It’s the most recognizable sequence in the MSP world.
9:03 AM: A client submits a ticket marked “URGENT – Critical Issue.”
9:10 AM: Your Service Coordinator or Tier 1 Tech jumps on it, triages the issue, and reaches out immediately to schedule a remote session.
9:15 AM: … Radio silence.
Two hours pass. Then 24 hours. The client who was “desperate” for help has vanished into the ether.
Now, your team enters “The Chase.” They are stuck in a loop of leaving voicemails, sending “Just checking in” emails, and updating ticket notes with “Left VM, waiting on user.”
We call this The “Hello?” Tax. It’s a silent vampire on your service margins, and most MSPs don’t even realize how much it’s costing them until they do the math.
The Real Cost of the “3-Strike Policy”
Most mature MSPs operate on a variation of the “3-Strike Policy” (or 3-Touch Rule) to manage unresponsive users. It usually looks like this:
- Attempt 1: Call + Email immediately.
- Attempt 2: Follow up 24–48 hours later.
- Attempt 3: The “Final Attempt” notice before closing the ticket.
Whether you have a dedicated Dispatcher running this process or you rely on your Engineers to manage their own queues, the cost is the same: Waste.
It’s not just the 5 minutes it takes to send the email or leave the voicemail. The real cost is Context Switching.
Every time your Dispatcher has to stop triaging new, incoming fire to circle back to a stagnant ticket, they lose momentum. Every time a Tech has to Alt-Tab away from a server migration to check if “User Dave” finally replied, they pay a cognitive tax.
Do the math: (Staff Hourly Rate) x (15 minutes of total “Chase Time” per ticket) x (Volume of Ghosting Clients)
If you have 20 “ghosts” a week, you aren’t just losing time; you are paying thousands of dollars a month for your highly skilled staff to act as professional naggers.
The “Zombie Ticket” Backlog
The financial cost is bad, but the operational cost is worse. Ghosting clients create Zombie Tickets.
These are tickets that appear “Open” on your board but represent zero actual work. They artificially inflate your backlog count. When your Service Manager looks at the board and sees 75 open tickets, their blood pressure spikes. But if 30 of those are just sitting in “Waiting on Client,” your data is lying to you.
This clutter makes it harder to spot actual fires. It demoralizes the team because the board never looks “clean,” no matter how hard they work. They feel behind, when in reality, they are just waiting.
Stop Chasing. Start Automating.
You cannot force a client to reply. But you can stop paying your team to chase them.
The solution isn’t to be more aggressive; it’s to invert the workflow. Instead of a human owning the logistics of the chase, you hand that burden to a workflow engine.
This is where TimeZest changes the game.
Because TimeZest integrates natively into your PSA (ConnectWise, Autotask, or HaloPSA), we don’t just “send a link.” We automate the entire pursuit:
- The Trigger: Your team sends the invite directly from the ticket.
- The Automation: Based on your PSA workflows, email reminders are sent as a gentle nudge, including a custom TimeZest scheduling link so your dispatcher doesn’t have to.
- The Workflow: If the client books? The appointment is written directly into the ticket, and the status updates to “Scheduled.”
- The Closure: If the client never books? TimeZest can invoke custom ‘no-response logic’ to automatically manage the ticket further.
At this point, instead of simply ‘hard-closing’ the ticket, TimeZest provides a number of workflow options based on your chosen criteria. For example, is the client a VIP or enterprise-status? A ‘soft-closed’ status may offer your team one more opportunity to personally reach out before deciding to close the ticket altogether.
Why “Free” Calendars Don’t Fix This
You might be thinking, “Can’t I just use a Microsoft Bookings link?“
You can, but you’re trading one manual task for another.
Generic calendars don’t speak “PSA.” If a client books via a generic link, your Dispatcher still has to manually check the calendar, find the corresponding ticket, update the status, and ensure the tech is assigned. If the client doesn’t book, the ticket sits there rotting until a human remembers to check it.
You’re still chasing; you’re just chasing a different tool.
Your Team is for Solving, Not Stalking
Your Dispatchers are there to triage priority and manage relationships. Your Techs are there to fix problems.
Neither of them should be wasting cycles playing “Tag” with a client who is too busy to pick up the phone.
Let the robot handle the logistics. Eliminate the “Hello?” Tax. Let your team get back to work.
