Burglaries, alarm systems sales up in Georgia

RINGGOLD, Ga.—In the first four months of 2009, Dependable Security Systems has sold 50 percent more alarm systems month-over-month compared to the previous four months, Dependable Security Systems operations manager Corey Cochran told Security Systems News on May 26.

What's the secret? Cochran, operations manager at Dependable, said it has more to do with an increase in crime than any new initiative he's started.

“All of a sudden [in January] things started to increase above and beyond what we've had in the previous six months. We didn't change anything; we don't go door-to-door. We just rely on people calling us,” he said.

Certain areas within Dependable's footprint have been “really hard hit with burglaries and those [homeowners] who can, want to protect their homes,” he said.

In the several months before January, the company was averaging about 50 alarm systems per month. In the past four months, that number has jumped to about 75 systems per month. It's an unusual increase in business, Cochran said. “I haven't seen anything like it in the 11 years that I've been here.”

In business here for the past 30 years, Dependable has 13 employees, about 7,000 accounts, and its own central station. Its business is mainly residential with some small commercial accounts, and its footprint extends in a 60-mile radius and includes the metropolitan area of Chattanooga, Tenn.

For the first 24 years, the company didn't do any advertising at all: “It was all word of mouth.” About six years ago, the company started doing some advertising on local radio, printed publications and on billboards. The advertising is geared to “changeover customers” he said. Dependable, which is a GE dealer, can offer lower prices for systems and monitoring for people who are paying “outrageous amounts for monitoring services.” Of the 10-12 alarm companies in the area, most don't advertise, Cochran said, but most “are not as large as us.” It's mainly the major “national companies that have the door-to-door sales people; it's not a model we've had to resort to.”