Improving security guard services through comment management

Why do property managers have problems with their security guards? Well, the answer to that question can be complicated or simple. There are many factors that can contribute to the problems a property manager can have with his security guards, including who is a security guards company, security guards laws, regulations, budget constraints, security requirements for that property, the property management clients and the processes and procedures of providers of security guards just to name a few. As a property manager, you can control some of these factors while others can only accept them. Of these factors are the easiest to control the processes and procedures you create for your security guard company. These processes and procedures can alleviate 80 to 90% of the challenges you face.

Many property managers believe it is the security guard's responsibility to ensure that the level of service they provide is maintained at a high level. In fact, many of the problems with security guards begin with this misconception. While no one will question the fact that a provider must provide the best service it is able to provide, it must be realized that security guard companies are a particularly unique type of provider. Most providers provide you with a service that is generally quite easy to verify when the job is well done. For example, if you hire a gardener and see that the grass is cut unevenly, landscaping doesn't do the job well. But in most security companies, the level of service they often provide is not easily distinguishable. Do you hire qualified employees? Do they train their guards properly? What kind of supervision do they provide? Fortunately, most security guard companies do a good job of providing adequate service to most of their customers. In fact, the level of service with most security guard contracts initially meets and sometimes exceeds the property manager’s expectations. Unfortunately, in many of these cases, there appears to be a gradual decline in the quality of services. Some property managers believe that this decline in quality should be expected with all security companies when the truth is that it should not be expected.

There are four (4) main reasons why the quality of service provided by security guard companies tends to decline. These reasons are typically:

1. Lack of feedback;
2. The guard and the company are not really responsible for poor performance;
3. The guards are poorly trained;
4. Inadequate monitoring of the guards.

The easiest to correct of the four (4) is the feedback given to the security guards company. Irregular feedback to your security company often means forgotten opportunities for increasing efficiency. If you are a property manager who is on the property every day, the depth of the comments you can give to your security guard company is probably pretty great when assessing the security guards you see while you are there. You can see if the Fire Guards is in uniform or not if the guard knows how to do the job and the guard's customer service skills. The question then is how do the guard's work after 1 p.m. and on weekends, during those hours when you're not there? Are you still receiving the same level of service? For property managers who are not on property daily, this issue is even more important.

Typically, property managers rely heavily on their clients' comments about security performance during these free hours. The feedback provided by the property manager's clients is probably one of the most significant feedback that can be given, sometimes even more important or revealing than the property manager. Many times this feedback is only recorded periodically and is generally part of a larger customer survey. But because this feedback is so important, both the security company and the property manager must establish a formal process to request this type of customer feedback on a regular basis.