WILTON -- Keith Mower has built his business based on an old-fashioned concept: take care of your customers.

"If you do that, then everything else falls into place," said Mower, the owner of Mid-State Computer Inc., a business based in Oakland that is expanding to Wilton. "If you build trust, then you don't have to worry about competition."

His Wilton branch opens May 1 at 128 Weld Road in the Nichols-Bass Business & Technology Center for three days a week. Mower specializes in servers and desktop computers, network consulting, computer and network systems, preventative maintenance, computer upgrades and emergency services.

Mower is a computer engineer with 16 years experience working for large and small corporations across the country. His year-old business on 840 Kennedy Memorial Drive has 40 commercial and over 200 residential customers and the numbers are increasing.

So, why come to Wilton if business is so good in Oakland?

"The people in Farmington and Wilton have been phenomenal. I am getting a new customer from that area every day," he said.

"We started at Nichols on a referral to fix the network problems at Nichols Trailers. They became a customer," Mower said.

On a Saturday in March, Mower was working at Nichols while the annual Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Home & Leisure Show was going in the adjoining Nichols Expo building.

Thousands of visitors were talking business to more than 75 commercial vendors when the building suddenly lost its wireless connection. It could have been a disaster.

"It was real handy I was there," Mower said.

Nichols' co-owner Gil Reed said the quick repair, Mower's attitude and experience impressed him. Reed offered a deal: free commercial space for one year as long as Mower took care of the in-house systems.

"This area needs a reliable computer guy and I think he will do well. There have been computer businesses that open for a while, sell you a system and then they're gone and you're stuck," he said.

Mower said he believes the best way to fix a problem is to not let the problem happen in the first place.

"I do it right the first time. I have 40 commercial customers and I don't have to go out on emergency calls because those systems are maintained," he said.

The servers he builds are designed with two hard drives. If one crashes, everything is saved in the back-up system.

"If one fails, you won't even see a flicker," he said.

Mower spends an hour a month per client remotely going through their server and logging on to their system to check for potential problems. Also, at the end of each day, the systems are built to check themselves and send Mower an e-mail report.

Most problems can be fixed remotely during the night so employees can get back to work by morning, he said. For residential customers, Mower fixes problems so they don't happen again. He said he is not a "break-fix" technician who fixes computers but doesn't solve the core problem so the client ends up having to bring it back and getting charged another fee. Any second repair Mower does for free.

"The difference is, I don't want them to break," he said. "I do it right the first time.

"In this business, it is all about service," he said. "I love what I do and I like the people, and I care about how we make our money."

Mower is originally from Pittsfield and has had 16 years of experience in the computer industry. Among his former consulting clients is PPG Industries, which has 36,000 employees in Pittsburgh, where he was the lead engineer overseeing the Year 2000 project.

After relocating to Maine, Mower started a computer consulting business and his commercial clients continue to include physician practices, municipalities, law offices and businesses.

Lorna Nichols, the executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, said having Mower in the area will be a great asset to the community.

"He will provide a much-needed service," she said. "I am always getting calls from Chamber members and non-members who need help with their systems and I never had anyone to refer them to -- until now."

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjepersen@centralmaine.com