The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey was published nearly four decades ago. In CGNET’s early days—and for many years after—I made it required reading for every new team member. Its principle-centered approach to personal and professional development has always felt foundational to me, and the habits themselves have clearly stood the test of time.

Even now, I find myself coming back to one simple question:  What problem are we really trying to solve?

And after years of working with nonprofits, NGOs, and mission-driven organizations, I’ve noticed something: the technical quality of your MSP matters, but so does how you engage with them. The clients who see the strongest outcomes — faster response times, fewer recurring issues, smarter technology investments — share a handful of common habits that make the whole relationship work better.

So here are seven of them.

Habit 1: Treat IT like a strategic function, not a break-fix service

The least effective client relationships we’ve seen share a common pattern: the client only thinks about IT when something breaks. Their MSP becomes a fire department — called in during crises, invisible otherwise.

Effective clients think about technology the way they think about finance or HR: as something that needs regular attention, planning, and investment. They ask their MSP questions like, “What should we be budgeting for over the next three years?” and “What are we doing today that we’ll regret in eighteen months?” That mindset shifts the conversation from reactive to strategic — and that’s where real value gets created.

TRY THIS:  Ask your MSP for an annual technology roadmap review. If they don’t offer one proactively, request it. A good provider will welcome the conversation.

Habit 2:  Communicate changes before they happen — not after

New software rollout. Office move. A sudden surge in remote workers. An acquisition. These events all have significant IT implications, but they often land on an MSP’s desk as surprises. By the time the provider finds out, the decision is done and the technical debt is already accumulating.

The best clients loop in their MSP early — ideally at the planning stage, not the implementation stage. It doesn’t require a formal process. A quick heads-up email or a standing agenda item in your regular check-in is enough. Your MSP can often flag issues, suggest alternatives, or adjust capacity well in advance if they know what’s coming.

TRY THIS: When your team is evaluating a new tool or planning an operational change, put “IT implications” on the checklist. Reach out to your MSP before you sign anything.

Habit 3:  Designate a real internal point of contact

In small and mid-sized organizations, nobody wants to be “the IT person.” It feels like a thankless extra job on top of an already full plate. But when everyone’s the IT person, nobody is — and your MSP ends up chasing down five different people for approvals, information, and feedback.

Effective clients designate one person (or a small team) as the internal liaison. This person doesn’t need to be technical. They just need to be reachable, empowered to make decisions, and willing to relay information clearly in both directions. That single point of contact dramatically improves response times and reduces miscommunication.

TRY THIS: Identify who in your organization your MSP should contact for escalations, approvals, and strategic discussions. Make sure that person knows your MSP’s main contacts too.

Habit 4: Take security seriously — and hold your staff accountable

Your MSP can deploy the best endpoint protection in the world. They can enforce multi-factor authentication, monitor your network around the clock, and maintain an airtight patch schedule. And then one of your employees clicks a phishing link on a Friday afternoon and undoes months of work.

Effective clients understand that cybersecurity is a team sport. They reinforce their MSP’s technical controls with employee training, clear policies, and a culture that takes security seriously. They make security awareness training mandatory, not optional. They respond quickly when their MSP flags suspicious behavior or requests a policy update. They don’t treat security as their MSP’s problem alone.

TRY THIS:  Ask your MSP what percentage of incidents involve a human element. The answer is probably higher than you expect. Use that number to build the case for regular staff security training.

Habit 5:  Use the ticketing system — and include useful details

Every MSP has a ticketing system. It exists for good reasons: to track work, set priorities, document solutions, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. And yet, a surprising number of clients route around it — texting the technician they know, emailing the account manager, calling the helpdesk and then also sending a ticket, just in case.

This might feel more personal, but it actually slows things down. Parallel communication creates confusion about priority and ownership. The ticket is the record. Use it. And when you do submit a ticket, include context: What were you doing when the problem occurred? What error message did you see? What’s the impact on your work? A detailed ticket gets resolved faster than a vague one.

TRY THIS:  Include three things in every ticket: what you were doing, what happened, and what the business impact is. “My email isn’t working and I have a client presentation in two hours” tells your MSP a lot more than “email broken.”

Habit 6:  Review your MSP’s reports — and actually ask questions

Most MSPs produce regular reports — monthly summaries, security dashboards, ticket trend analyses. These reports contain genuinely useful information: which systems are generating the most issues, whether your backup jobs are succeeding, how your security posture compares to last quarter.

In practice, many clients file these reports unread. The best clients treat them as a starting point for conversation. They notice when ticket volume is up and ask why. They spot when a particular piece of software keeps appearing on the problem list and question whether it’s worth keeping. They use the data to make better decisions, not just to confirm everything is fine.

TRY THIS: Schedule a 30-minute monthly review call with your MSP and come prepared with at least one question from their report. It signals that you’re paying attention — and it usually surfaces something worth knowing.

Habit 7: Give honest feedback — including when you’re not happy

Nobody likes raising a complaint. It feels uncomfortable, especially if you have a friendly relationship with your account team. So instead of speaking up, many clients quietly accumulate frustrations until the contract renewal comes around and they start shopping for alternatives.

The irony is that good MSPs want to hear when something isn’t working. A complaint raised early is almost always fixable. A complaint raised at contract renewal is often too late. Effective clients give feedback in real time — when a response time was too slow, when communication was unclear, when a solution didn’t stick. That feedback loop is how an MSP-client relationship improves over time instead of gradually deteriorating.

TRY THIS:  If something bothers you, say so within a week — not at the next quarterly review. Most MSPs have an account manager or client success contact specifically for this. Use them.

Some Final Thoughts

None of these habits require technical expertise. They’re about communication, engagement, and treating the relationship like a genuine partnership — because that’s what it is.

The organizations that get the most from their MSP are the ones their MSP most enjoys working with: clear communicators who plan ahead, take shared responsibility for security, and treat IT as a strategic investment rather than an unavoidable expense. The good news is that those habits are learnable, and the payoff is real.

Ready to make more of your MSP relationship? At CGNET, we work with nonprofits, NGOs, and mission-driven organizations across the globe. We believe that IT partnership works best when clients and providers are pulling in the same direction. Whether you’re a current client looking to get more from what you have, or an organization exploring managed services for the first time, we’re happy to talk. Reach out to me if you’d like to chat at g.*******@***et.com.