While everyone is keen to return to normality, for now we will continue to be in and out of lockdowns – both national and local – as authorities respond to COVID outbreaks.
This presents many challenges for businesses forced to stop and start according to the latest restrictions, one of which is security. Vacant premises need to be protected from theft, vandalism and building faults, but many security contracts and services are ill-equipped to adjust to risks changing from one week to the next.
Businesses scrambling to find short term security solutions on short notice may find themselves overpaying or have their services delayed because the provider cannot deliver in time. Not all security companies have adjusted to the unpredictable “new normal” of 2020 and it is the customers and their safety that pay the price.
At Magenta Security, we have achieved consistency in the chaos by focusing on three pillars: Scalability, Flexibility and Speed.
A typical security contract provides a fixed service for a set amount of time. In any other year, this would be the ideal solution for most businesses but this year it has been common for security services to have to adjust up or down on short notice.
If an office building closes for a month they may no longer need their usual reception security guard but will need to secure the building while it is vacant before switching back again once restrictions are lifted – and, even then, it is likely the building won’t (and may never) return to full capacity.
How do you identify whether or not a security company offers scalable services? One way is to enquire about the sectors they operate in.
Event security and construction site security both require short term solutions that can adjust in complexity as the project progresses. A security company with experience in the above will be more suited to scalability than one that only offers fixed, long term contracts.
The wider the range of services offered by a security company, the more flexible they are able to be. Rather than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, they can mix and match security solutions until the customer gets the perfect fit. This is especially important when the services required can change from one day to the next.
Using the office building example from above, a security company that only offers static security guards will only provide solutions that involve them, but a more time and cost-effective solution may be to temporarily switch to mobile patrols or remote monitoring via CCTV. If you don’t use a security company with a broad and up-to-date range of services, you will never know.
Flexibility is also a matter of dedicated customer service and a company-wide willingness to think outside the box. At Magenta Security, we don’t believe in saying “no” and will go above and beyond to keep our customers safe with truly bespoke security solutions.
Scalability and flexibility won’t matter if a security company can’t have the services up and running in time. As we saw across the North, COVID tiers can switch overnight. When you are having to make last minute adjustments to safeguard your business, the last thing you want is for your security provider to lag behind.
We won’t pretend that is has been easy to keep up this year, but we are lucky that we already had a 24/7, always-online and nationwide infrastructure in place. Security has always depended on quick responses to be effective but now rather than just using our speed to respond to incidences we are also using it to rapidly deploy and recall services as required.
Security companies have no choice but to be on the frontlines of this pandemic, and our ability to maintain our standards while pushing our speed to the limit is thanks to the tireless and brave efforts of staff at every level of the company. Every time a customer comments on how quick and easy they found the process, it is thanks to the hard work of our teams across the country.
Magenta Security provide award winning security services throughout the UK. We are in the top 5% of ACS approved contractors and were the first security company in Europe to be awarded ISO 14001 for our environmental management systems.
