Dealing with Upset Alarm Customers

[SIW Editor]

What's your strategy? How do you train your Customer Service staff to remedy the situation and retain customers?

SIW Columnist Bob Harris of The Attrition Busters Inc. discusses his tips on how to diffuse a situation in this month's column (see story: http://www.securityinfowatch.com/art...on=315&id=8154 ).

What do you teach your own staff members about customer service and irate customer defusing?

Post it here!

Geoff

[Mr. Security]

Good customer service in any field requires a diplomatic approach to customer complaints. I recommend the following:

- Avoid minimizing the complaint
- Help the customer to see that you are on their side
- Ask the right questions and listen carefully
- If you don't have the answer, offer to call the customer back instead of leaving them on hold. Call back within the hour with an update.
- If you must transfer the customer, stay on the line and tell the next agent what is going on.
- Keep track of a customer's complaints. If you see a continuous pattern of unfounded complaints, it may be better to end the relationship.

I'm sure that other members can think of additional points to share on this topic.

[1stWatch]

Working in the field, I see my area of keeping a customer satisfied is to provide good service. This means to respond to a call when it is dispatched, which should be as soon as it is received, to be as thorough as possible while on the scene, and to perform a responsible resolution if a problem is found.

Another important thing is to keep the client informed if a problem is found. The client does want to be called and woken up if he or she left a phone number on your emergency contact list. That is what it is for. Don't wait until morning to make day shift make that call. I can think of several major service contracts that were cancelled due to the client not being notified right away about what they perceived to be a problem, even though the responding officer didn't think the problem was that major. The result was downsizing of the operation and at least one person who lost his job.

On the other hand, as much as it is important to keep the customer as happy as possible, there is such a thing as a bad client. A bad client can be a severe liability instead of an asset to your organization. Listen to what the client representative says when you make the inital contact. If that person makes statements about things like killing suspects on sight (no I'm not kidding) or making arrests for things you're not really allowed to arrest for, that should obviously be someone you want to avoid doing business with. Tread water carefully if you hear such statements or demands after going into business with such a client.

Contracts should be carefully worded to avoid things such as "providing any other services the client deems appropriate". Such language is completely inappropriate for an alarm contract since such "seemingly appropriate" services deemed by untrained clientele may subject you to criminal liability while refusal to do those may result in civil liability because of your contract.

Another thing to watch out for is the dependability of the client. Watch how they treat their employees if the client is a business. If the employees aren't getting paid on time, guess what? Neither will you. Nonpayment of services should be a clear indicator that client is not dependable. "You don't pay, we don't stay." It baffles me to see the majority of security contractors do not perform credit checks on their clientele before presenting a contract for service.

[Mr. Security]

Working in the field, I see my area of keeping a customer satisfied is to provide good service. This means to respond to a call when it is dispatched, which should be as soon as it is received, to be as thorough as possible while on the scene, and to perform a responsible resolution if a problem is found.

Another important thing is to keep the client informed if a problem is found. The client does want to be called and woken up if he or she left a phone number on your emergency contact list. That is what it is for. Don't wait until morning to make day shift make that call. I can think of several major service contracts that were cancelled due to the client not being notified right away about what they perceived to be a problem, even though the responding officer didn't think the problem was that major. The result was downsizing of the operation and at least one person who lost his job.

On the other hand, as much as it is important to keep the customer as happy as possible, there is such a thing as a bad client. A bad client can be a severe liability instead of an asset to your organization. Listen to what the client representative says when you make the inital contact. If that person makes statements about things like killing suspects on sight (no I'm not kidding) or making arrests for things you're not really allowed to arrest for, that should obviously be someone you want to avoid doing business with. Tread water carefully if you hear such statements or demands after going into business with such a client.

Contracts should be carefully worded to avoid things such as "providing any other services the client deems appropriate". Such language is completely inappropriate for an alarm contract since such "seemingly appropriate" services deemed by untrained clientele may subject you to criminal liability while refusal to do those may result in civil liability because of your contract.

Another thing to watch out for is the dependability of the client. Watch how they treat their employees if the client is a business. If the employees aren't getting paid on time, guess what? Neither will you. Nonpayment of services should be a clear indicator that client is not dependable. "You don't pay, we don't stay." It baffles me to see the majority of security contractors do not perform credit checks on their clientele before presenting a contract for service.

I know the type. It's not unusual for security companies that put profit above all else to look the other way instead of standing firm and even letting the client go if ethics dictate that doing so is the only way to maintain integrity within the industry.

One clue that you may be employed by such a profit-driven security company is when they dismiss or transfer officers who document OSHA and other flagrant security violations in order to appease the client and avoid losing the account.

[hemi444]

We had a client wanting the Fire Department personnel arrested for being on his property for an automatic fire alarm. He called cursing and accused us not handling the call in a timely matter and that if we got to his site the fire company would not have been notified of the alarm. I guess he did not understand that any fire alarm activation was considered a duress call in his contract and we would be the last on the alarm response procedures.

[Bill Warnock]

Response to False Alarm Dilemma

What's your strategy? How do you train your Customer Service staff to remedy the situation and retain customers?

SIW Columnist Bob Harris of The Attrition Busters Inc. discusses his tips on how to diffuse a situation in this month's column (see story: http://www.securityinfowatch.com/art...on=315&id=8154 ).
Post it here!

Geoff

What do you teach your own staff members about customer service and irate customer defusing?
Bob Harris has offered excellent ways to handle disgruntled clients. I have found over the years of having been screamed at over the phone or in personal letters sent to the Director or his Associate Director of Operations, you have got to put the systems in correctly in the first place.
I posted this next item before somewhere in this forum but can't seem to find it. So we'll do it again.
For those of you who feel like throwing up into the keyboard, disolve two Alka Seltzers in water and drink. The feeling will go away. In the meantime, please read on.
BACK-TO-THE-BASICS
THE FALSE ALARM DILEMMA
OUR OWN DOING AND UNDOING

William J. Warnock, 1994

Recently, several of the magazines catering to our profession have published articles dealing with the false alarm problems. There is a spate of proposed legislation at the state and local levels, ostensibly to remedy the problems. The impact of all of this on the security industry and the alarm system owners is cause for concern, constructive, and measured response. The subject has made the newspapers and national television.

The law enforcement jurisdictions recommend the fining of either the alarm service or the alarm owner. Still others have proposed not responding to a government building, an industrial complex, business, or residence where more than five false alarms have occurred within a specified time period. One jurisdiction in State of Maryland has proposed the use of a "900" telephone number between the alarm central station and the police department. Do you think they are serious? How many direct police connections that you know about have been removed? How many direct connections do you think have been installed?

Just what constitutes a false alarm? Who says it's a false alarm? How do they or we know that it is a false alarm? We will explore these questions, provide some insights, a different spin, and propose some solutions. This dilemma affects all of us in the security profession to some extent. An ounce of alarm prevention is worth a pound of alarm cure.

Early in my assignment in the Court Security Division of the U.S. Marshals Service, we faced the false alarm problem on a daily basis. We borrowed a page from our experiences while assigned to the U.S. Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM), now called U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC). Alarms were divided into three categories: 1) actual, 2) false, 3) nuisance.

We have been saying for several years that there is no such thing as an unexplained alarm. There are still too many people who do not believe that. We were successful in getting the Department of Defense (DOD) to adopt the terms False Alarm and Nuisance Alarm back in 1983. The definitions were: "anything that effects the electronics of the system or the transmission lines constitutes a false alarm" and "any sensor response to unintentional stimuli constitutes a nuisance alarm." To further pinpoint the origin of an alarm, we recommended to the "security community-the system" as we did ourselves; put a power monitor on the circuit. The faith of the most optimistic of us was severely shaken by what we observed. As you may recall, it was during this period that the U.S. Army was in the process of installing exterior perimeter alarm systems at special weapons depots and interior alarm systems at chemical weapons facilities. "Remember the Seneca Saga," was the battle cry at the time. Some of us, including U.S. Army Colonel Charles A. Hammaker, Jr., Chief, Security Office DARCOM, have the scars to prove it.
Part II next.
Bill

[Bill Warnock]

Part Two

The solution, I believe, is threefold:

ONE. The Equipment. We must have Reliable, Affordable, Available, Maintainable, and Expandable equipment or RAAME.

RELIABLE ── Regardless of how much the system or components cost, if it is not reliable, working when needed, what good is it? If it alarms every whipstitch, what is its worth? Neither holy writ nor old military saws state there must be an alarm every time it lightnings!

AFFORDABLE ── The first law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. If the client cannot afford to buy the system what good is it? What is the hourly maintenance charges that will have to be paid when the system is out of warranty? Can the client afford the repairs or will the system stand idle while the client saves up? The notion in the private sector, now being visited upon governments, is you cannot spend $1,000.00; to close up a $10.00, hole.

AVAILABLE ── Is what we want available when we need it? We must be careful when we shop to be sure that what will fulfill our mission needs, will be there when we need it, and not off somewhere, waiting for the engineering group to release it. Then we need to buy what we need from someone else.

MAINTAINABLE ── If the client cannot maintain the system, what good is it? We cannot get caught in the lure that states: It's reliable when it works, but it seldom works. And to rub salt in the wound, it takes three weeks from the first phone call before we see or hear from the repairperson.

EXPANDABLE ── If newer technology comes along or the manufacturer develops an updated version of the sensor or control board; can the client's system be retrofitted to stay current? Or must the client be satisfied with a system that will be obsolete in a couple of years, meaning the purchase of new equipment?

TWO. The Client. Ensuring that the site has been carefully examined and prepared are crucial to the successful operation of an alarm system. More importantly, we need to instill in the owner or operator a high degree of confidence in the system. Doing all of this means the occupants must not be made to feel like prisoners. The term "user friendly" is in vogue. This does not mean the occupants can do anything they want in or to the protected business or residence. Whatever they do to or in the protected spaces could have an impact upon having a false or nuisance alarm free system. The client must be well trained in the functions and operation of the entire system. Training includes a short list of do's and don'ts, religiously followed, which goes a long way to eliminate both false and nuisance alarms. The client is 100% responsible for nuisance alarms. Why? Nuisance alarms are always avoidable. Close and lock all of the windows and doors. Space protection, depending upon sensor selection, means nothing flapping in the breeze when the heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) is running. The system must be Armed and Disarmed in accordance with the instructions provided by the manufacturer. The client can be responsible for false alarms after the system has been correctly installed. The installation of a new electrical service and the introduction or rearrangement of other emitters are two of the offenders that immediately come to mind. When this is fully explained and thoroughly understood, then there will truly be peace in the valley.

THREE. Site survey and preparation. I have maintained for years that in the installation of alarm systems (industrial, commercial, and residential), half of the technical battle is won with a thorough site survey, which includes environmental factors along with testing for the effects of inductive, conductive, and radiative interference.

What does all of this mean? It means asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of hard work. It also means the people who are responsible for the system's design must work closely with the installers before and during the installation. The following is illustrative of what must be done. In what type of an environment, electrical and physical, will the alarm system be placed and expected to operate efficiently? For us to know, understand, and fully appreciate the impact of the environmental conditions on sensor equipment, especially those that are computer enhanced, the following information must be meticulously obtained and confirmed for accuracy:

What is the condition of the building's electrical system? This includes everything from the building's transformers and switchboards, bonding and grounding networks, circuit breaker panels, switches and receptacles, and all of the wiring in between all of these points. Electrical noise from one part of the building will travel through the building's wiring and interfere or damage electronic equipment. Loose connections, in addition to causing voltage and current losses also cause arcing, which is electrical noise. From my experience as a physical security specialist/inspector while working first for the Air Force, then the Army, Navy, and finally the U.S. Marshals Service, I found two disturbing constants. The majority of sites had incorrectly wired AC receptacles and were using light duty use residential grade receptacles. Connecting a sensitive alarm system to these receptacles severely downgraded their performance.

When was the electrical system last upgraded or underwent a major modification? A quick answer may come from the question, "How often are the same incandescent light bulbs replaced?" If the answer is weekly, every two weeks, or even monthly, there may be a serious problem, which requires someone's immediate intervention.

Is there a lot of computer equipment installed throughout the building? Chances are there may be a great deal of mutual interference, harmonic distortion, and the resultant neutral conductor heat build up which means inefficient operation and, has in the past, resulted in fires.

Do we know what kinds of electrical equipment are powered from the circuit breaker panel serving the area where we would like to install our alarm equipment? If there are large demand loads that repeatedly turn on and off, consideration should be given to the selection of a different circuit breaker panel or the installation of a new panel or a sub-panel. If the panel directory is not marked, or worse, improperly marked, we may never know and connect the system to an incompatible power source.

Do we know the condition of the circuit breaker panel that is to provide the electrical power to the console or other alarm components? If the panel is not properly maintained, we could have problems in getting the alarm system to operate properly.

Is there physical space and electrical capacity (ampacity) for an additional breaker? Lack of physical space could be a problem corrected by adding sub-panel. We may have physical space, but cannot add another circuit breaker because electrical capacity will be stretched beyond safe limits.

Will we be able to use an existing electrical circuit and receptacle or will we have to install one or the other or both? Before we can use the existing electrical circuit, we will have to know what else shares that circuit. We would be well advised to have a dedicated circuit installed for the alarm console. Many manufacturer’s recommend that we do that, but invariably we don't. It has been my experience that depending upon the distance of the circuit between the circuit breaker box and the receptacle, radio frequency interference or RFI, will cause us operational problems. When RFI is severe enough, damage is done. Depending upon the environment, a great deal of power conditioning and interference filtering may be needed.

Where will the console and sensors be located? Are the console and sensors inside a building where the temperature and humidity can be controlled? If the temperature is too high or too low, or the humidity too high or too low, the equipment will not work as designed. The console or sensors will go into a degraded mode. Just as with electrical instability, the window of vulnerability widens.

Are the console and sensors exposed to the elements? If so, what precautions will be taken to insure against the effects of rain, salt water, and dust? Depending on the location the equipment may have weatherized and heavy-duty air filters used.

Site preparation is far more complex and comprehensive than the client may imagine. What was detected yesterday may not be detected today because something has changed in the protected area. Sensor placement and wire runs require the correct answers to the following questions.

In the place where you want to put the console or a sensor, do you know where ALL of the electrical wiring and or conduits are located? ceiling? walls? floors? Really.

[Bill Warnock]

Part Three

When an alternating current or AC travels from one conduit back through another, and in many instances through the building's structural steel, a ground loop is created. This ground loop creates fluctuating magnetic fields that are received by the sensor or at the console, generating a false alarm.

In the place you have selected for a sensor location or for the security console, how close will it be to electrical transformers, switching gear, banks of electrical circuit breakers, or other emitters?

Voltage and phase can and do change. When there is electrical activity nearby, these changes created by that activity might effect the sensor's processing abilities. Currents may create electromagnetic fields that are so powerful that despite conditioning and filtration, the sensor is overwhelmed.

Metal lath used in plastered walls and ceilings, coils of electrical or telephone wiring in the ceilings, under the floor and in the walls, metal tracks for suspended ceilings and the loops of wire suspending them, decorative metal circles in the floor, ceilings and walls, metal hand- rails that contain large or long loops, and metal construction studs can cause interference. If the handrail is made of steel of any kind it should be bond-grounded to structural steel. If this is impossible then they should be replaced with aluminum or brass. Can it be said we honestly know where these items are located or their condition? Probably not. If we must have extra wiring, to include equipment wiring, form a figure "8" out of the excess wiring. Eliminate the antenna effect.

Metal lath, tracks, and studs not properly bond-grounded to structural steel, can reradiate various frequencies changing them, enriching them with harmonics, creating even more serious interference problems.

Modern sensors are immune from the effects of AM, FM, and TV broadcast frequencies. Hand held radios on the other hand could cause interference in some kinds of sensors. We may not be able to control all of these radio transmissions.

The sensors should not be placed within 4 feet of any public address speaker. The coils inside the speaker create electromagnetic interference.

Experience has taught us that sensors do not operate well on a surface that is subject to vibration. Heavy truck traffic can cause this vibration. The sensor's operation may be disrupted from time to time if they are in or near a parking garage.

If we were fortunate enough to influence the selection of electrical equipment that is to be used from an electrical source connected to the same circuit breaker panel that the alarm system is connected to, my recommendation would be that equipment powered by an induction motor rather than a brush motor. An induction motor creates less electromagnetic interference.

When power conditioning is mentioned, the first idea that comes to many minds is the surge protector. It is not a surge protector; it's a spike protector. Surge and spike protection are very important, but it requires the right equipment to be effective. It is only one part of what constitutes true power conditioning and we cannot go to a local store and buy a power strip with metal oxide varistors (MOV) and think we are completely safe. When the protection lamp goes, so does the protection. At least some of the manufacturers are honest enough to state, "This device is not a lightning protector."

True power conditioning must do four things: 1) Reduce all power line disturbances to levels that are harmless to an alarm system. 2) Provide a clean, single point, all-purpose reference ground. 3) Stop disruptive interactivity between noise generating loads. 4) Provide peak current on demand without sacrificing efficiency. Power related problems cause disruption, degradation, and finally destruction. Disruption and degradation contribute to false alarms. Destruction takes out all or a part of the system. It might have given us a false alarm, but it was the last alarm for that particular piece of equipment.

There is one final piece that remains, the uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Depending on the geographical location and the results of the power survey, UPS could be critical in the avoidance of false alarms. Newer computer based alarm systems need steady power and disruptions, regardless of duration may generate a false alarm. The UPS will fill in the gaps and sags. There are two kinds of UPS' on-line and stand-by. I strongly recommend the use of an on-line model. The stand-by model reacts to a power loss by switching on. While this action may be considered fast, in many instances it’s not fast enough to preclude data loss thereby generating false alarm. With an on-line UPS you hear a "beep" or "chime" when it fills-in a sag. In some instances the action of the UPS is so subtle, there is no indication of a "fill-in."

As a result of the experiences in my previous career, I was determined to avoid the snarls and snags of bad power. A top-of-the-line power conditioner protects the computer, monitor, printer, and facsimile machine. The cost is roughly $100.00 an ampere. I consider that good insurance considering the costs in buying new equipment not to mention the time spent recreating files. Another conditioner protects the telephone/facsimile line. The horror stories about overheating neutrals, the recent changes in the National Electrical Code, and the advice I received, industrial grade receptacles, 10-gauge wire, and a 20-ampere circuit breaker were used when the computer circuit was installed.

In summary, the questions we ask the client, the client's answers, our careful analysis and verification of both the questions and the answers can tell us all we need and want to know about the site. Site preparation, correct sensor selection employing the phenomenology compatible with the environment, smart installation techniques (remembering bonding, grounding, and shielding), power conditioning, and UPS, if required, will eliminate the gremlins. Again, the only effective method to determine the existence of noise and other potentially damaging power problems is to use a sophisticated power line monitor.

In these days of diminishing resources, our clients can no longer afford to employ large security forces to respond to the spurious alarms. We do not have the financial resources to maintain a staff of specialists and installers to check, recheck, and check it again to get it right. Security sensors are touted as force multipliers. They do not fit that definition if they are constantly alarming, and with good reason. The system is reporting what it is supposed to report. Those stimuli should not be there. If our security forces spend the majority of their time in a reactive mode, there will be little time spent in their proactive or preventive role.

[HotelSecurity]

Montreal Police DO charge after x number of false alarms. After a certain number they refuse to respond. Some private security companies are making money as a result.

[Mr. Security]

Montreal Police DO charge after x number of false alarms. After a certain number they refuse to respond. Some private security companies are making money as a result.

My concern with the large number of unfounded burglary alarms is that the police are constantly being desensitized to the danger that a real break-in brings. It becomes so routine that the expected mental resolution is: It's another one. I live in a relatively small community that is rapidly growing. Some of the influx is less than desirable. I hate to say it, but I’m afraid it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or worse.

[Bill Warnock]

My concern with the large number of unfounded burglary alarms is that the police are constantly being desensitized to the danger that a real break-in brings. It becomes so routine that the expected mental resolution is: It's another one. I live in a relatively small community that is rapidly growing. Some of the influx is less than desirable. I hate to say it, but I’m afraid it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or worse.

That is the crux of why I posted that article. We will cause police and other public safety to say, "Oh, here we go again." As you have brilliantly stated the desensitivity will cause them harm or death.
Yet the alarm companies continue to just throw these systems in and as long they get their money, public and individual safety be damned.
You must admit they have glitzy TV and newspaper ads, $99. for installation and a monthly fee for monitoring.
There is no mystery if everytime there is a thunderstorm the majority of systems go into hard alarm. And of course the bad guys have not figured this out. Right!
Nothing will ever replace indepth site surveys, well engineered, well installed
equipment. It takes more than marketing and a slick salesperson to make the system whole.
Enjoy the day,
Bill

[Ian]

Thanks for the interesting info above on false/nuisance alarms. Probably the worst problem to contend with is the issue of false activations. Unless you are able to conclusively find the problem then neither the security company or the client will have any confidence in the equipment or our ability to provide a reliable service. I recall one incident where a PIR sensor was false activating, the cause of the problem was a wireless WAN transmitter hidden in the ceiling space whose RF signal would randomly cause the PIR to go into alarm. Moving the TX unit to another location solved the problem. In another incident a customer had just purchased a high power TIG welder and after striking the first arc he managed to completely scramble all the programming in his security panel. What would be really helpful would be to relate each of our relevant experiences to the causes of these false activations....any takers..

[SecTrainer]

Bill nails it. Nothing beats starting out right with quality equipment that is appropriately selected, properly installed, extensively tested in place, and then religiously maintained.

There should also be a healthy dose of managing customer expectations when systems are sold and installed. The fact is that any system will likely err in one direction or the other - i.e., false positives or false negatives. The ideal, of course, is to hit the crossover point between these two realities, but the ideal is rarely achieved.

You - and hence the customer - would actually prefer that the system will err, at least slightly, in the direction of false positives. If you think a customer is angry about false alarms, you should see how angry they get about a system that doesn't activate while the place is being emptied out! There is no angrier customer in the world. The occasional (infrequent, irregular) false alarm should be built into the customer's expectations right from the git. They do happen with the best systems. This is the time to sell sensor redundancy and cameras, incidentally, as important means of eliminating and/or evaluating false activations.

And, even with systemic problems (an unrelated system like an AC motor triggering the alarm system), be careful when you "correct" the situation that you don't do it in such a way that the alarm system no longer functions as it was designed. In some cases, you really need to go back to the drawing board to check out your "new" design instead of just picking up and moving something or reorienting a sensor. After several such "corrective" actions, you can wind up with a system that looks (and functions) nothing like what you had originally designed.

[NRM_Oz]

Alarm Response Subcontracting

I have a close friend who bought a franchise in security alarm response services back in 2001. He told me how his company would issue 150 clients and he would have that many to check on in a 12 hour shift. An alarm activation at a bank meant everyone else was without a response car as that was all that was allocated for his region. On Xmas Eve we waited over 27 hours for a response for an alarm in a building of a client and he told me a bank took priority over other clients.

Industry standard is now 45 minutes and for my clients when I ran my own company was 30 minutes and yes were sometimes 35 minutes to a response so gave out a few free service calls. But high risk clients on a business estate had 15 minute response times and they paid for that service big time but it was 40 odd clients in a 5 mile radius with closed roads so it was possible to achieve.

[N. A. Corbier]

What's the point of having a security guard respond to an alarm if it takes 45 minutes for the guard to get there? The structure has been in alarm for 45 minutes. There could be an actual burglary, in which case you have an unsecured structure for 45 minutes after the client was burglarized.

You could have a false activation, by the client itself, or environmental problems, and a 45 minute gap in alarm coverage because the unit is in alarm.

The client himself could show up if there is no sense of urgency.

Some may say, "The client is only paying for a guard to check the alarm and call the police." I don't believe this, verified response can be done through sensors for cheaper as part of the integrator and monitoring station's service.

You're paying for (hopefully) a trained professional to go respond the alarm, determine the problem, and provide a uniformed presence to prevent an unsecure structure from being exploited by others seeing the opportunity.