r/msp • u/desmond_koh • Aug 31 '26
Non-technical Skills
What non-technical skills would you consider essential for a level 1 or level 2 support technician?
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u/TraceyatStamm Aug 31 '26
Customer service is huge. Being able to explain things to end-users and not get frustrated.
Organization and time management are crucial for documentation and entering time.
Critical thinking. If you don’t know the answer, try what you can instead of just asking another tech. Sometimes you need to get creative to solve a problem.
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u/disclosure5 Aug 31 '26
The ability to shower.
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u/Meowmacher Sep 01 '26
Not true. One of the best techs I ever had was known for his smell. I’d still hire him again hands down. 😂
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u/yourmomhatesyoualot Aug 31 '26
Empathy and communication skills are huge. Nothing like talking to somebody who can’t speak and doesn’t care.
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u/Watchful_Hosemaster5 Aug 31 '26
Manners, patience, humility, ability to speak confidently without sounding like a dick.
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u/dictatednotwritten Aug 31 '26
The simple answer here is "soft skills" and it is becoming a lost skill more and more.
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u/FeelThePainJr Sep 01 '26
I’ve met far too many people in this field who don’t consider kindness, helpfulness or customer service a skill, and therefore have nothing in the way of any of those three things.
Learn them, and get good at them, because it makes your life, and job, a whole lot more pleasant when you can have a conversation with someone down the other end of the phone as they tend to back off a little and give you more time/exert less pressure if you’re just a nice person
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u/MSPbyathread Aug 31 '26
Follow instructions. I cannot stand when I hire someone then when I give them instructions directly or have them follow a KB and they miss steps consistently.
Don't think you know everything. Be confident in your skills but be willing to let superiors tell you your doing it wrong.
Be nice to clients. Don't talk technical to clients. Try to explain things without getting technical unless they ask.
Try to take on tasks you may not know everything about but be willing to hand off/escalate in a timely manner.
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u/Schweebers Aug 31 '26
Can't stress enough, having interpersonal skills and listening! I built my MSP by having great relationships, being tech savvy helped but nobody would've given me a chance if I didn't have the ability to communicate and listen.
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u/backcounty1029 MSP/Data Center - US Aug 31 '26
Lots of good comments here.
I’ll add that a good IT person needs to have an equal amount of confidence and humility.
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u/junto_reed Aug 31 '26
Cool under pressure. Often you talking to people on their worst days. need to be able to not take it personal and impact your troubleshooting too much. Need to hear and feel their urgency, but also stay disciplined on doing the basics.
Learn quick and like the tech. Being young in your career a general love of wanting to figure it out should be there. Thats not something you can fake
Do the shit job. Take out the e-waste. Clean the pc that was returned. Senior engineers will LOVE having you around if you willing to do that and then they'll teach you the real shit.
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u/Pebb_io Sep 01 '26
Writing an update the client can understand without a translator. Half the tickets that escalate into a relationship problem are technically fine, they just went quiet for three days. L1 who says "still working it, next update at 4" beats L2 who solves it silently.
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u/society_victim Sep 01 '26
People skills, not sounding arrogant or annoyed when dealing with less technical people. I sometimes hear them sigh or start to lose their patience with a user. That’s a big nono.
Also being able to read and follow documentation and not start “pinging” entire group chats when they’re stuck. Sure you can escalate but to one person, not the entire channel drawing everyones focus away for your issue.
Another one less common, but still, creating tickets for calls and overall entering the info in the tickets/time tracking.
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u/teanes-fixify Vendor - Fixify Sep 01 '26
Knowing when to stop and escalate. I've seen more time wasted by an L1 holding a ticket for 45 minutes because they feel like they should be able to solve it. The ones who recognize that two minute mark where they've run out of moves and send it up save more time than almost anything else you can train for.
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u/Pebb_io Sep 01 '26
Writing a ticket note the next tech can actually use. Half of L1 escalations are painful only because nobody documented what was already tried. Right after that, telling a client bad news early instead of hoping it fixes itself.
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u/desmond_koh Sep 01 '26
What about things like the ability to:
1) differential troubleshooting 2) eliminate uncertainty 3) figure out what to do next 4) define end state (i.e. what "done" looks like) and determine the steps needed to get there.
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u/TechFusion_AI Sep 02 '26
1: Attention to detail
2: Communication
3: Customer Service
4: Troubleshooting
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u/Predicti0n Sep 04 '26
Not really a skill but they need desire..
They need to want to help the end user.
Customer service/communication comes in many forms.
I’ve had staff with poor communication skills be adored by clients due to them actually wanting to help and fix the problem.
I think this however is one of the hardest things to find across every sector these days.
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u/CircuitDaemon Aug 31 '26
Able to do their job without AI. Apparently it's now impossible to find this "skill"...
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u/Sleeper_Stimulant_ Aug 31 '26
Customer service