SymTec was built from the ground up. We started with a green polo shirt featuring our logo, a marketing flyer, and a very simple website. By visiting local businesses to discuss their IT needs and assess their satisfaction, we discovered a disturbing trend: many IT companies frequently fall short of expectations, failing to deliver the promised services and standards. This often begins with good intentions, but over time, many IT Solution Providers reveal a lack of processes, capacity, attention, and consistency. It’s always been disheartening to see that most clients are pleasantly surprised when we simply do what we promised. We recognized this early on and chose a different path, rooted in integrity and sustainable growth.
I have observed a common pattern that contributes to this issue. Many individuals running IT service companies become spread too thin, taking on more than they can handle. These individuals often lack strong management and supervisory skills, as well as the indirect skills necessary to maintain high quality as they expand. Small businesses need funds to grow, which can create the misperception that new clients are more valuable than existing ones. The loyalty present at the beginning of a new relationship diminishes with new growth opportunities. This lack of preparedness to meet the needs of all clients leads to a service that falls short of everyone’s expectations, including the expectations of the service provider. They believe they can grow out of this problem by taking on more work to generate the funds and build the team needed to meet new demands, but this only perpetuates the issue. In the end, good intentions fail to deliver results and may even lead to burnout, causing talented IT individuals to seek less stressful jobs.
SymTec recently began working with a business that had hired a new IT company less than five months earlier. Problems persisted regularly, with the business experiencing weekly downtime due to unstable IT systems. No progress was made in other areas of need because the provider was constantly reacting to system outages. After only a few months, it became clear that the company lacked the ability or commitment to deliver on their promised results. The business had tolerated this situation for too long and was seeking a new provider who could resolve the issues and free them from these costly interruptions. Even if the previous provider had good intentions, the client felt cheated and misled regarding their capabilities. Just a few months earlier, this IT provider had won the company’s confidence and was entrusted with access and stewardship over their systems.
We all hate feeling misled or lied to. We approach most purchasing decisions with caution, trying to avoid the pain of a purchase that doesn’t meet our needs. Reacting to past experiences, we sometimes believe we need a larger organization with enough staff to deliver results. However, size and significant funding often come with strings attached. These businesses are primarily committed to delivering the investors' expected growth and profitability, and your business is just one of many revenue streams. They hire sales teams disconnected from actual service delivery and pay them commissions for winning your business. We saw an example of this when a copy machine company that also offers IT support services approached a former client of ours. This client was happy with our services but felt the company could save them a lot of money, so they took the deal. What seemed like a great price didn’t include all the services needed. Only a week after committing to a long-term contract, they realized that fundamental services were missing, and additional costs were required to get what they needed. In the end they are trapped in a contract and pay higher IT costs.
So how has SymTec ensured that we don’t make the same mistakes as others?
Consistency
We keep our word and do what we say we are going to do. Integrity is a core value that guides all our decisions. We hire based on integrity, prepare to overdeliver and maintain team capacity ready to meet peak volume. We have chosen the long-term path to success, building lasting processes, hiring, training quality individuals who match our values. This solid foundation makes it easy to keep our promises.
Attention
We have no commission-based salespeople, all potential clients work directly with our partner team to identify their real needs, and work side by side with them to build a plan to meet the established IT expectations and policies. Technology Business Reviews are scheduled regularly with partners leading those meetings for all clients. Most clients have weekly onsite visits to control quality and aid in clear communication and awareness of client needs.
Capacity
We have high expectations to complete every ticket within the established Service Level Agreement. We track this carefully and are aware of every ticket that falls short of this expectation. This helps us clearly track capacity and be accountable for our services. These service level standards are clearly communicated and adapted to make sure your urgent needs are addressed immediately. We also know our strengths and abilities including what we should do and not do. Instead of doing everything ourselves we work with key partners who are experts at what they do. This collaboration allows us to keep service quality high by not spreading ourselves too thin. one example of this is Cybersecurity. Rather than claiming to be a Cybersecurity expert we are transparent on the company we bring in to offer those services. By Combining their expertise with our team’s attention to IT needs and fast response we deliver superior Cyber protections for clients.
Processes
SymTec’s new Business IT Strategy Creation Guide is an important tool developed to prevent misunderstandings between us and our clients. Clarity upfront ensures a team effort to prepare each business’s IT solutions to meet their needs. This IT alignment tool allows us to guide the overall picture of IT solutions, preventing wasted time and frustrations from communication gaps. It helps develop a purposeful plan for implementing solutions that meet business needs, allowing us to meet expectations because we know what is expected and can proactively implement the necessary solutions.
SymTec prioritizes integrity in all our services, we ensure our clients receive the service and trust they deserve. We want every client to be confident that they will experience the quality they expect, and while they can be happy with the services it will never be a surprise to be provided with all the services as promised. We have made many improvements over the years, and feel we are well situated to meet all our clients' needs and still have the capacity for controlled growth to aid others.
