s probably time to seek professional help.)  Either way, keep reading because this week we’re going to talk about something new that you can implement immediately: ticket scheduling. 

I realize that scheduling tickets isn’t the most glamorous subject when we’ve already mentioned profit, but trust me, your Service Coordinator will thank you. And your Techs. And your Clients. And doesn’t that all go to the bottom line?  

So, perhaps it isn’t so boring after all. Roll up your sleeves and follow along as I pull out the machete and start blazing a path through the Jungle of Chaos. 

Scheduling sounds like a real pain, doesn’t it? The good news is that there are only three types of Client requests that always need to be scheduled: 

  1. On-Site visits 

  2. Engagements that require the Client to participate 

  3. More than 4 estimated hours 

The bad news? Consider these three factors: 

  1. How to remember to schedule them during or right after the Triage process? 

  2. a. How to determine who has the right skill set and (2b) when are they truly available? 

  3. How to automate the scheduling process? 

Fortunately, we have some tools to make this a fairly painless process for you: 

 

Remembering to Schedule: 

As Autotask/Datto Employees say way too often, there is a widget for that - and specifically the “Tickets needing Scheduling” widget. The settings for this widget include tickets without Service Calls, and: 

  1. Status of “Remote” or “On-Site” scheduled  

  2. Priority of M/A/Cs > 4hrs, Installations, or Projects 

Note: When the Status is set to “Returned to Triage,” 9 times out of 10 it is for scheduling. Re-triaging the ticket should put the status into “Remote” or “On-Site” scheduled.  

This way, Tickets needing to be Scheduled pop into this widget, and the Service Coordinator is reminded to schedule the Client Request. 

 

Determining the Skill Set: 

Determining who has the right skillset and who is available is a simple gray matter exercise for Small MSPs. But as the Team grows or a new Service Coordinator takes the helm, it is not all that easy. 

No worries, I’ve got a pretty sharp machete to get you through the Chaos Jungle: Introducing the Tech Skill Sheet . The linked video walks you through the steps: 

  1. List your Techs down the rows in column A 

  2. List your preferred Supported Technology across the top 

  3. Then: 

    1. Give it to the Techs to rate themselves on the Supported Technologies: 

      1. Blank – “I know nothing.” (Sgt. Shultz from Hogan’s Heroes) 

      2. Basic – “I can fix it.” 

      3. Intermediate – “I can install simple versions.”  

      4. Advanced – “I can install and maintain all instances of the Supported Technology.” 

      5. Champion – “Not only do I know everything there is to know about the Supported Technology, but I am also willing to…” 

        1. Follow the Vendor and stay on top of all minor and major releases. 

        2. Go to conferences, trade shows, training workshops to stay up to “How To” date. 

        3. Bring back Lunch ‘n Learn trainings for the rest of the Team. 

Then the service manager sits down with a copy of the Skill Sheet and rates the Techs based on their perceptions. At this stage, the Skill Sheet can be leveraged in 1-on-1s with the Tech to: 

  • Compare ratings and discuss the difference in perceptions. 

  • Uncover hidden talents and aspirations. 

  • Plot a career path for the Tech.** 

Note**: They tell me that a defined Career Path is a stronger retention policy than dumping big money on them. I am looking for someone to test this theory by offering me a career path or a huge payout - to see which one I would prefer… 

With the completed confirmed skill sheet in hand, a Service Coordinator can compare the Client request or Closed Opportunity Scope of Work to the skill sheet and build a short list of Techs with the right skill sheet. 

Determining Availability 

Now that we know the who, the when is an even harder decision. Fortunately, as an 80’s cartoon used to say, “Knowing is half the battle,” and we can use the Service Delivery Forecast Live Report to tell us: 

  1. The number of hours of Critical requests that are required each day and have a very (or the most) Sr. Tech standing by to take the requests as they come in – easy peasy. 

  2. The number of hours needed for High Priority Incidents. Scan the schedules 3 days out to pre-determine go-to Techs for these types of requests and keep them available until the day of. 

  3. The number of hours for priorities Medium, Standard, Quick Hits, and M/A/Cs < 4 hours (these types of requests go to the frontline Level 1 Techs), and the number of hours needed determine the staffing needs of the help desk. 

  4. Once the hours for High Priority Incidents are accounted for each day over the next 3-4 weeks, the rest of the NE II availability can be scheduled for M/A/Cs > 4 estimated hours and Installations. 

  5. Last but not least, once the Critical Request reserves are in place, the rest of a Level 3 Tech/Engineer can be scheduled for project work. 

Note: At first brush, this is complicated and overkill for a run-and-gun, Get’r Done operation. You know…the one full of chaos, Techs not knowing what to work on next, and only working half of the time. In other words, it is worth it to the Techs, Clients, and Profits to figure it out.  

 

Automating Scheduling: 

This is the easy part of the equation and can be answered in one word: TimeZest. While we don’t make any referral fees or get a free lunch for the introduction, we think Timezest is an awesome Autotask-integrated tool that is worth some of an MSP’s hard-earned money because of the time savings gained. You can find them at https://timezest.com. 

 

Summary: 

Creating a Zen Work Environment that the Techs will love, Clients will Rave about, and with maximized Profits, means chopping Chaos out of the MSP. This starts with a robust intake process, deep dive Triage process, and proper scheduling of Client requests.   

Here is your 3-step process to Get’r Done! 

  1. Use a Tickets Needing Scheduling widget. 

  2. Determine who has the right skillset and when are they available. 

  3. Automate the Process. 

Hopefully that all makes sense, and you were able to follow the path I blazed. If you’re stuck in the weeds (or need the Service Delivery Forecast report), email me at info@AGMSPCoaching.com and put “I need a machete” in the subject line, and I’ll have someone reach out right away. 

 

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:  

    1. techs know what to work on next  

    2. someone is managing all open tickets and driving them to completion  

    3. the staffing levels are correct, and the workload is balanced   

    4. Real-Time Time Entry is a cultural habit  

    5. the Client has a great client experience  

    6. profit is maximized  

    7. Autotask is being fully leveraged  

    8. the historical data that is in the Autotask software is accessible to benchmark, track & USE effectively  

    9. the Service Delivery operations can scale  

    10. projects are completed On-Time and On-Budget  

    11. the company can grow  

    12. MSPs know what they don’t know  

  4. Our Tools:   

    1. Autotask “Best in Class” standard build  

    2. Our MSP robust Service Delivery SOP library  

    3. Advanced Live Reports  

    4. Expertise in providing a transformational 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 our engagements by offering a FREE No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation   

  

Steve & Co  

Stephen BuyzeAutotask, ticket scheduling, scheduling tickets