Geek Squad can help you set up your smart home

If you’re in the middle of a major renovation or just looking to spruce your home up a bit, something you may look to nowadays is integrating smarthome technology within your 4 walls. However, the task can be a bit daunting, especially if you want to do everything in one shot. Not only do you have to think about which products to get, but you then have to worry about things like whether your home network signal is strong or stable enough or whether you have all of the right devices for what you’re looking at. I admit that I started getting interested in (and purchasing) smarthome technology when the options were limited, so I didn’t quite have the luxury of buying everything at once and spending a full day configuring and setting up.

Then there is the installation end of things to consider. I’m really not a handy person. I’m pretty good with connecting devices to my network and making that part of it work. However, when anything has called for electrical work, I’ve had to call my dad the electrician to come out and install it. Then, once he’s done that, I’ve seen him struggle with basic instructions around configuring the device to work with my WiFi network, so I take over again. In a way, we’re like the best of both worlds but we need each other to make things work.

If I were doing this all today, I’d be much more open to doing everything at once instead of taking chunks out of my evenings and weekends here and there. A recent service offered from Geek Squad has piqued my interest and would be the way I would go if I were starting from scratch. Geek Squad has recently set up an in-home consultation service that will help take the guesswork out of choosing products and sorting out how to install. Best of all, the service is free!

Here are some of the services Geek Squad will come by to offer during their free in-home consultation:

Reviewing your Home Network

Geek Squad will review your existing WiFi network to confirm compatibility. This will be a good opportunity to check on whether you get good signal strength throughout the house, or whether there are dead or weak zones that need to be addressed. My home has a weak zone in the living room and garage area, which means that I need a range extender so that I can properly set up anything that requires my WiFi in those areas.

Addressing your needs

Your consultation will be focused on your lifestyle needs. Are you somebody that goes for morning jogs and wants keyless entry into the home because you don’t want to carry your keys? Maybe you’re interested in saving on your power bill this fall through the help of a smart thermostat? Perhaps you like the idea of all of your devices being compatible with one another. This consultation is all about you and your needs so don’t be afraid to ask all of the difficult questions.

Recommendations and Proposals

Some smart lighting options will only operate on single light switch access. Some devices are Bluetooth-only. Some only have smartphone apps and don’t have apps written for tablets. Your consultation will ensure that you don’t end up buying something that isn’t compatible with you.

At the end of the visit, Geek Squad will offer you a written quote based on what you’ve chosen and schedule an installation appointment. You’ll have everything laid out for you by the time your consultation is over and it all comes complete with their 5 point pledge:

• Perform the work to your satisfaction
• Work with your schedule
• Teach you to use your system
• Respect your home as if it were our own
• Remedy any defect in workmanship for up to 90 days

Certain conditions do apply, such as the fact that there must be somebody over the age of 18 present and providing easy access to any area that may need work. A full list of these terms can be found on the consultation page itself.

As you’ve seen, there are more things to consider sometimes than just picking something up off the shelf and taking it home. There are so many different products to choose from, and many of them can interact with each other too. Different companies have partnered together and some will allow their products to be run off one app instead of multiples. Those are the types of tricky things where I’d recommend having someone from Geek Squad lend you a hand and help you get things going from start to finish. That Free In-Home consultation is available now by simply calling 1-800-GEEKSQUAD and setting up your appointment.
Whether you want to be able to control your lights or heating while you’re on vacation, or enter your garage or front door with your phone or set up security cameras around your house, it’s all available to you and all you have to do is call to get started.

Which products interest you the most in building your Smart Home? For me personally, I don’t have much smart lighting in my home and so I’m thinking about my options in replacing the fixtures in my living room next. Let me know what interests you in the comments below!