Although it may seem like an obvious connection, the magic of Bit-Wizards was carefully nurtured and grown into what it is today. When co-founders Vincent Mayfield and Louis Erickson established the company in 2000, the "Wizard" part of Bit-Wizards was a happy accident that later blossomed into an identity people would desire to emulate. Mayfield and Erickson initially chose the name for their company based on bitwise operators, a computer programming term common in the early stages of their careers. Even though their decision to modify "wise" to "wizards" was first made because of availability, both co-founders committed to creating magic behind the name.
While the origin of Bit-Wizards is based on software engineering, the idea of being a Wizard took on a life of its own as its co-founders' values and aspirations shaped the company. While the title of "Wizard" seems like an ode to magicians in fantasy stories, it's a charge our Managed IT Services (MITS) team members persevere to achieve by humanizing and demystifying IT. By striving to live the Wizard life, each member of the Bit-Wizards team embraces a service mentality that ultimately helps each client's IT solutions live long and prosper.
What does it mean to live the Wizard life?
Mayfield and Erickson crafted the following tenets to depict how to live the Wizard life:
- Wizards are engaged and passionate about what they do and are vested in success. Wizards celebrate greatness.
- Wizards treat everyone like family: Team members, customers, vendors, community, and partners.
- Wizards have a service mentality when at work or in the community; it is a way of life.
- Wizards know that the customer is why we exist. Take care of the customer, or someone else will. Customer service is not a department, it's an attitude.
- Wizards know that together, we make up Bit-Wizards. We sink or swim based on the effort, dedication, pride, and professionalism of each person.
In essence, to live the Wizard life is to embrace the Bit-Wizards mission and adopt a servant heart toward team members and clients. Wizards mutually support each other in their personal and professional pursuits by prioritizing the need to treat people how they want to be treated. By investing in the success of others and embracing the company's core values, Mayfield says Wizards cultivate a mentality that prioritizes the needs of others.
"Success begets success, and our internal success inevitably translates to successes for our customers and community," Mayfield shares. "This mentality became such a noticeable identity that people take one look behind the metaphorical curtain and immediately want to be part of the magic we create."
The intentional commitment to taking the time and effort needed to invest in each Wizard resulted in a Bit-Wizards culture reinforced by pillars of fortified loyalty, institutional knowledge, and retention. Each level of the organization has devoted itself to doing what it takes to live the Wizard life, even if it means what Erickson considers a happy form of brainwashing. He believes each team member flourishes in the Wizard lifestyle because the focus is on caring for others.
"Our culture is all about purposefully deciding to take care of others each day, and that decision inevitably results in each Wizard enjoying their job more, being more successful, and making their clients happier," says Erickson. "While you could focus on your primary goal of achieving client success, doing it the other way around and embracing the extra steps creates better, more enjoyable results."
How does our culture help our team live the Wizard life?
To create the Wizard life and motivate team members to live it, Mayfield and Erickson used their beliefs and best practices to set the tone for the rest of the company. As hands-on co-founders, they each recognized their capacity to make a positive, lasting impact on the Bit-Wizards culture and ensured that their priorities and philosophies served as guiding principles. By choosing to adopt a service-oriented mentality and live the Wizard life, Mayfield says he and Erickson were able to imbue that lifestyle as part of the culture and core values.
"People model what their leadership figures do in any setting, so we as leaders impart the importance of the core values and what it takes to be a Wizard," he illustrates. "Even if they start with baby steps, they build momentum until they ultimately understand the importance of embracing the culture and become part of the effort to 'Make It So!' for others."
As an added layer to their endeavors to foster the Wizard life, Mayfield and Erickson strongly believe in the importance of starting the process as soon as a new team member comes on board. Most companies establish a probationary period for certain benefits, and that choice can inadvertently make new employees feel like they must earn their place in the organization. Erickson emphasizes that, while striving to live the Wizard life is expected of everyone throughout their employment, each team member is a Wizard from day one.
"It's critical to us that every step of our onboarding process establishes your status as a Wizard as soon as you start with us, from showing a new employee the ropes to connecting them to our benefits," he asserts. "We don't believe in being fair-weather employers, so we wholeheartedly recognize you as part of our family from the second we decide to go all in on you as a new Wizard."
Employees often describe the Wizard life as a family away from home, and that familial level of camaraderie and mutual respect is a partial homage to Mayfield and Erickson's respective experiences in the U.S. military. Elite units are typically organized around their shared patch, skill set, and identity through their exploits and achievements, and those shared beliefs and goals contribute to reinforced relationships between team members. While life-or-death scenarios are exchanged with high-stakes IT projects that can make or break a business, Mayfield affirms that the degree of commitment each Wizard feels to their team members and the company's core values pays tribute to the deep connections built in the armed forces.
"It's hard to find the same level of camaraderie that you build in the military, and it's one of the things I miss the most about my time in the Air Force," he reflects. "While we can never replicate it exactly, we've sought and achieved a company culture that honors that degree of closeness as an integral part of being a Wizard."
How do we help our clients live the Wizard life?
In ensuring each Wizard is treated like family, Mayfield and Erickson find that each Wizard extends that familial thoughtfulness and care through their interactions with our clients. Wizards embrace the culture by striving to prioritize others and invest in each client’s success, understanding that our clients are ultimately the reason why Bit-Wizards exists and thrives. Those efforts translate into making our clients better through our MITS solutions and customer service. Working with Wizards means receiving the most up-to-date expertise and assurance because of each team member’s commitment to learning and improving for the benefit of our clients.
Mayfield explains that our Wizards take client successes and challenges seriously because of their ability to approach each client’s needs with a different lens. Just as every member of your family has their own unique qualities, each of our clients has their own circumstances and opportunities. While we consistently treat every client with the same empathy and respect, our Wizards familiarize themselves with our clients to ensure we give anything but one-size-fits-all solutions. By referencing each of the core values, Mayfield believes each team member helps all our clients live the Wizard life.
“We’re able to connect with each client on a more personal, empathetic level by having an awareness of how each decision impacts our efforts to help our clients’ customers, whether it’s by making their IT better or improving their overall business functions,” he says. “We consistently measure client-oriented decisions against our core values to stay true to our goal while making them feel like they’re part of the magic we create.”
While success is always the goal, it's inevitable to experience learning curves, obstacles, or failures. Bit-Wizards is no exception, but the magic still prevails through challenges because each team member commits to living the Wizard life and owning their decisions. In prioritizing honesty and empathy in every interaction, our MITS team surpasses the expectations of providing excellent services by treating clients with respect in every interaction.
As proof of this success, the team earned a customer satisfaction score of 100% in the last quarter of 2023, with 30% of clients responding to feedback requests; these rates surpass industry averages. These scores are no happy accident; instead, they can be directly attributed to Wizards providing superior services and care for our clients above all else. Erickson reinforces that this high score is due to each Wizard consciously choosing to live the Wizard life and interact with clients and fellow team members accordingly.
"As much as we wish it were because we were perfect with technology, our rating is all thanks to how we treat our clients like our family," he says. "Even if our clients have a negative moment, they have a comprehensively positive experience because we earn their trust by acting in their best interests and delivering the solutions they need."
Ready to work with a managed IT provider that humanizes IT by enabling your business, employees, and customers to reap the benefits of living the Wizard life? Get in touch.