By Owen Wollum / Dependable IT Support ·
Choosing a managed service provider is an important decision for any small business. Your IT company may have access to your network, Microsoft 365 environment, backups, security systems, employee computers, and some of your organization’s most sensitive information.
So the question isn’t simply, “Who can fix my computers?”
It’s who do you trust to help protect your business, keep your employees productive, and respond quickly when something goes wrong?
If you’re trying to figure out how to choose a managed service provider in Tacoma—or how to choose an IT support company for a small business—here are the things I believe matter most after 40 years of supporting small businesses with their technology.
1. Start With Trust
Technology is important, but trust comes first.
Your IT provider may eventually know more about your technology environment than anyone else outside your company. They may manage administrator accounts, passwords, backups, security tools, Microsoft 365, firewalls and other critical systems.
Before hiring an IT company, I would ask a very simple question:
Why should I trust you?
Pay attention not only to the answer, but to how the provider handles the question.
You should feel comfortable asking:
- Who will have access to our systems?
- How are our passwords and credentials protected?
- How do I know what you are doing behind the scenes?
- If we decide to leave, how do we get our passwords, documentation and credentials?
- Who can I contact if something isn't going the way I expect?
A trustworthy IT provider shouldn't become defensive when you ask those questions.
Your technology belongs to your business. Your credentials and documentation should never be used to hold you hostage.
2. Look for Real Experience, Not Just Badges
Certifications have their place. They can show that someone has studied a particular technology and demonstrated a certain level of knowledge.
But passing a test isn't the same thing as solving problems in the real world.
I've spent about 40 years supporting small businesses with their IT needs, and over that time I've seen just about everything under the sun.
That experience matters.
When you've dealt with thousands of technology problems over several decades, you begin recognizing patterns very quickly. What might take someone hours of trial and error can sometimes be diagnosed much faster because you've seen a similar problem before.
Experience helps you know:
- where to start looking;
- which possibilities are likely and which aren't;
- when something that appears to be one problem is actually another;
- when to keep troubleshooting and when to change direction;
- and when a specialist should be brought in.
That last point is important too.
A good IT company shouldn't pretend to be an expert at absolutely everything. We work with specialists and subcontractors when something falls outside our expertise and someone else can do the job better.
I'd much rather have an IT provider who knows the limits of their expertise than one who believes a collection of certifications means they can handle every possible problem.
Badges and awards can also be misleading. Some awards are essentially marketing programs, and some credentials prove little more than someone's ability to prepare for an exam.
What ultimately matters is much simpler:
Can this person solve your problems, and do you trust them to take care of your business?
3. Choose Someone Who Is Actually Local
For a Tacoma business, I believe there is significant value in working with a genuinely local IT provider.
Most small-business IT support can be handled remotely today, and that's usually a good thing. Remote support means an issue can often be addressed immediately instead of waiting for someone to drive across town.
But not everything can be fixed remotely.
If your network is down, hardware has failed or something physically needs attention, you want someone who can get there quickly.
There's another distinction that business owners don't always realize.
Some national IT companies advertise themselves as serving Tacoma but don't actually have their own people here. When onsite service is necessary, they hire a local technician to act as their “boots on the ground.”
That technician may be perfectly competent, but he or she may know nothing about your network, your employees, your equipment or your history.
That's very different from having someone arrive who already understands your environment.
You shouldn't have to explain your entire network to a stranger during an emergency, nor should you have to wait for someone to drive four hours or fly in from somewhere else. Learn more about local Tacoma IT support.
4. Ask Who You'll Actually Deal With
A company can look impressive during the sales process and feel very different after you sign.
Ask:
Who do I call when I need help?
Will you work with the same people regularly, or whoever happens to answer the phone?
If the problem is serious, can you reach someone with the authority and experience to make decisions?
At Dependable IT Support, my clients have my cell phone number. If I'm tied up when they call, I normally call or text back very quickly, and critical problems get immediate attention.
I'm not suggesting every IT provider has to operate exactly that way.
But you should understand what access you're actually buying.
A polished sales presentation isn't much comfort when your business is down and you can't reach someone who knows what's going on.
5. Be Wary of Pressure and Long-Term Contracts
I would be very cautious about an IT company that pressures you to make a quick decision.
A good provider should be willing to explain the service, answer your questions and give you room to decide.
The same applies to contracts.
Ask what happens if the relationship isn't working.
- Are you locked into a multi-year agreement?
- How much notice is required to leave?
- Are there early termination penalties?
- Can prices change during the contract?
- What happens to your documentation when you leave?
At Dependable IT Support, our agreements are month-to-month with 30 days' notice to cancel.
We also provide a 100% / 100-day guarantee because I believe a provider should have some skin in the game.
Whatever company you choose, I would look carefully at how difficult they make it for you to leave.
A provider who is confident in the service shouldn't need a long contract to keep an unhappy client.
6. Find Out What's Actually Included
Managed IT service proposals can be surprisingly difficult to compare because two providers may use similar terminology while offering very different services.
One company may quote a very low price but provide little more than monitoring and patching.
Another may include cybersecurity tools, Microsoft 365 support, backup monitoring, employee support, network management and onsite service.
That's why price alone tells you very little.
Ask each provider to clearly explain:
- what's included in the monthly fee;
- what's considered a separate project;
- whether normal support calls cost extra;
- how onsite work is handled;
- what cybersecurity services are included;
- how backups are monitored and tested;
- what happens after hours;
- and what happens when you add employees or devices.
No two providers are necessarily selling the same thing.
Compare the results you're buying, not just the price at the bottom of the proposal. Read more about managed IT pricing and comparing provider costs, and review what small-business IT support should include.
7. Cybersecurity Should Be a Core Responsibility
Twenty years ago, small-business IT support was largely about keeping computers, servers and printers working.
Today, cybersecurity is one of the most important responsibilities an IT provider has.
A modern managed service provider should be thinking about layers of protection rather than relying on one security product.
I often compare cybersecurity to slices of Swiss cheese. Every individual layer has holes. The objective is to stack enough layers together so the holes don't line up.
That may include endpoint protection, firewalls, multifactor authentication, email security, employee awareness, secure configurations, patching and good backups. Learn more about cybersecurity for Tacoma businesses.
If an IT provider talks extensively about help-desk support but barely mentions cybersecurity, I would want to know why.
8. Ask How They Know Your Backups Actually Work
Having a backup system is not enough.
Backups need to be monitored and verified.
I've seen situations where a backup system appeared to be working until someone actually needed the data.
An unverified backup is a little like playing Russian roulette. You don't want the first real test of your backup system to happen immediately after a ransomware attack, hardware failure or accidental deletion.
Ask prospective providers:
How do you know our backups are actually recoverable?
Their answer should involve more than simply checking whether the backup software says “successful.”
9. Understand the Onboarding Process
Changing IT providers is usually easier when the current provider has maintained good documentation.
Ideally, your existing IT company can hand over the information the new provider needs: credentials, network details, licensing information, vendor information and documentation about your systems.
If the outgoing provider hasn't maintained that information—or refuses to provide it—the transition becomes more difficult.
A typical onboarding process may take around 30 days, although it can often be accelerated when necessary.
Before signing, ask the new provider what onboarding involves and what information they will need from you and your existing IT company.
That conversation can reveal a lot about how organized the provider is.
10. Don't Assume Bigger Is Better
There's nothing inherently wrong with hiring a large IT company.
But bigger organizations usually have more overhead and often more layers of bureaucracy. That can mean higher costs and less direct access to the people making decisions.
A small IT firm can be an excellent choice for a small business.
The important thing is making sure the provider has the experience and resources to support you properly—and enough humility to bring in a specialist when something falls outside its expertise.
Small doesn't have to mean limited.
It can mean fewer layers, more accountability and a closer relationship with the people actually responsible for your technology.
11. Make Sure They've Been Around
IT companies come and go.
Before entrusting your business systems to a provider, find out how long the company has been operating.
I would be cautious about putting an entire organization's technology into the hands of a company that hasn't even been around for a year.
That doesn't mean a new IT company can't be good.
But experience and stability matter when you're deciding who will hold administrative access to systems your business depends on.
Questions to Ask a Managed Service Provider
If I were interviewing an IT company for my own business, these are some of the questions I would ask:
- Why should I trust you?
- What differentiates you from other IT companies?
- Who will actually support our employees?
- Who do I contact if something serious happens?
- Can I reach the owner or someone with decision-making authority?
- What happens if we decide to leave?
- How do we get all of our passwords and credentials?
- How do you verify that our backups work?
- What's included in the monthly fee, and what's extra?
- How do you handle cybersecurity?
- Are we required to sign a long-term contract?
- What guarantees do you provide?
- How long have you been supporting small businesses?
- When onsite help is needed, who actually comes to our office?
- How will we know what you're doing behind the scenes?
Those questions will tell you far more than a collection of logos and certifications on a sales brochure.
How to Choose an IT Support Company for a Small Business
If you're comparing IT companies, don't make the decision based on one factor.
The cheapest provider isn't necessarily the best value. The largest provider isn't necessarily the safest choice. And the company with the most certifications isn't necessarily the one that will solve your problems fastest.
Look for a combination of:
experience, responsiveness, cybersecurity expertise, transparency, local availability and—above all—trust.
You should feel confident that the company understands your business, will be available when you need them and won't make it difficult for you to leave if the relationship stops working.
For Tacoma businesses, I'd add one more requirement:
Make sure “local” actually means local.
When something can't be solved remotely, you want someone who can get to you quickly and already knows your environment—not an unfamiliar technician dispatched by a company hundreds or thousands of miles away.