Briscoe Protective Systems: Where Business Actually Is Personal
In an exclusive Q&A with SSI, Briscoe’s management team discusses its roots as a residential alarm company, transiting to fire solutions and how it continues to motivate and empower its team.
Briscoe Protective Systems President Robert Williams (right) and Vice President/General Manager David Miranda.
As Briscoe grows, how are you managing to continue to deliver a high standard of service?
DAVID MIRANDA: We really pride ourselves in our service and feel that’s what makes us stand out. We have a saying that anybody can sell a red box, but it’s what you provide behind that red box. Our great service leads to organic growth, which is wonderful but then causes the issue of trying to keep up personnel to match that growth. Then while salaries increase, our customers are always looking for lower prices. So we do a really good job of watching costs and streamlining procedures.
WILLIAMS: To maintain a high standard of service we use the Sedona computerized business system to dispatch our technicians, who all have iPads in the field and are able to get to service calls in the least amount of time thanks to our coordinated dispatching. And we’re practically a paperless office because a customer can sign documents that can be sent back to the office immediately. We save a lot with economies of scale on that.
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We have concentrated mostly on organic growth within our company. We find a lot of other companies that look to grow through acquisition are very fragmented. They still do a lot of things manually, and that inhibits their organic growth. We found that through the bundling we’re able to grow very well, and do not have to go into the acquisition market for any significant growth.
What is the top operational challenge you face today and how are you contending with it?
MIRANDA: It’s maintaining a quality technical staff, guys that are field ready. Normally when you find or are approached by a technician that has some years of experience, my experience has been they come with bad habits. So we try to hire personnel that is raw but has a great attitude and is a team player. And we utilize our in-house resources to try and ramp up their training as quickly as possible. Besides our training boards we’ve created, we like to do a lot of online training. We seek to help advance their knowledge so as to exceed our customers’ expectations.
What marketing channels bring the most business – referrals, prospecting, RFPs?
< p>MIRANDA: We are blessed to have a very proactive marketing team. We continued to grow through the financial crisis of 2007-2009, and one of the main things we grew was our marketing team. We knew at some point things would turn so we wanted to be ready. Where other companies were probably cutting their marketing staff, we actually increased it. They really get us involved with lots of different associations such as electrical contractors. We do a lot of nonprofit work in New York City so they find every possible trade show or meeting that we can really use our brand to try to generate new business.
Besides the word of mouth that spreads with regards to our service, our Web site is constantly being tweaked and we really stay up on the trends, keeping up with what people are looking for. We’ve instituted a whole variety of different site features, such as a chatroom, that have brought us great leads the past couple of years.
Another key marketing tool we use is providing a certification class that helps staffs prepare for the FDNY [Fire Department of New York] exam. We’ve given this training free of cost to more than 1,000 people. It’s a three-hour course given by regular staff members who take their time to go out as part of giving back to community. And it also brings business. People see the dedication and knowledge Briscoe has to provide these free classes, and they come back to us and look for quotes on their business needs.
What about company culture? Do you have a special sauce that keeps personnel motivated and ensures high retention?
WILLIAMS: We call our employees co-workers because I like that word better. We all work together. As president of the company, I don’t use the title “president.” I use “chief co-worker” and working together is important in your work family. We give awards out, a couple awards a year to people who take the Extra Step in providing above-average customer service and things.
We had one young lady who went out into the field herself when we couldn’t get a technician fast enough to one of the locations. She had had some training at Briscoe on what to do, but was never in the field. She went out to the customer and a technician explained to her how to make a temporary repair to the system. That was at 2 a.m. That’s the kind of dedication we have. It’s not something we recommend all the time but this young lady took it upon herself to do it, and definitely got the Extra Step Award.
We celebrate everybody’s birthday at a monthly party where we also acknowledge different events in people’s lives or families. People who aren’t in the office, such as technicians, we send them a birthday card with a personal note and a certificate for a coffee gift card. We also have a fishing trip every year. We do a bowling event yearly. These are ways of developing teamwork and keeping people motivated.
Moving to technology and systems, what is a hot opportunity; what are the challenges?
WILLIAMS: The biggest one that’s upcoming is the mass notification of people, especially in areas like campuses. College campuses have buildings that are separated from each other and they need to be able to let people know what’s going on if there’s an active shooter, if there has to be a lockdown of buildings and to keep everybody aware of situations. Especially today with terrorism, it creates a lot of confusion and people don’t know if they’re going into a situation or running from it. So mass notification using speakers and everything, combining them with security and fire alarms, is a very big market that’s upcoming.
Probably the top challenge is introducing people to the concept of mass notification. A lot of times schools like to use pagers or sending it to a smartphone or E-mail rather than a voice notification. So a change in people’s attitude toward how they get notified is an important thing. Also there’s a budgetary constraint. When you think of new concepts and new ways of doing things, people always say, “How can I pay for it?” The budgets would have to expand in certain areas. Some states provide some funding, but more cooperation from governments to try to help get some of these systems that affect the general public is important.
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine
Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].
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