The best phone system for security and remote monitoring companies
Booking site surveys at volume on a business list: the parallel dialer changes the scale of your campaigns.
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to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Survey appointments that eat an enormous number of calls
Shop owners and small businesses that are hard to reach
Subscription renewals nobody is tracking
The answer
What Skipcall changes
Specific to your industry
Who to call, and in what order, for a security contract
Depending on the size of the site, the decision is taken in thirty seconds by one person or passes through four departments. Starting with the wrong contact does not just waste a call: it closes the account for everyone who comes after you.
The independent shop: the owner decides and pays
With a retailer, a tradesperson or a small business there is one contact, they decide alone and they sign. They are on the shop floor, so they are reachable at opening before the customers arrive, or mid afternoon, and almost never over lunch. The cycle is short, provided you catch them at the right moment.
Groups and franchises: head office first
Calling franchisees one by one about a system that is meant to be consistent across the group is burning your calls. Approval happens at head office, with the operations director or the estate manager. Once you are on the approved list, the sites can be worked at volume with head office behind you.
The commercial site: facilities, then security, then finance
On a larger site the way in is the facilities manager, who knows what is installed and what has gone wrong. A dedicated head of security only appears above a certain size and rules on the technical side. Finance signs off the monitoring subscription, almost always last.
Insurers and brokers open the door
An alarm or monitoring requirement is often written into the insurance policy conditions, and it wakes up after a claim or at renewal. In the UK that usually means a system installed and maintained by an NSI or SSAIB certified company, since that is also what police response depends on. The company's broker is a natural source of introductions, and their call legitimises yours. Asking who insures the site is an innocuous question that often opens the real door.
The person who signed is no longer the person who renews
Monitoring contracts roll on, and whoever signed several years ago has often moved on. Before the renewal date, the first job is not to sell but to identify who owns the contract today. Without that name the chase goes to a mailbox nobody reads.
With housing associations, councils and large accounts the order changes again: the need starts with the people running the site, but the purchase goes through a procurement framework and its own timetable.
The script
Booking a security survey with a shop owner
You are calling the owner of a shop, a trade business or a small company, who decides and signs alone. They are behind the counter: call at opening, before the customers arrive, or mid afternoon. The objective is a twenty minute survey on site, never selling a monitoring contract over the phone.
The opener
“Morning, [first name last name] from [company], we're a private security firm working across [area]. I'm not calling to sell you an alarm over the phone: I'm in your street on [day] and I do a free check on the entry points and how an alarm gets verified. Are you open in the afternoon?”
Saying straight away that you are not selling anything on the call removes the reflex to hang up. Introduce the company as a private firm and never let anything sound official.
If they say they already have an alarm
“Most of my customers did too. The question isn't the box on the wall, it's what happens when it goes off at three in the morning: who verifies it, and who turns up? Who is that for you at the moment?”
Separating the hardware from the service is the only angle that works against kit that is already installed, and it is also the real difference between the two offers.
If they ask for the monthly price
“That depends on how many points you need covered and how the unit is laid out, and I don't know either yet. I'd rather spend twenty minutes with you and give you an accurate figure than quote you something I'll have to correct afterwards.”
If they say they have never had a problem
“Good, and that's exactly the right time to talk about it: after a break in it stops being a decision and becomes a repair. Who do you insure with? The policy often already sets out what's required, and very few owners know what it says.”
Insurers and brokers drive this market: the question sounds innocuous and often opens the real door.
If they are tied in with a competitor
“I'm not asking you to cancel anything. Those contracts roll on: when does yours come up? I'll note it, I'll call you two months before, and I'll leave you alone until then.”
In monitoring, the name of whoever owns the contract today and its renewal date are worth more than a meeting forced outside the decision window.
Confirming the appointment
“So that's [day] at [time], twenty minutes. I'll text you my name and the time, so you know who's at the door. If something comes up, reply to the text and it saves me a wasted trip.”
At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.
Avoid this
Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone
The mistake
Calling a shop while it is trading: over lunch, or during service in hospitality.
Do this instead
The owner answers because they might be expecting a supplier, then cuts you short. Aim for opening, before the first customers, or mid afternoon. In hospitality, rule out midday service and the evening entirely, and call in the early afternoon once the room is empty.
The mistake
Letting the call sound official, along the lines of “we're surveying security systems in the area”.
Do this instead
You are a private company selling a service, and that is what you say. Implying you are calling for the police or the council is what rogue traders do in this market, and impersonating a police officer is an offence. Naming your SIA licensed response, your NSI or SSAIB certification and, if you hold it, your Approved Contractor status gives the owner something they can actually check.
The mistake
Calling a bought list of tradespeople and retailers without checking it holds no residential lines.
Do this instead
Offering an alarm to somebody for their home is consumer marketing, and under PECR you cannot call a number registered with the TPS without their consent. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships count as individual subscribers, so screen against both the TPS and the CTPS, split the list before the campaign, and if a number turns out to be residential mid call, stop there and take it off the list.
Frequently asked questions, Private security & remote monitoring
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