Let’s say you plan to start running every morning. You know it will be a challenge, but everyone finds a different aspect of it challenging.
Some people have trouble getting out of bed, so going to sleep an hour earlier could fix the issue. Others hate that it’s cold in the morning, so they can buy a treadmill. This would fix the issue for them. Some simply can’t make themselves run, so finding a running buddy might fix their problem.
Anticipating a challenge before it happens allows you to find a preemptive solution, so the challenge never has a chance to evolve into an actual problem.
Recognizing a bottleneck is one of the most valuable skills in the business world, and MSPs are no exception. In fact, we would argue that it’s a single skill that can make or break your business world logistics. Bottlenecks slow you down, causing downtime and making your team less productive even after they “restart.”
Learning how to anticipate this problem is already half the solution. With that in mind, here are some of the most common MSP struggles and a few tips on how to anticipate (and fix) them.
Client Communication
According to specialists in outsourced MSP staffing services, clients don’t like surprises, especially when it comes to tech issues. If something’s going wrong or about to go wrong, they want to hear it from you before they feel it themselves. The minute they experience downtime before you say something, they start questioning your reliability – even if you’re already fixing it.
Bouncing between email, Teams, SMS, and WhatsApp doesn’t help. You might think offering more ways to reach you makes you more accessible, but it actually makes communication harder to track. Messages get buried, context gets lost, and your team ends up chasing breadcrumbs instead of solving problems. Clients feel that disorganization, even if they don’t say it.
Setting clear expectations around response times can calm a lot of that anxiety. If a client knows when to expect a reply, they’ll stop refreshing their inbox every five minutes. Even just saying “We’ll reply within two hours during workdays” adds structure. It also gives your techs room to breathe and prioritize without the constant pressure of unpredictable messages.
Introducing your clients to your MSP escalation policy clears up most of the chaos. Not all issues carry the same weight and urgency, and your clients should be educated on that. Depending on the nature of your client’s business, a printer issue is low urgency, and as such, your client should email you about it or submit a ticket. If there is suspicion of a security breach, on the other hand, it could be a phone call or an email marked “URGENT!”.
It’s not just about convenience – it’s about clarity and control. Clear communication is one of the most consistent MSP pain points, but it’s also one of the easiest to fix if you’re willing to tighten up your process. When your clients know what to expect, you build integrity and trust.
Onboarding New MSP Clients
MSP staffing specialists claim that every new client walks in with their own tech Frankenstein – cobbled-together systems, leftover equipment, undocumented software, and zero consistency. They expect you to take over without missing a beat, even if it takes you hours or days just to figure out what you’re working with. That chaos slows everything down before you even begin.
One tiny oversight during onboarding can snowball fast. Forget to check for a backup system, and suddenly you’re blamed for data loss weeks later. Miss a software license, and now you’re stuck troubleshooting access issues mid-crisis. A single skipped step means more headaches for both you and the client.
You can sidestep a lot of these MSP struggles just by documenting everything from day one. Don’t just “get things working” – write it all down. Network maps, admin credentials, user roles, hardware specs – everything. It takes a bit longer upfront, but it saves you hours of future guesswork and keeps your team from starting from scratch when something breaks.
Onboarding automation tools can take care of repetitive stuff like setting up accounts or assigning permissions. The fewer manual tasks your team has to juggle, the faster the process gets. It also makes client communication a lot easier.
Tool Sprawl
Most MSPs collect software like souvenirs. You try something once, it kind of works, and it sticks around. Before you know it, you’ve got six dashboards for five tasks, and your techs are wasting time just flipping tabs. It’s not just messy – it’s inefficient, and it leads to burnout.
Constant context-switching isn’t just annoying; it’s expensive. Every minute spent reorienting between tools is a minute not spent solving client issues. It slows your response time, increases the chance of missing something critical, and leaves your techs mentally drained at the end of the day. That stuff adds up fast.
A lot of these tools do the same thing. You probably don’t need three ticketing systems, two asset trackers, and five monitoring dashboards. Take a look at what actually gets used, what overlaps, and where there’s room to cut. Reducing tool bloat doesn’t mean compromising performance – it means tightening up your process.
Consolidating your toolkit makes everything else easier. Fewer logins, fewer updates, and cleaner data. You don’t have to cross-reference from three different platforms just to answer one client email. Everything’s in one place, which makes your team faster and your service look more professional. MSP challenges often multiply when teams rely on too many disconnected platforms – they create more problems than they solve.
Keeping Up With Tech Changes
Tech moves faster than anyone can realistically keep up with, and vendors don’t always give you a heads-up before dropping major updates. One day, everything works, and the next, you’re dealing with compatibility issues and confused clients. MSP pain points often include having to react instead of plan, especially when things shift overnight.
Clients assume you already know everything about every product they use. They don’t care if it’s not your core tool. If their Microsoft 365 layout changes, they expect you to guide them through it like you built it yourself. That’s the level of trust you’re dealing with – and it comes with pressure.
The best way to handle this is to keep training your team nonstop. Even monthly refreshers or vendor webinars help a lot. You can’t predict every update, but you can stay ready by building a team that expects change and knows how to learn on the fly. It’s not about knowing everything—it’s about being adaptable.
Specializing in a specific industry or tech stack can reduce the flood of updates to something more manageable. If you stick to a niche, you’ll only need to master the tools and systems that your core clients actually use. That makes you more efficient and effective when dealing with managed services challenges.
Scaling Your MSP Safely
When your clients compare you to other MSPs, they won’t consider workload. They’ll just judge based on results. It’s not their job to understand your internal chaos – they only see the end product. If something breaks, or they don’t get a response in time, they’re already wondering if someone else could do it better.
People don’t care that your client list just doubled – they want the same exact service quality they got last year. Growth is only a success if your quality doesn’t take a hit. The problem is, most clients won’t tell you when they start noticing a dip. They’ll just leave and not explain why.
When you use the right automation tools, onboard more staff, and keep your documentation tight, scaling doesn’t have to hurt your consistency. If your ticketing, patch management, and reporting are automated and well-integrated, your service stays stable no matter how many clients you add. That’s the difference between growing and collapsing under pressure. Ignoring this part is one of the costliest MSP struggles out there.
Your tool selection isn’t just a matter of preference – it directly affects your ability to scale. Some platforms are built for solo operators, while others are designed for teams that manage hundreds of clients. Pick tools that grow with you, and your clients will never feel the difference, even when your roster triples. That’s how you overcome the most complex MSP challenges without losing your edge.
Moreover, having redundancy on your MSP helpdesk releases the burden on your staff, who have to deal with more client requests than they can handle. To scale safely and successfully, you need to invest back into your techs, who, at the end of the day, keep everything running.
Wrap up on MSP Struggles
MSP struggles aren’t always dramatic, but they build up quickly if you don’t address them. Whether it’s miscommunication, tool overload, client onboarding chaos, or lack of helpdesk staff, each pain point chips away at your team’s energy and your clients’ trust. However, with the appropriate procedures, habits, and tools, these issues stop being fires you’re constantly putting out – and instead become systems you’ve already solved.
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