End users text my personal cell for IT help instead of tickets....will tiny IT teams pay $49/mo to make that stop?
Validating a boring B2B problem before I build....
I’m in IT. For 20+ years the #1 boundary killer has been end users texting/calling my personal cell for support instead of a ticket....they’d rather do that than use the portal or even the business line.
I’m testing whether solo / tiny IT teams (and micro-MSPs) will pay for a thin fix...one published number people can text like a person, every request becomes a clean ticket, staff personal numbers stay private. Capture-first, not a full AI helpdesk.
If you’ve sold something similar to scattered SMB/IT buyers (FB groups, not Reddit), how did you get the first paid yes?
If you are that buyer and this pain is real for you, comment or DM....I’m offering a small number of $49/mo founding pilots once I’ve talked to enough people.
This is a more universal pain than tiny teams think. From running the MSPPartners directory we talk to MSPs of all sizes, and the shadow channel (end users texting techs directly instead of opening tickets) is one of the most common complaints we hear — from both providers and from clients in the middle of switching providers.
One pattern we've noticed among the MSPs that clients rate highest: they don't solve it with a "no texts" policy, they solve it by making the official channel faster than the shortcut. A ticket that gets an auto-acknowledgement within a minute and a real human SLA behind it will beat the cell phone every time. That framing might sharpen your pitch too — you're not really selling a boundary tool, you're selling response-time credibility, which is the first thing IT buyers ask about.
If you're shortlisting providers, the top 100 MSP ranking at https://msppartners.io/top-100-msp/ is a decent starting point — it's also a useful look at how the better ones describe their support and SLA structure.
We price our extension at €150 (not €29) because the value is in time saved, not features. Tiny teams won't blink at $49/mo if it stops the pain — anchor high, let them self-select. If they haggle, they're not your customer.
Good push. I’m anchoring founding at $49 to clear the Zapier+Twilio weekend objection then step up once capture+policy is proven. Time saved framing is right ....curious what you saw when you went €150 vs a lower starter?
the pain is real, the tricky part is the buyer. the person getting texted is the IT guy, but at a small business the one who pays is the owner, and to the owner the texts are working fine (they get fast help). so i'd pitch it as "your staff get the same fast text help, and nothing gets lost when greg is on holiday", not as a boundary thing.
on the first paid yes, micro msp owners in fb groups tend to reply to "how do you handle users texting your cell" way more than to a pitch. the ones who answer with a long rant are your pilot list
You’re right,,, IT feels the pain, owner often doesn’t. Same fast text help.. nothing lost when Greg’s on holiday...is a better owner pitch than 'protect my boundary' Stealing that. On FB, the long rant replies are exactly who I’m DMing for pilots.
This is useful. How are you finding your first users so far?
IT/MSP Facebook groups. I look for threads where someone is ranting about getting texts on their personal cell and DM the ones with the longest replies. Long rant = real pain.
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Right now: DMs vs. silence. Zero DMs = the pitch is wrong or the pain isn't there. Pilot yeses = build trigger.
Curious how long it took before you saw the first real results?
No results yet...this post is the validation step. If I get 3 pilot yeses I build it. If I get crickets I kill it.
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
$49/mo founding. If they won't pay $49 to stop clients from texting their personal cell at midnight, they're not the buyer.