We LOVE Positive Feedback!

We love to get positive feedback from our customers! Here is an email our CEO received on June 17, 2009. I've eliminated the last names of individuals to respect their privacy:

This morning your tech Paul T. (I'm fairly certain that is his name, my memory is a bit bad) was out at my home to transition my alarm system to work with my Vonage/IP based phone service from the legacy AT&T analog line that was in the home. He was prompt (actually arrived early!), courteous and I could tell he really wanted to do the job right! He was actually concerned about how the new wiring, etc. looked in my house so as not to be an eyesore! He spent a lot of extra time troubleshooting, testing and making certain that everything worked before he left.
Most of the time when I have technicians in for various work, be it cable TV or some other maintenance, it is always a hassle. Paul T. made certain your service was exactly the opposite--no problems! You've got an excellent employee there, thanks for the good service!

Todd S. (Indian Head Park, IL)

Todd, thank you so much for your kind words and for letting us share them on our blog! I also hate when the wiring in my house is messy and unprofessional. Glad that we could help!

Alarm Detection and Ed Bonifas Featured in SDM Magazine!

Most companies are unable to say that they have been the cover feature in one of their industry's leading magazines. However, once again, Alarm Detection and Vice-President Ed Bonifas have done so, being featured in the June 2009 edition of SDM Magazine.

To understand why ADS is featured, some background information on the security industry is necessary.

Most fire/burglar alarms operate through the phone line for monitoring. This means that when an alarm is activated at your home or business, a signal is sent through phone lines to a monitoring service (a.k.a. Central Station). The Central Station then assesses the situation and if the right conditions exists, dispatches emergency service. Simple enough?

Now, what happens if your phone line is cut or compromised? Or, what if you do not even have a phone line? This is where wireless monitoring is essential. Wireless monitoring can be used as the primary method of alarm monitoring (instead of landline phone service) or as backup (which would function if the phone lines are compromised). SDM Magazine's cover story features two different methods of wireless monitoring: Wireless mesh and cellular monitoring.

Alarm Detection uses both methods of wireless monitoring but is featured in SDM Magazine for its robust wireless mesh. The wireless mesh is an "in-house" network of transceiver radios, which transmit alarm signals to the Central Station. You can see ADS's network here. Here's how it works: When an alarm signal is activated at a customer's location (lets say a fire at your business), the wireless transceiver broadcasts a unique signal, which is received and rebroadcast by other transceivers in the network until it reaches the Central Station. Quickly, the Central Station receives the message that there is a fire alarm and takes an appropriate response.

Wireless monitoring is something that may be right for your home or business. Be sure to discuss it with your alarm company!

EMERGENCY!!!!!!!! (Not.) Has your alarm company shown its dedication to reducing false alarms??

As a customer, you want to be secure at your home or business. Yet, you don't want to be hassled and annoyed with repeated false alarms. If you've ever experienced false alarm issues, then you know what I'm talking about.

Enter: Your alarm company. Your alarm company should be committed (not to mention dedicated, focused, passionate, and obsessed) about reducing false alarms. For so many reasons, false alarms are bad for everyone involved: customer, alarm company and emergency services.

As a customer, there are some helpful questions that you can ask yourself

• Does my alarm company have a false alarm reduction program?
• Has your alarm company been responsive to identifying the causes of false alarms and recommending solutions?
• Has your alarm company demonstrated the technical competence to fix your problems?
• When you call your alarm company to discuss your concerns, do they handle your call promptly and professionally?

Companies such as Custom Alarm (Minnesota), Vector Security (Pennsylvania), and Alarm Detection Systems (Illinois), have been recognized in the industry for their commitment to false alarm reduction. Each has won the Police Dispatch Quality Award (PDQ) Award, which recognizes alarm companies that are leaders in alarm monitoring and false alarm reduction.

Here is an interesting article written about Alarm Detection after it won the PDQ Award in 2007. The article discusses the PDQ award and Alarm Detection's commitment (not to mention dedication, focus, passion and obsession) with preventing false alarms. Make sure your alarm company is equally committed!

Trust

We had a 401k presentation at the office this morning. The nice lady from the bank gave some very helpful information regarding investing, retirement, and taxes. There was one part of the presentation where the presenter dedicated a few moments to alleviate those in our group who may be afraid give money to a bank. This was an obvious attempt to address recent concerns in the financial market and concerns over the health of banks. At the most basic level, she was talking about trust. She was saying, "you can trust us with your money."

This got me thinking about how the alarm business is one of trust. It also got me thinking about the difficulties that alarm businesses face in gaining and holding consumer trust.

I'm not sure what some of the other companies out there do. Here at ADS we rely on a few key facts and principles to earn that important trust:

1. We promote our corporate heritage. ADS has been in the business for over 40 years. It started as a small family business run by only a couple of individuals and has grown to over 200 employees. We are proud of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. We try to convey our pride to our customers.
2. We promote our customer service. I can already see that this may become a broken record on this blog: We work really, really hard at customer service. It's not always perfect, but that doesn't mean that we don't strive for it. We try to be as responsive as possible at all times. When a customer has a concern or problem, we take it very seriously.
3. We differentiate ourselves from the competitors. We talk about how we're a local company when the competitor is not. We talk about how we have an award winning, five-diamond certified central station when our competitor does not. We talk about how we do not use automated customer service machines, when our competitors do.
4. We strive for professionalism. Whether it is an ADS employee, an ADS car, or our ADS corporate building, we want the customer to know that we have it together.

Building and sustaining trust is at the core of any business, but especially when your industry involves protecting people and property. We work hard at it, though I know there's room for improvement.

Providing Solutions for a Homeowner’s Worst Fears: FLOODING.

I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Jamaica over the winter. I happily boarded a plane and left the cold, snowy Chicago weather behind. In fact, on the day I left, it snowed a ton.

Fast forward a few days into the vacation. I was talking to some other vacationers who were from the Chicagoland area. Unfortunately, they were not enjoying the Jamaican weather. Instead, they were terribly worried about their home and weather in Chicago. As they explained to me, all of the snow that we left in Chicago had melted due to a combination of warm weather and very heavy rain. Their worry? “Is my house flooding?”

There are solutions that every homeowner can utilize to avoid worries like my new vacation friends. I’m not talking about cleaning your gutters or maintaining a proper slope away from your house, which do little to alleviate concerns when you are not at home. I’m talking about solutions that act as your eyes and deliver peace-of-mind: water detectors.

A water detector is a device that can be easily installed on the floor of your basement or in your sump pump hole. If water touches the device or reaches a specified level, then the device is activated. The devices are simple and can warn of water issues from rain, sewer backup, broken water pipes, and any other potential water hazard that you, your family or your business may face.

To gain the full utility of the water detector, however, you need to connect the water detector to a monitored alarm system (traditionally these are called “burglar alarms” but today’s alarms do much more than monitor for intruders). When the detector is monitored and triggered by water, the alarm panel in your house immediately notifies a 24-hour emergency dispatch call center. Trained call center personnel immediately contact the alarm subscriber and/or specified contacts (e.g., relative, business partner, neighbor) of the water issue. All this happens in a matter of minutes, so that corrective action can be taken immediately.

So, as I sat in the Jamaican sands, I knew that I did not have any flooding issues with my house. If I had, I would have been notified by Alarm Detection Systems, which installed and now monitors my alarm system and flood detector. If my new friends would have had similar protection, they would have been able to enjoy the sun with me, instead of worrying about the condition of their house. For me, the price of that peace-of-mind is entirely worth it.

ADS stays “old school” when it comes to customer service

“Thank you for calling Blankety Blank. Your call is very important to us. Your wait time is 24 minutes.”! Automated phone operators. It is hard to believe that most corporations see this as “doing business.” The Alarm Guru at ADS University, for one, HATES automated phone operators, especially when I regularly pay hard-earned money to the business putting me through the ropes.

Everyone has had the experience. I had it last week. You need help from a business and pick up the phone. Likely, you make the call during your lunch break or between errands since the business is open during limited hours and you have limited opportunities to call. You hope that it will go smoothly and quickly. Above all else, you hope that the business can assist you with your issue. Then it happens: You get the dreaded automated phone operator! Frustrated, you navigate through a series of voice menus, often with no options fitting the reason for your call. Eventually, you get through the voice menus. “Success!” you think. Wrong, now you are just on hold for a live-operator.

Fortunately, there are still companies out there that do it differently. These companies may be considered “old school” because they have held on to the notion that customers are important and should be treated with respect. Alarm Detection Systems is one of those companies.

I sat down and spoke to Ken Wright, ADS’s Customer Service Manager to learn about what sets ADS apart from other businesses. Ken told me that it’s all about respect for customers. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, when you call Alarm Detection Systems' main number (630-844-6300), a live person will answer the phone to help you. No automated operators or voicemails. No long waits on hold. I don’t think many companies (in the alarm industry or otherwise) offer such service.

Further, I was surprised to learn that Ken and other customer service representatives often go out on the road and make face-to-face contact with customers, large or small. Ken said that sometimes a face-to-face meeting with a customer is needed to understand or resolve a customer’s issue—whether the issue is a billing, service, product or some other issue that the customer has. Whether an in-person visit is necessary, what is important to Ken and his customer service colleagues is that the customer’s issues are addressed quickly, competently, and with a personal touch.

If “old school” means respect for customers, no automated operators, and professional service, then ADS is certainly a throw-back. Rather than just saying that customer service is important, Alarm Detection Systems puts it into action. I just hope that more companies go back to the days when customer satisfaction was more important than the bottom line.