Solving the Top Issues MSP IT Support Teams Face

For an MSP, choosing the right technical partner can enhance your success and improve business continuity.

It’s easy to lose sight of how big and agonizing a decision it is for organizations when selecting a managed service provider. It’s one of the most profound choices that a modern business will make as it hands management and security of IT networks and systems to a third party. So, as an MSP yourself, how do you inspire confidence in potential clients and maintain the trust of your existing ones? In an already crowded market, the answer has to be excellent customer service backed by bulletproof IT system reliability — the very things that your own clients strive for, and the exact reason they turn to you for support. It also means selecting a technical partner that is able to enhance your offering and understands your long-term business goals. One you can depend on in the same way your clients rely on you.

But MSPs often struggle in exactly the same ways as their clients when it comes to choosing the right solutions partner, and as a result, their IT teams face the same uphill struggle when prioritizing support-related queries and coping with day-to-day systems management. This article looks at a few of the most common day-to-day challenges encountered by IT teams within MSPs and explores some potential solutions.


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Why Tech Support is Crucial to the Overall User Experience

Post summary:

• What is tech support?
• Tech support vs customer support
• 7 tips for better tech support
• When your customers run into a problem with your product, they contact your support team.

But, not just regular support.

For “IT” related issues, they contact tech support.

Whether the problem is a “user” error, a bug or technical issue, it doesn’t matter to them, they just want it solved so they can continue with their workload.

If they can’t log in to your product? They contact tech support.

A feature or module isn’t working as it normally does? They contact tech support.

Therefore, any questions relating to the product (how to install it, how to configure, etc.) all need to be answered by technical expertise in order for your customers to get the best value out of your product.

If you don’t have a tech support team in place to answer these questions, then customers will eventually stop using your product. And this leads to higher churn rates.

Put simply, if you run a product based business, then technical support is crucial to your overall success.

Yet, there’s a challenge with tech support.

It’s expensive!

In fact, it’s 100x more expensive than self-service channels.

Each time you fail to solve a tech support question, you’re potentially throwing money away.

Worse of all, you risk losing customers.

This becomes even more significant if you run a subscription-based business where one customer can subscribe to tens or even hundreds of user licenses. Failing to deliver a good experience here can be very costly.

That’s why it’s essential to provide high quality tech support.

To help you and your team, we’ve created the ultimate guide to tech support.

In this guide, we’ll outline what tech support is, why you should care about it, and how it works – as well as hints and tips to help your business improve on the quality of tech support you provide.

Let’s dive right in!

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10 signs you may not be cut out for a support tech job

The role of support tech is ideal for some people—but it might not be the best choice for others. This list will help you determine which camp you fall in. 

So you want to be a computer support technician. Or perhaps you are one already, but you can't decide whether you're just having a bad week or you're really not cut out for the job. What does it take to be an effective support tech? Is this a career at which you can excel and be happy? The ability to do well in any job and to enjoy it depends to a certain extent upon our personalities, skills, and attitudes. But how can you tell if being a support tech is right for you? Consider the following indications that you might be on the wrong track. If they don't apply to you, the list of resources at the end of the article can help you down this career path.

Check out this free ebook for a look at other IT job roles to help you decide if they're a good fit for you.

1: You don't respect other techs

Start by examining your attitude toward support techs. When you have to call your ISP or other service provider, do you treat the techs with respect or do you assume they're all idiots reading flip charts? If you don't respect the role of the support tech, regardless of how well a particular tech performs, you probably shouldn't be one, as you won't value yourself or what you do.

SEE: Telephone interview cheat sheet: Support technician (Tech Pro Research)

2: You view the job only as a stepping stone

How do you see the job as support tech? Is it an end in itself or merely a stepping stone to something "better"? Unfortunately, in many organizations, the support tech job is regarded as the lowest rung of the IT ladder, an entry-level position to be filled by people with little or no proven experience who will be promoted out of the spot at the earliest opportunity.

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