How To Avoid Burnout at Your MSP

Have you been in situations where you can see that your MSP’s efficiency is dipping, but you can’t quite pinpoint what’s causing it? MSP Burnout is almost always one of the primary reasons behind such occurrences.

Burnout stems from multiple causes — unfair treatment, work-life imbalance and dysfunctional workplace dynamics among others. But two factors common in most cases are unmanageable workload and constant on-the-job frustrations.

A survey in 2019 found that almost 82% of small business employees felt overworked. Now, with the onset of the pandemic, people are under more stress than ever. So, as an MSP owner or manager, you must proactively take steps to prevent burnout. We suggest you start by focusing on the stuff you can control.

Ensure information is easily accessible 

It is frustrating to spend hours looking in different places to locate a piece of information. Now imagine doing it daily. That’s what your team is forced to do if you don’t have robust documentation software. Things can quickly get overwhelming as your team has to exert more effort than required to complete every task — ultimately leading to burnout. What’s worse, it hampers your ability to resolve client problems promptly.

What you need is robust documentation software. One that ensures that every piece of information from device model number, software licenses, passwords, activity logs to SOPs are readily available in a secure, centralized location.

Your team will be happy, relaxed and confident because they know they can locate what they need in minutes and quickly complete their tasks — no more wasting time wandering time. What’s more, your clients will appreciate your punctuality.

Leverage integrations 

Technology is meant to simplify your life. But when your MSP uses multiple applications that do not integrate well with each other, it only makes your team’s job harder. There will be more instances of manual data entry and importing and exporting of data — forcing your team to jump unnecessary hoops to complete a task.

Now imagine an alternate reality where your whole tech stack integrates well with each other — right from PSA, RMM, IT documentation, to CRM. Your team will be able to automate tedious workflows and ensure there is greater transparency. For instance, every time a ticket is raised in the PSA software, contextual information from the documentation software will get pulled simultaneously. That means, in seconds, your team will get to know the client’s device configuration, location, passwords, and more.

Set up clearly defined processes

If you don’t have standardized processes for your repetitive tasks, each employee may end up doing it differently. This, of course, makes it harder to deliver consistent service, and thus can result in gaps between client expectations and what you’re delivering. Your techs, especially new hires, may end up feeling burned out because they can’t match the standards set by some of their colleagues.

Again, documentation software will help solve this problem to a large extent. Get everyone to document how they deal with different tasks. Find out the fastest and most effective methods. Based on that, set up standard operating procedures and checklists for each task. Then, share the documents with everyone.

It will instill confidence in your employees. They know they can always rely on this repository for support or guidance. Moreover, you will be able to onboard new hires and get them up to speed much faster.

Manage password resets more effectively 

For most MSPs, password resets form a major part of their support tickets. In fact, an average 10-person MSP wastes $9,350 annually just on password-reset tickets.

Cut down these tickets by investing in MyGlue. It is a simple tool that gives you more visibility and allows clients to manage their passwords, share them with their colleagues in a secure environment (SOC II, Type 2 certified), and stop hackers from exploiting sloppy, dangerous password habits.

Replace site walks with automatic network discovery

Site walks are an ineffective way to gain visibility into the client’s network. You have to spend hours commuting to their office and then scamper around documenting every device. It is a mind-numbing and time-consuming activity. On top of that, it is a health risk in these COVID times.

Instead of putting your technicians at risk, adopt Network Glue. It is a simple tool that automates network discovery, documentation, and diagramming. Once you install it on your client’s site, it accurately detects every device on the network regardless of vendor, gives you their details and configurations, and generates a comprehensive network diagram. Plus, it automatically updates the information periodically. Allowing you to eliminate site walks and lighten the burden on your team.

Wrapping up 

It may not eliminate MSP burnouts completely but having a powerful IT documentation software goes a long way in reducing your team’s workload and on-the-job-frustrations. Now, the question is which software you should go for? We may be biased, but IT Glue‘s really the only answer.

IT Glue is an award-winning, SOC 2-compliant documentation platform that serves top-performing MSPs worldwide and has over 200,000 users in 70+ countries. We allow MSPs to create and house all their IT documentation in a secure and easily accessible platform. We have a massive library of integrations featuring some of the finest PSA, RMM, CRM, and productivity tools out there, allowing you to automate tedious workflows. What’s more, we have add-ons such as Network Glue and MyGlue.

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