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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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