Page 40 - Security Today, September 2017

Security professionals should not underestimate the competencies of today’s consumers, when given intuitive, step-by-step instructions. For example, most of us now complete our own taxes and make in- vestment decisions for retirement using software tools that have made the steps of those transactions easier. Learnings from those markets can be transferred to DIY Security to make installation, program- ming and operation of these systems manageable for all.
Easier Control and On-Demand Monitoring
Just like the disruptive changes that have occurred in the tax prepa- ration and investment industries described in the previous section, the service models of today will need to be more flexible for DIY Customers. The standard long-term contracts and $30 to $50 that amortize the cost of equipment over the life of the contract will no longer suffice.
DIY systems should be inexpensive to start, increasing the like- lihood that the equipment is purchased up-front, making it unnec- essary for the monthly monitoring cost to spread out the upfront expense of the physical equipment. DIY systems also eliminate in- stallation expenses like truck rolls. Some of these costs will not disap- pear entirely, as more service operators may be needed to help DIY customers with questions that come up during installation, but this will significantly lower the monthly RMR.
Security dealers should recognize that these transactions, al- though lower per month, can be profitable on day one, in contrast to the contracts they use today, which take months to become profit- able. Money is made on the equipment sale itself and monitoring is still profitable. If you look at other successful monthly services like
Netflix and Pandora, monitoring costs below $15 per month equal payment amounts that consumers are very comfortable with making month after month.
A step even further will be to offer either “self-monitoring” or “on- demand monitoring” features, common of emerging DIY solutions. Self-monitoring can be offered at a lower monthly cost like $9.99, al- lowing end-users to establish their own response network for security events. Instead of calling the police, the system may alert a roommate, landlord or another predetermined contact. Security dealers could then offer a step-up solution to increase consumers from “on-demand monitoring” to professional monitoring for two weeks when the own- ers go on vacation, or seasonally for vacation homes.
Where to Go From Here
While the current security model will continue to successfully sell and deploy alarms throughout the market, the opportunity that emerging DIY solutions present is extremely viable. DIY security must be em- braced and enhanced to match consumer’s preferences and expecta- tions, resulting in a product that’s easier to install, program and use.
When that perfect mix of easy and intuitive is put into a kit for DIY customers, it opens up a huge new blend of target markets for the entire security industry to work with, and
that is the real goal—to protect more people,
more homes and more assets, while working with
those customers to provide a monitoring package
that is right fit for them.
Steve Connor is the director of product marketing at Nortek Security & Control.
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