Keeping Your Clients Happy and Informed with Client Facing Dashboards

As an Account Executive at BrightGauge, I speak with dozens of potential and current customers each month. Each MSP comes from a different background, with varying goals and needs, but one universal struggle I hear is the need to show better value to customers.

One of the paradoxes of the MSP world is that customers rarely need to see you when systems are running smoothly. When clients don’t hear much from you because things are working correctly, they might assume you aren’t delivering value.

How can you solve this? One obvious way is through regular, automated reports, which is one of the main reasons companies hire BrightGauge. This may satisfy most customers, but there are still those for whom this will not provide enough insight into why they’re paying thousands of dollars each month for your services.

For the clients that crave more up to the minute information, our Customer Facing Dashboards are a great solution.

There are two main ways you can create live Dashboards for your customers - Add your client to your BrightGauge instance as a Viewer or utilize our new Public Dashboards.

The first thing I would do in either circumstance is determine what metrics or KPIs you’d like your client to be able to access at any given time.

• Add the metrics you choose to a new dashboard
• Use the dashboard filtering option to filter down to that client.
• Clone the dashboard and title it accordingly.
• One good option is to create a master client dashboard, then filter and clone to each client that will have access to a dashboard.
• If you use ConnectWise Manage, AutoTask, Kaseya BMS, or TigerPaw as your PSA, you should have a default dashboard called ‘Client Dashboard Template’ that you can modify to your needs.

Add Client as a Viewer

The first way you can give your client access to the dashboard you’ve created for them is by adding them to your BrightGauge instance as a viewer. Every BrightGauge plan includes unlimited Viewer licenses.

• To create a new viewer, click on the admin button at the top right corner of your BrightGauge account, then select ‘Viewers’ from the dropdown.
• You simply need to provide their name and email address, then select the Dashboard you’d like to give them access to.
• They will then have a login to your BrightGauge instance, but the only thing they will be able to see is the dashboard you’ve given them access to.
• As a viewer, they won’t have any permissions on the dashboards or gauges except to drill down, and of course you’ll determine what, if anything, they’ll see on the drill-down.

Provide Your Client with Public Dashboard

Your other option is to utilize our new Public Dashboards feature, available on our Enterprise plan.

• To enable this, click on the ‘More’ button at the top right corner of the dashboard, and select ‘Public URL’ from the dropdown.
• This will provide you with a URL link you can copy and send to your client.
• Your client can bookmark the URL and will not need to log in to your BrightGauge instance.
• The Public Dashboards do not allow for drilldown.
• Again, your client will not have any permissions on this dashboard or on any of the gauges.

There are a few great benefits to Customer Facing Dashboards:

1. Customers receiving real time data on their tickets, machines, or projects will have less need to open tickets or call for status updates
2. This shows a level of transparency most MSPs aren’t providing to their clients
3. For your larger clients, this will show the extra benefits they gain by using your services rather than moving their IT operations in house

Want help determining what metrics to share with your client, or how to build a great Customer Facing Dashboard? Contact BrightGauge for help with selecting relevant data that will show value to your customers!