Service Desk Operational Lead

Please note: We are a hybrid working company and this role will require to attend our Liverpool St. Central London office a couple of times a week. About Us Kerv Connected Cloud brings together the capabilities of Kerv Connect and Kerv Transform to deliver high quality infrastructure transformation and managed services across cloud and networking. We help organisations transform and manage their environments with secure, automated network and cloud solutions that support data centres, branch offices and cloud platforms, alongside the managed IT services needed to operate them effectively. About the role The Service Desk Operational Lead is responsible for owning the lifecycle, quality, and performance of all service desk tickets across Kerv Connected Cloud. This role ensures that incidents, requests, and problems are managed in line with contractual SLAs and XLAs, while delivering an exceptional customer experience. Acting as the operational control point for ticket governance, the role drives consistency, accountability, and continuous improvement across service desk and resolver teams, ensuring that service delivery is efficient, proactive, and customer-focused. Your part to play Ticket Lifecycle Management • Own end-to-end management of all service desk tickets (incidents, service requests, and escalations) • Ensure all tickets are correctly logged, categorised, prioritised, and assigned in line with agreed processes • Maintain data integrity within ServiceNow (or equivalent ITSM platform) • Drive adherence to ticket hygiene standards (updates, notes, categorisation, closure quality) SLA Performance Management • Monitor ticket queues to ensure compliance with response and resolution SLAs • Proactively identify and address SLA breaches and at-risk tickets • Lead daily SLA reviews and service desk performance stand-ups • Produce and analyse SLA performance reports, identifying trends and improvement actions Customer Experience Ownership • Ensure all customer interactions via tickets are professional, timely, and aligned with Kerv’s customer-first principles • Drive improvements in customer satisfaction (CSAT) and experience-based metrics (XLA) • Promote proactive communication and expectation management with clients Operational Control Escalation Management • Act as the central point of control for ticket flow across L1, L2, and L3 teams • Manage ticket escalations internally and externally to ensure timely resolution • Ensure clear ownership for all tickets, eliminating orphaned or stalled work Continuous Improvement Governance • Identify inefficiencies in ticket handling and implement process improvements • Collaborate with Problem Management to reduce recurring incidents • Assist with standardisation through templates, automation, and best practices • Support the adoption of AI tooling (e.g., ServiceNow Now Assist, Copilot) to improve efficiency and quality Reporting Stakeholder Management • Provide regular reporting on ticket volumes, SLA performance, backlog health, and trends • Present insights and recommendations to internal leadership • Work closely with Service Delivery Managers to align ticket performance with contractual commitments Key Measures of Success • SLA compliance (response and resolution targets) • Reduction in SLA breaches and backlog volume • Ticket quality and data accuracy metrics • Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and XLA improvements • Efficiency gains in ticket handling and queue management All about You Essential • Proven experience in a Service Desk, IT Operations, or MSP environment • Understanding of ITIL practices (Incident, Request, Problem Management) • Experience managing ticket queues and SLA performance • Hands-on experience with ITSM tools (preferably ServiceNow) • Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities Desirable • Experience working within a Managed Service Provider (MSP) • Exposure to XLA / experience-led service delivery models • Familiarity with automation and AI tools in service management • ITIL Foundation (or higher) certification You will live the Kerv values… • Think Customer First • Team is everything • Spread good vibes • Build future • Do the right thing At Kerv, we’re building something special and we’re building it to last. We want everybody to feel valued, included and love working together. With an uncompromising pursuit of amazing employee experience, we always strive to do the right thing. We believe and will relentlessly promote and support the power of diversity, equality and belonging, through collaboration and creating exceptional solutions together.