Security Sales & Integration November 2021 - 25

This past year things have stayed steady in
California, unfortunately with crime way up.
There's a need among our alarm services, cameras
and patrol all integrating, and we've been steady
and busy with sales. We see that going into next
year as we continue to increase sales. The hardest
thing is just trying to get staffing levels up.
Anthony Franco: With people staying home
due to COVID, we also had kids schooling at
home. We offer a WiFi optimization because
you can't just have good WiFi in the kitchen
area or the living room, and everybody's sitting
at the same table trying to work and go
to school. WiFi optimization, although we had
been offering it for four to five years, really
ramped up to meet demand for better connectivity
throughout a house.
Video was also definitely a big part of the
movement upwards as well. With people being
home more, we would get calls, " Hey, there's
somebody walking outside. I've never seen that
person. " They've never seen him because they
were at work and now they're at home and
they're just seeing normal activity! But there was
also a real big push for additional patrol services.
Did you have anyone doing the
monitoring from home or did you keep
that personnel onsite?
Rob Post: We kept everyone onsite. We did
have some backup protocols if they needed
to go, we could get them offsite. We are a UL
central station, so some rules we had to abide
by and UL did make some changes during
COVID at that time to accommodate. We were
lucky in that we did not have to go remote.
Did you notice any attrition or payment
issues with people experiencing
hardships?
Rob Post: We did what we could to help when
people would call in, we had a few that were
out of a job. They couldn't afford it. We gave
them six months, some a year. We said, " Listen,
security is important during this time. We want
you to feel comfortable. " With a lot of people,
we would just waive fees and gave them six
months' free service. There were people crying
on the phone thanking us. There were, however,
some people we just couldn't save, who had
to cancel. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would
be as most people still wanted to keep their
alarm system monitored.
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Beside WiFi networks, what other products
or services have received heightened
interest due to the pandemic?
Franco: If you were to look at just the growth
of traditional security compared to video as itself,
that's where we've seen the biggest growth.
Manufacturers and software companies are
bringing to market cameras with smarter analytics,
that are more intuitive and provide more
of a seamless integration with the alarm system
via apps. Being able to carry one app to control
your thermostat, locks, lights, video, create
smart rules to trigger lights or to push video
into a central station. That's where we saw the
most growth and innovation.
We have really seen great success with our
Night Shield offering, which was launched two
to three years ago. There were a couple events
that happened at Rob's house where he had very
clear video of somebody approaching his driveway
and checking the car doors. He received
the video, but his phone was in airplane mode
and he didn't get the notification until the next
NOVEMBER 2021 Security Sales & Integration 25
Arcadia, Calif.-headquartered
Post Alarm has grown to
nearly $12 million in annual
revenues, with close to 140
employees serving more than
16,000 monitored customers
throughout Southern California
(except San Diego County).
COURTESY OF BEN GIBBS PHOTOGRAPHY
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration November 2021

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