#22 – From the Trenches - People-First MSP Ops (Stephanie Carbone)

In this episode of From the Trenches on the BMK Vision Podcast, Josh Peterson sits down with Stephanie Carbone for a conversation that challenges one of the MSP industry’s most stubborn assumptions: that “great service” is primarily a technical outcome. Stephanie’s leadership lens is different. She argues that in a world where tools and tactics are increasingly commoditized, client loyalty is built—or lost—inside the human moments: tone, empathy, confidence, follow-through, and the ability to make a stressed-out end user feel handled even before the root cause is solved.

This is not a soft-skills detour. It is an operating philosophy. Stephanie explains why internal IT experience doesn’t automatically translate into MSP excellence—because the technical variety is only half the challenge. The bigger shift is relational: moving from supporting familiar colleagues to serving a rotating cast of personalities, pressures, and expectations. Her approach borrows from hospitality (including lessons from Ritz-Carlton) to build a culture where technicians are empowered to act like professionals, not ticket-closers—and where leadership treats customer experience as a discipline, not a personality trait.

If you’re an MSP owner trying to stabilize service delivery, reduce escalations, improve retention, or create a culture that doesn’t depend on heroics, this episode is a practical reminder that the “people side” is the system. The fastest way to improve your CSAT is not another tool—it’s a clearer definition of what good service looks like, how it gets taught, and how your team is trusted to deliver it consistently.

How do you build a people-first service culture in an MSP?

Short answer: you treat service culture like an operating system—not an attitude. Stephanie makes the case that “people-first” is not about being nice. It’s about creating repeatable behaviors that shape how tickets are received, how customers are communicated with, how escalations are handled, and how technicians are trained to reduce panic before they reduce problems.

In practice, the shift starts when leadership stops defining success as “issue resolved” and begins defining success as customer confidence preserved. Many MSPs lose trust not because they can’t fix the issue, but because the client doesn’t know what’s happening, what happens next, or whether anyone is paying attention. A people-first culture is one where every interaction signals: “You’re not forgotten. You’re being handled.”

Stephanie’s perspective is especially valuable because she has lived both worlds—internal IT and MSP operations—and she’s clear about what changes: when your users are no longer colleagues, the emotional component becomes part of the job. You either operationalize that reality—or you keep hiring technicians who can solve problems but can’t keep relationships.

The MSP problem this episode solves

Most MSP service delivery bottlenecks are disguised as technical issues but are actually communication breakdowns. The queue grows, escalations stack up, customers get frustrated—and leadership assumes the fix is more tools, more process, or more “A-players.” Stephanie reframes the underlying problem: when technicians feel forced to choose between speed and care, they default to speed, and the client experience quietly degrades.

This episode solves for a specific blind spot: MSPs routinely train technicians on troubleshooting and platforms, but rarely train them on how to run a human interaction—how to reset a tense call, how to de-escalate, how to communicate uncertainty, and how to make a customer feel supported even when resolution requires escalation.

For MSP owners, the implication is clear: if your retention and reviews depend on a few naturally “good communicators,” you don’t have a culture—you have luck. Culture is what remains when the helpful person is out sick.

Internal IT vs. MSP delivery: the hidden transition

Stephanie highlights a dynamic many MSP owners underestimate when hiring: internal IT technicians are often comfortable with a known environment—known networks, known users, known expectations. In an MSP, the technician is dropped into unfamiliar systems and unfamiliar personalities, and the hardest part is frequently not the firewall—it’s the phone call.

What changes is the requirement to adapt in real time. Your technician may have strong technical chops, but if they cannot pivot their communication style from one end user to the next, the experience becomes inconsistent. The customer doesn’t measure you by your certifications. They measure you by whether your team feels composed, respectful, and in control.

This is why people-first MSP operations are a competitive advantage. Not because empathy replaces competence—but because empathy makes competence believable to the customer.

What hospitality teaches MSP leadership

Stephanie draws a straight line from hospitality to IT service: the best service organizations don’t just “hire good people.” They design systems that give employees the confidence and authority to do the right thing in the moment.

• Empowerment beats scripts: customers can feel when a technician is “allowed” to help versus merely required to follow a checklist.
• De-escalation is a skill: the first job on an angry call is not fixing the issue—it’s reducing the panic so progress is possible.
• Small moments create loyalty: a clear update, a thoughtful follow-up, or an extra five minutes of care often matters more than a fast close.
• Leadership must model it: if managers don’t demonstrate accountability (including apologizing when needed), technicians won’t believe the standard is real.

The larger point is stewardship: a service culture is not something you announce. It’s something you fund, train, reinforce, and protect—especially as you grow.

A practical people-first MSP checklist

If you want to build a service culture that scales beyond personalities, this episode points to a few practical “non-negotiables” MSP leaders can implement:

• Hire for empathy, not just aptitude: technical skills can be taught; customer service instincts are harder to install.
• Define what “good communication” means: make it observable and coachable (tone, updates, escalation language, follow-through).
• Record and review calls for training: treat customer interactions like game film—learn what works and what undermines trust.
• Separate roles as you grow: build clarity between help desk focus and project execution so technicians aren’t forced into constant context switching.
• Create engagement systems: ongoing development (check-ins, 90-day reviews, and “fun structure” like team challenges) keeps culture alive between annual reviews.
• Measure experience at key moments: survey onboarding and project completion to find the friction points customers actually feel.
• Build diversity intentionally: a balanced team improves trust and rapport—especially when many end users and admins are women.

These principles align with how strong MSPs scale: operational clarity, leadership consistency, and a service standard that can survive growth without turning into “ticket factory” behavior.

Episode highlights

• 00:01:02 – From hospitality and AV to IT: a hackathon moment that sparked a career pivot.
• 00:08:53 – Growing into MSP operations leadership: building teams, roles, and structure as the business matures.
• 00:10:55 – Internal IT vs. MSP: supporting your own design vs. supporting someone else’s environment.
• 00:15:00 – The overlooked challenge: managing unfamiliar personalities across many client organizations.
• 00:20:38 – Hiring for customer service and calm: why empathy beats raw technical confidence in early interviews.
• 00:47:18 – Women in IT and service culture: what diversity changes inside client interactions and team trust.

About the guest: Stephanie Carbone

Stephanie Carbone is an IT Operations Manager leading a growing MSP team with a hospitality-inspired, people-first approach to service delivery. With a background spanning audiovisual production, internal IT leadership, and MSP operations, she focuses on building repeatable service standards rooted in empathy, communication, and technician empowerment.

🌐 Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn →

Frequently asked questions

Why do technically strong MSPs still struggle with retention?
Because customers don’t churn only from unresolved issues—they churn from uncertainty, poor communication, and feeling forgotten during the process.

How do I train technicians to improve customer experience without slowing service down?
By standardizing communication behaviors (updates, escalation language, tone) and coaching with real examples—call recordings and scenario practice—so empathy becomes efficient, not optional.

What should I look for when hiring someone from internal IT into an MSP?
Technical fundamentals matter, but adaptability and communication matter more. The biggest leap is often working with unfamiliar end users across unfamiliar environments—day after day.

Is “people-first” just a culture statement?
Not if you operationalize it. People-first becomes real when leadership defines behaviors, trains them, reinforces them, and empowers technicians to act with confidence.

Related resources from Bering McKinley

• Creating a people-first MSP culture
• Support your support team by hiring a dispatcher
• Dispatchers keep your support team accountable

Want to continue the conversation?

If you’re an MSP owner building a service culture that scales—one where clients feel cared for and technicians feel confident—Bering McKinley can help you bring structure to leadership, service delivery, and operational discipline. You can also apply to be a guest on the podcast.

👉 Apply to be on the BMK Vision Podcast
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