What Is Value Added For Security Guard Company Clients?

As a security guard company you are probably plagued by low billing rates and decreasing margins, much of which can be attributed to the commoditization of security guard services.   Futurist Daniel Burrus discusses decommoditizing products and services through a value added strategy  in an article entitled “How to Decommoditize Any Product or Service.”  Specifically, his strategy is to wrap additional services or products around a company’s current product or service offerings.  In the article he gives several great examples of companies doing exactly that.

What Is Value Added

So exactly what is “Value Added” and how does it apply to your security guard company?  According to Investopedia.com, value added is the enhancement a company gives a homogenous service that gives it a greater sense of value.  In the security guard industry, it has come to be defined as providing your client with a service that has high value to them, but is of low cost to you.  A value added service should be seen by your customer as an additional advantage that gives them something they need or are searching for.  Ultimately, value added services make your company seem more like a partner than a service provider to your clients.  Keep in mind that service providers can be easily substituted for, but partners on the other hand are more difficult to replace.  Below you will find several examples of value added services.

Example 1

When I was actively selling security guard service for my family’s company, I always sought to make myself  an expert on crime in a prospect’s neighborhood.  As part of that objective I included crime statistics for their area in my proposals.  I used those stats to educate the prospect and open a mutually beneficial dialogue.

For a value added service for your company, try developing a quarterly crime analysis using current crime stats from your local police department.  In Chicago I used the Chicago Police Department’s CLEAR MAP.  If your local police department does not allow access to crime information via the web, try finding local crime information on websites like MyLocalCrime.com and the FBI Uniform Crime Report.  After developing this analysis, schedule some time to walk your client through it and discuss any necessary changes to your security procedures.

  • Cost: $0
  • Time: 45 Minutes

Example 2

Another example of a low or no cost value add is customization of current supplies to fit the needs of your clients.  One of our clients in St. Louis approached us and requested that we incorporate a feature into our security guard reporting app that they thought would be beneficial to their customers.  The feature revolved around tracking temperatures of certain assets at their client’s facility.  Because we were able to design the feature to be universally useful to all our clients, we made the decision to absorb the development cost for this new feature.  As a result, our client was able to introduce a feature to their customer that was highly useful and at no cost to them.  As a value added service, try working with your current staff and vendors to customize your  services to fit the needs of your clients.  Start by looking at uniforms, current reporting, and training.

  • Cost: $0
  • Time: 20 Minutes

Example 3

One of the primary rules of sales is to listen more than you talk with prospective clients.  But just as important, once that prospect becomes a client you must keep listening.  By continuing to listen to your client, you can discover unmet needs that they may have.  For example, a company that I worked for previously introduced one of its customers to one of their strategic partners based on that customer’s needs.  Because that strategic partner was such a good fit for the customer’s needs, our company became a rock star in that customer’s eyes.

As a value add become the “Go-To-Guy” for meeting your customer’s safety or security needs.  For example, is workplace violence a topic that your customers are addressing?  If so, consider learning more about the services of companies like Threat Assessment Group, Inc that help companies, schools, and facilities manage those challenges.  If you find that there is a good fit, make the introduction. Or is your client wrestling with emergency preparedness or business continuity? If they are, it might be a great opportunity to introduce them to emergency preparedness consultants like Global Resiliency Consulting.  In either case if there is not a good fit, find one.  Whatever the customer’s needs are, look to be a partner in filling them.

  • Cost: $0
  • Time: TBD

Remember, if you are using or going to use value added services to differentiate your service you must continually invest in developing, building, and innovating on those services.  Although your competitors may be capable of copying one particular value added service, it will be nearly impossible for them to copy them all.

As a security guard company how are you finding low cost value adds for your services?  Do you feel that value adds help differentiate your services?  Please leave your comments below.

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By Courtney Sparkman 

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