#3 – Don’t Be That Guy - MSP Dispatch That Actually Works (Ryan Alter)

In Episode #3 of Don’t Be That Guy on the BMK Vision Podcast, Josh Peterson and Ryan Alter confront a quiet MSP killer that rarely shows up on a P&L line item—yet distorts every service metric you rely on: dispatch.

This episode reframes dispatch as more than “who takes the next ticket.” Dispatch is the operating system that converts service capacity into predictable outcomes. When dispatch is unclear, MSPs don’t just run inefficiently—they become unmeasurable. Utilization becomes noise, service gross margin drifts, agreements look “unprofitable,” and technicians end up owning four jobs instead of one: customer service intake, prioritization, ticket administration, and technical resolution.

If you’ve ever said “my techs dispatch because clients want to talk to the person who can help them” or “we have a dispatcher, but the team still self-dispatches,” this conversation explains why that belief caps scale—and what disciplined MSP leadership must change to turn dispatch into leverage instead of chaos.

The real problem: dispatch is a leadership decision, not a technician preference

Josh makes the case early and unequivocally: if your dispatch model is unclear, your service department becomes a collection of individual coping strategies. Technicians will naturally gravitate toward what feels efficient to them in the moment—answering “their” clients, grabbing “easy” tickets, avoiding administrative friction, and staying heads-down on work they enjoy.

That isn’t a character flaw. It’s a predictable outcome when leadership doesn’t separate responsibilities and enforce a system.

• Self-dispatch creates inconsistent phone coverage and inconsistent client experience.
• Cherry-picking leaves old tickets aging while the queue looks “busy” but not productive.
• When no one owns the day, everyone owns a piece—and no one owns the outcome.

The three dispatch models (and the one you must avoid)

The episode breaks dispatch into three distinct models—and a fourth “blended” anti-model that shows up in struggling MSPs. The takeaway is not that only one model is acceptable. The takeaway is that you must choose one intentionally, then build conviction and compliance around it.

• Self-dispatch: technicians answer calls and pull tickets as they choose. It works only at the smallest scale—and fails predictably as volume grows.
• Centralized dispatch (air traffic control): a dispatcher orchestrates scheduling, priority, and load balancing; most work is scheduled and communicated clearly to clients and techs.
• Priority-based dispatch: each technician works a prioritized queue managed by dispatch; it requires disciplined status updates and strong client communication.

The “blended” model (a little of everything) is the worst of all worlds: it destroys accountability, confuses clients, and invites technicians to route around the system whenever pressure rises.

Centralized dispatch isn’t micromanagement — it’s capacity protection

Centralized dispatch is framed as the pinnacle because it makes the service department legible: hours are planned, emergencies are absorbed without constant reshuffling, and the dispatcher becomes a student of ticket history and weekly patterns. But it’s difficult because it demands maturity: technicians must accept reduced autonomy, and dispatch must be skilled enough to schedule less than 100% of available hours to protect the business from reality.

• Scheduling 100% of capacity guarantees chaos the first time an “emergency” appears.
• Dispatch must reserve time intentionally so the day can flex without breaking.
• The client experience becomes consistent because the schedule is explicit, not implied.

Priority-based dispatch only works when technicians behave predictably

Priority-based dispatch can be the most practical path for many MSPs—but only if technicians follow the rules that make the queue trustworthy. The episode emphasizes two behaviors that separate “we tried it” from “it works”: status discipline and early estimation. If dispatch cannot see what’s actually in progress, it cannot balance the day. And if technicians can’t identify whether a ticket is a quick win or a scheduled project within the first window of work, every queue becomes a lie.

• Technicians must update statuses immediately (assigned → in progress → completed).
• Within the first 10–20 minutes, the tech communicates an estimated time-to-resolution.
• When something becomes a 2-hour journey, dispatch can pull it into a scheduled slot to protect flow.

Dispatch roles fail when MSPs treat them as disposable

Ryan and Josh also address why dispatch turnover is so common: MSPs often hire “cheap phone coverage,” then put that person into a conflict-heavy role with unclear authority and no career path. The solution is not “find a superhero.” It’s to treat dispatch as a real operational function, train it like a profession, and protect it culturally—because dispatch is the mechanism that keeps technicians focused on resolution instead of noise.

• A great dispatcher is an excellent human communicator first, and a process executor second.
• High-pressure customer-service backgrounds often translate well to dispatch.
• Automation and AI can assist triage and ticket hygiene, but empathy and expectation-setting remain human.

Episode highlights

• 00:02:50 – Dispatch mistakes damage profitability and client satisfaction—dispatch is a core lever.
• 00:05:03 – Self-dispatch (techs answering their own calls) limits consistency and growth.
• 00:10:40 – Centralized dispatch (air traffic control) is ideal for efficiency but requires cultural change.
• 00:22:25 – Priority-based dispatch balances autonomy and oversight with technician-specific queues.
• 00:33:13 – AI and automation can triage tickets but can’t replace human empathy in dispatch.
• 00:36:42 – Dispatch roles suffer high turnover; invest in training, clarity and respect.
• 00:48:30 – Great dispatchers often come from high-pressure customer-service backgrounds.

About the guest: Ryan Alter

Ryan Alter is a former MSP owner from Missoula, Montana. Over two decades he grew a one-man break-fix shop into a 25-person MSP. Ryan championed disciplined dispatch and hybrid billing models, helping owners recognize dispatch as the foundation for scaling service operations.

🌐 Connect with Ryan Alter on LinkedIn →

About the host: Josh Peterson

Josh Peterson is the CEO of Bering McKinley and host of the BMK Vision Podcast. Through Don’t Be That Guy, Josh helps MSP owners replace heroics with structure, habits, and operating systems that scale.

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Want to go deeper?

If you’re ready to stop improvising dispatch and start running service on a model your team can execute, explore Vision or apply to be a guest on the podcast.

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