Top 5 Points to Consider When Choosing a Crestron Dealer

How to Choose a Crestron Dealer — Top 5 Things to Consider

So, you’ve decided on a Crestron home automation system — you’ve done your research and have a rough idea of costs. How do you actually choose a Crestron dealer to work with? It’s a crucial question, and most people end up deciding based on whichever dealer representative they happen to meet first — but it genuinely pays to do some homework before getting to that stage. Follow this guide to make sure the companies you’re considering are the right ones.

• Experience. This is first on the list for a reason. Genuine experience with Crestron is absolutely crucial to delivering a successful project. Any prospective company should be able to show examples of projects at a similar scale to yours — installing a Crestron system in a one-room flat is a genuinely different exercise from designing for a large home. Look at case studies to confirm both the quality of the work and the overall approach match your expectations and requirements.
• Recommendations. A genuinely good Crestron dealer should have no problem providing references. We tend to do this once a quote is agreed, to minimise disruption to existing clients, but most are happy to talk through their system and their experience of the installation. Another good way to separate the strong dealers from the weak ones is to ask Crestron directly. It sounds obvious, but Crestron will know who’s doing genuinely good work in a given area and field.
• Geographical location. This matters, but it isn’t essential. Having staff based locally can be useful for ongoing maintenance and support visits, but we install systems worldwide and still provide excellent support regardless of distance. The reason this works is remote access — we have remote visibility into the majority of our systems, letting us resolve issues and make changes considerably faster than travelling to site would allow. Many of our systems even flag potential issues to us proactively, often before a client is aware anything is wrong.
• Programming. Crestron programming is fundamental to a successful system — a well-programmed system is efficient, powerful and genuinely flexible. Make sure the programmer is actually part of the installation company, for two reasons: we regularly see clients caught in disputes between separate companies, and when changes are needed later, they’re inevitably delayed while one company has to negotiate priority with another. All our programming is handled in-house, which means changes happen quickly and our programmer works directly alongside our system designers throughout, rather than receiving a finished design to interpret after the fact.
• Training. There’s a minimum level of training required simply to become a Crestron dealer, but it’s worth asking specifically about further training undertaken, and — just as importantly — whether the actual staff working on your project have completed it themselves, rather than someone elsewhere in the business.

  

  The image above, from a Crestron installation in Dubai delivered by our London office, illustrates the point well — a well-designed Crestron system with genuinely excellent programming delivers a result that meets every requirement a client actually has. Maintenance is performed remotely throughout, ensuring complete reliability without relying on a site visit for every issue.

Frequently Asked Questions — Choosing a Crestron Dealer

Does it matter if a Crestron dealer is based far from my property?
Not as much as it might seem. Remote access lets a properly equipped dealer resolve the majority of issues and make programming changes without a site visit, often faster than travelling would allow.

Should the Crestron programmer be employed directly by the installer?
Yes, ideally. Where programming is outsourced to a separate company, changes are inevitably delayed while the two businesses coordinate, and clients can get caught in disputes between them. In-house programming avoids both problems.

How can I verify a Crestron dealer’s experience before committing?
Ask to see case studies at a similar scale to your own project, request references, and consider asking Crestron directly — they’re aware of which dealers in a given area are doing genuinely good work.

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