LOUD Security Lets ‘Old Fashioned’ Ways Speak Volumes
LOUD Security, a 2019 SSI Installer of the Year runner-up, pays individualized attention to customers throughout all stages of their involvement.
This was among the strongest showings ever for SSI’s Installer and Integrated Installation of the Year Awards. Read about the winners in the July issue of SSI and browse the Best of the Best to read about more runners-up.
A Kennesaw, Ga., institution, LOUD Security Systems makes sure it puts its money where its mouth is when trying to adhere to its motto of “Today’s Technology. Old Fashioned Customer Service.”
High on the list of ways LOUD Security does that, noted by General Manager Eric Widner, is that Owner John Loud “still invites customers and potential customers to call or text him on his personal cellphone at any time, and includes this cell number in our advertising and marketing efforts including radio, web, print and social media. In modeling this practice, he holds all of us accountable to always putting the customer first. Always.”
Widner adds that when people do call, every ring is answered live — by Agnes, a “sweet, kind and very capable lady who began her time with LOUD in its very early years” — as the company refuses to use an interactive voice response system.
To properly accommodate customer service, LOUD technicians are on-call 24 hours a day, and each service trip is followed up the next day with a personal call to ensure that every expectation was met to the customer’s satisfaction, Widner says.
Additionally, LOUD Security conducts weekly customer-targeted meetings where its management team discusses each customer’s specific situation. “Whether it’s a customer wanting to move, cancel or suspend service, there are no cookie-cutter answers,” Widner notes.
Such individualized attention to customers is manifested in other interactions. The company strives to communicate regularly and often with customers throughout all stages of their involvement with LOUD, and marketing is intentionally “casual, clever and candid,” as Widner describes.
“We want customers to feel that they are entering a relationship, not a contract,” he says. “We send introductory emails letting potential customers know who their sales rep will be. Then prior to each install customers receive another email introducing the technician who will be in their home.”
Ongoing engagement includes a monthly newsletter with helpful security and safety tips, as well as special offers and current events involving LOUD, whose presence in the local community is pervasive.
An example of a special offer may be around a new service or technology, such as the company’s recent push in water detection and automatic shut-off. LOUD held a “limited time sales promotion” along with a comprehensive two-month kick-off awareness marketing campaign involving all social media platforms, ongoing radio spots on different stations, our newsletter and print ads.
“This is a key differential offering from our competitors,” says Widner, “and a great source for recurring revenue.”
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About the Author
Arlen Schweiger
Arlen Schweiger is editor-in-chief of SSI's sister publication, CE Pro. He was SSI's managing editor from August 2018 to June 2023.
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