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Ask any prospective employee what they’re looking for in a workplace and chances are that “a great company culture” will be at the top of their list.    According to research conducted by Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success.    From employee recognition to investment in training and career advancement opportunities, and even flexible time policies, company culture can be defined in a myriad of ways.    Once you figure out what a strong company culture looks like for your organization, you need a plan for sustaining it.    This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in.    Different Types of Key Performance Indicators   Business leaders know that using and tracking KPIs is a powerful way to align team members with company goals, motivate them to be productive, and see what progress is or isn’t being made towards those goals.    KPIs should act as a north star, guiding decision-makers in the right direction.    Depending on the outcomes you want to achieve for your business, there are several different types of KPIs to consider.    Common types of key performance indicators are quantitative indicators and qualitative indicators (those that can be presented as a number versus those that can’t). Furthermore, lagging indicators tend to be output-oriented while leading indicators are more about input (or, outcome-based versus process-based).    All departments in a business can be assigned their own KPIs, which can drive the entire organization in the same direction. Like a puzzle, each department is one piece that contributes to the whole, completed set.    Just like there are different types of key performance indicators for employees, you may also set KPIs for your clients. This will help you ensure that you’re bringing on the right clients and providing them the right solutions for their needs.    Here are examples of key performance indicators for employees:   Finance Team KPIs: Cash in Bank EBITDA Gross Profit Margin   Sales Team KPIs: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Current Sales Pipeline Sales Activity   Service Team KPIs: Kill Rate Tickets per Endpoint Service Level Agreement (SLA) Missed   When it comes to your clients, you may look at KPIs like Activity Level/Health Score or Customer Lifetime Value versus Customer Acquisition Cost.    But, how do you gauge company culture? Here’s a look at some more key performance indicators for employees.    KPIs for Gauging Company Culture   A good way to understand whether or not your company culture is strong and influential enough to keep your employee turnover rate low is to measure an employee’s happiness and productivity level.    This can be assessed by looking at certain KPIs related to your employee performance:   Employee Satisfaction: You can gather this data through regular surveys and evaluations and it will help you see how happy your employees are and allow you to identify any potential problems. Employee Engagement: Again, this can be gathered through regular surveys and evaluations and will tell you how much effort your employees are willing to put towards their job and responsibilities.  Employee Churn: This is a really telling KPI and a must-track for all managers. A high churn rate might indicate that your company’s culture needs improvement or that you need to make better hiring decisions. You can calculate churn by dividing the employees who left during a certain period by your average number of employees.  Utilization Rate: Monitoring how your employees are utilizing their time can help paint a picture of their satisfaction with their job. The more productive they are (i.e., the more efficiently they are utilizing their time), the more likely they are to be happy. This rate is calculated by dividing the hours an employee spent on client work by their total hours worked.  Revenue per Employee: Like Utilization Rate, Revenue per Employee can tell you about the effort an employee is willing to put into their role and how efficiently you are using your resources. Calculate this by taking your total revenue and dividing it by total employees.    There may be more metrics that are specific and important to your organization, so keep in mind that your KPIs may look different from your peers.    Also take into consideration that life - personally, professionally - is fluid, so you should be, too. As things change, you may need to shift your KPIs to make sense of your new situation. Or, KPIs may look different from quarter-to-quarter or year-to-year.  For a deeper understanding of KPIs and how to use them in your business, download this resource now: How KPIs Can Improve Your Business. 

How do you go about managing expectations for new and existing clients? Have you changed your processes as your company has evolved? How often do you review and revise service level agreements (SLAs), proposals, and contracts with your clients?    These are the types of questions managed service providers (MSPs) of today need to be asking themselves to ensure that they’re providing clients with an expected level of service.    Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you think your clients have unrealistic expectations? How did that mismatch come to be?    In this post, we will cover how to approach your proposals and SLAs and why it’s more important than ever.    Having the right conversations with clients   When expectations aren’t managed, it’s usually because there’s a difference between what clients think they’re paying for versus what they are actually buying from you.    Transparency is key here. Clients need to know exactly what they are getting out of your arrangement. On the other hand, as an MSP, you aren’t responsible for fixing every single problem your client comes across, and they need to understand that as well.    Now is the time to have open, honest, and sometimes tough conversations with clients. Gone are the days where an MSP sold a technology solution to a client and called it a day. Today, there’s more to it. Security and data are a major part of the picture.    Clients don’t just need a tech service. They need an MSP to help them solve a business issue. These issues are typically resolved by focusing on data and understanding how to use data to affect certain outcomes.    The problem is, clients expect data services to be automatically baked into contracts and SLAs but they aren’t taking the time to truly understand what their specific data needs are.    So, today’s conversations and value propositions need to be centered around data. All roads should lead back to data.    Help prospects and clients by leading discovery conversations about what data they need, how they need to use their data, and what data can do for their business.    From there, as an expert service provider, you can advise your clients on what and how much they need from your end.    As a trusted MSP who wants to continue being a trustworthy partner, we can’t stress enough how abundantly clear you need to make your SLA, proposal, or contract.  This is the time to spell things out for them. If you’re presenting your client with various packages at different price points, make sure they are clear on the specifics of each package. Lead with outcomes versus a list of good and services. And make sure to answer all their questions up  front.    The triangle of data   Both you and your client need to play your part in making sure each point in the triangle of data is getting attention. Data needs to be: Secure - be clear on what security means from your end. As an MSP, you are providing technology and services to help a client keep their data secure. However, there are measures your client needs to take on their end to keep themselves protected.  Accessible - how and when can data be accessed on personal devices; do employees work from home and need to secure their home computers? Recoverable - can a client access data after someone leaves their company?    All three points on the triangle are connected and work in tandem. One cannot be changed without changing the other two. Work through various scenarios where changes would need to happen and what that would look like so that clients know what they can expect from you.    In your SLAs, highlight how the technology and services you provide solve the needs of each point on that triangle.    For more on how to sell services centered around data and how to work security into the conversation, watch the ConnectWise webinar ‘The New Way to Look at Managed Services’. See a sneak peek below:    

While it’s always hard to see someone leave a team or move on, it can be a harsh reality once you jump into what they’ve left behind. Often, you’re left with tasks left undone or a lack of documentation to follow. When planned right, platform and process handoffs should come with a clear overview and instructions for each use case across teams and individuals.  Keeping tidy documentation can be tough, especially when you’re a small shop running single team members in multiple roles. We’ve put together this checklist to help any new or existing BrightGauge partners get up to speed on where to begin with organizing and working within an existing BrightGauge buildout.  Taking over an existing BrightGauge account If you are new to BrightGauge or have just been assigned as the primary account user on an existing account, follow these tips and steps to get started.    Overview video - This quick video gives a great high-level overview of what BrightGauge offers. Watch the video - only 4 minutes! Share with any team members you may want to onboard as well. Attend an in-depth training webinar - Sign up for one of our weekly training webinars OR watch a recorded version here. These weekly sessions offer you the opportunity to attend a one hour deep-dive into all areas of BrightGauge. You’ll learn about datasources available, data syncing, dashboards, automated reports, goals, and more! Create an inventory of what’s already in your BrightGauge - Get organized by creating a log of all users, including viewers, and take note of the dashboards, scheduled reports, and gauges you have built and are actively using. We recommend creating a spreadsheet or using your internal documentation tool to get organized. Be sure to note which team or process would reference that item, frequency of use, definition, and how often it should be updated or referenced. For a great example of organizational bliss, check out this user showcase webinar with Justin Bryant of CSpire on Starting a Service Library: watch the video here. Delete what’s not in use - Let’s face it, we’re all guilty of hoarding something seemingly valuable to us. If it was created more than 6 months ago and you’re not using it, get rid of it!  Pro tip: On the left-hand side of your gauges overview page, click ‘Unused Gauges’ to get a sense of what you can delete. Read more cleanup tips here.  Meet with stakeholders to align on objectives, discuss use cases, and come up with actions you'd like to see as a result of your BrightGauge use.  We're here to help! Setup a one-on-one training with a BrightGauge Success team rep. Book your new admin training here. After you’ve organized and cleaned your account and have a general idea of how you’d like to use BrightGauge, it’s time to get formal about your objectives. Map out what is actionable and where you would like to make organizational change and improvements. Turn to “IDEAS”, then keep it “SMART”. IDEAS is a framework for setting key performance indicators (KPIs).  Identify the problem What is the problem that you want to solve? Or what do you want to prevent from happening? By starting here, you can tie metrics directly to your desired outcomes. Determine what solves the problem Now that you’ve identified your issues, what are the indicators that might mean progress towards a solution? For example, if you’re looking to improve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores, maybe Average Time to Response is a metric that’ll help you make progress. Establish your KPIs  Knowing your issues and what can help you solve them is how you’ll determine the KPIs that are right for your business. At this point, consider where you’ll find the data you need (i.e. what tools can help you track your data?).  Analyze the results  Now that your data is in, it’s time for a gap analysis. How do your actual results compare against benchmarks you’ve set? Where can you fill in the gaps? Perhaps you need a change in processes or to invest in additional training for your team members.  Start from the beginning The process of setting and tracking KPIs is ongoing. On a regular basis, you should assess your results, see what you can learn, and then start the process over.   With this framework in mind, you can begin to determine the KPIs that are going to drive each department, and your organization as a whole, towards success. To reach those KPIs, it’s important to set SMART goals. Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Based) so that it’s easier to track the progress of meeting that goal. If you’re in sales, it’s not enough to say, “next quarter, I want to close more accounts”. Instead, a SMART goal will be something like, “by the end of next quarter, I want to bring in 10 new accounts that will result in a higher commission for myself and will contribute to the overall revenue goals of our company; I’ll do this by increasing the amount of calls I make from 100 to 150”.    When you’re ready to start building By now, you’re probably ready to start building. By all means, go for it! But do keep in mind these last few tips so you can keep your account clean and tidy. Map out the key metrics you’d like to measure by team and individual, and how to make them actionable. Check out this great user webinar that goes into setting expectations with baseline metrics and naming conventions. Plan for your data. List out what you’d like to see on one or multiple dashboards, reports, and goal lists. Think short term and long term, and proactive versus reactive KPIs. Use what’s already built. All integrations in BrightGauge come with pre-built dashboards and gauges and report templates. Check out what’s automatically available to you before trying to build something that may already be there. Pro tip: If the data doesn’t look quite right, you may just need to apply a filter. Always apply a filter at the dashboard or report level before cloning a gauge. This will help keep your account accurate, clean, and organized. All dashboard and report filters override what you have set at the gauge level; keep this in mind as you work with date ranges. Check data accuracy. Make sure you’re using the right dataset. If you’re looking at ticket stats for the last 30 days, check to see that you’re not working with one of our lighter datasets. When in the gauge builder, reference the right-hand column for a review of the time range you’re working within, sync frequency, and description. Click on the name of the dataset there to see the raw data coming in. Always be iterating. Consistently review where you are. It’s never too early, or too late, to evaluate and change course accordingly. This is especially the case with goal setting. If 3 weeks in you find that you’re far exceeding or falling short, adjust and keep a realistic view of where your team and you are at. Show off your work. You’re spending valuable time, effort, and money into building these gauges, dashboards, and reports, so put them to use! Incorporate your data into meetings, presentations, discussions with stakeholders, client visits, and more.   For more help, check out these go-to videos, webinars, and articles: How-to Videos Dashboard examples and keys User Showcase Webinars Support queue - we trade tickets for how-to videos Weekly general training webinars In-person workshops Knowledge base documentation This post was written by Danielle, Partner Success Team Lead to BrightGauge. The Partner Success Team is focused on getting you the training and resources you need to help grow your business through team alignment and showing your value to clients. Still not sure of where to begin? Email success @ brightgauge.com.