I’ve been telling people that “We Suck Less” for a long time. However, I’ve never been allowed to make it our marketing tagline (although, we have some notoriety from it). Maybe someday! I wish that I could take credit for the phrase but I can’t. It came from a prospective client.
In the early days of Waident, I met with the CEO of a mid-sized finance firm and he went through a rather long list of the things that his current IT firm was not doing very well. After each item, I explained how Waident would handle that area and provided a client story to further illustrate the why and what behind it. After a while, the CEO chuckled and said “It sounds like you suck less.” The rest is history.
While saying “we suck less” started as a joke because nearly everyone I met complained about their IT, the concept really stuck with me. Ironically, because pretty much everything I heard people complain about IT were simple items to address. Waident was already handling almost all the complaint areas the right way. It got me thinking about how Waident got to where we are (i.e. sucking less than a huge number of IT services companies with credible or “certified” technical people.)
Here is why I think “We suck less.”
We work at it all of the time.
We do suck less than a lot of companies providing the same service. What I’ve come to understand and appreciate is not the big picture of how we suck less, but rather how it is a core trait to everyone on the team. I wish I could say that I am so smart that we accomplished it by grand design. Actually, it is just a part of who we are as people. It is how each person on our team thinks about their individual work and lives. The result is a culture that is mutually reinforcing and reflected throughout the business. Big win for our clients, our people, and our company.
Resiliency is our only option.
Is saying, “We suck less.” a backhanded way of simply saying, “We are the best.” in a self-effacing way? I don’t believe so. We know we are far from perfect. We also know that the same can be said about all IT. As I like to say, “It’s IT; Sh*t breaks.” Every company is just a step away from the inevitable IT fiasco that kills employee productivity, brings the enterprise to a halt, or puts data reputation at risk.
When a client problem arises, we attack it and get it fixed. But, our team is not satisfied with just fixing it. Our team questions why the problem happened, what can be done to make sure it does not happen again, and how we can improve how we ourselves handled the situation. Then, we create our own internal ticket to make sure the improvements get done. I see this attitude every day. Someone raises an idea or concept, seeks feedback from others, and then runs with it. This resiliency-building approach is the only way for us to serve clients who depend on technology for almost everything they do.
We get it.
Saying, “We suck less.” is our way of telling prospects and clients that we understand your IT frustrations. You just want the stuff to work. You want your IT partner to work hard to reduce the frequency and severity of fiascoes, but when one hits you want to make damn sure that they will take it head-on. It is not easy to continually challenge yourself, your team, and the company to be better, but we do it, not because we have to, but because it is who we are and the character of any company is defined by how it handles a fiasco.
Dig Deeper
Got a question, an opinion, or want some advice? Shoot me an email (jahlberg[at]waident.com), give me a call (630-547-7011), or read our latest posts.
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