Re: Lying Competition

[Jim <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Monday, March 25, 2013 10:22:21 PM UTC-4, Chris wrote:
> Anyone here ever have issues with other alarm companies - door knockers o=
r real companies - trying to steal your clients by telling them you're out =
of business, etc. Anything that should or shouldn't be done about them? - C=
hris

Hi Chris,

I've mentioned this before in ASA but it's been a long time and maybe bears=
 repeating.

After a number of years installing, one day I got a call from an irate cust=
omer that I hadn't seen nor heard from for over 5 years. Her message on my =
answering machine said something about how nasty my employee was to her ove=
r the telephone. Well, at that particular time, I was the only "employee" s=
o I hadn't any idea what she was talking about. I called her and she relate=
d how she had set the alarm off and had gotten into an argument with the CS=
 operator who ..... she thought was    "my employee"  and she was cancellin=
g her monitoring. There was nothing I could offer her nor convince her of t=
he fact that the operator was not my employee. It was then that I realized =
that a few years after I would do any installation, my customers would forg=
et all about the "nice guy" who installed their alarm system and that the C=
S operators would become their alarm company in their minds. That's when I =
started to send out a quarterly newsletter. Even though I complained to the=
 CS about how the operator had treated my customer, I never wanted to lose =
another customer because of their perception that the central station was t=
heir alarm company. From that  point forward to this day (about 32 years) I=
 have sent a quarterly news letter to my clients. It's just a simple black =
and white, 8 1/2 by 11, one sided, black and white, four column note. I alw=
ays mention something or make a comment about some community or media event=
, offer suggestions about testing their alarms. Tell them about a vacation =
I may have just taken and so on. Mention that there are companies that may =
try contacting them via telephone or door to door trying to steal accounts =
from other alarm companies. I tell them how to test their alarm systems, ma=
ke their homes look occupied when they're not home, to be careful during th=
e holiday season. I tell them about the other services I offer and maybe a =
little bit about a special job that I've done, home theater, computer netwo=
rking and inviting them to call me, with no obligations, if they have any q=
uestions about new technology that they're interested in or looking to buy,=
 TV's, IPhones, computers, etc, etc, etc. As I read the alarm trade and hom=
e theater magazines, I'll cut out articles and post some of the statistics =
about burglaries and fires and other odd bits of information about technolo=
gy that I think end users might be interested in.  And I always somehow wor=
k into the letter that if they should ever have any problems with their cen=
tral station company that monitors their system, to let me know and I will =
be happy to take care of it for them. Sometimes I will slip a month in gett=
ing the newsletter out. I actually get calls from people asking for another=
 copy because they think it may have gotten lost in the mail. I've got two =
clients who send a copy to their kids who have grown up, gone to collage an=
d now live in another state. =20

It's worked for me for decades now. Never lost another customer for that or=
iginal reason and it keeps my clients reminded of who I am through the year=
s, even if they don't get to see me.=20

Ya gotta keep "you" in their memory or the central station becomes their al=
arm company and you are just a faint memory ...... if that. And when that s=
leezey company comes a-knockin, there's no "connection" to the guy who inst=
alled their system. You've become just the voice of the CS operator so ther=
e's no loyalty remainging for you and therefore no reason to not believe wh=
at they are hearing from ScuzBucket Alarm Company.=20

I know that writing a newsletter is a dauting task for many people but if y=
ou start writing one one day, you'll find out that once you get going, that=
 a single page fills up pretty fast. Most times I have trouble keeping it t=
o one page. You could even send one out every 6 months.=20

Any way, that's my suggestion.