I’m going to be frank with you. I’ve only worked at Sonitrol of Louisville for seven days, and I know practically nothing about the security industry. I’m soaking up what I can as fast as I can, but I have no background in this industry.
As you can imagine, then, everything’s new to me. I have lots of questions. I’m learning every day. Over the past seven days of working, seven lessons in particular have stood out. In case you’re considering doing business with us and, like most people who do business with us, have no idea what the day to day operation is like here, I thought it might be helpful to share some of what I’m learning.
So, here it goes, seven lessons I’ve learned since starting work with Sonitrol of Louisville.
1. The customers actually do come first.
This is a pretty trite saying, one every business has to claim if it wants to stay in business. It’s not until you actually interact with the company, though – talk to the people, do real business – that you’re able to tell if a company really believes that customers come first.
So I’ve only been here seven days, but from what I’ve seen, this is accurate. Everyone from the owner down to, well, me stop whatever we’re doing to take a customer’s call or trouble shoot a pertinent issue for one of them. For me, putting customers first is a no-brainer, but it’s not uncommon in some companies to see this principle get overruled by inside agendas, customers coming first in the mission statement but getting thrown in the back seat when the company actually gets driving. Thankfully, Sonitrol of Louisville keeps the customers up front.
2. Even though some customers are annoying…
When I came in to interview with Sonitrol, I spoke with Ken Krapf, the owner, and Donna Schmitt, the general manager. Within the first five minutes, Ken had already mentioned the 80/20 principle, you know, the one that says that 80 percent of the work comes from 20 percent of the customers. That rule applies to any business, but it’s always interesting to me to see how it plays out in practice.
Well, I’ve quickly been able to see it play out in practice. It’s not that customers are rude, although some are – it’s more that some requests are tedious and seem to take more time and effort than they’re worth. Constantly changing key cards comes to mind. And some customers simply require more of these types of changes than the majority of the other customers.
But that’s our job. We get it done regardless. Because…
3. Most customers are nicer than I imagined they’d be.
When it comes down to it, you get better service when you’re nice. It’s not like we spit in anyone’s food if they’re mean, but I know from what I’ve seen, when we’re dealing with a pleasant customer who has an issue, it’s our pleasure to help them out as well as we can. We don’t want to look bad or lose their business any more than they want to look bad or have to find some other company to do business with. It’s called “being professional” for a reason.
Even if you’re not one of our customers, if you’re anyone’s customer, thank you for being nice.
4. It’s better to be safe than sorry…
In the security industry, safety is what it’s all about. It’s what we get paid to provide, safety and the security of feeling safe. In order to provide that safety, we end up checking and double checking ourselves multiple times. Coming from more of a creative background myself, I’ve found this both refreshing and tedious.
Refreshing because I like to see the care each of us put into making sure our customers stay secure while still having the proper access they need, free of annoying alarms sounding when they shouldn’t.
Tedious, though, because checking and rechecking is tedious. This is me being frank again. Double checking security doors over and over again takes time and a definite commitment to excellence. I’ve been consistently impressed with everyone’s willingness to remain committed to keeping accounts secure. It’s better to be safe and secure than sorry or unsure.
5. But it’s better to be sorry than making stuff up.
At the end of my first full week at work, I asked my boss how my performance has been. Am I where I should be with training? Am I doing a good job? What do you think of my work so far?
Among other things, one of the responses that stood out to me was when she said that she appreciates that I ask questions. “You don’t just make stuff up,” she said.
I chuckled. “That doesn’t help anyone,” I said.
Creativity is a wonderful thing, and there’s definitely a certain amount of creativity that goes into solving security problems each day. That said, it doesn’t help anyone to make stuff up. We call back, email back, share information with one another across the office, and then call back again. In short, the people around here find answers, answers that work, even if that means apologizing for not having an answer right away.
6. We expect a lot from each other.
With less than 20 people on our team total, each of us ends up wearing multiple hats. I might answer customer phone calls about technical issues, monitor some security tests remotely, and write a blog post all within an hour. In fact, that’s exactly what I’ve done this past hour.
Of course, lots of businesses work like this. Titles only apply to resumes. When it comes to small operations like us working on large projects like we do, we just get the job done. If it doesn’t get done, we all lose. If it does, we all win.
(And yes, we all like to win.)
7. We’re real.
Before I jumped into this job, I worried about this. I was raised with a pretty decent work ethic. I know how to work. I also know, though, that everyone burns out eventually if there’s no motivation behind the work.
Security, especially electronic security systems, seemed cold and impersonal before I took this job. I was curious to see how the office actually felt here.
And so far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
We make mistakes, just like everyone else, which is why we double and triple check accounts. We wonder who will call next, or who won’t call. We’re human. When you pick up the phone, you get a real person here. I’ve heard callers get into conversations about their marriage breaking up, their golf strokes, and of course alarms blaring when they can’t remember how to work their control panels. Pick up the phone. See for yourself. (502) 966-8999. Speak with a real person, even though we’re a technology company.
Like I said at the top, I’m going to be frank here. I didn’t run this post idea by any of my bosses. They didn’t know I was writing this until I sent it to them. So if you’re reading this published online, then the post made it. If not, then someone decided it was a little too personal for the company blog.
And that, my friends, is lesson #7.
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