As a prior security guard company owner there are certain things that I would like to have said to people who buy security guard services, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to offend potential customers. Now that I don’t own a security guard company anymore, let me share with you what your security guard services contractor would like to tell you.
As a previous security guard company owner one of the things that always perplexed me was security guard services buyers who used the Get 3 bids and choose the lowest bidder to select their security guard provider. And why was that so perplexing, because I thought most people knew and understood that “You get what you pay for”.
As a security guard services provider, when I was talking to potential customers, I was often talking with someone who invested a lot of time and money in maintaining and improving their facilities. In fact, many of those buyers were property managers who spent thousands if not ten’s of thousands of dollars landscaping their properties, thousands if not ten’s of thousands marketing their properties to potential tenants, but then tell their security guard services providers “Give me the least qualified guard that you can find and please skimp on any training or any technology that will help improve your services.” Alright, they might not have said those exact words, but isn’t that what security guard services buyers are telling their vendors when they award their security guard contracts to the lowest bidder?
Security Guard Services are Cheap, Fast, or Good – Choose Two
For the record, there are only a couple of things that make up a security guard company’s billing rate. First is taxes and insurance and there is NOTHING that a security guard company can do about those. The next is their profit margin.
Unbeknownst to many buyers, profit margins for security guard companies are many times in the single-digit range. There is not much that they can cut there. So ALL the cost-cutting is aimed at things that matter most to buyers: Wages, Training, and Management.
With that being the case, I don’t understand why security guard service buyers are surprised when the service that they are provided is SOOOO far below their expectations and they have to switch companies every few years. If the vendor skimps on wages, then you get staff who just aren’t qualified to provide the service you want. If the vendor skimps on training, then the officer is NEVER going to get it right. Lastly, if they skimp on management the quality of the entire security program is going to suffer.
The take away here is, if you are a buyer of security guard services ditch the “Lowest priced bidder process and work with your security guard provider to build a program that suits your needs.” After all “You get what you pay for.”.
By Courtney Sparkman
OfficerReports.com is a software company that provides security guard companies with an easy way to monitor their officers, better manage their operations, and win new business. Take a tour of our software to see how we combine Electronic Reporting, Real-Time GPS based Tour Tracking, and GPS based Clock In and Out into one easy to use platform.
