The job of an MSP dispatcher might seem intimidating, but it becomes pretty straightforward after a while. You either know the solution to a problem or you know where to find the solution. This is why MSP companies prefer to hire people who already have experience in the industry, but they would make a great mistake if they just assumed that the experience from another company would translate in its entirety.
Ultimately, you have to correctly onboard an MSP dispatcher regardless of their previous experience. Doing this properly is not as simple and intuitive as you think. Where do you start? How do you prepare materials that they can return to repeatedly? Most importantly, how do you make this process as short and effective as possible? Let’s find out!
Start With the Platform You’re Using
In 2025, everything a dispatcher does will rely heavily on the platform your MSP uses. That’s their control panel. It’s where they read incoming tickets, assign tasks, and communicate with tech. If they don’t fully grasp this part, everything else becomes ten times harder to explain, because it all runs through this system. This applies whether you want to onboard MSP dispatchers or service desk coordinators.
According to outsourced MSP staffing services experts, you should walk them through the interface and highlight just the essentials first. No need to overwhelm them with tabs or features they won’t touch in the first week. Start with what they’ll use most often – ticket queues, assignment tools, notes, and client info. It’s like teaching someone to drive by showing them the wheel and pedals before moving on to opening the hood.
Don’t just show them – guide them through a real-life scenario that could happen on the MSP helpdesk. Pull up a ticket, explain what they’re looking at, and go step-by-step through assigning it. Let them watch once; they have them do it while you sit beside them. Repetition and practical context help this stuff stick way better than theory alone.
After they’ve handled a few basic actions, circle back and show them the more advanced stuff. Maybe walk through how to schedule recurring tasks or how to handle an escalated issue using the system. That’s a natural way to onboard MSP dispatcher candidates without throwing them in the deep end immediately.
Clarify What They’re Dispatching
First off, make it crystal clear whether they’re working with tickets, full-blown work orders, or both. Some MSPs use those terms interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. If they think a task ends with assigning someone to it, but you expect full job tracking, that’s a serious disconnect waiting to happen.
People from a veteran MSP staffing agency claim that dispatchers need to be aware of their actual role in the process. Are they just logging issues and tagging tech, or are they expected to keep things moving from start to finish? That difference shapes their thinking, follow-up, and sense of responsibility for the outcome.
Moreover, you must explain the balance between internal and client-facing responsibilities. Some dispatchers might only assign techs and handle the board, while others are expected to update clients directly. Let them know where your expectations fall, so they’re not guessing – or worse, skipping something critical.
Break down the categories they’ll encounter regularly. For example, are you mostly dealing with backups, software installs, printer issues, or user access problems? Being specific here helps guide the MSP onboarding checklist and ensures your new team member isn’t left making assumptions.
Explain Your Internal Terminology To Onboard MSP Dispatchers Quicker
Every MSP has its very own quirky slang, and you need to spell yours out right away. Whether it’s “P1” for critical tickets or “recos” for recurring jobs, your dispatcher won’t magically understand your lingo just because they’ve worked at some other MSP. You’ve got to bridge that gap right off the bat.
Explain how your company labels clients, tickets, and services. Some places go by company names, others by site codes. If your dispatcher doesn’t know that “ACCT-FTW” stands for your biggest client in Fort Worth, they’ll be confused whenever it pops up. Clear naming makes everything easier and faster, making document management more accurate and straightforward.
The term “high priority” can mean different things depending on who’s talking. For you, it might mean the server is down. For them, it might mean a client breathing down their neck. Define what your company considers urgent, what isn’t, and when it’s okay to push something back a few hours by introducing your MSP’s escalation policies in your onboarding.
Moreover, give them a cheat sheet or quick-reference doc with all this information and links to other useful resources. That simple resource can make the MSP onboarding process smoother and reduce the number of minor mistakes during their first few weeks.
Walk Them Through Ticket Lifecycles
To onboard MSP dispatchers correctly, start by showing them where the tickets are coming from. Some are submitted by clients, others are created automatically by monitoring tools, and some are entered manually by techs or account managers. If they know how to look for the source, they’ll have a better sense of what kind of follow-up might be needed.
Explain who handles which stage of a ticket. A dispatcher might only assign and monitor, or they might be responsible for nudging techs, updating clients, and closing things out. The workflow slows down if they don’t know when to hand off a task or take over.
They need to understand when to escalate a ticket and to whom. If a ticket has been sitting too long or if a client is getting impatient, they can’t just wait it out. They need to know exactly which person, team, or manager should be brought in and how to do it.
Show them how to close a ticket properly. It’s not just about ticking a box – it’s about confirming the work was done, updating notes, and sometimes even checking in with the client. A complete understanding of the lifecycle is a critical part of MSP onboarding that can’t be skipped or glossed over. Download our free Ticket-Note Writing Guide to help with this!
Train Them on Triage and Prioritization
First, you must teach them to distinguish emergencies from background noise. Not every blinking alert is a fire, but if they treat every ticket as mission-critical, the important stuff might be buried in the chaos.
Walk them through your actual prioritization rules. Does a server down ticket always come before a password reset? What if the password reset is for the CEO? The point is, they need a clear sense of how you rank urgency, not just guess based on emotion or tone.
Show them how to balance the workload across your tech team. If one person has twenty open tickets and another has three, they need to shift things around. A good dispatcher doesn’t just assign – it makes sure the whole board is flowing and that no one’s drowning while others sit idle.
It’s helpful to include sample cases like these in your MSP onboarding checklist so you can see how they handle real-time decisions. You’re not just teaching policy – you’re testing instincts in a way that prepares them for live work.
Wrap Up On How To Onboard MSP Dispatchers
To onboard MSP dispatcher team members the right way, you need more than a quick tour of the ticket board. You need structure, clear expectations, and materials they can refer back to when things get hectic. A solid MSP onboarding checklist helps them settle into their role faster and make smarter decisions under pressure.
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