4 Reasons You SHOULDN’T Use Guard Management Software

#1 Your Company Enjoys Wasting Time

It’s remarkable how many companies out there fall into a status quo of time wasting processes, so much so that there are even entire positions that only exist because of these inefficiencies. When you have that sort of organizational inertia, many companies become resistant to change, even if it’s something like guard management software that would clearly save time.

Many owners in this industry—and I used to be one of them—came through the guard ranks, don’t have much of a business background, and aren’t used to pushing innovation. These are the guys that continue to tout their experience when customers are really looking for specific solutions to their problems.

These are the guys that have employees whose only job is to collect, send, edit, and manage reports, even though that function could be replaced by software that would do it faster for a much lower cost. That’s before even taking into account the time that gets wasted trying to communicate with officers in the field, coordinate things like parking, and discuss concerns with customers.

#2 Your Company Prefers To Do The Bare Minimum

Lots of customers out there are already requiring their security contractors to use guard management software. They want the increased accountability and the ability to monitor and respond to issues in real time. Still, even if your clients are satisfied with paper reports, you should still be looking to improve your service in any way possible.

If you’re not adapting and innovating to constantly improve your service, that’s going to hurt you in a couple ways. For one, it’s going to be much harder to compete and win new business against companies that are using more advanced tools. Also, eventually one of your clients will ask that you start using a guard management system, and then you’ll be forced to make the switch.

As we discussed in our characteristics of successful Silvertrac customers, companies that make the switch on their own rather than being forced into it are almost always more successful. Do the bare minimum if you want, but those who are proactive will always win out in the long run.

#3 You Like Competing On Price

The reason customers only seem to care about price is because the industry for so long has done a poor job of building credibility and differentiating services. If you just come in and talk about experience and accountability like everyone else, customers are always going to flip immediately to the back page and make their decision based on who has the lowest price.

If you want to offer the lowest price and can win customers that way, then all power to you, but that’s a hard model to sustain. You’ll end up with razor thin margins, have to cut corners to keep costs low, and usually end up losing customer when you can’t deliver the service you promised at the quoted price.

Fortunately, there are other ways. Rather than using price as a selling point, show customers how you can really add value to save them time and money.

#4 You Don’t Mind Losing Contracts

I don’t know any owner that doesn’t worry about losing contracts. If you’ve invested so much time and money into your business, you should always want to ensure that you’re retaining your customers. After all, it’s much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to go out and find a new one.

The problem is, if you’re not using guard management software, someone’s going to start taking your customers sooner or later. Their increased efficiency and capabilities will win customers over from your service. This is just the direction the industry is moving.

“It’s becoming the status quo, it’s becoming the basic requirement now in the industry, whereas five years ago it was just something that was optional,” said Johnny on today’s episode.

We’re at the point where not having the software is actually a competitive disadvantage. Standing out from the crowd means understanding how to get the most out of the software, and that means adopting it as soon as possible so you have the time to figure out how to use it.

If you’re an existing Silvertrac customer and want to learn how to get more out of the software, or if you’re not yet using security guard software and want to see what it can do, check out some of our free resources.