USING TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE

Chris Anderson, Silvertrac Software

We sat down with Lawrence Borgens – founder of Delta Protective Services – to ask him about the process of switching his security company from paper reporting to Silvertrac. Delta Protective Services (DPS) was founded 26 years ago in 1993 on a mission to “create safe communities.” They have since grown to an operation of 85 officers, including standing guards and mobile patrol. Lawrence is focused on growth and making it easier for people to become customers.

Information Can Make or Break an Operation

Like every security company before the rise of computer technology and the internet, Delta Protective Services handled reporting through paper DARs. It didn’t take much for DPS to be fed up with paper reporting. After only a few years they “had pieces of paper coming out of [their] ears and [they] were running out of space to store [reports].” Getting paper reports to clients was a disaster. Information was incomplete or incorrect. DPS knew they needed a better solution. They first looked to Deggy wand and buttons, but quickly found that they “were very cumbersome. It was electronic, but also pretty primitive.”

The Desperate Need for Change

Lawrence was determined to find the best solution for his company. He couldn’t go back to paper reports, but the Deggy wand and button were not getting the job done. After talking to another local security company owner, DPS implemented an early version of Silvertrac – called Real-Time DAR – in addition to the Deggy system.Once Silvertrac was released, they started using it at a few of their locations in addition to Deggy and Real-Time DAR.

Delta Protective Services had quickly gotten into a mess. They were running three separate electronic reporting systems between all of their locations. “I came to a point in my company and in my business where I knew I just needed to land on something. My indecisiveness about selecting a reporting tool was making my staff indecisive also.” Supervisors and account managers couldn’t work together on three different systems. It was clear to Lawrence that software on its own wasn’t the solution. He needed the right solution for his entire operation.

Searching for the Right Solution

After numerous conferences, conversations with other owners and multiple product demos, Lawrence found that “there were pros and cons to every solution.” But at the end of the day, Lawrence chose Silvertrac.

“Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that all the technologies were equal. Here’s what caused me to make my decision. Silvertrac absolutely cares about, thinks about and produces good quality tools for security business owners to help them improve their business. [They] come from the industry. [It’s] not a bunch of software people that decided, ‘Hey, here’s a niche we can get into.’ No, it’s a bunch of security guys that saw a problem and worked [hard] become software people so that they could fill this gap and provide this service that we need in our industry. What’s important to Silvertrac is that their customers win.”

Delta Protective Services Today

Two years after moving away from paper reporting, Lawrence Borgens found the right solution for his company. Immediately he saw a big difference in two areas.

Accurate Reporting

“Silvertrac makes what’s invisible visible.” Lawrence would not let this go. He and his management team have been able to increase quality control. He has gained full transparency over every part of his operation; from the officers to management to customers, everything is out in the open. “If I have a good officer, you see it. If I have a bad officer, you see it. I can’t hide anything from my clients and that’s OK with me. What makes us different than our competitors is how we deal with our mistakes, not that we don’t make them because everybody makes them.”

As a result, Lawrence can make current and potential customers believe in his services. It is pretty much an expectation today that a security company has a guard security guard management software. But it’s not the software that sets Delta Protective Services apart. Lawrence has been empowered to provide his customers with the information they need to trust him. “If you’ve got a client that’s awake at 2:00 AM looking at the computer, they can log in and watch the officer do rounds while they’re doing it and see the pictures and see everything that’s going on.”

Increased ROI

Delta Protective Services used to have cabinets at every job site. These cabinets had – on top of mountains of paperwork – radios, phones and cords. Many of you can see where this is going. Lost paper reports meant no information for clients or for management. Lawrence couldn’t improve the decision making for his operation. Company-owned technology was breaking regularly. Not only did DPS have to pay for the fixes, but managers, field supervisors, and sometimes even Lawrence himself had to show up to a job site to replace chargers, phones, and radios that were either broken or forgotten. All of this resulted in wasted time, money, and resources.

Luckily Lawrence came up with a solution that worked for him. He purchased Silvertrac licenses for his officers’ to use on their personal cell phones. Learn more about his decision-making process in this awesome podcast.

*Note, there are specific policies and compliances that a physical security company must abide by when moving to a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) model. Additional resources on BYOD policies can be found on  Silvertrac Extra and on Sherman Law Corporation’s blog.  

“I got rid of all my cell phones. It allowed me to also get rid of two-way radios. It also allowed me to get rid of the paper DARs and all the documents that go with it. Therefore, I also get rid of the cabinets that we were keeping at the job sites.”

Get the Results You’ve Always Wanted

Lawrence found amazing success once he figured out how to simplify his operation and prove the value of his services to customers. You can find success just like he did. Our mission is not to sell you a product. At Silvertrac, we win when our customers win. We want you to win more contracts, hire better employees, and meet the goals you’ve always wanted to achieve.  Schedule a demo today to find out how you can simplify your operation and prove your company’s value.

 

Chris is the Founder of Silvertrac Software and has been working in the security industry for more than 25 years. He enjoys working with our clients everyday to help them grow their businesses and really enjoy what they are doing. Chris currently lives and works in Seal Beach, CA.

Continue reading the 2019 Q4 edition of The Californian

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU LOSE A BIG CLIENT?

Chris Anderson, Silvertrac Software

Meta Description: Losing a big client in a security company is a huge blow. However, evaluating the loss can help to improve the services that the company provides and reinforce positive relationships with current clients.

Losing a big client is a nightmare for any business, let alone a security company. Unfortunately, client loss is inevitable, but through analysis and strategy, it can be a great learning tool for bettering client relationships and service satisfaction.

There are many reasons why clients terminate a contract. They may be unhappy with the services provided. They may have found a better price point, or they may just not need the services any longer. When a contract terminates, it is important to look at the source of the termination to determine the cause.

Once you determine the root cause of why a client left, you can use this information to update your playbook to maintain current client standards and satisfaction.

Step 1: Termination Analysis

The goal of running a termination analysis is to determine the root cause of why a client left. This will give management a foundation for creating preventative measures for future churn.

Before jumping into the termination analysis, remember to keep the emotions in check. Of course, it is reasonable to be upset about losing a client, but entering into the conversation heated and angry is much more likely to result in a full loss of the professional relationship.

Respect the client’s views (even if you don’t agree), and don’t try to bully the client into staying. Use the termination analysis as a learning experience. If you can maintain a friendly relationship and update your services based on their feedback, there may be an opportunity to win the client back in the future.

1a – Schedule an Interview

The first step in termination analysis is scheduling an exit interview with the client. Remember, not every client is going to want to participate in an exit interview. Don’t pressure the client to attend an exit interview, and don’t pressure them to answer questions they don’t want to answer. Pressure alone can damage what is left of the relationship, beyond repair.

If the client is not particularly upset, their account manager should conduct the interview. Account managers are likely the most well-informed about the client’s contract and experience with the company.

If the client is very upset, it may be in the best interest of the company to have a supervisor conduct the exit interview. Having someone in a managerial position conduct the interview is likely going to make an angry client feel more important and cause less tension.

When designing the questions for the exit interview, there are a few key things that you will want to cover:

• Why did the client terminate the contract?
• How did the company contribute to the termination and client dissatisfaction?
• What could the company have done to prevent the termination?

There may be other questions that are pertinent to the analysis. However, it is important to keep the exit interview simple and to the point. Try not to ask any more than 5 questions. These questions will likely lead to a more open discussion as to what went wrong.

1b – Internal Audits and Quality Check

Once an exit interview has been conducted, all internal team members associated with the account should meet to discuss the exit interview and begin an internal audit and quality check. Team members may include security officers, supervisors, account managers, sales reps, and operations personnel.

Internal audits should focus on accountability, communication, and reporting protocols. Each team member should be able to provide a thorough account of their dealings with the client and any reports or documentation they have on the lost contract.

If they can’t provide this information, this is a big indicator of internal breakdown that likely played a big part in causing the termination.

Just like the exit interview, it is important that the internal-audit is an open discussion, not driven by emotion. It is important that all internal members feel heard and are given the space to communicate their interaction with the client.

Once the team has reviewed all of the exit interview questions and internal information, the audit should start to provide some insight into these types of questions:

• Was this a one-time incident or part of a bigger pattern?
• Were customer’s expectations understood?
• Where did the internal and/or external breakdown occur?
• What internal adjustments are required?

An organic termination roadmap of what/when things went wrong, what could have been done differently, what avenues of change are available moving forward, etc…will start to unveil itself as answers to these questions become clear.

Step 2: Post-Analysis Strategy Planning

As the termination roadmap becomes clear, the internal team should use this information to strategize what steps need to be taken to update company policy, process, services, and/or training to prevent future churn.

Both short and long term updates should be taken into consideration during this phase. Simple communication breakdowns and inaccurate reporting can be updated almost immediately, where process or policy updates that have cross-department effects may take longer to roll-out.

As necessary changes become clear, it is important to create a strategic plan to roll out each change with efficiency. Change can cause frustration and growing pains so the roll-out is equally as important as identifying necessary changes.

Once a plan is in place that the team feels will confidently diminish future client terminations, assigning a project manager is highly recommended, if they haven’t been assigned already. The project manager will maintain communication with the group, will ensure that all necessary deliverables are ready on-time, and will asses issues/challenges that need to be addressed as the roll-out is implemented.

As in any strategic planning, it is important to keep in mind that you will likely need to adjust the plan as it is rolled out. This is a normal and important part of strategizing. To account for these potential adjustments, it may be helpful to set-up check-in meetings with the appropriate team members.

Check-in meetings help to keep everyone up-to-date and allow the team to catch any issues as they happen. Without some sort of check-in plan, the team runs a much higher risk of missing critical things that may have longer-lasting effects. The company may just end up in a worse position than when they started the termination analysis.

Client Retention Reminders

Reminder 1: Appreciate Top Employees

Top employees help to enhance customer relationships and supplement great services. They are also the ones who often have the biggest influence over a client who is on the verge of terminating. Top employees are the backbone of successful companies.

Incentive programs are a great way to keep top-performers excited and engaged in the company. These programs can range from continued-education courses, leadership workshops, or even bonus incentives.

Performance goals and evaluations are also great ways to keep top-performers in the game. Hardworking employees are more often than not hungry for growth and promotions. Helping an employee to set KPIs confirms the company’s investment in the employee and makes the employee feel valued.

If you don’t acknowledge top-performing employees, they are likely going to leave for a company that will validate their skills and hard work. Don’t let the good employees getaway!

Reminder 2: Focus on Current Clients

Don’t get too lost in the termination-blues and forget about active clients. While it is important to run a thorough termination-analysis, if the team gets too bogged down in what has been lost, they are likely to forget about what they still have.

Utilize the termination-analysis to help foster better active-client relationships and increase their satisfaction. Using the termination-analysis as a guide is a great opportunity to set-up check-ins with active clients. Use these check-ins to make sure the client isn’t suffering from the same issues that caused the original churn.

It may be exactly what is needed to save another termination.

Reminder 3: Don’t get comfortable

There is always room for growth and improvement. Running one termination-analysis won’t solve all of the problems clients may be facing. Every client will have their own unique needs for contracting a company’s service and their own unique experience working with the company.

In addition to running a termination analysis on every churned contract, a company should also have reporting and business analysis exercises set-up so that they are consistently reviewing company progress and maintaining a pulse on client satisfaction.

The moment a company stops looking on where they can improve is the moment they start failing.

Losing a client is never fun, but it’s not the end of the world. Through termination-analysis and strategic planning, churn can be a great learning experience to help a company grow, foster better client relationships, and increase service satisfaction.

Chris is the Founder of Silvertrac Software and has been working in the security industry for more than 25 years. He enjoys working with our clients everyday to help them grow their businesses and really enjoy what they are doing. Chris currently lives and works in Seal Beach, CA.

 

HOW INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY FOR SECURITY CONTRACTORS CAN ENABLE GROWTH AND INCREASE EFFICIENCY

TEAM Software

Why security management software is worth the spend.

In their July 2018 annual U.S. Contract Security white paper, Robert H. Perry & Associates, Inc. estimates the outsourced contract security industry in the U.S. to be worth $25.5 billion. That’s a four percent increase over previous estimates. And, while analysts expect steady growth over the next few years, security contractors still deal with high labor costs, wage creep and a narrow profitability margin of about four percent of revenue, according to IBIS World’s 2018 report on the industry. That means keeping a laser focus on labor and operating costs is critical. The businesses who can juggle these demands will have the most to gain. It’s no secret that technology can help. In fact, investing in holistic enterprise-level software with a proven track record can pay off quickly in increased efficiency and site-level profitability insight, enabling security companies to grow in fiercely competitive markets.

Maximize efficiency and automation with one holistic system

According to the IBISWorld’s April 2018 Security Services in the U.S. report, efficient work practices are one of the key factors to success in the contract security industry. Eliminating redundant work and manual processes offer a one-two punch in maximizing operational efficiency, and a holistic software platform can solve those challenges by connecting the financial, operations and workforce management components of the business in one system. It’s cheaper in the long run, too, with no need for multiple software packages, expensive integrations or custom interfaces.

The WinTeam ERP for security contractors includes financials, accounting, guard scheduling, time and attendance, human resources, payroll, compliance business analytics and employee self-service features. Combined, they connect executive-level decision-making, back office functions and field-based operations.

“For us, the biggest advantage of using an integrated system has been the ease of use. There’s only one platform to use,” said Gail Tutt, controller at First Alarm Security & Patrol, a California-based firm with 1,600 employees. “It’s global, go-anywhere functionality.”

For Phelps Security, Inc., a 300-employee contract security firm operating in the Memphis, Tennessee, area, cumbersome manual processes and multiple subpar software systems sent the company on the hunt for a better solution. The company implemented TEAM Software’s solutions and  reduced payroll processing time by 90 percent.

“Before our software did 10 percent of the work, and we put in 90 percent of the effort,” said Andy Phelps, business manager for the company. “Now, as long as we have it set up correctly, we can put in 10 percent of the effort and WinTeam will do 90 percent of the work. I don’t have to deal with file exports or cross-integration between systems anymore.”

Bogged down by clunky plug-ins and manual spreadsheet-driven processes, Paladin Security Group, Canada’s largest independent security provider, was also in the market for technology that could help accelerate the payroll and billing processes. The company also needed the flexibility to keep up with and customize province-based pay requirements. In 2012, company leadership began evaluating software solutions that could rise to the challenge.

 

“Our main goal was improving efficiency on the billing and payroll side. We needed to find a way to mitigate errors and speed up that process,” said André Albert, Vice President of National Quality Standards and Support at Paladin, who was part of the team evaluating software providers. “What it comes down to is flexibility. Having everything integrated into one platform allowed us to break down pay requirements by province. We can set pay and overtime rules and billing by province to comply with legislation or by client to meet our contract obligations. We can even customize notifications based on branch or province.”

The benefits of integrated technology span the organization, so almost every department gains an efficiency advantage. Jaime Brosnan, Director of Marketing and Communications at Brosnan Risk Consultants, a security contracting firm based in New York, saw onboarding time for new employee paperwork decrease from 20 minutes to an average of three minutes per employee thanks to TEAM’s workforce management and employee and customer self-service components.

Drive profitability and enable growth

The power of shared data in a holistic software system is invaluable. In industries where margins are narrow, understanding which jobs are profitable and having a clear financial picture drives better business management. Job costing, a crucial outcome of shared data in one system, gives contractors site-level profitability insight, enabling smarter decisions that reduce costs, maximize revenue opportunities and enable real, measurable growth.

“One of the big reasons we’ve stayed with WinTeam is the ability to drill down, all the way to the source to get the exact information you we need,” said Tracy Ver Mulm, Accounting Manager for Per Mar Security Services, a 2,400-employee security firm headquartered in Davenport, Iowa. “When you have everything in one system, all it takes is one update to automatically give you the most updated financials. That’s huge.”

“We had been using another solution with no integration to financials,” said Dave Pack, who has been the Executive Vice President of Titan Security for the past eight years. Titan is a Chicago-area contractor that schedules more than 54,000 hours per week and manages more than 1,600 security staff. “It was only a scheduling package, and it had nowhere near the level of detail or reporting capabilities that TEAM has.”

Pack points to that shared data as a big benefit for the business while building financial awareness and eliminating silos of information.

 

“With the benefit of the integrated operational and financial data, we can put the right information into our operators’ hands,” Pack said. “We can have a dialogue about expectations and results on the job level and share that information and data with our clients. It helps increase transparency and provides a sense of ownership.”

 

There’s no denying that integrated technology is a significant investment, so it needs pay for itself in efficiency and scalability. Security management software must enable growth and set businesses up for success now and well into the future.

The software system has proven to be a scalable solution for First Alarm Security and Patrol that has driven growth for the guarding company. Through strategic purchasing contracts and organic growth, the company has seen a minimum of 35 percent year-over-year growth without having to increase staff significantly to keep up.

Because Paladin isn’t tied down to inadequate processes, the company has gained the flexibility to expand easily, according to Albert.

 

“We’ve been growing exponentially,” said Albert. “Last year for example, we grew our employee count by about 20 percent. And, we expanded into the U.S. so there’s a whole other market.”

 

“The technology has definitely allowed us to scale more effectively. A lot of our national competitors struggle in Chicago because it is a very unique, customer-focused market,” Pack of Titan Security said. “Each building is unique, so to be able to report operational data, financials and invoices in different ways is important to our clients. Our ability to bill in multiple formats allows us to never say no to clients or prospects. We provide high-touch customer service, so we want to say yes.

“In the Chicago market, there is a lot of activity and opportunities for Titan,” Pack continued. “We have very professional operators, and with a system like TEAM and all its bells and whistles behind us, we can compete with anybody.”