What Are the Benefits of Local IT Services?
IT services are notoriously varied in both scope and quality. That’s why everyone from your “tech savvy cousin” to national corporations offer their own take on IT. And because IT is so varied in its variety and definition, it can be difficult to compare one company’s service offerings with another. For that reason, many business owners will go with the cheapest offering, or worse, throw up their hands and do nothing!
Though I have a bias, I’d contend that though you can get IT services from just about anywhere, you’d be best served by purchasing IT service from a local company. I’ve already written a general blog about local IT service and using local companies for service jobs in general. Today I present specific benefits of local IT services.
Faster Turn Around
Of all the benefits of local IT Services over distributed IT services, the most obvious is probably that local businesses are close by.
If you have a problem that you need fixed quickly, it’s nice to have someone around the corner.
Now it’s true that many remote IT service companies will subcontract out local technicians to fix in-person issues, but that is a whole other step that needs to take place before your problem gets fixed.
Local companies will always put their customer base first before taking on an extra job for a contractor, so if you have an IT hiccup during a busy time of year, you’re likely to have to wait a while if you don’t have local representation.
Local Business, Local Problems
Being local means that you know about what’s happening locally. As a Roanoke business, on Williamson Rd, we know the business landscape!
This can be especially important for IT services.
When you’re a local IT company you notice patterns.
One of the most obvious examples of this is weather. Certain IT products are infamous for their responses to the effects of atmospheric change or weather.
Often a power outage can cause repercussions across any device that needs constant power.
In addition while a downed line or local power outage may be an obvious culprit for anyone nearby, If you’re calling an IT company out of state, they won’t necessarily know that the problem you’re telling them about has already been reported by a few hundred of their neighbors and isn’t a result of your equipment, but your internet connection.
Less obviously, sometimes there is a benefit to knowing your environment and your community. A local IT company knows how internet service providers, phone companies and equipment work together and even may know what your typical customers expect from business like yours.
Knowing what other companies like you experience can help you from having to make similar mistakes.
Accountability
I had a great conversation with a business owner the other day who was looking for marketing services.
He had hooked up with an online company years ago but said he prefers working with someone local so he had “someone to strangle.”
While hilarious and violent, he has a point. It’s nice to have both a face and a location that you can see, blame and seek help from whenever something goes wrong.
One of the benefits of local IT service is that you have a local person who you can talk to. It’s harder to ignore someone who has a storefront down the street from you or who you run into at your supermarket or kids’ school.
It’s not that large companies inherently won’t care if they don’t see you. It’s simply human nature that when something is out of sight, it’s out of mind. It’s easier to forget about someone you don’t have to look in the eye.
Care
Of all the benefits of local IT services, the hardest to quantify is care, but maybe most important, is care
Being part of the local community, local companies take pride in their work and want to see their fellow community members succeed.
It’s a quality that’s a little harder to put your finger on or measure but it’s the reason so many people like to do business with people in their community.
Does everyone with a local business care? Probably not. But I’d bet money that you’d have an easier time finding someone who does then doesn’t. And I’d further bet that the majority of people in your local community care more about the community and it’s members than people who’ve never set foot there.
All told the benefits of local IT service outweigh any extra associated cost that a cheaper national alternative may be able to offer. And that’s all on top of the general benefits that local business bring to your community itself.
So next time you’re thinking about who to call with an IT problem, think local first!
