Blog

Don't Lose Money Trying to Save it on Your Tech Budget 1 Life Lesson from 2 Dentists A dentist I know once had a patient who superglued his crown onto his tooth. He wanted to save to some money. How do you think that worked out? A decade or so...

I heard an old, old story.   Once upon a time… Everyone loves a little story here and there. We make sense of life through stories. We share them when we want to get a point across or lighten the mood. We read them to pass the time. With RCI...

Cupcakes are Coming... If you’ve been following RCI’s social media accounts lately, you’d be forgiven for wondering if we were going into the baking business. You’d have found pictures and phrases like the one above. Perhaps disappointingly we have not gone into selling sweets full time. But we do have...

Have you counted the cost? Should I phone a friend or walk away with the money? Your telephone system is an integral part of your business, but so are your finances. A business shouldn’t have to choose between the two. Unfortunately, many have been put in such a situation for...

Yes We Have No Toshiba   What Do I Do with My Toshiba Telephone System? What happens when a manufacturer goes out of business? Not long ago, Toshiba was the best manufacturer of telephones. It was known even by other manufacturers as being the standard in rock solid equipment. In...

Can you hear me now? Effective communication is undoubtedly an important part of everyday life, especially in a business setting. Some would refer to the ability to communicate as an art in itself. One must do so in a way that gets all information across, leaves no uncertainty, and makes...

Honey I Shrunk the Inventory   Some Sobering Statistics Let’s begin with answering a question. What is shrinkage? Hold your snickers, Seinfeld fans. In this case, we are talking about inventory loss. Shrinkage has many causes from poor record keeping, loss and damage to the focus of this particular blog...

Relationships Matter More Than Equipment   You may be surprised to be told while reading a technology blog that technology is actually of secondary importance when making technology decisions. Certainly you want technology that is dependable, modern and useful. Ideally you'll have technology that is cutting edge and maybe even...

Your Service is Your Product How do you know if your employees are doing a good job with customers? We spent the last two blog posts talking about ways a phone system can add or subtract from a customer experience. But the most important factor in whether your customers are...

Pluses and Minuses: Part 2 When a customer calls in to speak to someone at your company, it’s a lot easier to give them a bad experience than a good one. Over the course of a phone call, there are many opportunities to ruin a customer experience or keep it...

Making Sure Your Phone System Enhances Your Client Experience When you run a business, or any part of a business, you know that your customers are your most important asset. You also know that every choice you make is either a plus or minus for your customers. Every decision makes...

Internet Telephone Service   The internet is ubiquitous to modern life. It seems like a hundred years ago when we had to sit in front of a desktop and wait as the modem dialed up. Now internet is in nearly every business, school and home. It's high speed internet and...

It's Easy To Stay Legal Back in October, I posted a provocatively titled blog about call recording, Virginia is a One Party State. While that explained the legality of call recording in Virginia, and the country in general, there are still questions that people have had. Call recording is a...

Affordable, Productivity-Enhancing Features     When RCI started in the late 70s, we were a custom-engineering firm that designed equipment to allow telephone systems to do things they weren't built to do. Over time, as telephone systems became more sophisticated, we shifted into the sales and service of telephone systems...

You Can't Afford Not to Have Managed IT   One phrase that has become ubiquitous in the last few years is managed IT services. You've probably heard it. You may have some idea what it means. You may also have some questions. Managed IT services can mean a lot of...

An Ounce of Prevention... You've surely heard the phrase “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” You may even know who originally said it. It's been used in many scenarios and environments since it's original inception and it generalized out well. The phrase is certainly relevant to...

The Best Time to Save Money on Equipment Is it really the most wonderful time of the year? Well, reasonable people can disagree on that. But for RCI and others in our line of work, it often is at least one of the busiest. Why is year end so busy?...

Out of the Mouths of Centurions       In November 2014, the Roanoke Times published an article by reporter Zach Krizer about Centurion resident of Wirtz, Virginia Rosa Beckner. The article was written to commemorate her supercentenarian birthday. She turned 111 on November 11, 2014 or 11/11. In the...

We're Thankful for 40 Years Doing Business With You     This Thursday, we get together with family and friends to celebrate. RCI will be closed but not far from our minds at our tables. It will be among the many things we're thankful for this year. Thanksgiving is a...