I'm sitting at my desk working on a report for my boss when it happens. The phone rings, I pick it up and my day has begun its downhill slide. On the other end of the phone is a customer demanding that their alarm monitoring service be cancelled. "I want my system shut off now!" says the customer. Canceling a monitored alarm system is not as easy as calling up the electric company and telling them to shut off the power to your property on such and such date. For the customer this seems like a simple thing to do, but they do not understand the working procedures that are in place at a security company. We follow these procedures to cover our butts legally and to safe guard our customer's privacy. To process a cancellation at United Systems can be a monster of a job, it is "...a product of endless effort and experiment" (Eisely, 15).
Valued Customer
Customers
Customers are Ignoring YouMy responsibility is maintaining this customer. My supervisor believes the only undeterminable customer is one that is moving out of state. (United Systems only monitors in the state of Colorado.) Because of this pressure, I've had to become really good at reading the customers and knowing just what to say to keep their business. For instance when a customer is moving to a new home or location, I would start the conversation by telling them that United will gladly come out for free and quote their new home. I would also mention that we would keep them at their current monitoring rate. This would jump-start the conversation in the desired direction. After getting them thinking about a quote, I would then ask them to have the new owners of their old property give me a call. The motivation behind this is to...