Thats right – you heard me – security is a grudge purchase

why’s that you say?

let me explain my first sentence.

Nobody ever wants a security system, you may need one but you never want a security system. You never wake up in the morning with excitement and anticipation thinking that you can’t wait to go out and buy the latest burglar alarm system. 

In an ideal world nobody would ever need security for their home or their business, everyone would get along nicely and there would be no theft, crime or burglary.

Unfortunatley this isn’t the case, due to peoples nature and criminal activities we often need a security system,  its never nice to have to pay for a system to protect your home or business so hence it being a grudge purchase!

another way to look at it is this;

if you had £500 in your pocket would you rather go out and buy a big television or a burglar alarm? Most people would pick the telly (if you picked the burglar alarm then please call me). The problem arises when people see your new big telly and the fact that you have no security system to protect it, they take it and you end up £500 poorer with no telly.

That’s why security is a grudge purchase – it will never make you money, it doesn’t do stuff and make noises like a telly or a games machine but it will make sure that it protects the goods you have spent your money on, making sure that you, your business and your family are protected and safe (which is priceless!).

So although a burglar alarm or security system may be a grudge purchase, its also an essential one – for home and work – act now before its too late.

The level of standard and quality of your customer service really shows when things are going wrong, rather than when things are going right.

Its easy to be polite provide good service when everything is working as it should.

but what about when it all goes wrong and the customer is deeply unhappy? This is when good customer service is invaluable and will tell you whether yours is good or bad.

At Zodiac Security we pride ourselves on customer service to both our existing customers and potential new customers. I will give you two examples of customer service, one of which happened to me personally and one of which happened with Zodiac Security.

Incident 1: – personal customer service:

I recently took my family for a meal, the service was terrible, had to wait 40 minutes for a starter, half an hour for main course and over an hour for dessert, when i complained to the waitor about the level of service and times between the courses being unacceptable the answer was “yeah, i know but what can i do about it?” needless to say i will not be going back there again. – one customer lost forever.

Incident 2: Zodiac Security customer service:

A burglar alarm we installed over 2 years ago potentially false alarmed twice (unknown cause of activation), the customer phoned to say (shout) that he was unhappy and wanted it sorting – now. Technically the customer was out of the guarantee period and should be charged for any calls or replacement products, but to satisfy the customer we arrived on a sunday, replaced all parts at our own cost and pacified the customer – as a result we have now installed two further security systems for him.

So take a look at how you deal with situations when they are going wrong – rather than when its going right – it may help you in the long run

Here are some simple tips and advice for protecting your garden and the areas around your home, simple ideas can go a long way to keeping the burglars at bay.

• Make sure your garden has the ability to be illuminated, this is usually carried out by a security floodlight, although a a total security lighting system can be installed to give you full control.
• Try to keep the main areas of your garden and driveway free of large objects, this ensures that you get maximum vision and the criminals have more potential exposure areas.
• Avoid large branches or objects that be climbed from being near any windows or potential entrance points, if a burglar sees an opening to his advantage they will take and use it.
• Makes sure that all tools and ladders are kept stored away and not left out in the open as these will be used by a burglar to gain access to your home.
• Makes sure your garage door is locked at all time, try to install an additional lock on the door, maybe a padlock that secures a clasp and bracket that is bolted to the floor, simple to install, cheap and very effective. It is very important to do this if your garage is attached to your house with an adjoining door, once the burglar is in they are hidden from view and has as long as they like. If you have a  burglar alarm consider excteding the system to include protection in the garage.
• Keep garden gates locked at all time, again preferably with a padlock.
• Fit a trellis or similar fence toppings on top of your fences. This makes it more difficult for burglars to climb into your garden without being noticed. combine this with legal, naturally spiky plants that will trp and scratch burglars.
• Never leave door keys under the doormat or under a plant pot or anyo other obvious hiding places outside. If you want to leave a key outside make sure it is left in a keylock that requires a code to gain access to the key. 

Home Security Tips – When you go away on holiday

Burglars target homes that look and appear to be empty, so the easiest way to deter thieves is to make your home look like its not empty – its not rocket science!!.

I have jotted down some simple tips that will make your home look full even when it isn’t

• Use timers to turn on and off lights, tv’s and any other items that can give the impression of someone being at home, a radio is a good example. These appliances can be controlled can be a simple digital timer or you could use your burglar alarm system and X-10 to do this for you.
• Never leave an answering machine message indicating you’re not home / have gone on holiday – you would be amazed how many people change their answer phone message to “sorry we can’t take you call, we are on holiday from the xxx till the yyy”. its an invitation and time window for burglars
• Don’t let letters, newspapers or flyers build up or be left sticking out of your letterbox. Ask a friendly neighbour to push anything through or remove it.
• A home without rubbish shows burglars no-one is at home. Let a neighbour use your wheely bin when you are away.

See, simple tips that are more common sense but its worthwhile using them when you are away, i mean what could be worse than comin home to find your house has been burgled?

A simple statement – fire kills – fact – make sure you are protected.

Make sure your smoke detectors are working correctly. It’s a sad fact but 1 in 3 smoke alarms fail to work and warn residents of a fire; mainly due to missing or non working batteries*. Other simple fire safety tips include:

• Don’t place wet washing on heaters or in front of fires
• Have a spark proof guard in front of all open fires
• Don’t leave candles unattended
• Never store more chemicals and cleaning fluids than you need
• Store paints and thinners in a metal container; never store flammable materials under a stairway
• Close all internal doors to limit fires from spreading, particularly at night

Alternatively another solution for fire protection at home is to add smoke detectors to your burglar alarm system.

By doing this it will ensure that the smoke detectors will always work, as they will be powered by the burglar alarm control panel which has a standby battery. This battery will take over should there ever be a mains failure for a set period of time so you will always be protected.

Two additional bonuses of connecting smoke detectors to your burglar alarm system are:

1. when activated the sounders for the alarm will activate (internally and externally) this means that you will always be able to hear the smoke detector has activated and can act accordingly.
2. if your burglar alarm systems is monitored, then you could have the burglar alarm system call the fire brigade )via the ARC) to come to the rescue.

Smoke detectors can be added to systems wired or wirefree.

for more information please contact us

(* Source: http://www.firekills.gov.uk/ ).

Suprisingly, yellow pages worked OK for us last year so we decided to renew our advert in the Taunton yellow pages.

We now have a Taunton phone line as well as our Yeovil phone line so both areas are covered.

we tried to keep the advert fairly simple rather than an all singing, all dancing advert with pictures here there and everywhere.

yellow pages advert

so lets hope it works!!!

any comments on the advert would be greatly appreciated!!

Although it may not seem so, cctv warning signs are a vital part of the cctv system.

CCTV warning signs when installed in the correct location provide the initial visual deterrent to anyone who may be thinking about entering the building / area when they shouldn’t be.  It is an advertisement of the fact that you have secured your building and will take the approriate action should you carry on. From a general and curteous point of view it also lets the public know that they will be on CCTV as well.

When a criminal sees a CCTV wanring sign it provides the element of doubt to the criminal and will usually result in them going elsewhere for their criminal activities – which is the intended action.

cctv warning sign

CCTV warning signs are supplied and installed as standard when we install a cctv system, however they can be purchased seperately as required.

if you would like to purchase cctv warning signs then please contact us with the size required and the amount you wish to purchase  and we will provide you with a quotation

radio advert

Sometimes it pays to try different ways to advertise, so we tried some radio advertising on the local FM radio Station

click the above to hear the advert and let us know what you think

Guardcam

3 security systems in one – cctv, security floodlight and voice warning system.

CCTV at home? thats bit over the top and expensive isn’t it?

Not now it isn’t, with the all new Guardcam, an effective CCTV system for the home that provides three secutity deterrents in one, all for hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.

 Guardcam Domestic CCTV & Security Floodlight System pdf

Sounds Great tell me more about the Guardcam.

Guardcam

The Guardcam is a three in one security device featuring a security floodlight and PIR, a cctv camera and recorder and a voice warning unit. The features in more details are:

1. Eco friendly Grade C 230w halogen lamp
The Guardcam uses a low energy Grade C halogen lamp offering an equivalent to older Grade D lamps with lower running costs.

2. High resolution digital camera
GuardCam’s integral camera offers clear image recording in video or still frame format. Night images retain colour and clarity due to automatic halogen light illumination.

3. Built in DVR records directly to 2Gb SD card
Up to 750, twenty second video sessions or 1500 still images are recorded onto the supplied 2GB SD card. Oldest Images are deleted and overwritten as the card reaches capacity ensuring recent events are always available.

4. Time and date setting 
The time and date, once configured will remain within GuardCam ready to be applied to all recordings. In the event of mains power failure internal back up batteries ensure the settings are not lost.

5. Easy replay on Windows Media Player
GuardCam is supplied with an SD to USB converter. Simply remove the SD card from GuardCam insert into the converter and plug into your PC’s USB port. The recorded images can then be launched and stored using Windows Media Player or any other suitable media software.

6. PIR motion detector with integral photocell
GuardCam detects the presence of intruders with proven PIR (passive infra red) technology at a distance of up to 12 metres from the unit. A photocell is employed to ensure activation is restricted to day or night operation at the users discretion.

7. PIR sensitivity and time control
GuardCam’s PIR can be adjusted to provide the best coverage whilst avoiding false alarms from passing traffic, animals etc. The time control adjusts how long the halogen light will remain activated after the first trigger.

8. Audible alert speaker with choice of 3 warnings
GuardCam has the option to deliver one of three messages upon activation. “Warning you are tresspasing”, “Warning you are being captured on video” and finally a barking dog (more effective than you may think). There’s also the option to have no voice alert.

9. 3 mode selection
Mode selection allows you to choose the most suitable combination of GuardCam’s functions. Light plus video at night, sound plus video in the day etc.

10. Secure waterproof recording control panel
The important SD card and time date controls are secured behind a waterproof door only opened with the supplied allen key.

One of the requirements for a burglar alarm system (from an NSI approved company) is a yearly mantenance contract – this is an imporant service and is often an insurance requirement as well.

So what is it and what do i get?

in pure laymans tems its the equivalent of an MOT for your burglar alarm system, the service makes sure that everything is working as it should be, from checking the PIR movement detectors to the emergency standby batteries and the external siren – if its part of the burglar alarm system it gets checked.

This service is carried out at twelve monthly intervals – i.e once a year, this is increased to twice a year is your burglar alarm system is monitored with police response.

So what else do i get i hear you cry?

Well with Zodiac Security you also get the following if you are a cusomter with a maintenance contract:

• your yearly service visit (or two if monitored)
• 24 hour / 365 days a year telephone support
• 4 hour response times if you have a problem
• priority over non maintained customers

thats great!! but thats going to cost a lot isn’t it?

Its not as expensive as you might think, basic maintenance contracts for audible only security systems start from as little as £50.00 + VAT per year, thats less than a pound a week for 24/7 support.

Monitored burglar alarm systems start from £120.00 + VAT per year, thats just over 2 pounds a week!!!

So value for money, peace of mind & serviced security system – not bad value is it!!!