How to choose an IT support company in London

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: we're an IT support company, so a guide from us on choosing one is hardly neutral. Here's the deal we can offer instead — questions that work on anyone. Ask them of every provider on your shortlist, including us, including whoever you use now. Good providers answer them without flinching. The other kind get vague, and the vagueness tells you plenty.

London has hundreds of IT support companies, and from their websites they all sound the same: responsive, proactive, friendly. You can't choose between adjectives. You can choose between specifics, so that's what the rest of this article digs for.

The questions to ask

How fast will you respond — and where's that written down?

Every provider says they're fast. The real question is whether the number is published or whether you're getting "we usually pick things up pretty quickly". A published target — ours is 15 minutes for an initial response — is a commitment a company has chosen to be measured against. A vague promise is a mood. Note the word target, too: be wary of anyone who says "guarantee" without showing you the contract terms behind it.

What's your first-contact resolution rate?

Response time tells you how quickly someone picks up. First-contact resolution tells you whether that person can actually fix anything, or just logs a ticket for someone else. High FCR means your staff describe a problem once and get back to work. Low FCR means the queue, the escalation, and the weekly "any update on this?" email.

Who actually answers the phone?

An engineer? A call handler working from a script? An answering service that takes a message? Ring both the sales line and the support line before you sign anything. See who picks up, how long it takes, and whether they can hold a technical conversation. Five minutes of phoning beats any brochure.

Is security included, or an upsell?

Some monthly prices look attractive because monitoring, patching and phishing training are all "extras". Ask exactly what the quote covers: is anything watching your systems proactively? Who keeps machines patched? What happens when someone reports a suspicious email? If each answer is "that's an add-on", price the add-ons before you compare quotes. Our view on what security for a small business should include is on the site.

Can you come on-site — and from where?

Most problems are fixed remotely, but dead hardware, office moves and Wi-Fi trouble need a person in the building. Ask where the engineers physically sit, not which areas the website claims to cover. There's a difference, and you find out what it is on the day your network is down.

What are the exit terms?

The most revealing question, and the one everyone forgets to ask while the relationship is new. What's the notice period? Do you get your documentation, admin passwords and licence ownership handed over cleanly? A provider confident you'll stay makes leaving simple. One planning to keep you by contract rather than by service writes it the other way round.

The numbers that matter

Any provider that measures its own performance can show you the results. Ask for real, recent stats — averages over months, not the best week they ever had. Three are worth insisting on: how quickly calls get answered, how much gets fixed at first contact, and what clients say afterwards.

We publish ours. Calls answered in under 15 seconds: 96%. Issues resolved at first contact: 91%. Customer satisfaction: above 95%. Quote them back at us in a year. That's what published numbers are for.

And if a provider can't produce any figures at all, that's an answer in itself. A helpdesk that isn't measured doesn't improve. It just gets defended.

Red flags

Long lock-ins with silent auto-renewal. A three-year term that quietly renews for another year unless you cancel inside a narrow window is a contract designed around you forgetting. Read the renewal clause before you read the pricing page.

Per-ticket pricing surprises. Support billed per incident sounds cheap until the month everything breaks, which is precisely when you can least afford a bill shaped like a crisis. Fixed monthly pricing points the provider's incentive the right way: the fewer problems you have, the better their month.

No proactive monitoring. If nothing watches your systems overnight, then you are the monitoring system — problems get found when your staff hit them, mid-morning, mid-deadline.

"We support everything", with nothing to show for it. Genuine capability leaves a trail: vendor partnerships, partner designations, named specialisms. We're Microsoft-first, with a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation for Modern Work, and we name our other vendor partnerships on the site. Ask what a prospective provider can point to. "We do it all" backed by nothing usually means "we'll figure it out on your time".

Why local matters in London

Remote support handles most of the workload — that 91% figure again. But the remainder is the part you remember: the dead switch, the failed line, the office move that has to happen over a weekend. That's when "covering London" from a business park forty miles out turns into a scheduled appointment several days away.

So ask where the engineers actually are. Our team works from Paul Street in Shoreditch, which means on-site help comes from people who are genuinely nearby — and for businesses around Old Street, often from someone who can simply walk over. What that looks like in practice is on our IT support in London and Shoreditch IT support pages.

How to use all this

Take the questions above and put your shortlist through them — your current provider too, if you have one. We're happy to be on that list, and we'll answer every question here in writing. If you'd rather start from evidence than promises, the free IT assessment below is the quickest way to see how we work.