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NOTICE: CONTRACT UPDATES AND "SALE"
Welcome back to work on the first working day of the year, though many of you may be reading this while still on vacation. To help you along with 2015 New Year resolutions, the Standard Form Agreements have been updated and it's time for you to update your forms. Changes were made as recently as third week in December. Only the All in One forms will be updated at no charge. If you purchased an All in One on or after June 1, 2014 you are entitled to a FREE UPDATE. If you purchased an All in One between January 1, 2014 and May 30, 2014 your update is half price. If you don't have the All in One forms. or if purchased in 2013 or earlier get the most current form before January 8, 2015 and receive $100 off each All in One form and $25 off the Disclaimer Notice. Call our Contract Administrator Eileen Wagda at 516 747 6700 x 312 to arrange the discounted price. If ordering for the first time please go to www.alarmcontracts.com to place your order and take the discount when completing the order form.
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Another Notice: I am planning a few webinars that will be announced shortly. A well known alarm expert will be presenting on a number of liability topics involving design, installation and services, important to alarm company owners, operation managers, technicians, insurance brokers and claims representatives. Watch for the scheduled announcement.
Another webinar will present on topic of alarm salesman perception.
Yet another webinar will be How a small alarm company can get big. I am looking for a few panelists for this one. Anyone interested please give me a call. I promise to do most of the work.
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PERCEPTION OF ALARM SALES PEOPLE FROM DEC 19, 2014
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Ken,
It’s not only the perception of alarm sales people that is the problem – it’s the perception of the industry itself. As long as an industry is willing to give its services away for “free” the perception by the public will not be good. How can an industry demand the respect of the public when the people within the alarm industry don’t respect themselves and busy themselves giving their services away for “free”? How can the industry expect respect when we spend much of our time cutting one another’s throats?
The alarm associations of New York spent a great deal of time and energy getting the state licensing law passed in the hopes of professionalizing the industry. Some 23 years later this law is still unenforceable and has not had the desired effect of improving its standing in the community.
I can sum up the public view of us with the question I got from a customer this morning. The customer wanted to know if she had to pay the tax on her bill, because, “you’re not a real company anyway, are you?”
Get that question more than a few times a year.
John Hubbard
Warren Elec. Prot. Sys. Inc.
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Ken
With regard to commentary about alarm sales people....................
I believe it was PT Barnum that said "there's a sucker born every minute and two to take him"
As long as there remains someone looking for something for nothing (the free alarm) there will always be someone willing to provide that product.
This uneducated consumer will always be the target, regardless of the product...... siding, driveway sealing, food plans ect. This month it just happens to be the security industries turn.
I have taken over a significant number of low budget (free) systems. It's amazing what some companies will promote as a security system along with the accompanying contract.
Such companies deserve the negative publicity however; in the public's eye, it does throw everyone under the bus.
John W. Yusza, Jr
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Ken
I saw that news story.
Oh, have pity on poor ADT. This was nothing more than a PR spot for ADT. The very same firm that used these same tactics to crush small alarm firms a few decades ago. They are getting a taste of their own medicine now. They have great a great legal team and plenty of cash to back up lawsuits. They are hardly the ones to claim any abuse.
The ones that get hurt by these stories are the small businesses, where consumers lump everyone, except the mighty ADT, into one basket. Doesn’t matter. Not to me anyhow. Enough unhappy ADT clients leave of their own accord. ADT could never compete against any local security firm that has good service and a caring attitude. ADT wants the national accounts and pays attention only to those. The mom and pops can scream and yell but won’t get heard. Not until they wake up and get a reliable local firm to service them.
News stories like that do a great disservice to the public. By both putting ADT on a pedestal and by lumping all smaller alarm firms into a single basket. The consumer is the loser on these stories because they get mislead and believe this nonsense.
Mitch Cohen
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RESPONSE
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This topic touched a raw nerve in many. Understandably so. No one wants to be accused of being in a sleazy business, or being sleazy themselves. Geez, you all could have become lawyers if you wanted to risk that. [only kidding]. I think the industry does have to be careful because as proliferation of alarm systems increases among the public, increasing the customer pool significantly, there will be more room for abuse. Or, maybe with the potential customer base growing there won't be such a need [or business model] of feeding on other alarm company customers. A good analogy may be watching a feeding frenzy of alligators, sharks or pharana [take your pick] feed on a single meal. Not much left and who knows who got what. Keep eye out for webinar we are presenting on this topic.
As I was writing this article I received the email below. I think it says it all about this topic:
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Ken,
I received a call from a long time customer. Two men from a different alarm company came to his house representing them self as the company who bought all of my monitoring accounts and they are there to switch him over. But this customer of mine is not monitored he is only service. He called me immediately and asked if they were my employees because he knows there are only two of us. So I advised him to call the sheriff and make a complaint. What to do?
name withheld