When Your Service Manager Leaves (989)
In this episode, I sit down with Dawn and Dave Sizer to walk through the messy, honest reality of running and rebuilding a growing MSP. We talk about what happens when you think you’re mature and buttoned up… until one key person leaves and exposes every crack in your processes, documentation, and service delivery. If you’re an MSP owner, IT leader, or service manager trying to scale without losing your mind, this conversation is going to hit close to home.
We dig into how their MSP quietly turned into a “ticket factory” where work piled up, documentation was thin, and a 20‑year employee held way too much tribal knowledge. From there, Dawn and Dave break down the specific steps they took to fix it: rebuilding processes, enforcing documentation standards, killing weak level one roles, focusing on root cause analysis, and putting real accountability around metrics like reopen rates and first‑time resolution. By the end, you’ll hear a practical roadmap for turning chaos into a more predictable, proactive IT services operation.
Why Listen
- Learn how to move beyond “ticket counts” and start tracking metrics that actually improve service, like reopen rates and first‑touch resolution.
- Hear how they used root cause analysis on every ticket to permanently reduce recurring issues instead of just closing the same problems over and over.
- See why they removed weak level one roles and shifted to an experienced‑engineer model to improve client satisfaction and reduce internal friction.
Chapters
- 00:00 Welcome, why this episode is more of a hangout
- 02:10 Dawn & Dave arrive in “the land south of Orlando” and first impressions
- 05:20 Miami flight story, travel quirks, and meeting Iggy the Iguana
- 09:45 Enable Empower event and Dawn’s packed “ticket factory” session
- 13:30 The terrible year: losing a 20‑year employee and uncovering the mess
- 18:40 House of cards: tribal knowledge, weak processes, and no visibility
- 24:55 Accountability as the word of the year and culture shake‑up
- 30:20 Turning a ticket factory into an intelligence engine with root cause on every ticket
- 36:10 Rebuilding documentation, change management, and standards the team actually uses
- 43:30 Eliminating level ones, client reactions, and lessons for MSP owners
Guests
- Dawn Sizer, 3rd Element Consulting: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-sizer/
- Dave Sizer, 3rd Element Consulting: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sizer/
- Website: https://3rdelementconsulting.com/
Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned
- N-Able Empower Conference: https://empower.n-able.com/
- EOS: https://www.eosworldwide.com/
- Omni Fort Lauderdale Hotel: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/fort-lauderdale
=== SPONSORS:
- Livestream Partner, ThreatLocker: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/threatlocker
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- Travel Partner: TruGrid: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/trugrid
- Digital Partner, Designer Ready: http://itbusinesspodcast.com/designerready
=== SHOW MUSIC:
- Item Title: Upbeat & Fun Sports Rock Logo
- Item URL: https://elements.envato.com/upbeat-fun-sports-rock-logo-CSR3UET
- Author Username: AlexanderRufire
- Item License Code: 7X9F52DNML
=== Connect with Uncle Marv
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🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
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