As many managed service providers (MSPs) are placing a heavy emphasis on customer retention in addition to customer acquisition, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand how to track and ...
As many managed service providers (MSPs) are placing a heavy emphasis on customer retention in addition to customer acquisition, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand how to track and manage sales activities, opportunities, revenue, and more. Having a solid grasp on these activities can make a real difference in how efficiently your business is run because if these critical metrics fall through the cracks, it can have a negative impact on the business decisions you make, thus causing a ripple effect. The key is to hone in on a specific set of metrics and track them in real-time. Just ahead, we cover 7 key performance indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking and how you can automate the monitoring process. 7 Sales Activity KPIs to Track Net New MRR - the reigning champ of all sales metrics. This is one that every sales manager is sure to prioritize, as it is a valid indicator of how well (or not) your company is growing. Essentially, Net New MRR is the amount of monthly revenue generated by new customers and comparing this metric over time is essential in understanding your typical periods of high-profits versus churn, how your growth is trending, and how to plan and forecast your financial performance. Quotes Won - quite simply, this is a number that tells you how many quotes have been closed in any given time period (likely per month). It serves as a quick check-in to make sure sales performance is at an acceptable level. A number that is below your specific threshold can indicate that it’s time to dig deeper and find underlying causes for that level of performance. Percent Gross Margin - this may be the oldest KPI on the block, but it’ll never not be important, as it is another solid indicator of a company’s financial performance. It basically is a calculation of your total revenue minus your cost of goods sold (aka, Revenue - Expenses). The higher this number the better, as that shows you’re bringing in more than you’re spending - in other words, you’re making a higher profit on each dollar being spent to run your business. Top 10 Accounts by Revenue - which of your clients can you credit with bringing in your largest chunk of revenue? And why is it important to know this? Well, it is known that it is more economical to retain existing clients than to attract new ones. So, if you know who your top performers are, you’re going to want to focus on nurturing those accounts and making sure those clients have what they need to stick around for the long-term. Quotes Leaderboard - in this time of global unrest, remote work, and many “unknowns” it’s increasingly challenging and important to motivate and incentivize your team members. Leaderboards are an effective way to do this from afar because they rank performance for all to see. Creating a sales leaderboard based on who has closed the most quotes can inspire a little healthy and friendly competition between team members and can effectively keep motivation up. Reward your winner with an Amazon gift card or something simple. Profitability - the best way to track profitability is to understand how it fluctuates over time. What are the trends associated with this number? Are you generally becoming more profitable over time (awesome!) or are you wavering back and forth? When calculating this metric, you’re likely taking revenue, costs, and gross margin into account and comparing what they do over time. Understanding this will help you plan for the future. Count of Quotes Won - yes, we already covered this one, but here’s a different way to analyze this metric. Take a look at this number over time - for example, for each of the last 6 months - to understand when you’ve got momentum and what you can attribute to that momentum. You may notice trend lines that can drive your sales processes in the future. Automating KPI Tracking It’s easy to understand the need for and importance of tracking data, but doing so can be a full-time job in and of itself. This is why it pays to invest in a tech stack that works for you. Have reliable tools that support your business and can automate time-consuming, yet critical tasks for you. Any sales manager should be using a sales tool, like ConnectWise Sell, to manage quotes, proposals, contacts, opportunities won, and more. This is just an absolute must if you want to keep your sales processes and communications with prospects or partners organized. Because you’re likely be using several tools across your company (your accounting team may use Quickbooks, service team may use ConnectWise Automate, marketing might use SmileBack, etc), it also makes sense to bring in a tool that can consolidate all your data into one place, like BrightGauge. Adding business intelligence like BrightGauge to your stack can give you that real-time, high-level visualization of your KPIs at any given moment in time. Having the ability to glance over at a dashboard and see your important metrics can be a game-changer for stronger and faster business decisions. Plus, it makes it easier to share KPIs with internal team members, key stakeholders, or your clients, which gets everyone on the same page and working together to meet goals. No matter the datasource you’re integrating with BrightGauge, you’ll have access to pre-built dashboard and report templates, meaning you’ll get right to that data you need from day one. As an example, if you integrate ConnectWise Sell with BrightGauge, you’ll automatically have access to a Monthly Performance Report that pulls in all the KPIs we listed above. Month-to-month you can review this data with your team, dig into why the numbers are where they are, and make a plan for the coming month. Doing this ensures everyone is optimizing productivity, efficiency, and accountability and it fosters relationships built on trust and transparency. To learn more about this ConnectWise Sell Monthly Performance Report or to ask a question about BrightGauge, contact us today. For more KPIs that MSPs should track, plus their accompanying formulas, see 70+ Metrics for MSPs.
We’re excited to welcome Ashley Nicely to the team as a Partner Success Specialist! Join us in learning more about the newest member of our growing BrightGauge family. In the beginning Ashley comes to us from right here in South Florida, where she was born and raised. Specifically, she grew up in the Miami Lakes/Hialeah area. Ashley attended Florida International University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with a minor in Education. She’s always taken an interest in understanding human behavior and mental processes and in creating content that engages the mind. During her statistics classes in college, Ashley gained an appreciation for data analytics and insights. This appreciation was further fueled by her many different client-facing roles, starting off in the service industry. Having to communicate with all walks of life and working in a fast-paced environment was a perfect fit for Ashley and she credits her experience in the service industry with her strong work ethic and attention to detail. She took her love of communication to a technology startup, Vs Media LLC, where she was an account manager tasked with helping clients create richer customer experiences, drive social discovery and networking online. Her work was largely driven by KPIs and using data to understand how to help people, which cemented her desire to focus her career on customer success. Joining BrightGauge Ashley’s passion for customer success is what brought her to BrightGauge, along with her appreciation for our commitment to making customer success a company-wide priority. What sold her on the opportunity was the BrightGauge culture. She says that during the interview process, it just felt like home. Everyone was warm and welcoming and really drove home the importance of accountability, transparency, and teamwork, which perfectly aligns with her core values. Ashley is really excited about living and breathing the BrightGauge product and helping our partners get the most out of their data. Out of office Ashley spends her free time with her beautiful family, including her husband, two young sons, and a Shih Tzu named Agatha. They are all lovers of outdoor adventures, so they visit city and state parks as much as possible. Local favorites are Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park and The Everglades National Park. Ashley’s husband is an avid bird watcher, so whenever they plan vacations, it’s always first about the birds he can see and second about the foods Ashley can eat. At the end of a long day, Ashley loves nothing more than curling up with a hot cup of chamomile tea and a novel, so if you’re chatting with her, make sure to mention your latest read!
For many businesses, great customer service is the key to future success and customer retention. Being able to effectively manage customers and resolve issues helps to improve customer satisfaction (CSAT) so they’re more likely to return for repeat business or be receptive to upsell opportunities. But, how can you measure the quality and effectiveness of customer service in your company? Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the most common tool for measuring employee performance. However, to get the most out of tracking customer service metrics, it’s important to use the right KPIs—ones that are measurable and specific. It should be noted that some businesses may track different customer service metrics than others or apply different terms for specific KPIs. For example, a customer support call center may track “tickets” while a high-end services provider might refer to them as “cases.” Both of these customer service metrics involve unique interactions with customers, but have tweaked names to match a specific industry. To help you track your company’s own efforts, here’s a list of some of the best measurable KPIs for customer service that you should monitor: Measurable KPIs for customer service. Tickets Opened Each Day. How many tickets/cases/customer interactions does an employee, team, or the company as a whole process each day? This is an important customer service metric to track for monitoring the workloads being handled. Individual-level “Tickets Opened” metrics allow for comparisons of productivity, while team or business-level tracking helps establish overall workload. Tickets Closed Each Day. Simply opening a ticket doesn’t mean that the issues behind it are going to be resolved. Until a ticket closes, that customer/client is left waiting. If the number of closed tickets is far below the number opened, it can be indicative of a problem (such as insufficient labor to keep up with workloads, or employees not having the right tools and training to close tickets properly). Time to Resolution. On average, how long does it take for a ticket to close? Time to resolution is an important KPI for measuring employee performance. If one employee’s time to resolution is particularly long compared to others working on similar issues, it may indicate an opportunity for improvement. First Contact Resolution Rate. What percentage of ticket resolutions occur during the first contact with the customer/client? While it may not be possible to resolve every issue in a single interaction, tracking first contact resolution rate helps highlight the overall complexity of issues faced by the customer service team. This makes it a useful measurable KPI for customer service to track. Handle Time. How much time does an employee spend on each ticket? Note that this customer service metric, while closely related to resolution time, is distinct because it is a measure of actual time spent working on the ticket—which may not be the time the customer spends waiting for a resolution. Time to Response. Once a customer opens a ticket or dials the support number, how long do they have to wait for a response? Time to response is a critical customer support metric that has a direct impact on CSAT and retention. It may also be a factor in satisfying service level agreements (SLAs) for some companies. Service Activity Metrics. Companies can track individual activities made by employees (such as number of phone calls made, emails written, etc.) in the course of responding to and handling tickets. These metrics should be filtered by specific activity type to help correlate specific activities with service ticket outcomes. For example, do employees who make more calls have a higher or lower CSAT score than others? This can be useful when planning new hire employee training so it focuses on those activities that generate the best ROI. Churn Rate. One of the most important measurable KPIs for customer service is the company’s overall churn rate—or the number of customers that stop doing business with the company over a given period of time. High churn rates not only indicate a problem with the quality of customer service provided, but it can eventually cause a business to fail if too many customers leave before they can be replaced with new ones. A success team can help with keeping this KPI on track. CSAT Scores. Customer satisfaction is one of the most obvious KPIs for customer service that a business should track—but one where it is often hard to collect reliable data. Surveys are a common method of getting this data, but the results often skew overly positive or negative because only those customers who had a particularly impactful experience (one way or the other) have a strong motivation to fill out a satisfaction survey. However, even with this issue, CSAT is an important customer service metric to track. Customer Complaint Rates. How many customers reach out to complain about the service they’ve received? This is a measurable KPI for customer service that helps to highlight issues in the service team. If there are a high number of customer complaints during a specific period, it can help to review any changes made during that time frame to isolate a cause. It can also help to review specific complaints to see what they’re about. Things to keep in mind when tracking KPIs for customer service Many of the customer service metrics listed above can be measured at different levels. For example, you could track time to resolution on an individual level, a team level, or a company-wide level. Tracking KPIs for customer service at all levels can provide value in various ways. Tracking time to resolution on a team or company level provides an average to compare individual performance against. This, in turn, makes it easier to identify when someone could improve their performance or is being especially efficient. In the former case, the employee could be put through some additional training to help them. In the latter case, you could study what that employee does differently and apply that to the rest of your processes. Another thing to keep in mind is that none of these KPIs for customer service should be considered by themselves. They need to be considered as small puzzle pieces that form a bigger picture. For example, say one employee has an especially fast time to resolution. That sounds good, right? However, what are the churn rate and customer complaint rate for the employee’s clients? How often do those customers come back with another ticket to fix right after? Getting the job done fast is not necessarily synonymous with getting the job done right. On the other hand, say an employee has a relatively long time to resolution and handle time—something around 25% longer than others handling similar tickets. Based on these customer service metrics alone, it would be easy to assume the employee’s performance is subpar. However, what if the other measurable KPIs for customer service provided by this employee are all extremely positive compared to the average for the business—such as having 50% less churn among clients they handle or having 50% higher CSAT scores? In this case, it might demonstrate that other customer service team members might need to start spending more time on each ticket to provide superior service. Additionally, if they have more service activities logged to correlate to the longer time to resolution, it can help to demonstrate how much more that employee is doing to provide top-notch customer service. These are just a few of the best measurable KPIs for customer service that businesses can track. Do you need help creating a simple and effective dashboard for measuring key performance indicators amongst your team? Reach out to BrightGauge today for assistance! *This post was originally published in May 2019
With all 50 states now open in some capacity, many managed service providers (MSPs) are reverting back to working from their offices, or are still more comfortable with working remotely. It’s possible that you, as an MSP, have restructured your departments, reduced or eliminated some employee benefits, or unfortunately have had to let some of your talent go. Whatever your specific scenario, the common thread is that we are all still figuring out this COVID-19 situation and its implications on our future. If you are amongst those who have delayed or eliminated promotions or merit increases, you should still take the time to sit with each employee and conduct a formal review. At the very least, this year’s performance should still be counted and recorded in the employee’s records. Beyond that, here are 5 reasons why goals and annual performance reviews matter now, more than ever. 1. Accountability. Fostering a culture of accountability is a really smart business practice. Not only does it teach your employees an invaluable soft skill that they’ll carry with them throughout their career, but accountability also helps keep everyone working towards important goals that impact your bottom line. Collaborating to set goals and implementing a goal-management software are two effective ways to get your team members to be more accountable. When you’ve got employees with specific goals assigned to them, and those goals are being monitored, that employee will feel encouraged and motivated to hit those goals. It’s our instinct as humans to want to succeed, so we’ll hold ourselves accountable to what needs to be done to get there. Especially as remote work continues to be the norm and there are fewer opportunities for quick check-ins, an annual review provides the space and time to evaluate goal progress, see where gaps in accountability exist, and talk through ways to improve. 2. Investing in growth. Remote work used to be a novelty or a rare perk offered by select companies. Now that it’s here to stay in some fashion, MSPs and other employers need to explore other means of hiring and retaining the best talent. With budgets being slashed, today’s perks are going to have an even heavier focus on an employee’s personal and professional growth. Studies have shown that employees really value professional growth opportunities and if those needs are not being met, they are highly likely to seek them elsewhere. In times of crisis, continuing with annual performance reviews sends the message that your employee’s growth is a priority, their career and advancement matter, and their contributions are being acknowledged and can hopefully be rewarded if and when a state of normalcy resumes. 3. Employee morale. Let’s face it, times are weird. And hard. People are angry, frustrated, scared, isolated, and overwhelmed. Any semblance of normalcy right now can feel pretty good. Continuing to set and track goals can provide that feeling of normalcy. On days when the world is just too much, but work must go on, goals can tell us what we should focus on and where we can be productive. Plus, knowing that as a company, we’re all working together to meet a goal can help us feel more unified when many of us are physically still isolated. As we come to the middle of the year and the time when many companies conduct their annual performance reviews, it can feel nice to carry on with something that’s expected when there are so many unexpected events happening around us. Having a formal time to chat and review performance can help employees feel good about what they’ve accomplished and give direction on what they can focus on as the year goes on. And without quarterly fun events, happy hours, or other social gatherings for colleagues to engage in, having a regular, expected performance review might just make us feel like things will soon be okay. 4. Pulse check. Goals work best when they’re flexible and fluid, meaning they can change when business circumstances change. An unforeseen event like COVID-19 has made many MSP owners and managers reevaluate their goals for the year and redefine how they see success. Makes sense. Setting and tracking goals with each employee, and discussing them over a performance review, can serve as a two-way pulse check. As the employer, you get to find out whether or not your employee is making progress, what additional resources they made need to advance their progress, what roadblocks they’ve encountered, and how they’re projected to finish out the year. Employees get a real-time update on the health of the company, any changes in goal direction, constructive feedback on their own work, and expectations for the remainder of the year. Having a presumably longer chunk of time carved out for a performance review also gives an opportunity for employees and managers to talk about anything else that might be going on, whether personal or professional. In these times, we’re all leaning on one another a bit more. 5. Company key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs will continue to be an important way for managers to run their businesses. Measurable KPIs are like a north star that leaders use to make sure the company is on the right path to success, and goals are the little stepping stones that lead us all along that path. Being diligent about setting and tracking each employee’s goal ensures that everyone is aware of the part they have to play and nobody is losing sight of those critical KPIs. Even though KPIs may change as the year progresses, the function of the individual goals remains the same, which is to make sure we’re doing the right things to get us to the optimal end result. BrightGauge provides partners with dashboards, reports, and a proprietary goal-management system that makes it easier to manage data and align with team members and clients. To learn more, schedule a live one-on-one demo today.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the power of going digital. We’ve all adapted to a remote world quickly and seamlessly, and it hasn’t stopped us from getting anything done. We’ve kept up with our work, we’ve visited with friends and loved ones, we’ve attended weddings, we’ve held important meetings, and we’ve banded together all through our computer screens. And now we’re also attending conferences virtually. While it may be hard for us to get used to the lack of face-to-face time, virtual conferences still present us with a great opportunity to network, learn from our peers, and gain valuable insights. And a majority of this year’s conferences have gone digital, so the opportunities are vast. This year, IT Nation Explore is all virtual and completely free for anybody to attend and we’ll be presenting! Join BrightGauge’s Success Team Lead Danielle Ungermann and Support Team Lead Kristian Muñoz for two sessions that’ll help you get a better grasp of BrightGauge and how it can help you make progress in your business. Here’s an overview: Measuring to Meet Your Objectives: Learn how to keep your team motivated and held accountable, all while keeping their individual performance in view. Danielle and Kristian will review what makes for good data, how to use BrightGauge to track what’s actionable, see long-tail trends, and set goals and thresholds into metrics as a baseline for growth. Getting Started with BrightGauge - a High Level Overview of How to Work With Your Data: This session is for partners who are new to BrightGauge or are looking for a refresher. Kristian will dive into each area of the product, working with the data coming in, customizations, and top tricks you can apply to master KPIs through automated reporting and shared dashboards. Register for IT Nation Explore, taking place June 23-26, 2020, to expand your knowledge of how ConnectWise products can help you grow your business and for more information on these BrightGauge sessions. See you online!
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As we continue to forge ahead in 2020 and understand how COVID-19 has impacted our businesses, it is time to plan for recovery. Whether you have experienced significant changes or you’ve been operating like normal, we all need to think about what comes next. Join Paul Dippell, CEO of Service Leadership, Inc., for the Rapid Recovery Webinar Series, hosted by ConnectWise. In the three-part series, Paul will offer advice on maximizing profits, improving customer retention, and generating new business. Read on for more details and to register for the events. Determining Your Financial Situation and Protecting Profitability June 5, 2020; 1:00-2:00pm EST In the first of the Rapid Recovery Webinar Series with Paul Dippell, we’ll discuss how to clearly understand your financial health and maximize profits during and post-COVID. Register now: https://www.connectwise.com/resources/inside-the-industry/webinar-predicting-profitability Retaining and Risk-Managing Your Existing Customers June 15, 2020; 2:00-3:00pm EST In this episode, Paul Dippell will share advice on how to prevent customer churn and sustained revenue loss by doubling down on customer retention and risk management. Register now: https://www.connectwise.com/resources/inside-the-industry/webinar-retaining-customers Selling into the Storm – New Business Generation in a Downturn June 30, 2020; 1:00-2:00pm EST In the third and final installment of the Rapid Recovery Webinar Series, the conversation will turn to how solution providers can tackle the increased challenge of driving sales during this period of uncertainty. Register now: https://www.connectwise.com/resources/inside-the-industry/webinar-selling-in-economic-downturn
This month, we’re featuring how BrightGauge partner Dan Rutter of TechPath in Brisbane uses BrightGauge reports to be highly transparent with customers and empower them to make the best possible business decisions. Dan is the Service Manager at TechPath, a full-service IT company that focuses on providing business internet, cloud and hosting, phone systems, and technology solutions to people in the Brisbane area. As the Service Manager, Dan wants to enable his customers with full information about their environments so that they have a better understanding of their business. To aid in this type of conversation, Dan regularly sends out an automated End of Month report using BrightGauge. Transparent reporting gives clients an extra look at the value a company like TechPath brings. As Dan puts it, “When you are visiting clients on-site, it’s very clear what your value is as they see exactly what you’re working on, but once your working relationship gets better and there are less face-to-face interactions, you spend a lot more time in the background. We wanted to send a report each month to key contacts to give an indication of what activity is actually happening, because they may not be aware of how much is going on behind the scenes.” The resulting report is straightforward and is automatically sent out, so is not censored in any way and allows for honest, transparent conversations to take place. *View this sample End of Month Report here The overview of day-to-day operations includes data around: Tickets, including type, volume, and open/close dates Asset management, including warranties status Network devices, with information about what’s currently under contract Computer health with patch status and drive disk space used The goal is to empower end users with all they need to make informative decisions. Dan says, “We’re giving our clients enough information for them to leave us, actually. But the idea is that we are providing so much value that they will want to continue working with us.” With the type of data they’re being shown each month, clients can make timely decisions about endpoints that are becoming particularly problematic, machines that may need to be replaced, administrative licenses that should be reassigned, and more. When TechPath is falling behind on something, it’s valuable for the client to see what action was taken to mitigate the issue at hand. That type of transparency strengthens trust placed in TechPath as a partner. “The key things for us are full transparency and showing value,” says Dan. “When we’re not on-site, it’s harder to maintain clients. They start wondering why they pay us. We know we’re doing a good job and we know we’re delivering value, but sending monthly reports helps us show that to our end users and decisions makers.” Interested in setting up an End of Month Report for your clients? Check out our Report Key to recreate it yourself or feel free to reach out to success@brightgauge.com and we’ll be happy to help. Thank you to Dan and TechPath for sharing your insights! Link to Sample End of Month Report Link to Report Recreation Key
We are thrilled to announce that Brooke Candelore, Product Manager at BrightGauge, has been included as an honoree in this year’s CRN 2020 Women of the Channel list! While we are certainly not surprised by this honor, we are so happy to have Brooke’s achievements recognized by the industry. Brooke joined BrightGauge in 2017 and has been an integral part of the development of our product. She’s been responsible for bringing on dozens of new integrations, allowing our partners to connect to the datasources that matter most to them. In her role as Product Manager, she oversees all aspects of our product development, ensuring that features are released in a timely, relevant manner. What really makes Brooke stand out is that she handles her role with such composure and grace. Regardless of the challenges that are presented to her, Brooke constantly has a smile on her face and goes above and beyond to help her team achieve success. Maddie Campos, an Integration Developer on Brooke’s team, says it’s her pleasure to work with someone who has high standards and expectations of those around her. Brooke has helped Maddie solidify programming fundamentals and guide her to become a better developer. “Thanks to Brooke, I have learned to become a better problem solver and critical thinker,” says Maddie. “Not only is she technically proficient, she also moves through life in a very professional, articulate, and kind manner. Her ideas always make logical sense and she has a clear plan in which to move forward. She reminds us what a strong, competent leader can be and never ceases to impress.” Rick Aquilia, another Integration Developer working under Brooke, echoes Maddie’s sentiments. Rick actually transitioned from the Support Team onto the Product Team and one of his greatest challenges was learning Python as part of his development position. Brooke was instrumental in helping Rick progress. “Despite having her own tasks to attend to, Brooke always ensured that she was readily available for any questions that came up throughout my programming journey,” says Rick. “She frequently challenged me to be better and always offered feedback for areas where improvements could be made. I am extremely grateful for her patience, guidance, and support through it all.” Congratulations, Brooke, on this well-earned achievement! Brooke was named an honoree alongside three other ConnectWise colleagues. See the full press release here.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve and change our world. We’ve all been forced to do things differently and figure out how to navigate a workforce that is largely remote. If you’re talking to your peers or reading industry news, you may hear that managed service providers (MSPs) are primed to do well throughout this situation. And, it’s true. MSPs already play such a critical role in their client’s businesses and that role is shaping up to be more important than ever before. While we’re all uncertain about the future, now is the time to show your clients that they can rely on you to see them through. Here are two things you can do right now to support your clients: Increase data tracking You may already have experience managing remote teams and perhaps some of your clients do as well. That’s great! But undoubtedly, you will have many clients that are learning about working remotely for the very first time. By now, they’ve probably gotten the hang of it, but it can be pretty jarring, and productivity may be taking a hit. Plus, your clients may be accustomed to some face-to-face time with you, which they’re no longer getting. One powerful way to combat lack of facetime and less communication in general is to increase the amount of data you’re monitoring. Business intelligence can be used to keep a pulse on what’s going on. For an MSP, this may mean tracking your service desk techs to see what tickets are coming in, what your average response time is, and who is working on what projects. For your clients, data tracking can help them understand what you are doing on the back end to protect their networks. Regardless of the working environment we’re accustomed to, the fact that employees across the globe are now remote can leave us all feeling a little bit out of touch, so your clients may be wondering what it is they’re paying you to do. Sharing data dashboards or custom reports can help them see real-time threats you’re mitigating, endpoints you’re managing, servers you’re keeping up, and all the other ways you’re being proactive about keeping your clients up and running. Being transparent in this kind of way means your clients never have to chase you down for answers and will just end up strengthening your partnership. Ramp up cybersecurity efforts Along with increased data sharing, now is an ideal time to strengthen your cybersecurity offerings. With so many networks being accessed remotely, we’re more vulnerable than ever. The last thing your clients need right now is for their operations to become compromised, when there are other pressing matters to focus on. Have a frank conversation with your clients. Show them in what ways they are currently protected under their service level agreement and how you could reinforce those protections even further. Make sure your employees and your client’s employees are up to date in any security training, and ensure that there are processes in place for securing all work environments. Communicate about these processes and employee requirements on a frequent basis. Conclusion These are just a couple of ways to take the stress and burden out of your client’s hands so they can do what is needed to keep their businesses afloat. Once we return to our new normal, your clients won’t forget how you supported their efforts. Looking for more ways to put yourself in a position to thrive once the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us? Download The MSP COVID-19 Playbook for more information and guidance.
Let’s face it, in this unprecedented situation, as we’re all learning how to navigate a global pandemic, there’s one thing that’s keeping us relatively sane: our connections to the outside world. Our access to the internet so we can get our remote work done, streaming TV so we can watch our favorite shows, and video calls so we can get face-to-face time with teachers or loved ones are what we’ve come to rely on to get us through our days. And none of it would be possible without the diligence and hard work of IT professionals around the globe. We’ve always been proud to be a part of a community that moves technology, and the world, forward. But today, we’re more proud than ever before. We want to shout “thank you!” to all the IT professionals in this community for staying on the frontlines and keeping us on track. You’re an essential part of how we’re getting through this and we appreciate you so very much. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
As a business leader, goal tracking is likely a cornerstone of your employee management strategy. Goal management is an important way to align your team members and ensure that you’ve got an entire organization driven by shared key performance indicators (KPIs). In the era of COVID-19 and remote work, the importance of goal setting and tracking is becoming increasingly evident. Let’s face it - managing an entire remote team has its challenges. There are no face-to-face interactions or watercooler moments to rely on that perhaps once served as a casual “what are you up to?” check-in. While it’s necessary to keep employees engaged and productive, no one wants to be micromanaged (or be a micromanager for that matter). But we still want to grow our businesses and keep our employees motivated, so goal tracking remains a priority. The key to implementing goals that will drive business growth is to use an employee goal setting software like BrightGauge to automate that process for you. Before diving into what goal management software can do for your business, let’s explore the necessity of goals a bit more. Types of goals Generally, there are two categories of goals you can assign to your employees: outcome goals and process goals. These two are often intertwined, but the way you measure each is different. An outcome goal is the end result that you’d like to achieve, while a process goal refers to the steps you need to take to achieve your outcome. We like to use a very simple example to help visualize this. Let’s say you want to lose some weight. Your outcome goal would be “lose 5 pounds this year”. Your process goal would be “walk 10,000 steps per day”. With both goals, you can easily measure your progress, and achievement of your outcome goal is dependent upon your process goal performance. Each week (or other determined cadence), you can track and mark progress of each goal. For your outcome goal, you can mark whether you lost or gained weight and how much. And for your process goal, you can track the actual steps you completed each day. So, how does this translate to a managed service provider (MSP)? An example is the desire to improve your organization’s monthly recurring revenue (MRR). You might set an outcome goal to increase your MRR by a certain percentage (increase 5% year-over-year) or to reach a specific number (MRR of $10,000). In order to achieve that outcome, your process goal may be to close X number of new accounts per month, or have your sales representatives increase their outbounding efforts by X% per month. We’ve found that a healthy mix of both outcome and process goals works well. Why you need business goals Assuming that everyone is on the same page and is aware of the desired direction of the organization is just risky business. Accountability measures need to exist to help decision makers evaluate whether everyone is pulling their own weight and charting the right course. If you can’t truly measure performance and progress, how are you analyzing the various areas of your business? How can you tell if you’re growing year over year? Sure, comparing revenue and profit can be telling, but that only paints a partial picture. If you’re bringing in more revenue during a certain period of time, what can you attribute those gains to? How will you know which business tactics were successful and worth replicating? Taking it one step further, who can you attribute successful results to? Is there someone that’s in need of a merit increase? Or perhaps a technician on your team that can benefit from more training? Goal tracking is a powerful way to get answers to all these questions. Not only does it serve to align every person in the company, but goal management also helps business owners carve out a path towards success that makes sense. Goals are like stepping stones that act as a guide without being overwhelming. By focusing on one goal at a time, you can eventually reach your desired outcomes at a pace that’s more easily trackable. Goal management helps you grow your business in a smart, deliberate way. Your team members will know what tasks to focus on and prioritize, they will be held accountable to their actions, and you will have the right data to back future decisions. How to set business goals When you adopt a goal-setting strategy, it’s important that it’s implemented from the top-down. Everyone in the company should be setting and tracking goals. While each goal should tie back to one big, desired outcome, each member of the team should have a different set of goals to work towards. This way, goals are relevant to each person’s role and every team member contributes to the greater good in their own way. As you set and implement the KPIs that are important to your bottom line, use these to drive your goals. Goals and KPIs should tie into one another and ensure that your business decisions are based on factual data. A good rule of thumb is to set SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Goals should be challenging, but they shouldn’t be so difficult that they end up overwhelming the goal owner to the point where they feel unmotivated and like they’ll never reach the outcome. In our experience, starting off with quarterly goals is an effective way to get this process up and running. At the end of each quarter, performance and progress can be assessed and strategies can be tweaked to better represent your final goal. On the flip side, if you start off with a longer-term commitment like an annual goal, it may be more difficult to stay the course. Whatever approach you take, analyze and iterate often to make the goal management process match the flow of your organization and working style. A few other tips to keep in mind: It’s always good to turn to your peers and colleagues for goal ideas - this absolutely should be a collaborative process Allow for an adjustment period - adopting a new goal-setting strategy means you’re implementing a new process, so the ramp-up period might take a bit Establish regular check-ins to discuss goal progress and performance, whether through 1:1 meetings with direct reports or other method (BrightGauge has a very simple and automated check-in process) Don’t tie performance reviews to goals - the main takeaway here is that goal performance is not black or white; promotions or salary bumps shouldn’t be based solely on whether a goal was hit or missed How to track business goals with BrightGauge Many know BrightGauge for its dashboard and reporting capabilities, which for years have been helping partners organize their data and make meaningful business decisions. Now, as we’ve shifted to remote work, people are turning to their dashboards even more than ever to help their teams work efficiently. You may not be aware that BrightGauge is also a goal management software with a proprietary goal-setting and tracking system that’s a great way to enforce accountability amongst your teams, so everyone can focus on growing the business. With BrightGauge goals, you can set and track goals for each member of the team in a scorecard-like grid. Team members get a weekly reminder via email to check into their goal, which means they mark whether they’re on- or off-track and fill in any necessary context. The corresponding square for that week will turn either green or red depending on progress, making it a very simple and visual way to see how your team is performing at a glance. Goals can be shared company-wide, not just team-wide, which really motivates everybody to be accountable to their tasks and work productively to achieve the desired shared outcome. Some partners have told us that once they’ve adopted BrightGauge’s goal management software, it’s quickly become their favorite feature and they can’t imagine doing business without it. To chat more about how goal management software can drive business growth, contact us and we’ll happily show you BrightGauge in action. For more on goals, check out our whitepaper, The Right Way to Set Business Goals.
