Before you start to choose a home alarm monitoring company, you should check first on their background, track record and also the services that they provide. Because of the services of these companies provide, you as a user will have to pay a monthly fee for the services and the cost varies depending on the quality and experience of the monitoring companies. Usually, the home alarm monitoring companies will be using special phone lines, advanced computers and also well trained staff to enable them to watch over a particular house that uses its home security system, plus also act immediately to call appropriate authorities whenever the alarm starts to trigger off.
What you need to do:
- Get into some research on several companies
- Look for company within your own affordable budget
- Call several companies
- Ask questions
- Determine the right company from your final shortlisted companies
- Request for their recommendation and quotation in writing
Home Alarm Monitoring Company
Method:
- Firstly, you can do preliminary research through the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association by asking them for guides on home security and also getting the list of its member companies within your area or even check it on the internet for more information.
- You must go through the guides or brochures in order to know at least the basic things about home security and the terms being used by the security industry.
- Apart from that, you can also refer with your insurance agent, friends and neighbors who have the knowledge about any of home alarm monitoring company around the area.
- You should be able to know how much you want to spend on the system that you are looking for.
- Prepare your budget accordingly before you purchase a good security system and monitor services so that you will not spend over the budget that you have or have kept for this purpose.
- Make an effort to contact several of the monitoring companies recommended and do some comparison for instance you can ask them whether they have well-trained and certified employees, check with your friends or neighbors whether the companies provide excellent services in terms of pre-sales and post sales services, and also if their explanation relating to their products is very good and it is very easy for you to understand.
- Apart from that, you can also contact your local police department that handles crime prevention, state licensing agencies or consumer protection agencies to check the status on the companies that you consider to choose from the list that you have gather. Then, you would be able to shortlist the companies to about three or four companies that will make it much easier for you to choose from.
- Once you have determined on the right company, you can call the company and make the arrangement for its representative to visit your house in order for them to know a little bit about you and your family lifestyle habits and also to determine what home alarm system suitable to be used for your house.
- It is also important for your whole family to understand how the system works if you decide to install the system at your house.
- At the meeting with the monitoring company representative, you can ask all questions relevant to the system and the companies itself. For examples, how long the company has been in the industry, whether the company uses Underwriters Laboratory (UL) listed equipment, whether the monitoring station is UL certified, their training programs, whether the monitoring operators, technology advisors and sales representatives are well-trained in handling the operation and installation of the equipment.
- Other questions that you should ask the home alarm monitoring company is how to design a custom security system; how to handle troubleshooting problems; whether the monitoring station is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and the same goes for its customer service department.
- The company also should have a backup monitoring center in case of power failures or other problems, you as the consumer should be rest assured that your house will still be able to be monitored by the company.
- Finally, you should ask the representative to inspect your house and make proposals with the quotations in writing on the costing of the system and also explain why the recommendations are made as well. If they manage to do this, then it is a good sign that you have chosen the right company with a knowledgeable sales representative.
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The Complete Book of Electronic Security
