Tableau: Actionable visualizations to drive profit.
Tableau®, the world's leading analytics platform, is now part of the Mosquito Squad tool chest. Tableau helps people see and understand data. Its visual analytics platform is going to transform the way we use data to solve problems.
Licensing and Tips for Using Tableau Visualization
Calendar for Managing Your Business
Reports and Visualizations by Importance
Licensing and Tips for Using Tableau Visualization
Baked into Service Minder, Tableau allows Mosquito Squad to create and manage our own visualizations. To get to the them, go to Reports in the top menu, and the select the third tab: Tableau. From here, reports are in alphabetical order.
Should you not see the Tableau Tab, you are not assigned a license for this login. Licenses are available at one to a Service Minder instance, attached to a Service Minder user (generally the owner). Send request for license changes to the help desk.
User tips for all Tableau Visualizations.
Paint Functions. As in Excel, you can use the paint functions to select ranges of data, and Tableau will display summary information for the selected data. For instance, if you have 12 months displayed in a bar graph, if you paint three of the months you will get the data for just the three months displayed.
Sorting. You may use in many viz the bars nested with the headers:
Downloads. Using the Download button in the very bottom of a viz, you are able to save data in certain formats to your computer. Note, the data button is only available if you have selected crosstab/excel-type data. Here is an article on downloading from Tableau that is helpful.
A Tableau Viewer license is included for each organization. Effective 10/1/2024, Additional licenses are available at no additional charge by contacting the helpdesk and providing the Service Minder user account you want the license assigned to.
Calendar for Managing Your Business
Most Important Visualizations (1)
- What: Daily report of metrics to run your business
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand.
- Why: The Daily Dashboard is designed to be a quick check on your business. You cannot manage what you do not measure. The stoplight-colors are designed to draw attention toward problems. Catch trends and generate to solve before the season gets away. Example: Current Year Non-Renewed Customers are below previous year. Action: create a sales campaign to call/text/phone from your database. Or, you notice that accounts receivable at unusually high for the time of season. Action will be to review each and work to collect.
- When: Daily in season, Weekly in the off season.
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- What: A four-year analysis of KPI's for goal setting and tracking.
- How: Report has a single option to toggle between your entire organization, and your territories. Across the bottom, the boxes are used to page through the various collections of data.
- Why: The report works as a quick check on how your business is doing. It is designed as an overview on the season. You will want to use other reports both in Service Minder and Tableau to drill down on details from this visualization.
- When: Daily in season, weekly otherwise.
Executive Dashboard
Like the daily, but for the entire brand. https://serviceminder.io/reporting/tableau/151
Business Advisor Dashboard
Statistics sorted by Business Advisor
- What: Shows how your office compares others in the brand.
- How: Report is based on trailing-365, cash data. There are multiple views that may be viewed using the buttons across the bottom.
- Why: It is a good idea to compare your work to that of others in the same business.
- When: Monthly, and before awards season at the annual convention.
This visualization provides the lead flow (new contacts created in our CRM) and the rate/time those leads are converted to customers.
- What: A visualization to present leads and conversions (sales) by week for analysis of your marketing and sales efforts.
- How: Report has an option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand. There is also the option to manage the date range--trailing 30 is good for recent effectiveness of your marketing and sales staff. Longer time will give you a sense of the year. Additionally, there is a second page of visualizations availably via the green YTD Visualizations button.
- Why: Keep a handle on the performance of your marketing and sales efforts. The brand-level goal is to close 55% of leads.
- When: Daily during the sales season, and on demand otherwise.
Appointments by Month
Produces a visualization of sales by appointment value.
- What: This visualization displays the value of schedule appointments by month. For subscription services, Service Minder divides the invoice total (less tax) by the number of appointments and assigns that value to each appointment, e.g., a $1000 invoice with 10 appointments will carry $100 per appointments. This report sums the appointments by month. For recurring services, this report displays the value of scheduled appointments that have not been invoiced, along with all invoiced appointments. Most of Mosquito Squad uses the Subscription model.
- How: Report has an option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand. It also allows you to select the season/year of analysis.
- Why: This steps outside of cash or accrual accounting and looks directly into the booked appointments for a given season. How many technicians do you need? How are your prices (net of reworks) changing?
- When: In planning and monitoring your sales and staffing needs for a full year.
Medium Important Visualizations (2)
Sales Goals by Organization Based on last season, where are we headed?
- What: A visualization which takes the prior season customer count and derives a business plan for the current year based on our 75/55/10 goals (renewal/close rate/ad spend). To the right of this report, it lists your progress.
- How: Just click it.
- Why: Compare your goals with others in the brand. Competition makes us better.
- When: On demand.
Locations by Map and MQ Numbers A nice reference tool for Mosquito Squad.
- What: A reference to current Mosquito Squad locations, owners, websites, and other contact information.
- How: Just click on it.
- Why: To find contact information about a location.
- When: On demand.
Percent of Sales Guide A tool to stimulate income statement analysis.
- What: This visualization is a companion to the brand's work to standardize the income statement and chart of accounts. Using trailing 365-day cash receipts to seed the chart, it uses brand-standards for the expenses for both over and under performing categories.
- How: There is a menu item in the top right to take you to notes on each line item.
- Why: Use as an example for your own income statement. Where are we over or underperforming?
- When: During planning and analysis of your profitability.
Planning Tool and LTV Tool for forward-looking financial analysis.
- What: A "What If" pivot grid to examine relationships between key metrics and their affect on sales and profit.
- How: Just punch it and begin varying the KPI's down the left side to see changes. There is a second visualization to display the Long Term Value (LTV) of a customer over time using the same key performance indicators.
- Why: To understand how changes in KPI's affect your income statement over time. Are these data perfect: NO. Are they good for understanding relationships: YES.
- When: On demand and around season planning time in the winter.
Revenue and Customer Change Analysis of KPI's over years.
- What: Shows change in customers, average revenue, total revenue, and appointments over 5 years. May be compared with your region or the brand.
- How: Report has an option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand. There is also an option to change the number of years for the analysis.
- Why: A good source for analyzing long-term changes in your book of business.
- When: On demand, when considering changes in strategy.
Regional Core KPI Dashboard Analysis of KPI's based on regions.
- What: Core KPI's by Region
- How: Just click on it--there are no options.
- Why: A good source for analyzing differences across our brand.
- When: On demand, when considering changes in strategy.
Sales Goals by Organization Based on last season, where are we headed?
- What: A visualization which takes the prior season customer count and derives a business plan for the current year based on our 75/55/10 goals (renewal/close rate/ad spend). To the right of this report, it lists your progress.
- How: Just click it.
- Why: Compare your goals with others in the brand. Competition makes us better.
- When: On demand.
Leads and New Customers by Channel
- What: Which marketing channel provides the most appointments?
- How: Report has a single option to toggle between the current and prior calendar years.
- Why: Data from either the current year, or the last, to determine which marketing channel provides the most active customers.
- When: Anytime you are analyzing marketing.
- What: A brand-wide report comparing estimated market potential with actual sales by organization. This chart takes actual sales and subtracts potential by zip code for the last 365 days. Positive is an over achieve organization. A negative is an organization with growth potential. How Does your organization compare? Tied to GbBIS data.
- How: No options, just click on it.
- Why: Run this to get a gauge of how your location performs in your market as compared to your peers. Perfect? No. Interesting? Yes. There are many caveats to predictions of results from demographic data, which are covered in the header of this visualization.
- When: Anytime you are analyzing your top or bottom line results.
Potential by Zip for an Organization.
- What: This visualization provides insights into owned zip codes with the most potential. It compares current customer to potential customers, which is valuable as you plan marketing. The map's darker zips have more targets than the lighter zips.
- How: No options, just click on it.
- Why: Understand which zip codes have the most potential based on target demographics. Use it to point your marketing and sales teams in the best direction.
- When: Best used in Winter and Spring when you are planning marketing spends. Focus your marketing efforts on the top zip codes.
Agent Close Rate
- What: A slice and dice list of close rates by various metrics, all, calls, API, product and others.
- How: In the top right, there are three filters to adjust what you see: time-frame, year, and close rate (to highlight low closes).
- Why: Determine best performers in your office.
- When: On demand during sales season.
Close Rate Leaderboard Close rate for staff and brand.
- What: Compares close rates across the brand. Requires the best-practice of entering into the CRM every legitimate lead whether they purchase or not, and creating proposals (whether sent or not).
- How: There is a toggle for current season, or prior.
- Why: Compare your staff to the brand.
- When: Monthly during the sales season.
Business Plan
Tool for applying for a loan or selling your business.
- What: Renewal rate leaderboard.
- How: Just click on it.
- Why: How does our renewal rate compare across the brand?
- When: First six months of the calendar year, and on demand for planning.
Least Important Visualizations (3)
Marketing Budgets by Organization
- What: What is my current spend for the year by month, and what leads have resulted?
- How: This visualization is available for your organization, region, and the brand. Report has the option to toggle between the current and prior calendar years.
- Why: Examine your budget as entered in Service Minder and trued up across the season, and the resulting leads, by month..
- When: Anytime you are analyzing marketing.
- What: A look at the brand's presence across the US by cash receipts.
- How: Report has a single option to change the time-period of the analysis.
- Why: To examine the brand's progress, and to consider working with or acquisition of your neighbors.
- When: On demand.
Treatment Type by Zip Code Where are certain types of services sold best?
- What: A visualization to display a type of treatment across zip codes. Want to know where you perform the most natural treatments? Re-treatments? This is the report.
- How: Report has an option for this season or last. Also, a dropdown for treatment type.
- Why: Analyze where you are performing certain types of services. Want to focus marketing to grow your natural business--this will tell you where you are now having success.
- When: On demand.
Quality of Service scoring system.
- What: In beta, designed to rank service metrics to provide a best-in-brand leaderboard.
- How: Just click it.
- Why: To gauge the level of your customer service.
- When: On demand.
Production by Technician KPI's by service agent for a range of dates.
- What: In beta, this is designed to provide productivity data by service agent/technician. Once the Service Minder time clock is widely in use, this will evolve into a powerful tool.
- How: Report has a date-range option along with the ability to enter an example labor rate.
- Why: Technician productivity analysis.
- When: On demand across the appointment season.
Time to Retreatment from Request Provides you with a level of responsiveness of your organization to requests for retreatments.
- What: This provides the actual response time from a retreatment request to it's completion. How quickly does your office actually respond to requests for additional services?
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand. Additionally, it has a dropdown to set the time frame for the analysis.
- Why: During the season, a check on your staff's responsiveness.
- When: In-season, run this weekly.
- What: Quick estimate of technician and truck needs for the next 30 days.
- How: Select your average technicians per vehicle, average stops per day, and the month.
- Why: Help with planning your tech and truck needs.
- When: Just before and during the season.
Sales Agent Forecasting--based on current sales, how many sales agents are needed?
- What: Calendar visualization of new customers to anticipate future sales agent needs.
- How: Report has a single option select the month to examine.
- Why: For spotting trends in mid-season sales.
- When: On demand, especially during the sales season.
Cancellations Cancelled appointments across a range of dates.
- What: A report to product appointments that were scheduled, and then cancelled across the past years.
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand. Report is affected by office trends that renew and then bulk-cancel.
- Why: For spotting trends in mid-season customer behavior.
- When: On demand to examine cancel rates.
Close Rate by Zip Code Close rate of leads by zip.
- What: Close rate across your staff with respect to zip code.
- How: Report has an option for this year or last, and a threshold to highlight success.
- Why: Determine which zip codes close the best and thus have the best 'quality' of prospects for future business. Does the same for sales agents, too.
- When: On demand during the selling season.
Invoice Balance with No Appointments Good for cleaning up mistakes in billing.
- What: A check on invoices created but somehow no appointments.
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand.
- Why: Check for mistakes in billing. Avoid embarrassment with customers.
- When: Monthly across the selling season.
Current Last and Lost Customer Lists
- What: List of this and last years customers with contact information, sales, and lifetime value.
- How: No options. Just run it.
- Why: Run these and use online or download for your sales team to work to recapture lost customers.
- When: Use in the Winter and Spring for renewals.
Leads by Day of Week Visualization to assist with day-of-week sales scheduling.
- What: Leads acquired by the day of the week and time.
- How: Click on it.
- Why: To analyze the time and day of the week leads are received. This is useful in scheduling your sales staff.
- When: On demand, and if you are receiving too many calls to your overflow call center.
Out of Territory Sales Sales in areas you not owned.
- What: A list of sales outside of your protected zip codes (null territories).
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand.
- Why: You may want to acquire additional zip codes or territories to protect these clients from being sold to a different owner. The brand does not offer first-rights to any market.
- When: Anytime you see your non-protected sales growing.
Recaptures Old leads/customers sold anew.
- What: A list of contacts that were not a Customer Last Season but are in the database and invoiced this season.
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand.
- Why: Examine success in re-activating old leads and form strategies for more success.
- When: Monthly in the selling season.
Statistics Leaderboard Brand-wide comparison of sales KPI's.
- What: A brand-wide leaderboard of major statistics.
- How: You are able to click on the three 'lines' by each category to sort by that category.
- Why: To compare your location's performance to your peers.
- When: On demand.
Item 19
Used by the brand at year-end.
- What: Effectiveness of sales team in urgently closing sales.
- How: Just click on it.
- Why: Examine the trailing 30-days actual response time to new leads. Requires the use of Proposals. How long does it take for us to respond to a lead including Squad Alerts? How many did we close?
- When: During the new customer selling season.
Direct Mail Penetration Report Designed for direct mail folks, this provides the results of a prior-season campaign.
- What: A method for downloading data for analysis around a marketing campaign.
- How: Report has a single option to, once allowed via a popup, downloads all the data.
- Why: Marketing analysis based on prior year history.
- When: Anytime you are doing marketing analysis and need data.
Leads for Previous Seasons An analysis of leads created by week for previous seasons, this is helpful in planning sales staffing.
- What: A view of new contacts created in Service Minder (leads) by week across the past two-plus years. It is designed to provide an overview of your marketing results. Toggle to region or brand to see those results.
- How: Report has a single option to toggle the scope in the top right corner from organization (default), to region (for the organization you are viewing), to brand.
- Why: A view of changes in marketing results across long periods of time.
- When: Run this on demand when needing an overview of marketing results during planning for and analysis of your season.