Using Technical Support As A Fire Alarm System Selling Point

Technical support is an area that is often thought about last when making an order. This is true for both end-user clients and distributors in the fire alarm monitoring business. There will come a time, however, when technical support will save you a lot of time and money.

Here is what the Vice President of Tech Support John Ermatinger has to say about competing fire alarm monitoring system manufacturers in the field and what their customers say about the impact of their technical support:

"When I talk to people who have one of our competitor's fire alarm monitoring system installed, they will say, yeah, it did okay with what we needed it to do. But when we did have a problem, technical support was terrible and they didn't have a good feeling about their equipment. " - John Ermatinger

Whether you are a distributor or an end-user client, ensuring that the manufacturers that supply you or your distributor's fire alarm monitoring solutions are equipped with great technical support sets you up for success in the long run.

Manufacturer Tech Support Warning Signs

We have all been stuck on the phone for technical support with some prerecorded elevator music playing in a loop. With fire alarm monitoring equipment, however, lives and assets are at stake. Beware of fire alarm monitoring manufacturers that have terrible technical support, then can cause you problems that include but aren't limited to:

Limited documentation: If you are a distributor, this quickly turns into a nightmare. This will mean that you will have your customers constantly calling you complaining about problems that you will need to contact your manufacturer for. When you do contact your manufacturer with poor technical support, you aren't guaranteed that they'll pick up the phone.

Software upgrade issues: Your customers will run into a software upgrade issue at one point. When they do, not having a manufacturer that has years of experience to help them resolve their issue makes your reputation suffer.

Lack of training: Great manufacturers offer and pride themselves on training you as the distributor along with your customers if requested. This ensures that both of you will be able to have a long-term relationship that is hard to beat because you will be familiar with your equipment like it's a native language. If you aren't backed by a manufacturer that is willing to give you good equipment training or doesn't offer it all together, then your line-up will lag behind your competitors in the fire alarm monitoring field.

Beware of any manufacturer that is unable to address and solve the problems from their roots. A good fire alarm monitoring system manufacturer will be able to point out the root of you or your customer's issues so that money isn't being wasted on repeat issues.

The Benefits Of Good Manufacturer Technical Support

Technical support can ensure the following for you and your customers when provided correctly by an experienced fire alarm monitoring system manufacturer:

1. Well-documented equipment manuals: Manufacturers who can document their equipment save you and your client's headaches. If you are a distributor, you don't want to constantly be on the phone to answer equipment troubleshooting when you have other responsibilities. With a well-documented manual, you can refer your clients back to it and have them learn anything they need to successfully navigate their new fire alarm monitoring solution.
2. Customizability that addresses your needs: As a distributor, you are aware of how many sales you can lose out on due to rigidness. With the adequate fire alarm monitoring system manufacturer to back you up, you will be able to offer your customers flexibility that keeps them coming back in the long run.
3. Fine-tuning alarm settings: It's not a rare occurrence for your customers to run into false alarm issues. With the right technical support team provided by adequate manufacturers, you will be able to help them navigate alarm settings and fine-tune them to avoid false alarms.
4. Site visits: It is a good rule of thumb to not get into business with manufacturers that are not willing to conduct site visits. Firstly, this tells you that they most likely don't have enough expertise or manpower. Secondly, it indicates that they are a manufacturer that cannot understand you and your customer's full range of needs and fix or diagnose it correctly.

Finding a manufacturer that can serve you and your customer's needs instead of dumping a chunk of equipment on your doorstep sets your business or facility up for long-term success. A good question to ask when shopping around for a new manufacturer would be: How long are their customers keeping their equipment installed?

Manufacturers that take care of their client's needs will be more likely to keep your equipment well maintained and the only issue will be replacing their equipment because too much time has passed and they've come out with way better products.

Digitize Tech Support Can Be One of Your Selling Points

Digitize is a company that has been gaining valuable knowledge since 1977. The people who helped build Digitize are still with the company and bring with them the ability to aid you in knowing the equipment that you're getting inside out.

Here is what John Ermatinger has to say about Digitize's ability to service our clients:

One of the major changes that I've seen since Mr. Berry took over Digitize is... Digitize has always been into customization, which has been a mainstay of ours as well.

That's one of the things that have helped us stay in business over the years. Where people have said in the past, and I mentioned that earlier, yes, my old system did what it had to do, but it could have done it better.

What else did you want your system to do? So we did a lot of customization over the years. That's something that the previous owner was not afraid to do. He liked doing that as well. Well, it's going to be on steroids at this point.

If you have any more questions, even if we can't find a compromise, please contact me and I will try to help point you in the right direction.

Call me at 1-800-693-0351 or Email me at info@digitize-inc.com