John Noctor, Chief Customer Success Officer, SDI

Service Maturity & Customer Experience Expert

Advising CIOs, IT leaders, and service management teams on how to modernise their service operations, improve digital experience, and build high-performing service organisations.

Key Credentials

• 25+ years in ITSM, customer success and service transformation
• Chief Customer Success Officer at SDI
• Lead architect of SDI’s Global Best Practice Standard for Service Desk v9
• ITSM Distinguished Contributor of the Year
• ITIL® Managing Professional
• Former Director of Customer Support EMEA and Director of Customer Success at Cherwell Software
• Advisor to organisations including Microsoft, Tesco, Telenor and The Pensions Regulator

About John Noctor

John is Chief Customer Success Officer at the Service Desk Institute (SDI) and a recognised global expert in IT Service Management (ITSM), Customer Experience, and service transformation. With more than 25 years’ experience working with enterprise organisations, government bodies, and technology vendors, John helps service teams to deliver better outcomes for customers and employees.

John is the lead architect of SDI’s Global Best Practice Standard for Service Desk (v9), a modern framework for service excellence that integrates IT Service Management, Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX), Digital Experience (DEX), Voice of the Customer, and AI-enabled service operations.

Recognised by SDI as ‘ITSM Distinguished Contributor of the Year’, John is also an active thought leader in the ITSM community. He regularly speaks at industry events, contributes to blogs and white papers, hosts webinars, and co-founded the ITSM Unplugged podcast.

Career and expertise

John’s career spans service desk leadership, enterprise tool implementation, large-scale service transformation, and global consultancy for public and private sector organisations.

Prior to his current role John led service transformation initiatives at SDI as Head of Service Transformation. Earlier in his career he held senior leadership positions including Director of Customer Support EMEA and Director of Customer Success at Cherwell Software.

Throughout his career John has advised organisations including Microsoft, Tesco, Telenor, and The Pensions Regulator on service management strategy, digital service delivery, and operational excellence.

As lead architect of SDI’s Global Best Practice Standard John helps to shape the future direction of service management and has been instrumental in embedding modern service disciplines such as Experience Management, Voice of the Customer, Digital Experience Mapping, AI integration and Psychological Safety into SDI’s best practice framework.

Consultancy services

John works closely with organisations at every stage of their maturity journey, from those establishing service foundations to world-class operations. His approach focuses on accelerated maturity, enabling organisations to make sustainable improvements while balancing governance, performance, and experience outcomes. He is particularly passionate about helping leadership teams understand how service excellence can drive organisational success.

In his role at SDI, John is often the first point of engagement for organisations exploring Service Desk Certification or seeking consultancy support. Known for his straight-talking, collaborative style, he works in partnership with customers to understand their challenges, define clear improvement roadmaps, and deliver solutions that create long-term value.

“I have had the pleasure of working with John for over four years now, and throughout this time I have consistently been impressed by his professionalism, expertise, and unwavering commitment to excellence. John’s wealth of knowledge, combined with his friendly and engaging approach made the entire process smooth and genuinely enjoyable.

During this week’s audit, John’s thoroughness and meticulous attention to detail helped highlight areas of strength within our service desk while also providing constructive insights for improvement. His willingness to go above and beyond is truly commendable. John’s ability to connect with individuals across all levels of the business left a lasting positive impression on our team.”

 – Magenta Living, Service Desk Certification customer

Thought-leadership

John speaks at conferences, forums and events in the IT Service Management and digital services community. He gives keynote presentations, joins panels and leads discussions on topics like modern ITSM practices and the future of digital service operations.

John also contributes to Service Desk Institute events including SDI Spark, industry summits, webinars, and executive roundtables and is co-founder of the ITSM Unplugged podcast discussing modern service management, digital transformation, leadership, and emerging trends in ITSM.

Connect with John

Connect with John on LinkedIn or speak to John about Service Desk Certification, experience-led service improvement or your organisation’s continual improvement roadmap.

Read John’s article exploring the alignment between SDI’s Global Best Practice Standard v9 and ITIL (Version 5).