In today’s post, Dan, the host of MSP Power Up™ talks about why what you are doing it wrong.

Common Mistakes In MSP Operations.

Even though I don’t run an MSP, I can tell you that you are doing it wrong, 100% you’re doing it wrong. And I’ll tell you what, if you’re not, text me, 813-743-7175 is my cell phone number and just say – Hey, Dan, you’re wrong. I’m not doing it wrong. – I know, there are a lot of double negatives there,  either way, but I guarantee you are doing this piece wrong.  

Dispatcher Role And Responsibilities.

Now, what is it? You are disusing your dispatcher. Yeah, that’s right. You aren’t properly utilizing them, you have them reduced down to pick a jockey, when in fact, the dispatcher’s primary role is not to dispatch tickets. Customer service, and the morale of the team, is that their service goal, their objective is to keep customers happy, and short customer satisfaction and ensure the morale of the team. The problem is, they’re bogged down in the minutia of it to where they don’t have time to do what they should be doing, and the problem is: 

• No everyone does it that way; 
• That’s what dispatchers do; 

Oh, everyone’s doing it that way, everyone? So if everyone decided to play Russian roulette, you would too? I think you’re supposed to say “jump off a bridge”, but Russian Roulette is what popped into my head, I don’t know why but don’t worry, I’m not going to play Russian roulette.

Dispatcher? What do you do? How do you do it? The problem that exists that you probably dismissing is because my dispatcher is so bogged down, if she doesn’t do it, I need her to do it that’s what I pay her for, or him. Excuse me, but most people when they say dispatcher, they say her, I don’t know why it’s sexist, but that’s most people, most MSPs I talk to say her so I guess that’s why I say here. I apologize, ladies, if that was chauvinistic and sexist. It wasn’t intentional. With that disclaimer out of the way; how do you do it? Well, this is a blatant promotion, by the way, but ServiceTree would be one answer, and talk less would be another answer. There’s a lot of answers. But figure out a way it’s a problem to solve. How do you free up your dispatcher? Yes, like I said, there are tools, there’s processes, there’s all these different things that you can do at your disposal. But just imagine with me for a second, let’s ignore the tactical, the how-to, let’s ignore that, I know that’s where your mind goes but let’s start with just a mental journey with me and let’s say that’s all done and your dispatcher doesn’t have to do that, they’re able to proactively, beyond the tickets, they’re able to call the customers, ask them how it went, they’re able to call customers that didn’t even submit tickets, they’re able to focus on customer relationships. What kind of impact would that make on your business? 

Improving Customer Relationships For MSPs.

I understand you’re going back to – This is impossible. This is a ridiculous exercise. – Bear with me for a minute, follow me in this train of thought, just give me a little indulgent, I know, I know, it’s crazy talk. I’ll probably be Baker Acted for even thinking this but just come with me for a second, and just think: Proactively talking to the customers, proactively, beyond just how tickets go, beyond that, beyond just doing human see-saws on that. What kind of impact would that have on your customer relationships? Positive, and how does that translate? What is the business impact on your business? 

Number one, besides increasing client retention, let’s think beyond that. How many MSPs do you know that do that? What if you have that relationship with your customers? Guess what? Their friends, their business owner friends, the people that they do business with, that’s what they’re gonna want. They’re gonna want that Jerry Maguire relationship help me, help you, be an ambassador qualm, that Jerry Maguire relationship, which hopefully you got that reference. If you haven’t, if you don’t get that reference stop everything and go watch Jerry Maguire because I’d be disappointed, but I would assume you have seen Jerry Maguire, who hasn’t?

But that is one, client retention, and referrals, also increase trust, So guess what? As you’re talking to the customers, they are going to bring up problems outside of the scope, because in their mind, you’re just limited technology, you can identify new lines of business, new services offer increasing revenue, increasing referrals. 

Workplace Culture And Productivity.

Let us go to the other side. And I know, try to fight off, do your best, I know it’s hard. I know in the back of your head: This is crazy, this is impossible. But keep going. 

Now, the other part of this is that your focus is on team morale. What kind of impact would that have internally on your culture? Dare I say culture think about it. One of your techs is overloaded, the other techs are too busy to notice. They helping out one of your techs who is having a bad day, their cat got run over by a Hummer. Being able to help out or making work fun. God forbid! Do you guys all love playing video games, yet? Do you gamify things? You know making work fun on that. The more fun people have, the more productive they are, the more productive they are. The higher your utilization becomes, the higher the utilization becomes, the more profitable you become. On top of that, you’re not going to have to spend time trying to find a tech to replace the tech that you have, the ever-revolving door of tech leaving. And you know what? Their friends who are techs are going to be begging to work for you because it’s fun. The MSP down the street is not fun, you’re going to have techs who want to work for you and even though good people are hard to find, you’re not going to have to find people when you need them, you’re going to be blowing up because of referrals, because your dispatcher’s relationship with customers. But you see where I’m going with this. The business impact is a promise if you don’t think about turning a business impact on that.

Improving Dispatcher Efficiency In The Service Industry.

Now that you see that maybe it’s more motivating to figure out how do I get my dispatcher to have the time to do that? Well, there’s a couple of different ways. ServiceTree is one, Top left is another one, or help consult with C level (I think that’s what they’re still called), consult with Gary Pica; figure out processes and systems in place to free up your dispatcher, level up your dispatcher for a higher and better use of their time, figure it out. But I would say this may be an unbiased opinion, of course, service-tree.com, and check it out. 

Now, that’s not gonna solve world hunger on that and then may not even make sense for your business, I know it’s going to help your dispatcher out, but it may not make sense for your business. And I would probably be the one you’re speaking to, and I’ll tell you that straight up and I’m not going to try to sell a square peg into a round hole. We’ll figure it out together but check it out. And before you download a trial give me a call, you want to go straight to the trial? Absolutely! Is simple, it takes a little bit of setup, I’m at the wizard there, but maximize it and drive it. Need a little bit of advanced configuration just slightly on it, but check us out, and give us a chance. And you know what? Worst case scenario, we both wasted 15 minutes of our time in an exploratory conversation. Best case scenario, we set you down this path to do that, is it going to 100% do that? I have no idea, probably not. But it will get you closer, and then may go a long way to do it, and your techs are gonna feel less burdened because instead of 500 open tickets at a time, there are less than 100. That’s crazy talk! Then well, let’s talk, and then we could see if I’m crazy. 

But anyway, that is a blatant self-promoting post, but I just had to talk about that, “The dispatcher”. Even if you don’t go to ServiceTree, do yourself a favor and figure out how to level up your dispatcher.