Re: Which system is better?

[Jim <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Sep 5, 12:05=EF=BF=BDpm, Frank Olson
<use_the_email_li...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> tourman wrote:
>
> We still differ in philosphy regarding contracts, Bob. =EF=BF=BDOur clien=
ts sign
> a three year agreement and most are happy to do so. =EF=BF=BDOur monitori=
ng
> rates are $15.00 per month and haven't changed in over ten years. =EF=BF=
=BDYes,
> we have an "escalation clause" (it's a standard contract wording), but
> we've never exercised it, nor will we. =EF=BF=BDThe last thing I want is =
someone
> calling me that's paying $38.00 per month when we're writing new
> contracts for $15.00. This actually happened to me when I first got into
> the industry and was working for Chubb. =EF=BF=BDI had a long time client=
 call
> to inquire what our monitoring rates were. =EF=BF=BDWhen I said $25.00 pe=
r month
> (on residential at the time), he asked why it was he was paying $48.00
> per month. =EF=BF=BDI let my manager deal with him. =EF=BF=BDI understand=
 the client got
> a two year credit on his account. =EF=BF=BDDid they address this issue wi=
th
> their other clients who weren't "bright enough" to clue into what they
> were doing?? =EF=BF=BDOf course not!!!

I have to say that I really don't understand your reasoning.

You say you haven't raised your monitoring fee for over ten years.
Does that mean to say that your operating cost haven't increased over
the past 10 years also?

I've got to give you a clue Frank. There's not one of your customers
out there that appreciates the fact that you are losing money every
year because you're "a nice guy". Also, there's not one ( well ....
maybe one) customer out there who would begrudge you having raised
your fee by 10 to 20% over that time period. I understand that the
monitoring fees in your area may be lower than mine but in the past 10
years, I've increased my fee's (generally) from $18.00 per month to
22.50 per month and by now a number of them up to $24.50 per month (my
next plateau) . (My fee's have always been a little higher than most
others in my area) And ...... they are increasing daily as contracts
come due. $.25 here ..... $.50 there and sometimes even a dollar a
month. Companys pay more and expect to pay more than residential.
There are some elderly or single mother accounts that I've held the
line on but there's no way that I'm in business to be a sponge for my
clients, against increased operating costs.

This isn't "greed" it's just a forgone conclusion that you can't run a
business as successfully as possible without covering your operating
costs so that you can make a profit. The end to every  business is to
profit so that it can continue to function, by maintaining and
increasing services to your clients. Thereby KEEPING your clients by
offering more than the competitors. In my opinion ..... by you
maintaining your prices you are buying into the same mind set of those
people who think they're getting a Free alarm system.

Now ..... of course if you haven't had a raise in ten years ..... if
you haven't bought new vehicles in ten years ...... if you haven't
subscribed to new services or had your insurance increase or paid more
for labor and materials or had your rent increased ...... in ten
years ...... well then maybe ...........

And if you're going to say that you've increased installation fees,
that means that you aren't running your monitoring as a seperate
profit center. Another no-no.

A N D ...... what about the value of your accounts should you want to
sell out someday?

Things may be different in your area but I'm pretty sure this is a
universal business philosophy.