By Ashley Willis
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With its recent purchase of National Alarm Systems (NAS), located here, Sting Alarm of Henderson, Nev., added 200 residential and commercial accounts. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal came about after the NAS owner approached Sting Alarm, company vice president Jon Perry tells SSI.
"The owner was unable to service his customers the way he wanted to," he says. "It worked out because we're always looking for good opportunities to partner or merge with a company that's in an area that we want to make a bigger presence in. The Northern California market is an area we always thought was a good growth market."
The acquisition now allows Sting Alarm to provide access control, burglar alarms and video surveillance products to customers from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, Calif. In addition, commercial and national accounts will also have access to Sting Alarm's customer portal and video verification service. The most important offering the company will give its new clients is customer service, Perry says.
"The NAS owner took very good care of the customers, and we plan to continue that type of service," he says. "We'll be able to do this through our Web site that allows customers to manage their accounts and alarm panels."
In order to ensure a smooth transition for NAS clients, Sting Alarm mailed out yard signs, decals, a welcome letter and a brochure explaining what the new clients should expect.
Founded in 2003, Sting Alarm provides alarm monitoring and surveillance technology solutions to roughly 4,000 accounts, including hotels, casinos, bars/nightclubs, quick service restaurants (QSR) and retail stores. With a goal of expanding to more areas in the Western regional states, Sting Alarm, which operates in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas, is also looking into offering video analytics monitoring.
"We're looking to take it to the next level," Perry says. "Since we have our own central station, we can monitor a lot of different types of systems and a lot of analytic triggers."
As a way to bring in new customers, the company is offering a free basic alarm system alarm install throughout the month of October, which is "Crime Prevention Month." The system includes a master control and keypad, up to three door or window contacts, a motion detector and a siren. The company will also waive the normal activation fee during the promotion with the signing of a monitoring agreement.
"We found that the holidays are the peak times when crime seems to go up," Perry says. "People are more desperate, especially now with times as tough as they are. So, we wanted to give homeowners and businesses the incentive to be proactive."
Using social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to market the promotion to new clientele, the company has received a good response from new clientele. However, Perry notes that in addition to winning new clients, the promotion is to deter crime.
"It's always best for homeowners to have a yard sign in front of their homes," he says. "Typically, burglars see the sign and pass by because they'd rather go to the door where they don't see a sign."
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.