The Right Way to Bonus Managers in your Service Business

If you’re a service business looking to scale beyond $1M in revenue, a well-designed bonus plan can energize and focus your admin team. But designing one that truly strengthens operations—rather than distorting incentives or inflating payroll—requires a thoughtful approach. Admin work is collaborative, multi-dimensional, and deeply tied to both client experience and internal efficiency. Below are four principles to keep in mind when designing a bonus system for your business.

1. Reward Behaviors That Strengthen the Business

In a service company, the admin team sits at the intersection of hiring, scheduling, communication, billing, client retention, and quality control. Their work prevents fires before they start. As such, bonuses should focus on behavioral excellence rather than raw output.

This underscores the notion that how things are done is just as important as what is being don  because the client usually has a role to play in receiving the service, whether it’s stating clear expectations or being home when a service visit takes place.

Metrics such as documentation quality/completeness, scheduling efficiency, proactive communication, and problem resolution often matter more than speed. For example, a time-to-answer target might increase responsiveness but reduce clarity or accuracy. Instead, reward the behaviors that reduce client friction and improve the consistency of your service delivery. This aligns incentives with the true role of the admin team: creating stability and reducing chaos.

2. Use Team-Based Bonuses to Reflect Interdependence

Admin performance is rarely single-threaded. When one person in a 4-person team is off, their responsibilities fall to the remaining 3. One person’s dropped ball becomes another’s work interruption. The entire client experience depends on smooth handoffs across the team. For that reason, team-based bonuses outperform individual incentives in administrative environments.

A quarterly team bonus tied to a small set of collective metrics—such as delivery quality, scheduling accuracy, response time thresholds, and client satisfaction—improves collaboration and reduces internal competition. Everyone wins when systems are strong, communication is consistent and execution is reliable and predictable. A shared bonus reinforces the mindset that the admin team succeeds or struggles together.

3. Combine Team-Based Bonuses with Individual Bonuses

It may be entirely appropriate to use both individual- and team-based bonuses for certain individuals.  For example, your scheduler might have an individual bonus tied to achieving targets for job-ticket hours per technician per week. As a general rule, the individual bonus should carry less weight than the team bonus for the reasons already mentioned.

4. Tie Bonuses to Measurable Outcomes

Craft bonuses around outcomes the admin team directly controls, rather than high-level goals like revenue growth or overall profitability. Examples include:

• Percentage of appointments completed without rescheduling
• Reduction in rework or do-overs for clients
• Pricing and Billing accuracy
• Successful first client servicing
• Consistent adherence to SOPs

These metrics connect daily habits to measurable results and build a sense of ownership over the company’s operational health.

5. Make the System Predictable, Transparent, and Simple

A bonus only motivates employees when they understand how it works and believe it’s achievable. Overly complex formulas or last-minute criteria erode trust. Use a model that is easy to explain. For example:

If we hit X, the team earns Y.
If we exceed it by Z%, the bonus increases to Y + 10%.

Share performance dashboards, review progress regularly, and keep the system stable for at least a year before making major adjustments. Predictability builds confidence, and confidence fuels consistent performance.