Seasoned Atronic Alarms Team Named Installer of the Year Runner-Up

Atronic Alarm’s dedication to growth, loyal customers and low attrition rate has earned it the honor of being an Installer of the Year (small to midsize company) runner-up.

Since 2011, Atronic has doubled staff and expanded service department personnel from four to 20.

July 12, 2017 Arlen Schweiger Jump to Comments

There’s something to be said about maintaining stability in leadership that feeds into the rest of an organization.

Atronic Alarms of Lenexa, Kan., can attest to that, as this Installer of the Year runner-up (small to midsize company) continues to excel for its Kansas City metro area clientele whose loyalty in return is expressed by 63% sales generated from existing customers and just 6% attrition.

The company’s referral network includes strong connections with area chambers of commerce, builders, remodelers and electricians, and a program offering free monitoring to clients who refer signed customers, explains Vice President Neil Atha.

Inactive accounts are worked with postcard campaigns, letters and packets of information.

Atha is the son of owner and founder Perry Atha and is among Atronic’s veteran squad that includes team leaders who all have a minimum of five years’ experience; the installation manager is in his 17th year of service at Atronic; and eight-person sales team with nearly six decades’ combined experience (not counting Neil or Perry).

Overall the company, which is in its 35th year, employs 63 people and services 7,600+ accounts — since 2011 Atronic has doubled staff and expanded service department personnel from four to 20.

“We focus on strengthening departments by giving employees freedom, respect and ample room for communication.

Technicians are provided paid training and incentives to complete online technical courses, as well as shadowing seasoned employees for one year.

“We offer office staff Fred Pryor Personal Enrichment Seminars,” notes Office Manager Alysia Bianco, who has been with Atronic since 2009.

Two acquisitions in addition to the sales team’s efforts have helped Atronic increase sales over the past five years by 225%, to a projected $9 million this year.

RMR has increased by 275% from 120,000 in 2011 to more than $330,000 projected this year.

“The salespeople are active in the community and in business associations and receive many leads this way. They also have leads through referrals — we set up a referral program many years ago and it has been well accepted by our customers,” says Megan Ragan, marketing and graphic design, company marketing consultant with Atronic since 2001. “We do very little ‘traditional’ advertising, but when we do it is targeted towards a specific ‘niche’ market, like a high-end residential area or people who are members of a certain golf course.”

Weekly sales and management meetings provide Atronic insights into the challenges it faces as a company, which spills over into marketing meetings, Ragan says, adding that the salespeople are honest about what strategies work and don’t work.

atronic alarm employees

Along with the survey form that is sent out after every job is completed, Atronic monitors its online presence continuously with integrated social media apps.

“We know exactly when a review has been written and respond immediately,” she says. Meanwhile, Atronic has benefited from well-honed and efficient operations — including implementation of SedonaOffice, Fleetmatics and Quotewerks — plus a bit of tweaking here and there that has shown positive results, like extending customer service seven hours per day by creating two shifts of programmers to expedite systems going online, according to Neil Atha.

“We hired more service and installation coordinators to keep up with the demand. We remodeled our offices last year so that each department is in closer proximity of one another for team collaboration,” he adds. “In the service department, we installed overhead TVs that broadcast the schedule and GPS location of our technicians so that anyone in the service area can assist our coordinators to make quick and efficient scheduling decisions.”

It all adds up to a nimble, effective and proficient provider whose acumen can be summarized by one particular recent job, as Atha conveys: “We completed a 166-door access control job for a large distribution company with nine buildings across seven different locations. Our installation team finished it in less than 14 days. One of our technicians worked seven days a week and dedicated herself to make sure the job stayed on track and the customer was satisfied. The customer made a point to personally thank the entire installation team for how quickly and efficiently they completed this project.”

BEST OF THE BEST: Check out the rest of the winners and runners-up here!

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