Reputation is built one interaction at a time
Shaun frames IT experience management as a reputational discipline—not a dashboard project.
He pulls out a quote he’s been revisiting lately:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
In IT, that applies in a very practical way: every ticket update, every handoff, every moment of silence, every confusing approval step. Each one teaches employees what to expect next time.
And the painful truth is this: reputation isn’t shaped by your intentions. It’s shaped by what people experience when they’re blocked and trying to work.
Why “green” doesn’t mean “good”
Shaun doesn’t argue against operational discipline. SLAs, CSAT, and KPIs still have a place.
But he’s clear about the limit:
- SLAs measure speed and compliance — not whether the person felt supported.
- KPIs tend to be inward-looking — IT performance more than productivity or experience.
And then there’s the pattern every service delivery leader recognizes:
“We’re green on the SLAs, but we’re still getting complaints… that watermelon again.”
That’s the watermelon effect in plain language—healthy on the outside, bad underneath.
For Shaun, the issue isn’t that metrics are “wrong.” It’s that they’re incomplete. They describe process outputs, not the human outcome.
What Shaun thinks is happening to CSAT
This is where he’s most direct.
Shaun’s view: CSAT, as it’s typically implemented, doesn’t create enough clarity to change anything meaningful.
“CSAT… comes too late to the party, and it’s too generic to drive meaningful change.”
A happy face or unhappy face doesn’t answer the real questions a global service delivery leader needs to run improvement:
- What exactly caused the frustration?
- Was it speed, communication, multiple handoffs, unclear steps, or something else?
- Which services or user groups are getting the worst experience?
- Where is productivity being lost—and how much?
Shaun’s criticism isn’t theoretical. It’s operational: if the signal doesn’t point to action, it becomes a reporting ritual.
The better question: where is time being lost?
Shaun describes a different lens: instead of obsessing over time-to-close alone, measure what employees feel they lost while trying to get work done.
“One of the things we measure is lost productivity hours… instead of just resolution time.”
That shift does two things immediately:
- It changes the prioritization conversation.
Instead of “what has the most tickets?” you can ask “what causes the most disruption?”
- It translates IT work into business language.
Lost time can be connected to cost and impact when leadership needs to understand why something matters.
This is the bridge many service delivery leaders are missing: not more data, but data that makes decisions easier to defend.
The improvements weren’t only technical
One of the more useful parts of Shaun’s interview is what changed after they started using experience signals.
Many improvements weren’t deep technical overhauls. They were friction removers:
- Simplifying approval steps
- Rewriting guidelines and user documentation in end-user language
- Adjusting communication: what gets said, when, and how often
That’s a sober reminder for anyone leading global service delivery:
You can modernize tooling for years and still lose trust in a week if people feel ignored, uninformed, or bounced around.
The feedback that stings — and why you need it anyway
Shaun shares two pieces of feedback that capture the emotional spectrum.
The best is simple and telling:
- “This is the first time it feels like IT understands me.”
The toughest is the one leaders don’t forget:
“I dread contacting IT because it feels like it’s a black hole.”
That line isn’t about a single incident. It’s about learned expectation: people stop believing they’ll be guided through the process.
Shaun’s response is practical: treat tough feedback as focus fuel, then fix the conditions that create that feeling—especially transparency and communication.
And he adds an important operational truth: experience improvement is a team sport. Engineers, developers, and architects need to understand the emotional impact of their work—not just the fix.
Don’t measure the past. Skate to where the puck will be.
Shaun drops another quote—Wayne Gretzky:
“I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
His point: experience management is how IT stays ahead—designing support and digital services people trust, feel supported by, and can rely on as work changes.
For a global service delivery leader, that’s not motivational poster content. It’s a governance stance:
- If feedback is real-time, you see the emotional heat while it’s happening.
- If you connect experience signals to operational reality, you stop guessing where to act next.
Takeaways for service delivery leaders who are tired of “green but unhappy”
If you’re accountable for service outcomes—especially across regions, vendors, or multiple support tiers—Shaun’s interview lands on a few practical moves:
- Keep SLAs, but don’t confuse them with satisfaction. They tell you compliance, not confidence.
- Treat CSAT carefully. If it’s only a number, it won’t tell you what to fix.
- Measure lost time to prioritize like the business does. Focus on what disrupts work the most.
- Look for “non-technical” friction first. Approvals, documentation, and communication often carry more weight than teams expect.
- Bring your MSP along. Shared experience goals can turn a contract relationship into a partnership.
Because in the end, the goal isn’t just keeping systems running.
It’s helping people feel confident, connected, and supported while they do their best work.
Want to see what experience data looks like in ITSM?
If you’re working to improve CSAT, reduce friction, and understand where employees are losing time, take a look at how HappySignals supports IT Service Management with real-time experience insights.
Explore the IT Service Management solution
You can also listen as a podcast or watch in YouTube my interview with Shaun:
