Managing your alarm system's maintenance isn't a task to be taken lightly. A well maintained system will be in better condition, functioning correctly and for longer than a system that's just installed and left.
Like all electronic items, alarm systems will all eventually degrade with time, until the point where they stop working - which is not a good situation to be in.
When this happens, a qualified engineer will need to do fault-finding to see what has gone wrong with your alarm. Having identified the issue, they will then repair the system - if it's possible with the resources they have.
If they can't repair the alarm immediately, perhaps because they have to order parts or your system is past the point of saving, then you'll remain unprotected leaving your business open to burglars.
Regular maintenance helps to avoid this situation, so you aren't left unprotected. In fact, with a maintenance contract, you'll get preferential treatment if something does go wrong with your alarm - especially if your maintenance contract is with an NSI Gold approved company. This means you'll receive 4 hour call out times - whatever the time of day.
When your system does go wrong, it's important to know you've got back-up - so, when choosing a security company to provide your maintenance, make sure you go for an NSI approved business.
Our NSI Gold accreditation isn't just about fulfilling regulations and doing the minimum, it genuinely makes a huge difference to our customers.
Take our school installations as an example - we provided a security system for numerous schools in Essex.
It means that our school head teachers know that if something goes wrong in the school at 1am, we're always within 4 hour reach to repair faults in their system - before the gates open for the pupils and teachers.
Although we always try to arrive at your earliest convenience, if we get called to repair an alarm system where a maintenance contract is not in place, we cannot guarantee the 4 hour call out time.
As a critical requirement of systems with Police response, maintenance greatly reduces false alarms. For your business this means:
If you have Police response with your alarm system, then maintenance is mandatory and you can find out more about these requirements here.
Otherwise, the compelling reasons to get maintenance are:
As an example of this, a small business in Essex (who shall remain unnamed) recently cost themselves 18 hours of wages when their burglar alarm activated due to a low emergency battery...
If they had kept the system maintained, then the battery wouldn't have been an issue as it would have been replaced.
As it was, nine workers were forced to sit in the cafe across the road, drinking the profits of the business for two hours because they couldn't work through the noise of the alarm system.
As examples go, this is fairly tame. At least nobody was hurt and the problem was resolved - with an emergency maintenance call costing much more than if it had been scheduled.
But it could have been much worse.
There are things you can do to ensure you get the maintenance contract that's right for your business.
Take these steps and you should get the perfect commercial alarm maintenance contract for your business. Stay safe.
