Re: Lying Competition

["Russell Brill" <russwbrill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0e69b29e-5378-4d8e-81d3-54eadc6057d2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Monday, March 25, 2013 10:22:21 PM UTC-4, Chris wrote:
> Anyone here ever have issues with other alarm companies - door knockers or
> 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? -
> Chris

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
customer 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
over the telephone. Well, at that particular time, I was the only "employee"
so I hadn't any idea what she was talking about. I called her and she
related 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
cancelling her monitoring. There was nothing I could offer her nor convince
her of the 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 forget all about the "nice guy" who installed their alarm system and
that the CS 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 their 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 always 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, make their homes look occupied when they're not home, to be careful
during the 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 networking and inviting them to call me, with no obligations, if
they have any questions 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 home theater magazines, I'll cut out articles and post some of the
statistics about burglaries and fires and other odd bits of information
about technology that I think end users might be interested in.  And I
always somehow work into the letter that if they should ever have any
problems with their central 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 getting 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 and now live in another state.

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

Ya gotta keep "you" in their memory or the central station becomes their
alarm company and you are just a faint memory ...... if that. And when that
sleezey company comes a-knockin, there's no "connection" to the guy who
installed their system. You've become just the voice of the CS operator so
there's no loyalty remainging for you and therefore no reason to not believe
what they are hearing from ScuzBucket Alarm Company.

I know that writing a newsletter is a dauting task for many people but if
you 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 to
one page. You could even send one out every 6 months.

Any way, that's my suggestion.

It also helps if you have a great Central Station.... After I joined the
Monitoring America alarm co-op, I never looked at one of the Large Central
Stations again :)