NorthStar Alarm sees benefits after moving

OREM, Utah—After NorthStar Alarm Services moved into a new 30,000 square foot facility here, the company was able to improve internal communications, bring the company together more and increase local recognition.

“It's really brought a new invigorated work environment, for everybody to be in a brand new building and all working on the same level,” Dan Noble, NorthStar's COO, told Security Systems News.

The move was completed around the first week of May, Noble said. NorthStar currently has about 50,000 customers; the new space gives the company the capacity to grow up to 150,000 accounts in the new building, Noble said. The company uses Rapid Response for its monitoring.

NorthStar's new space is all on one floor, Noble said, which houses training, sales operations, human resources, installation operations, inventory logistics, marketing, account creation, technical support and IT departments among others.

“Before [the move], we were in two different buildings, and [in] one we were on three different floors, and then the other building was our call center area that was separated from the rest of the company,” he said. The company's previous facilities totaled about 16,000 square feet, according to Noble.

The space features glass walls to promote transparency, Noble said. “We can't hide in our offices, we need to be available.”

Since the move, the company's in-office communication has improved, Noble said. “Now that we're all together, we work really well with new installations, with sales, with HR compliance.”

The customer experience is improved, as well as the employee experience, Noble said, because questions are answered much faster. “We're trying to empower confidence in our employees, so that they can then give that to the customers … and part of that is getting back to them as quickly as possible,” he said.

“We have what we call a Cync meeting. … We present either professional or personal development-type training,” Noble said. The company has been able to make these meetings company-wide for the past three months because of the new space. Topics for Cync meetings include what customers are hearing about the smart home and customer communication and documentation.

The facility has four conference rooms, a 7,000 square-foot call center and a roughly 2,000 square-foot training area and break room. It also has an LED screen on the corner of the building that the company has been using for advertisements and marketing campaigns.

“We're getting a lot more call-ins, we're getting a lot more traffic through our website, and more than anything we're getting a lot more recognition in the community, which is what we had hoped for,” Noble said.

After moving in the company hosted an open house for the community, complete with carnival games and tours of the building. “That went really well,” he said. “A lot of people didn't really know who NorthStar Home [is], but now they do, and we're hoping that that brand just continues to grow.”