Turn your CRM up a notch

A lot of you learn a great deal about BrightGauge by evaluating how your peers are using the product. We love that you want to learn from one another, because we strive to do the same! Lately you’ve been asking us, “What dashboards are other users displaying on their office TVs?” Putting your metrics up on TVs around the office can have a powerful impact on your employee’s motivation and your client’s impression of you. When everyone has visibility into important company numbers, that level of transparency creates a highly-desired sense of trust. But when it comes to data and dashboards, there are so many options out there that it can get a little confusing trying to choose the right things to display. No worries, we’ve got some ideas. What are other BrightGauge users doing? Like we already mentioned, there are so many possibilities when it comes to the data you want to display. Here are what some BrightGauge users themselves have said they are displaying: Important ticket statistics: Stale tickets Survey response scores Ticket age Tickets open by status Hours per ticket Number of tickets opened today Kill rate This is a really popular dashboard because it’s always critical for all members of a service department to understand what’s happening with tickets and when and where any issues arise. Workstations overview: Servers offline Warranties expiring AV protection status Patch status SLA statistics: Nearing expiration Breached Performance Met resolution Leaderboards: Most tickets closed Highest CSAT scores Average response time Most opportunities created We love leaderboards because they are a great way to inspire a little healthy competition and incentivize team members to work really productively. Time entry: Actual hours entered this week Billable versus non-billable hours per tech Billable percentage per tech Quarterly statistics dashboard for use during QBRs A rotation of each tech’s individual dashboard displaying their ticket statistics Sales activity: Active opportunities by rep Stale opportunities Revenue won Deals in the pipeline Backups overview: Successful backups Failing backups Devices overview Security overview of endpoints, infections, threats, and sites Financial overview: Profit + loss performance Cash balance Balance of outstanding invoices Top 25 outstanding balances by customer In our own office, we have one TV up in each of our departments, displaying data relevant to that team. Support tracks their ticket statistics all day, Sales looks at their dials made and open opportunities, Marketing is watching inbound leads and number of new customers, Product is looking at our datasource use per customer, and our main display shows total customers, net new MRR, and progress on quarterly goals. Since every single BrightGauge employee has access to all company metrics, it helps keep us all on the same page and motivated to work towards our company goals. What it boils down to What you choose to display really depends on your overall KPIs and your company goals. Whatever is your top priority (i.e., staying below a response time threshold) should be something you have on constant display, as visual cues are proven to have a positive impact. Also, if you have clients regularly coming in for office visits, you’ll want to think about having their specific metrics on display. It’s a great way to show them that you are invested in their success and are being proactive about providing them the best possible service. Use rotating dashboards When you have several important dashboards you want to display on a TV, you can use our rotating dashboards feature to have them automatically play on a loop. Up to 3 playlists can display 10 dashboards at a time, so you can view all the data that matters to you, all day long. Read more about setting up your rotating dashboards here or visit our support docs. We love hearing from you guys - what are your favorite dashboards that you’re displaying?

In today’s saturated market of information overload, you can become inundated with advice on how best to win and retain new business. While you’ll come across valid information, we believe client retention boils down to one simple thing: trust. It’s not enough to close a business deal; you’ve got to work hard on nurturing that relationship to ensure that customer sticks around for the long-term. Taking it one step further, focusing all your sales and marketing efforts on new business alone may cause you to miss a huge area of growth: the kind that comes from your existing customer base. There are various things you can do to earn and keep your client’s trust, but one really powerful approach is to consistently send your clients custom reports. Why do clients care about custom reports?   The simple answer is that reports show your clients everything you’ve been working on - the good and the bad. Reports keep things highly transparent between one another and help position you as a trusted partner rather than just another vendor. Also, your client hired you for a specific reason but is likely too busy to stay on top of everything you’re doing. Reports help them see your value and remind them what they’re paying you to do. Reports should serve as a way to give your client an easy, digestible view of all the most important data pertaining to your relationship. When clients don’t have to chase you down for answers they want, and instead have reports delivered to their inboxes on a consistent basis, it sets the tone that you’re reliable, invested, and committed to keeping the partnership healthy. So, what do clients care about seeing in their reports? What you include in your client reports will vary from customer to customer, but there are things you can keep in mind to help guide you while setting up each report. - What did my client hire me to do? If you were hired for your remote management capabilities, then you’re definitely going to want to report on your client’s workstations and machines. Are patch statuses up to date? What was deployed or configured this week? Are there upcoming warranty expirations clients should be aware of? As another example, let’s say you’re an Autotask user. Your custom Autotask reports might include metrics specific to your client, like the number of their tickets your tech responded to, the number of hours billed towards that client’s projects, and so on. This helps give clients a visual sense of what their investment in you translates to. Use your service level agreement (SLA) as a basis for what to prioritize in your reports.   - How much time can my client spend on reviewing my reports? Imagine your client only has 5 minutes to look at each report you send over. You want to maximize that time. Include metrics that are going to have the biggest impact in the short amount of time you have your client’s attention.   Going back to our Autotask report example, you might consider including metrics like Average Time to Resolution This Week, Hours Worked by Client This Week, SLA Results Overview, and Tickets Per Endpoint. Choose metrics that really show why you’re an integral part of your client’s team. Also provide data that can help your client make better business decisions that lead to growth and scalability. - How often am I sending this report to my client? The frequency with which you choose to send reports to your clients also has an impact on the data you’re going to include. If sending a daily report, you’re likely going to hit your client with quick facts about the previous day (such as those Autotask ticket statistics that may pertain to them). Weekly reports are also likely to summarize activity in a condensed manner.   However, if you’re only sending reports on a monthly or quarterly basis, you’re probably going to get more granular with your data and cover a broader range of topics. Make client reports a non-negotiable business practice Maybe you’ve been hesitant about making client reports a top priority because they can be complicated and time-consuming to produce. Transferring data from your multiple solutions onto an Excel sheet and then using formulas and pivot tables to turn it into something that makes sense for your client is a lot of work. We’ve heard of report-production taking 8-10 hours (of non-revenue-generating-time) per week. But the reality is that reports don’t have to be a struggle. A tool like BrightGauge automates reports, so you can have them set up and sent out in a matter of minutes. And the payoff is huge (think: clients that stick around for the long-run, a better reputation, and more revenue). We’ve just scratched the surface of client reporting here, but our End-All Guide to Client Reporting goes into detail about the who, what, why, when, and how of reports and covers more metrics to include. Download it now.  

We've been working hard behind the scenes to improve upon some of our features.   Just released: an update to our Client Mappings process.   If you're new to BrightGauge, the Client Mappings process is really simple and makes it a whole lot easier to use BrightGauge properly. Specifically when it comes to sending client reports, having gone through Client Mappings means you'll be able to create and send reports to the clients and recipients you want in just a few clicks.    For current users, you'll appreciate that clients are better organized per datasource, that you'll be able to filter searches within datasource buckets, and that you'll be able to easily add client names when needed.    This tutorial video takes you through the process of setting up your Client Mappings. It takes just a few minutes but saves you a whole lot of time down the road.         Read more about Client Mappings or reach out to our support team if you've got any questions!