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

Stephanie Carbone, IT Operations Manager at Complete Business Systems of Colorado (CBS), shares how she built a people-first help desk, tight SOPs, and a culture of empathy. We dig into hiring from internal IT, training technicians on soft skills, and how copier dealers can successfully spin up real MSP practices.

Today’s episode goes deep on MSP operations with Stephanie Carbone of Complete Business Systems of Colorado (CBS). Starting as a hands-on tech and rising to IT Operations Manager, Stephanie explains how she took a hectic, ticket-only motion and turned it into a structured engine with defined Help Desk and Project teams, clear SLAs, and repeatable SOPs. Her mantra—“people serving people”—shows up everywhere: from white-glove onboarding and proactive communication to weekly call reviews and creative team exercises (think bingo cards tied to certifications) that make soft-skill training stick.

Stephanie contrasts life as an internal IT director with life inside an MSP, outlining why the technical leap is smaller than the human leap: technicians must learn to calm anxious users, own communication, and escalate transparently. We also cover building culture inside a copier dealer expanding into managed services, documenting with IT Glue, tightening workflow in ConnectWise, and using tools like Jamf to standardize endpoints. A standout segment explores women in tech—how representation builds trust with predominantly female front-office teams and how empathy-driven leadership outperforms “iron fist” management.

If you’re an MSP owner or ops lead aiming to professionalize service delivery—hiring, onboarding, QA for calls, CX metrics, and team morale—this conversation is your blueprint. For playbooks, workshops, and coaching to implement a scalable “people-first” operating system, visit https://beringmckinley.com MSP operations MSP help desk managed services SOPs MSP customer experience women in tech MSP copier dealer MSP IT Glue documentation ConnectWise service desk Jamf for MSPs MSP leadership how to train MSP technicians on soft skills people-first IT support model white glove MSP onboarding help desk QA call reviews hiring from internal IT to MSP Denver Colorado MSP building project vs help desk teams MSP communication best practices service level agreements for MSPs culture in managed services

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