How to Utilize Security Apps to Optimize RMR
Discover the latest security app offerings and how to optimize them for end customers and recurring revenue, as well as enhancing operations.
For end users, accessing security and building control systems through smartphones or tablets has moved from wish list to expectation.
Efficient Apps for an Easier Job
Training is an investment that, if done right, will pay back many times over, Nicol advises. Additionally, efficient app implementation can make dealers’ lives easier (see sidebar and slideshow).
“It will make your jobs quicker, smoother, increase customer satisfaction and reduce your call-backs,” he says. “At Deako, we remove a ton of complexity by preprogramming everything before it ships. If you send us a floorplan, we will map out that system and provision it for you, so you just install our switches like regular light switches and open the app and you’re up and running. It’s hugely valuable, especially with larger homes that have 50+ switches.”
Jones-Shand points out that any time you use a particular manufacturer’s equipment, you eliminate a learning curve and can easily standardize across your whole fleet of installers or team of techs. Training is important when you’re installing any technology, she emphasizes, but adds that the app should be intuitive to the consumer.
How 4 Suppliers Are Feeding App-etites
Alarm.com: “An important element of remote access is the ability to improve a dealer’s customer support operations. This includes mobile apps for technicians that streamline and improve the reliability of installations, as well as customer support tools that enable a dealer to remotely troubleshoot systems. This technology drives efficiency for dealers. And, by delivering the rapid customer support experience that consumers increasingly expect, remote support tools are also helping to maintain longer-term customers.” — Matt Zartman
Inovonics: “The demand we are seeing is from integrators who specify our wireless endpoints as components of larger security solutions. They expect smartphone-based tools to help them more accurately quote a job and make sure their installers have a good blueprint to work from to ensure a seamless installation. Having to requote a job or make on-the-fly adjustments during an installation costs our customers time and money. Our Survey Kit and App helps resolve these issues.” — Scott Fincher Sr.
NAPCO: “With a connected home, you add devices to a security system such as lighting control, locking, temperature control, etc. The app is a tool that’s new to an alarm dealer to help them set up a connected home system. We enable our dealers to add new devices remotely and they have an ease of use even at the premises setting up the systems. They can use their tablet onsite to help set up the system and add on Z-Wave devices.” — Judy Jones-Shand
Nortek Security & Control: “One of the biggest pain points for dealers and integrators is the time they need to spend installing and programming system, so the faster and easier the better. Remote access helps to solve this and also drives our product development. NSC acknowledges that apps as well as mobile-optimized web user interfaces reduce the need to send technicians onsite to perform routine system maintenance and troubleshooting, allow programming and management of systems anywhere, and increase customer support speed and satisfaction.” — Anu Herranen
“For some apps, you need to read a book to use it. An intuitive app is key to a successful offering and consumer experience. An app should be of value to a consumer and foster a positive relationship between the security dealer and the consumer, and obviously not one that’s frustrating,” she says. Herranen echoes the importance of intuitively designed apps.
“In the same way that users benefit from the intuitive design of these apps, dealers also benefit from the intuitive design for the installation tools created by the backend app providers that we work with.”
Alarm.com is one of them and its software platform, which is tightly integrated with top hardware providers, connects a broad array of smart devices, making them easily controlled through an intuitive mobile app.
Matthew Zartman, director of communications, Alarm.com, adds that security dealers should be able to look to their interactive services provider to offer robust training options so they can quickly get up to speed and continually keep up with the latest offerings.
“Dealers should expect a broad range of backend services to help them install and support their customers more efficiently,” says Zartman. “The latest capabilities include business intelligence insights that allow security dealers to easily monitor customer engagement, trouble conditions and other drivers of attrition across their account base.”
Strickland echoes that “Training is very important, and as manufacturers we need to be sure we’re offering the right kind.” Installers who have migrated from security to home automation are more integrated, she believes, and some in security who aren’t as comfortable need that gap filled to understand remote access and the basic setup.
Strickland strongly encourages dealers and integrators to work with manufacturers that have an open architecture and are willing to have other apps work with their systems. “That way, they’ll be able to tailor solutions to the customer and their system, and assure them that they’re listening to their needs, rather than installing out of the box with a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Leverage Demand to Boost RMR
Strickland adds that dealers/integrators can leverage market demand by bundling remote services with monitoring services. She points out that they’re already doing that with customers anyway, and can now also offer those Cloud-based solutions.
“A one-time fee app allows them to get more tailored to the custom-er and leverage the Cloud and bundling,” she says. “ Beyond RMR, they should leverage the business opportunities and educate themselves on what’s out there, the app options and their strong points. By making sure they’re offering customized service and the best solution for an individual customer, they’ll stand out from their competition.”
Although they lack the advertising budgets that Verizon and some of the large cable companies have, Jones-Shand encourages the traditional, regional dealers to reach out in their own areas, more economically, to educate users on the capabilities available. They should emphasize that this is what they do and leverage the advantage that, as their local dealers, they already know them.
Nicol notes that smart home technology used to be relegated to the ultra- wealthy, the multimillion-dollar residences of the 1%. With hardware costs coming down and install time dropping dramatically due to the solutions now available, dealers and integrators can serve a much broader market.
“We hear lots of stories about them getting in and out of jobs a lot quicker, having less call-backs, doing way more jobs in total and still making solid margins.”
Keeping Security Apps Secure
As everything becomes more connected, there’s more risk, Strickland says. “It’s important that companies develop technologies that aren’t going to compromise security, and come with a high level of encryption. You can’t compromise if you’re a security company and if you’re not thinking about that, you’re missing a very big picture.”
The nature of technology is that it’s always evolving, Jones-Shand adds. “Things surround apps in the ecosystem; you borrow different technologies and sometimes those new technologies can have some problems in maintaining security. But we still are, in essence, selling security. Applied technologies have to be secure and done in a cautious manner by security professionals, because that’s what we’re all about.”
We’re living in a new age where technology and convenience are converging and everyone seems to be romancing the opportunities. With remote app technologies equipped with a high level of security, it’s likely we will all one day be living app-ily ever after.
Make sure to check out the slideshow above for more info on the apps discussed in this article.
Erin Harrington has 20+ years of editorial, marketing and PR experience within the security industry. Contact her at [email protected].
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