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 uniquely American Holiday. The beautiful thing about Thanksgiving is that it’s a holiday we can all participate in. It requires no particular faith and people with or without faith can participate together.

There are no presents given. There is a feast. There’s turkey. There’s stuffing. There’s all manner of starch. And we certainly all enjoy that. But Thanksgiving is really about gratitude. It’s an opportunity for us to reflect on what we have, who we have, who we love and what we’re grateful for.

All we need to celebrate Thanksgiving is (at least temporarily) to have a grateful spirit.

It’s a beautiful thought.

Why We’re Thankful

So in that vein, we at RCI would like to express what we’re thankful for.

RCI is thankful to have been in business for over 40 years. We’ve weathered recessions, tariffs and suppliers’ closings and many, many changes to the industry. When we began we were a custom engineering firm that specialized in making phone systems do what they can do today out of the box!

Further, we’ve grown. We’ve moved into the resale, programming and repair of telephone systems. We expanded into sound and paging. Later we added surveillance and expanded our networking expertise to become a full IT services provider.

In contrast to our growth in some ways, we’ve refocused on a more specific geographic area. When RCI began we were called Research Communions International because we really were International. Founder John Whitcomb traveled all over the country and the world solving telephone communication problems with his custom engineering solutions. Over time, he felt he was spending too much time away from his wife and children and decided to change his focus to sales and service in Virginia and the surrounding states.

That brings us to the next thing we’re thankful for. We are thankful that RCI cares about it’s employees’ lives and families. While our customers are the central focus of our business, RCI leadership never forgets that it’s employees makes the company work. The leadership of the company consists of John Whitcomb and his son Sam Whitcomb – one of the children John valued too much to keep being an international businessman.

Our Customers

Finally, most of all, RCI is thankful for you, our customers.

We’re thankful for customers who’ve been with us for the four decades we’ve been in existence – customers like Dr. Kenneth Smith who’s had the same system for the entire time we’ve been in business and Blue Ridge Cancer Care who has continued updating as new products came along. We’re also thankful for new customers like Franklin Dental Associates who is getting a phone system installed next week and Bill’s Auto Salon who is our newest surveillance client.

We’re thankful whether you’re a customer with a store front and one phone or a multisite organization with hundreds of telephones and an IT services contract.

We’re also thankful for customers who leave us reviews and comments here. 😉

Thank you!

What are you thankful for this year?