Copy Of News - Hurricane tips for alarm dealers

Hurricane and Disaster Preparation Tips for Alarm Dealers
July 17, 2009

Alarm Dealers on the coast are well aware that preparation is the key to making it through the season with as little disruption to their business as possible. We have put together some suggestions of things that can help you, and your company, prepare for the dreaded hurricane season.

-           Stay in constant contact with your central station. It is important that they know if your company is running as normal or if you are working with a skeleton crew. They need to know if you have power or phones and if you are available to run service for your customers.

-           Stock trucks or inventory with most commonly used equipment in case power outages make it impossible for shipments.

-           Create an emergency voicemail box or message for your customers. Give them simple tips or instructions to hold them over until you are able run service. This can also achieved with a flyer inserted into invoices during hurricane season.   This will serve as a reminder to your customer that their alarm may be affected during the storm.

-           Designate an emergency crew. This is a group of people that understand they will have to be available immediately after disaster to assist customers even if only by phone.

-           Design a time line of actions to be taken once hurricane strike is imminent. (example: 3 days prior - call Dealer Relations Rep to set up emergency instructions, 2 days prior- gather emergency crew and decide on meeting location, 1 day prior – run all necessary billing or contact reports, etc.)

-           Create a checklist of things to be addressed before, during and after the storm. Be sure to revisit the checklists after the dust has settled so that you can update it with anything originally missed or overlooked.

During Hurricane Ike, UCC updated our alarm dealers through the Aegis message center with the procedure changes and maintained those messages as things improved. In the event of another hurricane, UCC’s Dealer Relations Department will stay in contact with you to make sure we are doing all we can for you during the disaster.    If you have any additional tips you would like to share, please forward those to your dealer relations representative or you can submit them by clicking contact us.