The importance of price hiring a security company

Most property managers or business managers that deal with hiring security companies for the first time make a common rookie mistake. They think that security guard service is generic and it will not make a big difference which company they hire. Therefore they mainly focus on price as a determining factor by hiring the security company providing the lowest price. In many cases a bad security company will create more headaches for the people hiring them than sense of security. 

The job of a security company is to provide licensed, well trained, well supervised security officers. Additionally, the security company should provide a security plan, written post orders. They should also have a contact person that is easily contacted to make eventual changes to the security services and to manage in case of emergency. I always provide an example to managers that are focusing too much on price when hiring a security company. Let us say a property manager that manages a shopping center with a lot of problems like vagrants and panhandlers loitering, sleeping at the center and harassing patrons and employees.

Hiring the wrong company without the necessary experience, supervisory concept and training for their guards will create more problems for the property manager and for the tenants.  Not only are the situations not getting better, but now tenants will be complaining about the security company as well, which is ultimately hired with their money. Tenants will be unhappy, security officers will be unable or unwilling to deal with the situation and the security company is hard to communicate with, because they do not have an assigned dedicated person to talk to.

Let us return and consider the calculation example. Let us assume that a shopping center needs security services ten hours a day seven days a week, which means about three hundred hours a month. Let us assume the cheapest company will provide the service for thirteen dollars per hour and a security company with a proven supervisory system, well trained experienced guards and an experienced security consultant asks for 15 dollars per hour. The first company will ask for $3,900 per month while the second company will ask for $4,500 per month. On the first glance there is a difference of $600 per month. But when we look at the situation more closely we must ask ourselves. If we pay 3,900 dollars for security services already is a 600 dollar difference worth taking the risk hiring a company that will not make the security situation better and will further antagonize my customers?

Security companies are different and will have a high impact on the sense of security, tenant happiness and overall business of the people hiring them. A hiring manager should always ask for the training requirements and hiring practices of companies in consideration. They should also ask for the supervisory concept employed and most importantly they should interview the person that is going to manage the security at their property and is going to be their direct contact in the future. When in doubt managers should pay ten to fifteen percent more for the services instead of taking a risk. A good security company will create a sense of security and safety and keep clients happy while a bad security company will create extra liabilities, make customers unhappy and make life harder in general.