Re: Need to disable sensor (Paradox Spectra 175x-RF)

[Robert L Bass <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> It's easy to see why they think they are entitled
> to free service.  They pay a monthly monitoring
> fee and feel it is your responsibility to keep the
> equipment operating to earn your monitoring
> fee...

This is probably due in large part to the so-called "free" system deals that
prevail in the trade today have devalued the systems themselves in the eyes of
consumers.  If the system is "free" and the only thing they have to buy is
monitoring, it's a reasonable assumption for them that repairing the free system
should also be free.

> I do charge for my service and my rates are
> reasonable.  If I think the customer can't afford
> the service or is upset with the charge, I absorb
> it for the good will.

Good will can sometimes be worth more than the fee.  A number of years ago when
the country went through a major recession a lot of my customers lost their
jobs.  We got a number of monitoring service cancellations because families
could not afford the fee (at the time we were charging less than $20 a month but
when you have no job anything is expensive).

I responded to each one who cancelled that year by telling them that their
service would be free for one year.  "When you find work and can resume paying,
let us know."  I didn't ask to be paid up later -- just resumed billing.

We lost very few customers that year though some of our competitors lost as much
as 20% of their RMR.  When the economy turned around all but one or two resumed
paying for service.  A few insisted on paying for the service we had already
given them.  More importantly, word of what we had done got around and we got
lots of new customers, most of them referrals from people we helped when they
were hurting.

When you think about it, this sort of thing costs the alarm company very little.
We had our own small central station so overhead remained the same whether we
monitored 400 or 500 accounts.  The value of the goodwill we received in return
was far more than what we could have gotten if there never had been a recession
in the first place.

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Regards,
Robert L Bass

Bass Burglar Alarms
The Online DIY Store
http://www.BassBurglarAlarms.com

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Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.