In this episode of Wired for Connection, Lenka and Vera are joined by Michelle Coombs. With 25+ years of experience, Michelle specialises in transforming IT operations and service delivery for MSPs and internal IT teams. Her expertise combines business performance management, IT service  management, and leadership development.

She focuses on helping MSPs move from "in the business" to "on the business" thinking while addressing operational costs and customer satisfaction challenges. Her mission to eliminate "Wild West Service Desks" and create streamlined Service Control Centres demonstrates her strategic approach to operational transformation. 

She shares how she got started in the tech space, a fun fact about herself and her biggest piece of advice for MSPs, as well as how her experiences in the industry helped her to develop a coaching mindset.

Michelle talks about problem-solving as a manager, how to support your teams to make their own decisions and how to help them with career progression. She also talks about the importance of peer support for MSP leaders.

Vera asks Michelle her thoughts on how recruitment and training of staff has evolved over the years, how to help a team to overcome problems and how to ensure they’re all following the same procedure when it comes to helpdesk support.

Michelle also shares her thoughts on business bottlenecks, how to give better customer service and why even a tech-driven industry needs to consider the human touch more.

Finally, Vera asks Michelle about a career high and a career low, one thing she loves about the industry and one thing she’d change if she could.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Visit the Tech Leader website
• Visit the Oprising website
• SMB IT Expert: Robert Cioffi
• MSP peer group: GTIA
• MSP peer group: The Tech Tribe