The award is not the point on its own. The point is what sat behind it: customers being listened to, teams being supported, and leaders getting a clearer view of what needed to change.
That matters because service improvement can be hard to prove from the outside. A company can say it cares about customers. It can say it is improving. External recognition gives people another signal that the work was real.
Why SDI matters
The SDI Awards are one of the better-known awards programmes in service desk and IT support. They have been running for decades and use a formal entry and judging process. The 2027 entry handbook describes a programme with entries from more than 40 countries and categories covering service excellence, customer experience, transformation, AI, and innovation.
In plain terms: this is not a casual badge. It is a recognised awards process in the service industry.
What the award supports
Akita winning MSP Service Desk of the Year 2026 supports the strength of the wider service environment Clare contributed to. It reflects work around service quality, customer experience, reporting, and practical improvement.
For Clare, the important part is not the trophy. It is the evidence that customer experience work was part of a service story strong enough to be recognised externally.
What the shortlisting says
The Service Transformation shortlisting is especially meaningful because it points to change in how service worked, not just how it was presented.
Clare is personally grateful that the customer experience work was shortlisted in a category alongside organisations including Nestle, Vodafone, Atos, and Manchester Metropolitan University. Being recognised in that company says something about the level of the work and the journey behind it.
How this connects to Clare's work
Clare's work sits between customers, teams, leaders, and the digital promise a company makes online. She looks for the moments where customers start to lose trust, where teams are carrying too much, and where leaders need clearer evidence before they can act.
The SDI recognition helps show that this kind of work can be more than a good intention. It can become visible, measurable, and credible.
What a buyer should take from it
If you are considering working with Clare, the award recognition is a trust signal. It should be read alongside the other evidence: reduced churn, high customer satisfaction, clearer reporting, and stronger links between customer experience and team experience.