We sat down with Bruce Ferrie, our Global Reporting Manager to reflect on his 14 years at bluesource, his evolving role, and what customer satisfaction truly means to him.
I joined bluesource back in 2011 as part of the Service Management Centre (SMC). At the time, my role was quite straightforward, managing rotas and annotating service reports for our customers.
Over the years, my responsibilities have grown significantly. Today, I’m the Reporting Manager, responsible for designing the reports we use internally and for our customers. I’m also a Service Delivery Manager for several key customers and the administrator for our ticketing system, ConnectWise.
My journey has been full of unexpected opportunities. For example, I never set out to work in reporting, but six months into my role, I found myself deeply involved in designing reports and building processes to make our services more efficient. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how far we’ve come.
My role has three main areas: reporting, service delivery, and ticketing system administration
Reporting:
I design and deliver reports that track our performance both internally and for customers. These reports show everything from high-priority tickets and SLA tracking to escalation trends and workload distribution.
For instance, our support team has dashboards highlighting urgent issues, tickets nearing SLA breaches, and when customers last received updates, helping us focus on what needs immediate attention.
Service Delivery:
As a Service Delivery Manager, I hold regular service reviews with customers and support their onboarding journey, introducing them to our ticketing system and processes. Our goal is always to ensure customers get the best possible service, and we work closely as a team to make that happen.
Ticketing System Administration:
I structure how tickets are grouped into “service boards” so teams can work as efficiently as possible. I also design workflow rules and notifications, like alerts when a ticket has incomplete details or when too many hours are spent on a single issue.
Another key part of this is maintaining the customer portal, where customers can log, view, and update their tickets. This feature has been hugely popular because it gives customers real-time visibility without needing to chase us, saving everyone time.
Our Enhanced Support service has evolved over the years and is now in its third or fourth iteration. It’s designed to sit between the customer and Microsoft, providing faster response times and access to high-level engineers so that issues are resolved quickly and effectively.
We’ve seen first-hand that customers often feel frustrated with Microsoft’s response times. With Enhanced Support, we bridge that gap.
While I’m not a support engineer myself, my role is to keep the process running smoothly. That includes managing communication with customers so engineers can focus solely on solving technical issues. I also set up workflows to track ticket escalations and monitor how Microsoft’s Premier Support hours are being used.
The variety no two days are ever the same. There’s always a new challenge, whether it’s finding a better way to present data, automating a process, or solving a tricky customer issue.
It often feels like solving a puzzle. At first, the pieces may not fit, but once you figure it out, there’s a real sense of accomplishment.
What makes it even better is the team collaboration. Rarely am I working on something in isolation. In a complex technical environment, teamwork is essential, and the support and collaboration within our team are second to none. Everyone pitches in to ensure customers get the best service possible.
After 14 years at bluesource, I’ve learned that customer satisfaction is about more than just resolving issues, it’s about building trust and confidence.
For me, customer excellence is when customers are pleasantly surprised to hear from us, not because something has gone wrong, but because we’ve been proactive, transparent, and consistent. The goal is to create a seamless experience where they rarely need to reach out because they know we’ve got everything covered.
One of the most rewarding parts of my role is making someone’s day easier. Whether it’s a customer or one of our engineers, seeing the relief when a problem is resolved is incredibly satisfying.
I’ll never forget a call where 87 managers from a multinational company joined to tackle a major issue. It was a powerful reminder of how far-reaching our work can be, and how important it is to get it right.
At the heart of it, customer satisfaction is about strong relationships and reliability. It’s knowing that customers can count on us, even when they don’t see everything happening behind the scenes.
One of the best things about bluesource is that there’s always something new to learn. My career here has evolved in ways I never expected, from simple rota management to leading reporting across the business.
Looking ahead, I’m especially excited about emerging technologies like LogicMonitor, which offers deeper visibility into Microsoft 365 environments. These new tools bring more data, more insight, and more challenges, which to me, are like new puzzles waiting to be solved.
What keeps me motivated is knowing the work we do has a real impact, on our customers, our engineers, and the business as a whole.
As bluesource continues to grow, I’m looking forward to taking on new responsibilities, embracing change, and continuing to strengthen the foundations we’ve built together over the past 14 years.