This One Thing Reduces Chaos in Your MSP

Let’s face it, MSP help desk operations can truly be chaotic. Luckily, there’s an antidote, and that is consistency.

Consistency is what clients want when they sign up for MSP services. Unfortunately, in the wild world of technology and the complexities of the computer space, it can be hard to achieve. But the MSPs that do bring consistency to the table stand out from their competition and grow much faster because they understand how smooth it makes their operations.

Consistency in MSPs is important because that is what the clients are expecting, which is something we know all to well as a remote MSP staff provider. In order to provide great service, MSPs need to enforce this with documentation, response time, their stack and their overall branding. Without it, MSPs are not able to scale, keep their customers or gain premium clients.

A lack of consistency is what might make your MSP fail. If your users feel like they never know what they’re gonna get with your service, they’ll deem you unreliable. You might lose a bunch of clients and you won’t be able to grow your MSP.

You must learn to build integrity, reliability and consistency in the following most crucial points of your organization:

1. Documentation
2. Response time
3. Provided stack
4. Your MSP’s image

Your clients depend on you with the procedures you employ and the support provided by your technicians. When they call or email, they want to know what to expect and feel like they are in safe hands. As a company that offers remote staffing solutions for MSPs, we at  Support Adventure have seen over the years that consistency is one of, if not, the most important trait of premium MSPs. 

Consistency in your MSP documentation creates a solid foundation

Messy documentation might not pose a great threat to an MSP with one or two techs, but anything above that and it wreaks havoc! 

We always advise that the first rule of an organized MSP is to make sure everything is in writing, and using a ticketing system to enforce this is an absolute must. 

Your technicians need to be working in a systematic manner in order to be able to bring their A game to customers. That means having access to a list or document with previously solved issues containing: 

• Clients and their contact info
• IP addresses of devices
• Passwords 
• Users
• Software licenses
• Pins, credentials, etc. 

From the perspective of your staff, this reduces stress when working with many incoming tickets. It also creates an opportunity for junior techs to independently solve issues without escalation. 

From the perspective of the organization, it allows yourself, as well as your managers to actually see the work that your technicians are putting in and track any issues that might come up.

From the clients’ perspective, they feel cared for because they will not have to repeat the same explanation any time a previously resolved issue comes up again. And in case there are any complaints, there is a record of all the steps taken towards the solution so that things don’t get too messy.

And don’t forget, using ticketing and documentation softwares like Freshdesk, Atlassian or ITGlue will help establish more order and efficiency with stored procedures.

For the ultimate results, download our ticket note writing guide.

Enforce consistency in your MSP’s response time

When your clients call in, they already have set expectations. Making those expectations clear and realistic to them prevents customers from being disappointed. 

Unfortunately, many MSPs don’t do this. A mistake a lot of them make is allowing the help desk to get so disorganized, that expectations get out of hand. Techs are typically busy focusing on a specific task at hand, such as knocking down the tickets from the queues, writing documentation or working on an escalation. So when a customer calls, the focus of the technician who answers is so disrupted that that single call leads to balls being dropped.

It’s time to finally understand that there is no such thing as multitasking. Your techs need to work in a distraction-free environment in order to provide the best service and be as productive as they can possibly be. 

To create that environment, take action to implement the following best practices:

1. Utilize multiple communication channels
2. Hire a dispatcher to be solely responsible for ticket intake 
3. Allow down time for arbitrary tasks to be completed

Define thresholds for email, chat and calls to communicate with customers. 

Each channel should have a different expected response time, and what those times are should be explicitly clear to your clients. This way, they’ll have no reason to be disappointed and there won’t be any pushback. 

Hire a dispatcher to bring order to your help desk.

Ring-groups are every technician’s nightmare, whether they admit it or not. The benefit of a dispatcher ist that they handle the intake of all the tickets and delegate them, making your techs and customers sigh in relief. 

Make room for down time

When your technicians have down time, they can complete arbitrary tasks, like checking licence expiry dates, inspecting documentation, filling in timesheets, etc. This will prevent small errors that can go unnoticed but cause great trouble down the road. 

Create consistency in the stack you are providing

If you are only using Microsoft Office 365 for emails, Cisco Meraki as your networking equipment, and everyone is equipped with one make and model of laptop, you will create consistency. All techs will know the same hardware and software inside out, creating more cohesion in your operations.

Now, we understand that this might not always be easy to achieve depending on your budget, but we highly recommend doing this. The best providers we’ve seen have this type of consistency.

This is important because you want to be known as an MSP people can trust–an organization that is consistent and reliable.

Make reliability a part of your company’s image!

No matter how much money you throw at marketing agencies and invest in elaborate strategies to get your services known to your clients, nothing works better than word of mouth recommendations.

Just how do you acquire that? By investing in consistency.

Take action to incorporate practices that build your integrity and the results will follow! 

To sum everything up, make your MSP better by:

• Keeping everything in writing and use a ticketing system.
• Create an orderly, distraction-free environment for your technicians.
• Try to use a consistent stack.

Your clients will be happy and your business will scale more easily.

Are you trying to clean up your MSP from bad practices, and you’re unsure where to start? Maybe you just need rockstar technicians and dispatchers. Whichever is the case, we are here for you. Reach out to us on our Contact page today to start the process of becoming one of our clients. 

And send this article to a friend if you think they can benefit from our advice!