Dealers find new way to connect with customers

YARMOUTH, Maine—SMS Security Systems' Scott Stellfox and Kevin Buckland of True Steel Security say Alarm.com's Customer Connections is a great way to keep in touch with customers, upsell and lower attrition.

A CRM marketing service that began two-and-a-half years ago, Alarm.com has added new campaigns to Customer Connections that can help dealers to create upsell opportunities, generate customer referrals and streamline 2G upgrades.

Jay Kenny, Alarm.com's senior vice president of marketing told Security Systems News there is a  “huge opportunity to drive an existing customer base up the value chain in terms of smart home security technology, and then also leverage that to retain them longer over time, and create higher value total accounts.”

Scott Stellfox, CEO of SMS Security Systems, based in Caldwell, N.J., said that initially the Customer Connections program helped with the company's 2G upgrade program.

“We had about 250 radios that we needed to switch out and we were able to complete that because of our success in getting the message out to the customer using Customer Connections,” Stellfox told SSN.

“We got a lot more responses to the Customer Connections' e-mail than from the postcard or mailer that we sent out. And it was an opportunity to be in front of our customers and try to upsell with some additional products and services.”

For customers who are already using interactive services, Customer Connections allows SMS to pinpoint them and send information about new services that they might be interested in as well, such as a smart thermostat or a garage door controller, for example.

“These types of directed e-mail blasts have been very successful in getting that message across and helping us add products and services to an account,” Stellfox said. “The program has been very helpful in engaging our customers and getting them to call our office about some of the new and exciting connected home offerings that are now available.”

This year SMS started using Customer Connections to reach out to its non-Alarm.com customer base. “That has worked out really well, too, and we are starting to get some traction on that with customers calling in,” said Stellfox.

Kevin Buckland, manager of client satisfaction for True Steel Security, an Ontario, Canada-based security dealer, said that Customer Connections allows True Steel to target and send personalized messages to customers with just the click of a mouse.

“Like a lot of alarm dealers out there, we don't have a huge marketing team at our disposal,” Buckland told SSN. “So Customer Connections allows us to appear more professional, as the messages are branded, so it really looks like it is coming from us. It really makes us look good as a dealer, and we really like that Alarm.com does that for us.”

Buckland likes the ability to send specific communications to customers, letting them know what products and services they can integrate into their current system or services. “You are hitting them with only relevant information to them, so we are not bombarding them with messages that do not pertain to them.”

Alarm.com's Kenny pointed out that dealers are successfully reengaging with customers. “When we send an e-mail out to those customers who haven't logged in awhile, we are seeing 25 percent of them log back in after receiving the message,” noted Kenny, who added that Customer Connections can now send messages through multiple channels, not just e-mail.

“We have extended it to be an omni-channel, lifecycle management system, so we send these Customer Connections messages via e-mail, we can push messages to the security panel, and we are developing the capability to push a message or offer it through the Alarm.com app itself, as well as send an SMS-based message,” Kenny said.