If you're a small business paying a managed service provider for IT support, you've probably been told you have a dedicated team looking after you. Qualified engineers. Proactive monitoring. Enterprise-grade service. The sales pitch is always polished.
I spent over 20 years on the other side of that pitch. I've led IT service desks, managed service operations, and sat in the board meetings where these contracts get priced. I know exactly how the sausage gets made. And there are a few things most MSPs would rather you didn't ask about.
the margin squeeze
MSPs sell fixed-price contracts. The profit comes from the gap between what you pay and what it costs to deliver the service. The single biggest cost is staff. A properly qualified engineer with real experience costs serious money. A recently graduated "technician" on an entry-level salary costs a fraction of that.
So the hiring incentive is almost always to go junior. One decent engineer surrounded by a team of people who are still learning. The client sees "a team of eight supporting you" on the proposal and feels reassured. Nobody asks what those eight people actually know.
certification theatre
You might notice your MSP's website is covered in Microsoft logos and certification badges. Those look impressive. Most of them aren't.
The entry-level Microsoft certifications (the ones with "Fundamentals" in the name) are marketing exams, not engineering ones. They take a weekend of revision. They exist so Microsoft can count certified partners and MSPs can tick boxes on tender responses. They don't mean the person holding the certificate can troubleshoot your network or recover your data.
The certifications that actually mean something take months of study, cost real money, and require ongoing professional development. MSPs rarely invest in those because the staff who earn them tend to leave for better-paying roles. Which brings us to the next problem.
the revolving door
Anyone genuinely good at IT support figures out fairly quickly that they're doing the work of three people for a junior salary. They leave. They go in-house at a company that pays properly, or they move to a vendor, or they set up on their own. The MSP backfills with another junior. The cycle repeats.
This is why you keep getting a different person every time you call. It's not because the team is large. It's because the team keeps changing. The person who understood your setup six months ago is probably working somewhere else now.
title inflation
Promoting someone from "Technician" to "Senior Analyst" costs nothing. A proper pay rise costs money. So titles get handed out freely to delay departures by six to twelve months. The client sees "Senior" on the org chart and assumes experience. The reality is often someone in their second year who's been given a new job title instead of a meaningful career development plan.
why most clients never notice
Here's the uncomfortable truth: most of the time, it doesn't matter. The majority of IT support tickets are password resets, printer issues, and "have you tried turning it off and on again." A junior technician following a knowledge base article can handle those just fine.
The gap only shows up when something serious happens. A security breach. A failed migration. A server that won't come back up. A compliance audit that needs answering. Those are the moments when you find out whether your IT support is staffed by people who genuinely understand infrastructure or people who are Googling the answer at the same time you are.
The sales pitch sells confidence and availability. What gets delivered is often competence at the shallow end and panic at the deep end.
what to ask your msp
I'm not saying all MSPs are bad. Some are excellent. But the model creates pressure to cut corners on the one thing that matters most: the people doing the work. If you're evaluating IT support, or wondering whether you're getting what you're paying for, here are some questions worth asking:
- What qualifications do the people working on my account actually hold? Not the company's partner status. The individuals.
- How long has my primary contact been with the company? High turnover is a red flag.
- What happens when something goes seriously wrong? Not the standard escalation slide. Who, specifically, picks up the phone?
- Can I meet the team? If the answer is complicated, that tells you something.
why this matters to me
I don't sell IT support contracts. I build websites and manage Microsoft 365 for small businesses. But I spent over two decades in IT leadership, and the reason I do things differently is precisely because I've seen how this industry operates from the inside.
When I take on a client, they deal with me. Not a rotating cast of juniors. Not a ticket queue. I only support what I sell, I'm honest about what I can and can't do, and I don't pretend to be something I'm not. That's not a business model you'll find on many MSP websites, but it's one that actually works for small businesses who just want things done properly by someone who knows what they're doing.
For larger businesses that genuinely need around the clock support from seasoned professionals who can resolve issues properly, I can recommend a handful of genuinely qualified and highly experienced teams. I can also tell you which ones to avoid. After 20 years in this industry, I know who's doing it right and who's just selling confidence.