Every day, I wake up and embrace my gratitude for living in beautiful Sonoma County, California. The natural beauty, the climate, and the diversity of people, perspectives, and experiences. In talking with people every day, many of us share this outlook on our good fortune to call this wonderful place home. Part of what makes Sonoma County special is the community, the people who make up the community, and the way we support each other, especially during trying times like those we’ve experienced together in the past several years with initiatives like Go Local.

This observation leads me to a question. How can we as individuals support each other and thus support Sonoma County? Of course, there are many ways to show support, from offering a smile to those we pass on the street, to practicing a random act of kindness, to volunteering and mentoring, and yes, by supporting the local businesses that give back so much to the individuals of Sonoma County.

 

Why Local Businesses Matter

So how do we as individuals support local businesses, and how and why does this support benefit us as individuals? To begin with, most of us recognize that when we Go Local, by spending our dollars with locally owned businesses, a greater percentage of those dollars stay in our community, thus improving our streets, our schools, and our social programs. In addition to the financial benefits of keeping our dollars local, there is another significant reason many people prefer to buy local.

I think most of us would agree that in doing business with a smaller, local company instead of a larger, global business, we are likely to receive better overall service and support and a more personable customer experience. Let’s face it; when we invest our dollars in a product or service, the item we purchase is only a part of that overall experience. Equally important is the genuine smile and gratitude from the proprietor of the local business, the accountability of the business knowing they are serving their neighbors and not just a faceless transaction, and the accountability that comes from knowing the people we work with.

When buying or leasing your next color copy machine, we encourage you to not only consider the factors outlined in the paragraphs above, but also to realize that with a local copier company, you would naturally expect to receive faster response to your copier service needs and a host of benefits compared to what you would expect to receive from a huge, global, publicly-traded copier company with their eye more on profit than on people.

Shown below are three factors that may support your choice to work with a local copier company the next time you’re considering buying or leasing a copier.

 

Better Service Response Time

Local copier companies are more likely to have a team of copier technicians in Sonoma County who are dedicated to one local area. Having a local technical team dedicated to a small, local area naturally leads to a faster response to your copier service needs. Many larger copier companies have small teams of regional technicians that cover a much larger geographic area with smaller populations of customers in each area. By having technicians with larger territories, the result is that the larger, global copier companies often have a slower response time to copier service requests.

 

Faster Turnaround on Parts and Repairs

Local copier companies maintain an onsite warehouse of parts and supplies needed to maintain and complete repairs on your color copy machine. Many larger, global copier companies have several regional warehouses throughout the United States, resulting in a several days delay in completing copier repairs that require replacement parts or supplies.

 

We Are Sonoma County Strong

Local copier companies are creating jobs and investing in the infrastructure of Sonoma County. At a core level, we all understand that it benefits our community to shop local, including when you’re shopping to purchase or lease a copier. Even though we all recognize that the Go Local movement has merit, most of us claim we would prefer to support a locally owned company. Unfortunately, most of us have to admit we sometimes take the path of least resistance for convenient online shopping, or we buy into the notion that a larger, national, name-brand company can provide better support.

However, our experience teaches us that this generally isn’t true. In most cases, no one is better able to support your needs in Sonoma County than the local businesses on your street and in your town. When it comes to copiers, I am confident that the locally owned copier service providers have more local resources to deploy locally, resulting in the fastest, highest quality copier service available. Better yet, you will be supporting a neighbor, supporting a small business, and helping support your very own community. Let’s all join the Go Local movement.

Contact Common Sense Business Solutions today to find out how a partnership with us can improve your office equipment’s efficiency and reduce operating costs and how, together, we can help support local businesses!