For security dealers to be successful and drive greater profitability for their business in this changing technology landscape, they need to get closer to their customers, understand what makes their system more useful and deliver a stellar experience. It’s not enough to simply offer a running list of new services. It’s critical to engage with the customer and identity how a service, device or technology will make the user’s facility more efficient, yield a tangible return on investment or provide annual savings to their business.

For example, energy management can save thousands of dollars per year for commercial customers who use occupancy sensors, automatic setbacks or other scheduled HVAC controls after-hours or during holidays or vacations. Heating and air conditioning systems coupled to access control and/or intrusion alarms can follow the occupancy of the space for substantial energy savings and automatically dial back the ambient temperature of a space when no one is present, or kick in when employees come into the location during off hours.

Humidity sensing is another monitored service perfect for museums, document rooms or other locations with sensitive equipment or historical records, allowing customers to view real-time humidity levels of a room and receive appropriate alerts if preset thresholds vary.

Critical environmental monitoring of freezers or coolers can also yield value to the customer in hospitality or food storage market verticals – providing documentation and recordkeeping of regulation standards compliance. By installing temperature probes, security dealers can keep the client apprised of the temperature of coolers or freezer units and instantly alert of potential problems, such as when temperatures begin to vary above or below preset thresholds, before a loss or catastrophic event occurs.

The customer doesn’t receive a simple alert or alarm – they get notification of a specific temperature the unit is operating at, along with a graphic display, giving detailed information to maintenance crews for a proactive, targeted response. Critical temperature monitoring can also be used for pharmaceuticals, fire sprinkler rooms, servers/IT/data centers, machine operations and farming/livestock monitoring.

These and other services become essential to the customer’s business, making the security dealer’s account stickier and resulting in additional value to the service provider’s business and a differentiator in a crowded market.

Think about all the possibilities customers will find useful: voice control of systems; geo-location services to track vehicle fleets or capital goods; or the ability to unlock doors quickly with the smartphone via an easily affixed barcode and no additional hardware.

The cloud makes it easy for dealers to add services customers will use daily and find value in. When that happens, your value proposition becomes undeniable and your profitability will rise.

Connect ONE® and ScanPass® Mobile Credential are products of Connected Technologies, LLC. The Connect ONE web-hosted interface manages all solutions–security, access control, mobile credential access, video, critical environmental monitoring and more, from an easy-to-use platform accessible from PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet.