Richmond Alarm Company - Support Department of the Year

Company: Richmond Alarm Company
Entry Submitted By: Mayfield Consulting
Company Description: For 70 years, Virginia has depended on Richmond Alarm to protect families, property and businesses. As the only security company in Central VA with a 5 Diamond Certified Central Monitoring Station, Richmond Alarm’s 25,000 customers enjoy 60% faster response times than industry standard. Richmond Alarm is a long-ranking member on the SDM 100 and enjoys an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
Nomination Category: Support Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Support Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Richmond Alarm Company: Customer Support

Tell the story about what this nominated department has achieved since January 1 2018 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Customer Support at a physical security central monitoring station is a high-stress and often poorly rewarded job. While requiring some of the most stringent background checks in private employ, the job frequently involves low pay, invariably means a seven-day schedule including weekends and holidays, while easy access renders them the unofficial complaints department. It’s no wonder the job has an almost 30% annual turnover rate, one of the highest in the U.S. And yet, it’s a critical job: mere seconds can be the difference in terms of saving lives. Having a knowledgeable and dedicated staff is critical to the mission, as well as the reputation of the company. A failure to stop a major theft, or get a medical call wrong, could make the evening news.

Newly hired CEO Brian Vanderheyden knew when he arrived at Richmond Alarm that 20 year veteran Central Station Manager Patricia Morse and her team were key to the company’s growth, yet jittery with the new management team he was ushering in. Customer Support was incredibly knowledgeable due to troubleshooting required of them on the job after hours. They were resources he wanted to maximize. Having met with Patricia about how to get buy-in from her team, Brian followed her advice: he promoted 5 members of her team within the company, introduced retirement contributions, allowed rotating weekend and holiday schedules. Despite all the additional staff that arrived with three acquisitions the same year, the staff in the Central Station stayed, and by the end of the year, a full 50% of them exceeded the Bureau of Labor & Statistics 3.1 call center specialist average longevity.

Brian’s investments in the Customer Support team paid off: the department fully engaged in the 10-day training he instituted to learn all the new technology he’d purchased. With Patricia’s leadership, they were subsequently able to utilize that training and technology to reduce Richmond Alarm’s response time to calls to a mere 21 seconds, a full 60% faster than the required industry standard for emergency calls. The response rate is doubly impressive because Virginia has “verified response” laws: a monitoring station must authenticate any alarm before dispatching police. Due to verified response, security companies are entitled to a full two minutes before counting their response times. Yet RAC achieved that response time with no delay – the team can authenticate a call and act within 21 seconds.

Customer Support at Richmond Alarm was subsequently awarded a rare five diamond rating by The Monitoring Association. Out of the 2700 monitoring stations in the U.S., less than 200 have achieved this rating. Richmond Alarm is the only monitoring station in the Central Virginia region to have one. The designation requires an ongoing commitment to random inspections by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, demonstrating the highest levels of customer service, all monitoring station employees being certified by TMA, maintaining industry standards, and reducing false alarms.

But most importantly, Richmond Alarm’s customer support team’s training, dedication, and experience continues to help their customers. Lives and property and are saved on a regular basis. One employee received a fire alarm from a residence, and when he didn’t receive an answer at the home, dispatched the fire department. The whole team then devoted themselves to tracking down the homeowner. The fire department told her they were able to save the house because they received the call so quickly.The same week, the monitoring team responded to a theft alarm at a commercial customer’s backdoor. Wit the same authentication speed the team verified an attempted theft in progress, and contacted police so quickly the policewere able to scare off the thieves before they’d successfully breached the door.

With a Five Diamond rating from the TMA, an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, the Customer Support team at Richmond Alarm is a dedicated and irrefutably deserving leader in customer support.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) accomplishments of the nominated department since the beginning of 2018 (up to 150 words).

-Instituted all new technology and new 10 day company wide training
-Implemented innovative employment practices including rotating weekend and holiday schedules and allowing job sharing to increase Customer Support staff longevity
-Attained a 60% faster response time than security industry standard
-Achieved lower false alarm rates than industry standard
-Awarded a Five Diamond Rating from The Monitoring Station Association one 200 out of 2700 nationwide
-Only monitoring station in Central Virginia with a Five Diamond Rating, major differentiator
-A+ Rating from Better Business Bureau
-YOY growth Dec 2017 to Dec 2018 increased 22%