Leverage Technology To Drive Your Business

Owning a security guard company was one of the toughest educations that I have ever received.  In fact, much of who I am and what I believe today was shaped by that decade of my life.  Consequently, there are some very valuable business lessons that I learned during my time with Cequr Security that I will never forget.  I will be sharing 1 of the most valuable ones with you in this article – how to leverage technology. Prior to starting Cequr, I’d spent several years training clients and colleagues on how to use various software solutions to improve business results.  So coming over to the security industry, which depended very little on technology, was a bit of a culture shock to say the least.  In the beginning, like many small security companies, we were singularly focused on acquiring clients.  But I quickly realized that without putting the proper technology into place we would not be very successful.  So over the course of about a year we embarked on a journey to find, implement, and leverage technology for 2 purposes: drive sales and drive efficiency.

The Officer Tour Tracking Service (OTTS)

In about 2003 we began using a guard tour tracking system at one of our client sites.  Although these systems had been around for many years, they were not being widely used.  Additionally, from conversations that I’d had with several prospective clients I knew that buyers were concerned that their guards were not performing patrols after-hours.  On a whim, I created a separate brochure that detailed our ability to track our officers after-hours using a guard tour tracking system.  On my next sales call I talked briefly about our security guard company, but then turned the focus to our tour tracking capabilities.  Surprisingly the meeting turned into more of a conversation about how we could help the customer achieve his goals using our technology.  We won the contract at a higher than normal billing rate…and the light bulb came on. From my past experiences I knew how important innovation was to potential buyers.  People want to be excited by new products and services, so I decided to give our customers and potential customers something to be excited about.  We created the Officer Tour Tracking Service or OTTS.  We created brochures that told our clients and prospects how OTTS could help them solve the problem of tracking guards after-hours.  We marketed OTTS heavily and it worked beautifully! On many occasions we would send these brochures to companies as a stand alone service that would help them track the security guards for their current vendors.  Although no one ever bought OTTS as a stand-alone service, we did acquire numerous security guard contracts based on the OTTS brochures.  People were excited to see a security company that was addressing their unspoken need. Lessons learned:
  1. As an executive at Kellogg’s Company  once told me “If you aren’t innovating, you’re dying”.  Companies have to have new things to discuss with customers and potential customers.  New Horizon Security is doing a good job at showing innovation with their electric bike program.
  2. Customers don’t always verbalize what they want, because they don’t always know.  So we must create solutions the leverage technology to solve unspoken needs.

Scheduling And Attendance Software

Prior to moving over to scheduling and attendance software I remember dreading the week of payday.  That was because I knew that our office manager, operations coordinator, and myself were going to be mired in time sheets and paperwork for 2 – 3 days.  On a good week, I knew that collectively the 3 of us would be spending about 40 hours working on payroll.  40 hours!!!  That was 40 hours of sales calls, client meetings, interviews, or a host of other things that should have been getting done but weren’t.  One week I remember coming into the office early on Monday to get payroll started and that’s when I realized how ridiculous it was for me and my staff to be spending so much time on a non-core function.  As a security guard company we made money from selling security guard service and making sure our clients were happy, not doing payroll.  It was at that  moment I decided to switch.  The reluctance that I had to adding another expense to the P&L was no longer an issue.  The resources that I and my staff spent on non-revenue generating activities far outweighed the cost of the scheduling and attendance software.  As a result of the switch the time to process payroll went from 2 – 3 days to 2 – 3 hours.  We should have invested in scheduling and attendance software from the start. Lessons learned:
  1. As an owner or manager at a security guard company, or any other company, your most valuable resource is your time.  Make sure that you are spending a lion’s share of it on revenue producing activities.  Granted, day-to-day administrative tasks like completing payroll, sending invoices, and tracking expenses are important, none are as important as generating revenue.  Although I can not remember closing any specific business based on the time gained from the increased efficiency, I know that was 80+ hours per month that could be spent on sales calls and client meetings.
  2. Invest early and reap the rewards of improved efficiency from the start.
These are just two quick examples of how companies should leverage technology to grow revenue and drive efficiency.  They are also the reasons that our customers love our software.  If you are interested in learning more about how OfficerReports.com can help you grow your revenue or drive efficiency please feel free to contact us.     By Courtney Sparkman
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