Grow Your Business and Create Happy Customers
The advent of affordable technology is changing the way Integrators do business. They can no longer deny the competitive advantage that technology can bring, even if they are not technical themselves. RMR is soon to be if not already, the lifeblood of a security integration business. The challenge is how to build this type of business, all the while increasing their value to each and every client.
For a while now, many Integrators have focused their service/maintenance contracts on monitoring intrusion alarms and servicing hardware. What if they could know what was happening inside of their client’s entire security infrastructure in real-time? Imagine making a phone call alerting the client to a potential failure inside their network before they even knew there was a problem. Now envision doing this from a single dashboard. With a SMART dashboard Integrators can do this and more. Creating a service model that includes security system health and performance monitoring is key to building value with RMR services. Not only will it help grow an Integrator’s business, it will create happy customers along the way.
What’s a SMART dashboard?
A SMART dashboard is Sensor Monitoring, Alerting, and Reporting Technology. It uses a probe to continuously scan the status, activity, and performance of every IP-based security device on a network. By making system status and health visible and easily understandable, SMART dashboards speed time to resolution, mitigate risk, and enable more effective management of security infrastructure.
Along with a SMART dashboard, comes the SMART approach to security infrastructure management. It begins with assessing the environment and establishing benchmarks and thresholds for how the system should perform. Then, the real-time alerting system serves as a ‘check engine’ light providing highly detailed notifications of specific health and performance issues. Finally, armed with a deeper understanding of the security system in its ‘normal’ state, Integrators can respond to system status and health issues with contextual knowledge. In other words, the right information, gets to the right people quickly for a collaborative response before an environment is further compromised.
Integrators who strive to become more competitive and more profitable can do so by adding security system monitoring to their list of RMRs. Integrators that do will become stickier with their clients and reduce the possibility that competitors can get a foothold. Security system monitoring positions an Integrator as an indispensable partner to their client’s ongoing success. It makes their service too valuable to replace.
Here are some best practices for customer attraction, retention, and loyalty that are all supported by SMART dashboards.
Best Practices for Customer Attraction, Retention, and Loyalty
In today’s competitive world, Integrators can no longer rely on their customers being satisfied. They must go above and beyond to make sure their customers are delighted. The keys to keeping customers happy and delighted can be summed up in these three best practices.
Know that every interaction with a customer affects customer service levels.
Most integrators are familiar with the dreaded phone call from a customer alerting them to the fact that they had an incident last night and some part of the system was down. Isn’t it better to call a customer about a problem in their network before they even know there’s a problem? What about alerting them before the system goes down, or at least, alerting them instantly a camera goes offline so it can get fixed before an incident occurs? Integrators who are armed with knowledge about the health and performance status of a client’s network have a powerful tool for attracting and retaining customers as well as building loyalty.
Stay in front of your clients.
It’s vitally important for integrators to proactively stay in front of customers and prove that they care about their business. With a SMART dashboard, Integrators can show their clients how the security system is performing on a regular basis. Detailed reports about device and service uptime/availability as well as downtime give Integrators real data that allows them to have meaningful conversations with their clients. Life cycle management and hardware/software replacement conversations become meaningful when backed by real data. Quarterly business reviews are a great way to stay in front of clients on a regular basis.
Educate your clients.
Educating clients on the value of their service/maintenance contract is a good way to substantiate the fee. It is important to review reports that show the number of issues that have been fixed and the money saved by knowing more about their environment. When Integrators have real-time knowledge about the health and performance status of a network, coupled with detailed alerts, they send less trucks which ultimately costs the clients less in long run.
If you are an Integrator looking to grow your RMR revenue this year, there’s no time to lose. Your competitors are likely working on their transitions already.
If you are interested in learning more about how to increase your RMRs and improve customer service, you’re in luck. The Vunetrix team will be at ISC West in April teaching sessions on SMART dashboards and the SMART approach. Simply let us know you are interested, and we’ll reserve some time in one of our sessions for you. Click here for more information and to book a reservation.