How about the fact they can deal with you direct if they need something extra as opposed to having to phone somebody miles away, who then phones an area manager who phones another subbie who phones another subbie who eventually gets on to the guy who cleans the windows by which time the reason for the original call is long since gone.... I had it recently with Argos, the manager needed the windows cleaned before the new catalogue launch, phoned interserve (who has the contract) and no surprise nobody turned up, ok for me as he got me to them instead, but that has to be a big advantage with using the local guy, when they need something extra doing it will normally get done there and then, whereas with some of these nationals (dare I say all of them?) it might get done eventually or not at all.