Go-pher Client Success with Real-Time Time Entry
Greetings Autotask Warriors and Gladiators. The gopher did not see his shadow this year. According to superstition, this predicts an early spring in 2024. For those of us (like most of the Advanced Global Team) who dwell in places where it gets snowy and cold for way too long, this is welcome news.
So we can thank the furry rodent for bestowing at least some good news in 2024, right?
How about you MSP Owners and Service Managers?
Are you seeing shadows everywhere you look?
Are you terrified the next call or email is another upset Client - upset by your team’s service delivery failures?
Let’s change that.
The Real Reason Why Customers Leave an MSP
Know this: Not meeting Customers’ expectations is the #1 reason Customers leave an MSP.
Of course, I know you do not have that problem. It’s because the Owner spends an inordinate amount of time doing damage control, hand-holding, and backpedaling, and that is how Service Delivery Issues are a barrier to growth (along with scalability).
It is possible your Techs just suck, and if that’s the case you need to free them to pursue other opportunities. In our experience, however, the problem is mostly a lack of KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) and PSA software not optimized.
Without fully leveraged PSA software, the data needed to drive the KPI performance reporting does not exist. For example, if you want to know if the Service Delivery Team meets Customer Expectations when it comes to Moves/Adds/Changes, you’ll need a way to separate them from Quick Hit Service Requests, Install, and Projects. Once segmented, you’ll need the SLA Automation set up properly to track performance.
So, whether your Techs suck or you just need a Service Delivery Foundational Improvement, an optimized Autotask with KPI reporting is a must.
This One Thing Could Be Costing Your MSP
While we have many KPIs, reports, and improvement programs, one of the most essential to implement is Technical Real-Time Time Entry (R-TTE). Yes, Techs not putting their time and notes in tickets IN REAL TIME can cause massive issues for your Team and for your Clients.
The lack of Real-Time Time Entry is the root cause of:
1) Churn at the MSP
2) Noisy, Disruptive, Jumping the Line Clients
3) Creation of the non-alert duplicate tickets
In addition, it causes:
1) Tech inefficiency because of poor documentation
2) Writing off honest billable hours due to inaccurate Time Entries
3) Missing billable hours
No one wants to cheese off the Techs or push them out of the organization, but yet they LOVE real-time time entry. Yes, you read that right: Once Techs are exposed to and trained on the benefits of Real-Time Time Entries, they willingly jump on board. Really!
All but the worst Techs prefer a smooth, productive, and efficient workday free of Chaos - and they will embrace almost anything to get there.
So, let’s implement R-TTE and the world will be golden. Just say the word, and the Techs will instantly do it, right? Perhaps. From my time in an MSP, I’ve learned that Ronald Reagan philosophy of, “Trust, but verify” is quite sound. And to verify this, we have the Advanced Global R-TTE Advanced Live report (for those of you who want to write a check to improve your business you can stop now and email info@agmspcoaching.com with a subject of “I want to Go-pher R-TTE.”) For the DIY folks, read on:
The Real-Time Time Entry report shows:
1) The delta between when the Tech disengaged and when they put in the time entry (the goal is -.02 hours or minus 1.2 minutes – we know from running the R-TTE report regularly across many MSPs).
2) The Gap between Time Entries (0 is the goal, but in reality, with lunch it probably is around 11 minutes).
3) The average duration of each engagement** (0.8 to 1.5 depending on the ratio of Remote to Onsite work they are doing.
“Looks Greek to me, can you explain it more?”
Sure. We first look at column H. This column takes information from column B and compares it to columns D and F. Column H shows the time it took for the technician to enter the notes of the work they did.
-Positive Numbers
If the number is positive, then this is telling you that they are doing the work and waiting that length of time to enter the notes. Why would this be important?
Accurate, complete notes
Someone besides the technician can answer questions.
Notification will go to the client at the right time.
Will be able to see how much time that client takes.
The sooner the technician enters their notes, the more information will be in the notes. As time goes by, we forget some of the small stuff that is just as important as the big stuff. This will allow the person answering the phone a chance to look in the ticket to answer a client’s question, without having to interrupt the technician.
The client may get a notification letting them know you need more information or that the issue has been resolved. The time it takes to write the notes is part of the process. When these are done at different times, the technician may not be recording the note time in the correct ticket.
That’s great, but can’t the Techs just fudge the numbers? When doing time entries, the technician has the chance to change the date as well as the time of the work. No matter what day or time the technician records, Autotask also records when the entry was made. This is how we can see how much time has passed between doing the work and entering the notes in Autotask.
-Negative Numbers
If the number is negative, then your technician has a time machine. No really, it means that the time on the ticket is later than the time they entered it. How is this done? Simple really, they may put PM instead of AM.
For example, a technician enters time at 9 AM and adjusts the time they worked to 9 PM. The time will show they recorded their work 12 hours before they really did it.
How are other ways this happens?
Adjusting the time entered
Different time zones
Fat fingers
When they adjust the time manual, they can easily type the wrong number, and it will be the wrong time. If they are manual entering time and put the work in using the time zone of the company, this can cause them to work in the future. Example: If the company is on the East coast and the technician is on the West coast and they adjust the time, it will show that they recorded the work in their time zone, but the time entry will show for the time zone of the company.
Avoid Micromanaging…Look for Bigger Gaps
The next column to look at is column I. This is letting you know how much time passes from when they close a ticket and start the next. In this column, you are really looking for any gap that is bigger than one hour and twenty minutes. Why such a big gap, this will help eliminate the following:
Lunch time
Meeting time
Training time
Water cooler talk
You don’t want to micromanage them, so look for the gaps that are bigger and have some meat to them. Lunches are not recorded in this report, nor are the times under the regular time entry. So, when you see a gap that is bigger than one hour and twenty minutes, you need to ask the technician what was going on. This will lead you to the fact, maybe they didn’t know they were supposed to record that time or didn’t know where to record the time at.
Many times, a technician will start talking to another technician and not think about the time that needs to be recorded against a client. The technician will need training to ensure they get all the time they spend on a client recorded. This means you look at the report daily and help them know what to look for.
Out of sight is out of mind: Put the team hours worked widget on their dashboards, and the Techs will be able to hover over and see how much time they have put in for the day. This is a stock widget built by Autotask and available in the entity of work entries.
You will also notice that column B at the end of each technician, there is a number. This number is how many time entries they did that day. This number can be small, especially if the technician is working on the escalated tickets, or it can be large because they are the ones getting the first pass at the tickets. When looking at this number, be aware of the type of tickets this technician works on.
Summary:
Holding the Techs accountable for Real-Time Time Entry provides real benefits. It:
impacts the Customer Experience
provides better time tracking
is fairer to both the Customer and MSP
With R-TTE, documentation is much improved, which drives operational efficiencies for the next Tech who must engage to fix whatever the first Tech broke. (ever seen a fist fight because a Tech didn’t document a ticket and the next Tech got cussed out for lack of knowledge?).
Clients expect Real-Time Updates and documentation to be part of what they are already paying for under the Managed Service Agreement. Without R-TTE and fully leveraged Autotask PSA Software, the Customer is not kept in the loop of where their request is at and what Services you are not delivering. (And then they get mad, call and scream at you, and don’t renew. Which sucks.)
Have questions? Join our Gladiators Community and post in the forums or attend one of our members-only calls. Or reach out to info@agmspcoaching.com and myself or Chris will be happy to schedule a meeting. Don’t let another day go buy where you are afraid of shadows – shorten your winter and implement Real-Time Time Entry reporting today!
Want to join our Gladiator Community and have member’s only access to our Coaches, reports, and info? Check it out here: https://sdgcommunity.agmspcoaching.com/
Steve & Co.