Handling After-Hours/On-Call Issues for MSPs

What happens when a client has an after-hours issue? Do they call you directly? Do they call the service desk? Do they call some other number? Do they even know how to get after-hours support?

My name is Adam Hannemann. Welcome to Ramblings of a Geek. Today I want to dive into a topic that many Managed Service Providers (MSPs) grapple with: managing after-hours support. This is a crucial aspect of our industry that can significantly impact both client satisfaction and employee well-being.

I’ve spent many a week on-call in my career, and frankly it sucked.

Introduction

When I first started in the MSP world, I was willing to do whatever it took to help a client, even if it meant answering calls at all hours. But as the business grew, I realized after far too much family strife that this approach wasn’t sustainable. The challenge is finding a balance between being available for clients and ensuring that you and your team isn’t heading towards burning out.

I had a client once call me for help on a Sunday that was looking for mail merge help. On a Sunday! Yikes. This was the bridge too far, and became my litmus test of after hours support.

What I learned from that experience was that I taught my clients to call me whenever it was convenient for them. I should have built a process that we could both live with that helped them when they truly needed after-hours support that worked for me as well.

Doing after-hours support well and in a sustainable fashion is important for the health of your client relationships AND your team’s happiness in your organization.

Setting Expectations

As with most items in the Managed Services world setting expectations and being on the same page with your clients and staff is vital for your success.

• Reasonable Availability: Determine what your company can realistically offer. Are you willing to be on call 24/7, or do you set boundaries, like stopping at 10 PM?
• Client Expectations: Understand what your target clients need. For example, manufacturing, retail, and hospitality clients might require more weekend attention, while others may not.
• Contractual Clarity: Clearly define after-hours support in your contracts. Specify how clients should reach out and what constitutes an emergency.

Your decisions about how to provide on-call / after-hours support in your MSP will impact the clients you attract and keep. If you have mismatches of what you are willing to deliver and what your current clients expect they may start looking for a new MSP. In fact, depending on the overall relationship, you may want to help them find a new MSP.

Employee Considerations

When thinking about after-hours support it’s important to consider what you and your team are willing to do first. If you want to be a 24/7 shop that helps define the clients you should be going after. Conversely, if you’d rather be a 7AM-5PM shop with after-hours support until 10PM that will also define the clients you are aiming at. This is all part of that Target Client Profile conversation.

• Support for Staff: Ensure your team is supported when handling after-hours issues. Consider their well-being and the impact of being on call.
  • Backup on call: Part of supporting your team is to make sure that you have a backup in case the primary on-call person is unavailable. They should work as a team to provide support to clients.
  • Escalation Process: There will be issues that are too big, too technical, or too political for your on-call people to handle. You must have a solid escalation procedure for when those things happen. You don’t want your on-call staff to be stuck on an island when they could and should raise their hand and ask for help.
• Compensation: Decide how you’ll compensate employees for after-hours work. This should be clear in your policies and contracts.
  • Hourly/Non-exempt employees: This can be as straightforward that you’ll pay them overtime for working on-call issues. You could give a bonus or something too, but they should be compensated for their time.
  • Salary/Exempt employees: This is a little bit trickier. I’ve seen MSPs give an on-call bonus for the week. I’ve seen MSPs give an on-call bonus for each issue, and I’ve seen MSPs do both.

The bottom line with supporting your team here is that they need to understand that the company has their back. They also should know that you value their personal time outside the office. Don’t take advantage of your team, and they’ll do well by you and your clients.

Client Communication

When you think about clients and managing their expectations there are a couple of key things to consider. You want to make sure that they understand what is an emergency (No mail merge issues on a Sunday, thank you very much!), and what the cost of after hours support will be.

• Defining Emergencies: Not everything is an emergency. Make sure clients understand what qualifies as urgent and what can wait. Define that early on and include it in your conversations from the sales process through onboarding.
• Cost Implications: Be transparent about any additional costs for after-hours support. This should be part of the initial contract discussion.
  • One idea that I’m a fan of is making ALL after hours work billable and at least time and a half. That way, the client can make the decision if they are willing to pay extra for the after hours needs. This may or may not be tenable for your clients, but it’s something I’m seeing more and more often. If you charge your clients for after-hours support directly it’s a bit easier to give your team a bit of a bonus for solving said issues.

Strategies for After-Hours Support

The mechanics of after-hours support are important to consider as well. Fortunately, there’s not a ton of different options that make sense in the Managed Services space.

• Traditional On-Call: Many MSPs use the good-old standby of having a primary and backup on-call. The client calls or emails a ticket in and it notifies the on-call person. If the on-call person does not respond in time the backup person is responsible for stepping in.
• Answering Services: Some MSPs employ answering services to triage calls and determine if they truly require immediate attention. Then the answering service notifies the on-call personnel of the emergency tickets.
  • As a side note, I’m a fan of answering services because it should provide a better client experience along with a better experience for your techs.

Let me soap-box about 24/7 for a moment

I’ve been in many client or sales meetings where the client professes to need 24/7 support. Most businesses really don’t. They want the convenience of knowing someone is there at any hour of the day to help them out, but when it comes down to it they really don’t need it. You must determine if this is something you’re willing and able to provide.

A few verticals do need 24/7. Manufacturing with 3 shifts, municipalities with 911 operators, hospitals, and hospitality (think hotels and restaurants open late) all generally require some sort of 24/7 support. If those are your verticals then you might need to be available 24/7.

Most other industries like the idea of 24/7, but it’s unlikely that they need it. So, if you have one client that needs it and the other 150 clients don’t maybe it’s time to find another MSP for that one client. Maybe not, but having one client with wildly different needs than everyone else will cause issues for you at some point.

Providing 24/7 support is more than just the overnights. When I was looking into it in a previous life getting the overnights covered wasn’t the hardest part. It was getting the 24 hours on Saturday and the 24 hours on Sunday covered. We ultimately decided that 24/7 wasn’t for us at the time and moved on.

Conclusion

In summary, managing after-hours support is about setting clear expectations with clients and employees. It’s crucial to define what constitutes an emergency, how support is accessed, and what costs are involved. By doing so, you can ensure that your MSP operates smoothly without overburdening your team.

If you found this discussion helpful, consider subscribing for more insights into managing your MSP effectively. Thank you for watching, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon!

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