LifeShield: Pro 1 deal to open up channels

YARDLEY, Pa.—LifeShield Security's new relationship with Protection 1 not only provides monitoring for LifeShield's customers, but installation options that could attract new customers who don't want to install the company's DIY home security systems themselves, according to a LifeShield executive.

LifeShield, based here, offers wireless digital home security systems that are easy to install and are professionally monitored. Last month, the company announced “a new strategic relationship with Protection 1, the second-largest security company in the United States, that will leverage the five fully redundant UL-certified central stations of Protection 1 by offering their services to LifeShield customers as 'monitored by Protection 1.'”

Explaining the partnership further, Evan Kramer, senior VP, interactive and e-commerce for LifeShield, told Security Systems News this week that “having a relationship with Protection 1 went beyond just the monitoring component. We've had a DIY product for a long time and they've got a nationwide installation network that we've been able to tap into for our customers … who may be interested in home security, but not DIY. … It's about getting LifeShield distributed more quickly and to more channels.”

Kramer said a LifeShield home security system works for both DIY customers and those who want installation assistance. “Our product lends itself well to either one, the installation is so quick,” he said.

Kramer cited the new Pro 1 relationship as one of the ways that LifeShield, which has expanded to all 50 states, is growing “in a much different way than a lot of the home security companies.”

He described home security as a "three-legged stool" in which one leg is hardware, another software and the third a monitoring component. LifeShield manufactures its own hardware, develops its own software and now has a close relationship with its monitoring provider, Kramer said.

“We now have a lot more control in terms of the Protection 1 relationship over all three legs of the stool,” he said.

Also, he said, “I think our vision within LifeShield is a lot different than what has historically been the paradigm of home security, which is: 'Hey, we're going to acquire a subscriber and once we acquire them, we can collect the check every month and the only time we have a relationship with our customers is during an alarm event, which we hope never happens.'”

Kramer said LifeShield now is concentrating, through building products and using social media, on engaging consumers and developing a relationship with them.

New developments will be revealed during the next year. Currently, LifeShield does such things as integrating crime data and crime alerts into its LifeView application, which Kramer said helps make customers more proactive. “You can monitor the crime activity within a five-mile radius of your monitoring address,” he said.

LifeShield also is tapping into social media.

For example, Kramer said, the company already has 5,000 friends on its Facebook page in less than a year, which he says puts LifeShield just behind Vivint and ADT in terms of Facebook followers.

And he said social media is helping the company transform customer service. For example, Kramer said that if a customer asks a question that LifeShield feels is very pertinent, the company says, “'Let's put is out as FAQ on the site, let's post it on Facebook, let's Tweet it and make sure everyone understands it because if that person asked it, maybe 9,000 other people want to know.' So, we don't compartmentalize questions and answers as individual. We try to look at it and say, 'Let's push it through social media.'”

LifeShield also is known for its innovative use of popular culture to promote home security, such as getting endorsements from NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino and John Timoney, “America's Top Cop,” and for partnering with Airbnb, an Internet bed-and-breakfast service.