Why Outsourced MSP Help Desk Support is Not as Scary as You Think

On the fence about using MSP outsourced help desk support? 

Maybe you’re concerned about outsourced engineers adapting to the systems you have in place, working well inside your company’s environment, cyber security and other issues. 

As an MSP staffing agency, Support Adventure has provided staff for over 40 MSPs and provided them the best engineers that fit right into their company’s structure. 

It didn’t cost them an arm and leg either. 

You should absolutely outsource MSP help desk support to a master MSP. 

Here are some reassurances to get you down from that fence you’re on when you work with a company like ours!

1 – Yes! Your Outsourced Help Desk Techs WILL Adapt to Your Environment and Softwares

One of the first things we do when connecting with an MSP interested in having outsourced help desk support is find out:

1. What ticket system they use.
2. What their SOPs are.
3. Where they store documentation and credentials.
4. What other services they they rely on to run their business?

Why? 

Because when you outsource with Support Adventure, we provide you with a dedicated engineer, and we want our engineer to adapt to your systems as much as possible. 

We understand that it must be nerve wracking to outsource for the first time and trust your business in the safe hands of remote workers. Your business is like your baby, which is why it is our top priority that you get an engineer who is competent in working in the systems that you prefer. 

2 – Outsourced MSP Help Desk Staff Can Still be Compatible with Your Company Culture

We have a motto here:

We don’t hire anyone that we wouldn’t want to get a beer with. 

So many companies that have had horror stories with outsourcing MSP help desk techs didn’t anticipate how much cultural compatibility can make or break the success of the help desk. 

An engineer meshing with your company’s environment is one of our top priorities, and it should be one of yours too. 

You MUST assess what your non-negotiables are for desirable traits you want in an engineer. For example, our company values when looking for staff are:

• Accountability when following procedures. 
• Clear communication in regards to relating to customers and staff. 
• Great value in their skillset that can grow our company.
• Authentic behavior and intrinsic desire to care for our clients.
• Global-minded staff (and clients) who have an interest in different cultures and experiences.

Those are just some of ours.

But what are yours? Write them down, and don’t take them for granted. 

3 – Your Ticketing Intake is in Safe Hands with Our Strategies for Outsourced MSP Help Desk Support

One area of your business that requires an iron clad transition of responsibility with outsourced MSP help desk support is the ticketing system. 

This is so crucial for client satisfaction, which is why we don’t mess around with this. We are meticulous when it comes to ticketing. 

We create policies to make sure tickets are never vague, so that there is always clear understanding about what is going on with a ticket, as you can see from the table below. 

We also stress to our clients that their outsourced MSP technicians need to end with the “ticket summary line,” as we like to call it. This will make the status of a ticket abundantly clear to anyone who looks at it after a technician last touched it. 

Every ticket should end in one of the four outcomes below:  

1. TICKET RESOLVED – No further action is required. The resolution has been confirmed with the client or they have been notified that the ticket is complete.
2. NEXT STEPS _________: – You are aware of the next steps which need to be taken. You have written a description of what you plan to do, and have scheduled a fixed or tentative time for these steps to be taken. You have also communicated this to the client.
3. WAITING FOR  _________: – You require someone else to complete an action before you proceed with the next steps. You have described who you are waiting for and what they must do. You have scheduled a tentative time to follow up on the progress of these actions should you have not heard back.
4. ESCALATION REQUIRED: – You cannot complete the ticket due to a limitation in knowledge. You wish to pass the ticket to someone else on the team who may be in a better position to resolve the issue.

4 – An Outsourced MSP Help Desk Can Actually Improve Your Company’s Structure

Many MSPs come to us because their help desk is structured in a way where it could crumble at any moment. When we provide outsourced MSP help desk technicians, we also like to consult on your structure and improve it. 

Whether it’s consulting on ticket notes, documentation, communication policy or escalation procedures, we have mastered the art of running a remote MSP. We have helped so many MSPs run a more automated helpdesk. 

And after years of working with over 40 MSPs, we notice that the ones that thrive the most are the ones who: 

1. Have a dispatcher manage the tickets.
2. Use intake technicians (also referred to as triage technicians).

If you are a frequent visitor to our blog, it probably comes as no surprise that we always recommend hiring a dispatcher as the first point of contact for tickets! They are in charge of managing the assignment of tickets and overseeing their progress in a process-based system. This way, you immediately extinguish that dysfunctional every-man-for-themself environment. 

With a dispatcher, you can set up a system with procedures defining what happens when a ticket comes in. They can account for the following:

• Making sure a ticket has the correct information on it.
• Prioritizing tickets according to urgency.
• Severity of an incident. 
• Assessing who is the best engineer to handle a particular ticket. 
• Assigning tickets considering which engineers are available and which are not.
• Making sure the technologies involved are categorized according to established procedures. 

The dispatcher manages the technicians’ time, both with tickets generated by email or called in. Both reach a dispatcher who then gets it to a tech. 

A dispatcher will help your MSP avoid these common support mistakes:

1. Calls going to a level 1 ring group that is busy. 
2. Unanswered calls climb the scale of next-in-line to answer, from junior techs, to senior ones, to management, creating a lack of familiarity for the client with who answers. 
3. Calls reach a random tech with a random skillset working on things unrelated to the issue of the caller.  

If you proceed with this kind of disorganization, both your staff and clients will complain. Your staff will do so because they can’t consistently focus on assigned tasks when they are distracted answering the phone all the time. 

You can also incorporate triage technicians into your ticket intake system. These are techs that can take action on a ticket up to 15 minutes after an incident is reported to the MSP support helpdesk. If you have a ring group, you need to over staff in this area. Frontload the help desk with more triage techs than you may even need so that they are always available when someone contacts support. 

These intake technicians should be people who are good at customer service and able to inspire confidence with consistent results. They should be able to handle something straightforward that can easily be solved, such as a password reset, a permission issue or the redundant yet friendly reminder to “try restarting your computer.”

If the triage technicians cannot solve a ticket after 15 minutes, half an hour, or whatever you set the threshold to, they should pass it on to the dispatcher. The dispatcher can then look at the ticket and make sure the triager has done the following:

1. Taken detailed and clear notes.
2. Worked out the first steps for resolving the ticket. 
3. Managed a consistent expectation with the client on how the process will proceed. 

If all of those things are done, the dispatcher can then find someone else to take over the ticket and finish the job. Also, if all of triage techs are unavailable, then a ticket should go to the  dispatcher who can assign it to the next available triage technician. 

Strive to avoid making competent higher level techs or managers answer the phones. Those that have troubleshooting abilities and can resolve tickets easily should not be answering the phone calls when they are in the middle of resolving other tickets. We have seen that this generates more complaints than any other practice on the helpdesk.

5 – Your Dream New Hire Can Be an Affordable Outsourced MSP Tech Instead of Expensive Local Talent

Another fear we have discovered many MSPs have is feeling like the best technicians must come from their own backyard. 

Trust us, there is so much more talent when you expand your search outside of your local options. 

We know this because we rigorously recruit them, and have perfected the art of knowing in advance if someone will be a great support tech for your company. 

We utilize two candidate filtering methods that test for problem-solving, as testing what someone can do is more beneficial to an MSP’s recruitment and hiring process than testing someone’s wealth of knowledge. How impressive someone appears on their CV/resume cannot guarantee that they will be an impactful contributor in the complex environment of an MSP. 

Instead of conducting a knowledge-based hiring process, we give applicants a chance to show how they process information. 

We achieve this with the following:

1. A written test that reveals an applicant’s client-facing communication style. The test gives them some sample ticket notes, typically three, which take about 20 to 40 minutes to complete. They must complete internal notes and client-facing notes.
2. An automated video interview system, Ziggeo, where applicants are taken to a website to record an introduction video and answer some knowledge-based questions.

The advantage of the written test is that it helps filter out the people who don’t have good communication skills. You immediately highlight the right people interested in what you’re offering if they are investing 20 minutes of their time into applying. 

The video interview also highlights the applicants with strong communication skills, as well as those who present themselves well. You can see if they are the type of person you want to interview and go further in the MSP recruitment process with. 

Now step down from the fence…

And step into an outsourced MSP help desk that saves you money, organizes your company and provides the best customer service! Check out our outsourced MSP staffing services!

If you’re ready to see our available candidates, click here.