Guardian Alarm successfully targets millennials

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.—Guardian Alarm, a super-regional security company based here, has revamped its website, hired a marketing company, and bolstered its sales team as part of an overall successful strategy in capturing more tech-savvy millennial customers.

“Our hits to the new website are way up and the stays, which are even more important, are way up as well, and our Internet sales went way up,” David Goldstein, Guardian Alarm president told Security Systems News.

With the reboot, the website is now mobile-friendly and easier to navigate. “We spent a lot of money redesigning our website to cultivate the younger generation to take a look at what we do,” said Goldstein. “So now when someone comes to our website they can better determine who we are and where they want to go, and how to get to us quicker with the 'click to chat' function that we added.”

Founded in 1930 by the Pierce family, family-owned Guardian Alarm has grown to 120,000 customers and nine offices, including three in Michigan, three in Ohio, two in Florida and one in Indiana. With 60 percent of its accounts residential, and 40 percent commercial, the company is generating more than $5 million per month in RMR, and continues to grow organically each year at a rate of nearly 5 percent, said Goldstein.

“2015 was another year of growth and improvement over prior years,” he said. “And 2016 is off to a great start with our medical division showing double-digit growth, and our alarm division continuing to grow. And we have implemented an inside sales organization that is driving extremely great results.”

The inside sales organization includes five inside sales reps, which Goldstein said he would like to see climb to eight by December.

“They take calls from our central station with inquiries of people who would like to talk about security systems yet don't want to see a sales rep, and they also handle all of our Internet and web leads,” he said. “They are proactive to existing customers with opportunities to upgrade and sell our Guardian Connect, which give them all of the wireless smart home features.”

Guardian also hired a marketing company to increase traffic to, and take advantage of increased opportunities from the Web, noted Goldstein. “We are reaping the benefit of that,” he said. “We just came off a successful e-mail campaign where we were able to update our records to make sure that we had a viable e-mail for every customer, which has also turned into customers wanting to upgrade or ask about new services.”

In addition to reconnecting with its customers, Guardian continues to greatly improve its strategy of connectivity in the homes, with a much higher percentage of customers wanting to have the ability “to turn their security system on and off with their phone,” said Goldstein. “We have about 30- to 35 percent of our customers who are interested in adding smart door locks and thermostats, so you can see the demand for these products continuing to grow.”

Goldstein pointed out that he now sees consumers coming back to traditional security companies after having bad experiences with the big cable and telecom companies that have moved into the smart home space over the past few years. “We are starting to get back to where our leads were in 2013, and the only thing we can relate it to is the cable companies can't provide the same kind of support and service that we do.”