We all know that telling people which industry we work in frequently produces a look of bewilderment on the questioner’s face, closely followed by a frown. That security is an ‘industry’ in its own right hasn’t dawned on the majority of our fellow countrymen. And when they start to think about it in more detail, they don’t generally like what they see. We are at once remote, thuggish, riddled with criminal types and peopled by burly individuals with exceedingly short hair.
A few examples serve to illustrate the point nicely. In Example One, a householder needs a burglar alarm. The first company they approach explains such a lot of complex gobbledegook that the eyes soon glaze over, to be widened only when they receive a final quotation for the work to be done.
The second company the householder tries out offers to install a great alarm for half the price of Company A. After six months of operation, though, the system fails and it subsequently emerges that the alarm company has gone out of business.
In Example Two, an armed gang drive a truck through the security doors of a warehouse and proceed to load up around GB pound 40,000 worth of electronic goodies before fleeing into the night. The warehouse’s alarm doesn’t activate. The CCTV cameras have been masked. The security officer on site disappears, never to be seen again, and the police assessment simply has to be that this was indeed an ‘inside job’.
In Example Three, a father is contacted in the middle of the night to learn that his son has just been admitted to the Casualty Department at the local hospital. Having become embroiled in an argument inside a nightclub, which then spilled out into the street, the lad was beaten unconscious… Not by his original assailant, but by the establishment’s door supervisors.
Perceptions of our industry
The reason why these examples might seem depressingly familiar is that they’re recorded, in various forms, over and over again in the national and wider media. Scratch the surface of the average person’s perception of the security industry and it’s exactly these types of situation which are most well established in peoples’ vernacular.
There’s another, somewhat more subtle dimension at play, too. As so much crime is associated with ‘security’, so security itself has to shoulder some blame for every crime. It is all part of the misunderstood half-truths and myths that form our collective reputation.
A key factor in our thinking within the industry is that the target market of opinion formers in society, largely the commercial sector customer base, understand the value of security rather better than the common man. It’s argued, then, that provided these customers continue to demand security services, and are able to separate good practice from bad, the commercial health of the industry is thereby assured.
Would that it worked like that in the real world! The common man is the opinion former in every other walk of life. Unless the favourable view that we would all like to see of the security industry is replicated in the local newspaper, woven through the fabric of each episode of EastEnders or conveyed in every urban myth uttered on the Clapham Omnibus, it will sadly never become reality. So how might this particular mountain be climbed?
Telling it like it is
For what they’re worth, here are a few home-grown ideas to support the ascent. First of all, tell your customer (if you’re a service provider) why you’re so good. Even before you have a contract in your hand, the end user needs to know why choosing a given supplier is such a smart move. And why, even though this particular supplier may not be the cheapest on the market, the service outlined (and thence delivered) is the best value on the market.
It would be true to say that a great many end users have little understanding of the standards security companies are operating to and within, their customer care ethos or the quality management processes underpinning the entire operation. In order that price is no longer the deciding factor, security companies must look to introduce other differentiators.
Security companies should also make a point of telling the end user how well they’re doing once the contract has been up-and-running for a while. All-too-often, once a contract has been agreed the lines of communication seem to dry up.
Within the end user company there’ll be many potential opinion formers. As an example, if the concern’s employees believe that they are indeed receiving a good service, then management will hear the message. Influence those employees through a regular flyer, staff briefing or rapid turnaround of an issue and it will stick. Create an aura of being ‘part of the team’ and that security contract will always be renewed for you.
Dialogue with the insurers
Security companies must talk to the end user organisation’s insurer. Insurers are key opinion formers. Describing the security service you’re providing to the customer and then asking the insurer to reduce the customer’s premium accordingly can create a relationship in which all three parties benefit.
Madcap though it might at first appear, the end result can only be one thing: positive.
Developing a media profile is key. Every security company out there is responsible for some successes, but who knows about them? If bad security is news, so can good security become news. A robbery thwarted, a conviction secured, an award received… To be honest, even the comings and goings of members of staff have positive media value.
Granted, the number of press releases you might need to draft compared with the column inches you receive may appear disproportionate. That said, the value of one good, positive article is immense, not just to the company but also the industry as a whole.
There’s crime and the fear of crime. And there’s the antidote to crime: good security.
Spreading the word
Tell your friends as well. If the industry really wants to influence the common man then we each have to start somewhere. If there are 150,000 of us working at the ‘quality’ end of the industry, and if we each make a point of positively influencing another person about our industry each week, in a year that adds up to 7.5 million ‘hits’. With a publicity machine such as this, the like of which we already own, we should not be suffering.
There is a way to enthuse our own staff with a strength of conviction about their work which they then carry over into their free time. It’s active, purposeful leadership from the top. The natural arena of the SMT reader – both security services provider and end user.
Security really is important
If we adopted all of these home-grown solutions and put them to work, what would be the benefits? Well, first off we would communicate much more strongly the value our industry offers – and therefore our services would be worth more. For our staff, we could provide them with a far greater sense of pride in the profession, and imbue them with the courage to let people know exactly why what they do is so very important.
And for those in charge – the people who try to sell security to an unconvinced and cynical national audience – there’s a very real prize. The belief that, if we work together and all carry the same message with us, we might just be able to change the world.
