Every MSP has their daily soap opera. Sometimes it’s a DNS outage, other times it’s a CFO clicking “Yes” on a phishing link because the email looked polite. But more often than not, your drama comes in the form of password reset tickets.
They're harmless, right? Like a puppy chewing a sock. But when left unchecked, these routine requests quietly wreck your help desk metrics, inflate incident reports, and make your team look like they're fighting cybercrime when really, they’re just helping Chad log into Teams.
It’s time we had the talk. You know... the one about ticket categorization, automation, and how to stop password resets from taking over your life.
Metrics are your scoreboard. They show clients how responsive you are, how efficient your team is, and whether your help desk is a well-oiled machine or a flaming pile of “Ticket reopened by user.”
But here’s the kicker: when password resets are tagged as “security incidents,” your metrics look like you’re operating in a war zone.
Your SLA reports scream Red Alert! when really, Susan just got locked out after a long weekend and 3.5 mimosas.
Technically, password resets are service requests, not incidents. According to ITIL (aka the IT rules of the road), incidents are unplanned disruptions. Forgetting your password after a vacation doesn’t count (unless Susan actually took her laptop to Cancun and now it won’t boot).
When you lump these everyday tasks in with real issues, you inflate your incident count, tank your response time averages, and make your techs look overwhelmed when they’re actually being... overly helpful.
If your engineers are still manually resetting passwords, we need to talk. That’s like having a Michelin-star chef stuck flipping frozen waffles all day.
Enter: Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR).
SSPR tools (think Microsoft Entra ID) let users handle their own business securely (no ticket, no technician, no crying in the IT room). MSPs who implement these see fewer routine tickets, faster resolution times, and happier techs who aren’t resetting Dave’s password for the fourth time this week.
Every MSP needs a monthly check-in to ask the hard questions:
Why are 35% of our tickets just people forgetting passwords?
How much time are we burning on tasks that should be automated?
Is our help desk really a help desk… or is it secretly a password reset factory?
Service Desk Manager (aka The Ringleader)
Lead Technicians (the “why are we doing this manually?” crew)
Systems Admin or Automation Lead
Optional: Account Manager, if you want client context or someone to gasp audibly at the numbers
Ticket breakdown by category
Average response/resolution times per category
Volume of password resets, access requests, and “I can’t find the Wi-Fi” tickets
Adoption rate of any SSPR or automation solutions
Refactor your categories: Break out “Password Reset,” “Access Request,” “User Account Change.”
Automate like your sanity depends on it: Because it does.
Create standards and train your team: Everyone should know the difference between a real incident and Jim forgetting his laptop password again.
Set goals: Cut reset ticket volume by 50%. Raise categorization accuracy. Get one step closer to a life where your help desk dashboard doesn't induce panic.