It is often challenging selecting the right service provider for your needs. Usually all you have to base your decision on is what the service providers themselves advertise, and the opinions of friends or family.

Fair Go recently touched on alarm monitoring and encouraged those considering security services to do their due diligence – https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/do-you-ensure-youre-getting-peace-mind-youve-paid-alarm-monitoring-companies. Understanding a service empowers you to ask better questions. The below questions and industry insights will enable you to make the best security choices for your home or business.

  1. What company is actually monitoring the alarm and where are they based?

This is important, as many companies who offer alarm monitoring are unable to perform this complex 24/7 service so contract it out. Alarm monitoring centers can also be based anywhere in the world. A foreign office would not be familiar with your community or local conditions such as storms or power cuts affecting an area.

  1. Who is the response company and what is their average response time?

Rapid response when a patrol is required to attend is best done by the same company who monitors the alarm. Though in some remote areas that is not possible, having a New Zealand based provider with a good comprehension of the area is invaluable.

You want to be sure there is an active patrol presence in your neighborhood so consider a company whose vehicles you see regularly and ask them to validate their response times. Any company should have records that indicate an average response time and that response times should be within minutes – not hours!

  1. What assurances can they provide?

Monitoring and response companies need to be able to provide alarm activity reports and/or GPS reports on the locations and travel times of vehicles if there is ever an incident that requires follow up. No company can guarantee there won’t be one off events that occur outside of their control that could affect you, but they should be able to ensure there will be full and transparent investigation when there are concerns.

  1. Do they provide regular security updates?

Security technology is constantly evolving. While many people are not interested in the monthly updates experts are used to, customers need to be kept up to date on changes.  An example would be the introduction of fibre that may affect the reliability of existing alarm systems. Regular communications through newsletters and Social Media are great for this so check to see if they have a regularly updated website or Facebook page.

To find out more about our services and guarantees, please give us a call on 09 579 1567.