Electronic Security Association

From the showroom floor and education sessions to motivational speakers, one-on-one interviews and central stage talks lead by SSN as the premier media sponsor of ESX, the goal of #PassionateSecurity was more than fulfilled. In my opinion, this passion for security was best seen as industry peers openly shared their experiences with others via conversations, interactive education sessions, networking events and receptions—even if that meant sharing with the competition, all in the name of keeping security as top priority.  

One of the unique things that happens at industry events is an overarching theme will emerge, one in which “everyone” seems to be talking about. At ESX 2019, that was the customer and employee experience. This takes empathy and the ability for security professionals to put themselves into the shoes of their customers as well as their employees to understand how they feel and what they truly need. The result? Employees feel appreciated, leading them to embrace a “servant” mentality toward customers, doing whatever it takes to ensure nothing but greatness, which fosters excellent customer experiences when working with your company. (Hence, #PassionateSecurity.)

Case in point: I was honored to moderate the education session “Sales vs. Operations: 6 Ways to Turn Conflict into Collaboration,” where Jeremy Bates of Bates Security, Paul Hevesy of Stanley Security; and Suvankar Roy of Xfinity Home shared some amazing tips on how to bond together sales and ops teams so that the customer benefits. One easy-to-implement tip presented was “Thankful Thursdays,” where people on the sales team identify someone they are thankful for on the ops team and why, and of course, the ops team does the same for the sales team, and then voice this during cross departmental meetings. This fosters a culture of appreciation and gratitude within the company, which spills over into customer interactions by sales and ops team members, and helps to enhance the overall customer experience. 

And, speaking of unique … this year at ESX, SSN live-broadcasted the central stage talks, hosted by Editor Paul Ragusa, via Twitter. Below you will find a list of informative quotes that emerged from each on-stage security professional. Simply click on their name to be transported to their specific talk to gather even more valuable tips, tricks and insights. It’s like sitting in your living room with knowledgeable security professionals, sharing a cup of coffee and chatting about the industry! In fact, grab a cup of coffee and sip along as you view! And, please don’t forget to “like,” share and comment on each one.

ESX 2019 Central Stage Talks

“The two touchpoints today are the voice of the customer and the customer experience. At the end of the day, I think it’s the personal relationships that are going to differentiate those well-sought-after companies.” 

—Ivan Spector, president, TMA

“They [the customer] want the latest video camera, door locks, but at the same time they don’t want to have 50,000 apps. They want simplicity.” 

—Celia Besore, executive director, TMA

“Really what we need are salespeople who can ask better questions: what’s the problem we’re trying to solve? What is it that they [the customer] is trying to accomplish? Not just be so product oriented but solution oriented.” 

—Gretchen Gordon, president, Braveheart Sales Performance

“One of the strategies we use is to let citizens know how a policy like verified response, which means that it confirms some criminal or attempted criminal activity before the police will respond, will affect them.” 

—Stan Martin, executive director, SIAC

“Almost all the features that we do in our panel, all the technologies that we put in there, are a direct result of listening to our customer’s feedback.”

— Jeremy Mclerran, senior director of marketing at Qolsys Inc.

“ … there’s DIY and DIT, “do it together,” and I think dealers are figuring out how that’s going to work … customers are taking some responsibility for their systems … I think the more that there is opportunity for the consumer to become aware of their security system and some of the features it delivers for them, whether it be convenience featured of peace of mind features, the more they’re willing to spend to add onto and grow, I think that will grow our entire industry.”

—Mark Hillenburg, executive director of marketing, DMP

“On average, consumers spend four hours or more installing their DIY security system in the home, so the market tends to push toward ‘do it for me.’” 

—Dina Abdelrazik, senior analyst, Parks Associates

“We [ESA] are launching an assessment exam which I think is something we’ve needed in the industry for a long time … because we have so many training courses, we have this vast array of test questions. So, we took all that information and put it together in a software package; we can actually have a technician take an exam, and that will give us the information we need to understand where their strengths are from a technical standpoint and where their weaknesses are. And, then we can develop a roadmap for the member to put that technician on a path to improve their weaknesses and maybe even accentuate their strengths.” 

—Merlin, Guilbeau, executive director, ESA

“One of the great things around the smart home being more common and more useful is it brings a lot of awareness. It wasn’t too long ago, we’d have to explain to a client or prospective client what was possible with their system; whereas now, people understand you could control your lights with your phone. You can decide whether or not that’s of interest to you.” 

—Mike Jagger, president, Provident Security 

“On the commercial side, it’s really all about cameras; it’s really about video and everything that video can do … that’s not just driven by market demand, but it’s also driven by legislation and local governance.” 

—Steve Firestone, president, Select Security 

Yesterday in the United States, Data Privacy Day 2019 was celebrated. On social media, tweets flew by offering tips on how to protect data against hackers. Security professionals and enthusiasts on LinkedIn discussed the topic at hand while top privacy leaders, such as the National Cyber Security Alliance Executive Director, Kelvin Coleman; Eva Velasquez, president and CEO, Identity Theft Resource Center; and CEO Larry Magid of Connect Safely, among others, convened in San Francisco for an afternoon of focused discussion about opportunities and challenges for data security moving forward. 

Yes, yesterday was quite the day for data security. However, we must recognize that securing data is a 24/7, 365 day a week operation. Google “data security breach” and incident after incident will pop up … for me, it was about 117 million in .75 seconds. Recently, Ring was outed by major news outlets for Ukraine engineers and executives at Ring having “highly privileged access” to live customer camera feeds — both doorbell cameras and in-home cameras — around the world, while a NEST camera was hijacked with a voice warning a California family that three missiles from North Korea were headed to the U.S., which, of course, was not true, but I can imagine sent the family into sheer panic. 

With breaches such as these, among the millions of other data breaches and exposed records in the United States alone, ADT in partnership with SIA, The Monitoring Association, Electronic Security Association, the Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance and TrustArc are creating a new consumer privacy initiative.

“Alongside industry organizations and partners, we will be outlining privacy and ethics priorities for the industry, creating an external and internal advisory board, and updating our promise to customers: ‘At ADT we are dedicated to your safety, and helping take care of what you value and cherish most in your life: your loved ones, your property and your privacy,” ADT’s CEO, Jim DeVries, said in an internal company memo that went out to all 19,000 ADT employees and to SSN, exclusively. 

In the coming months, the initiative is focused on the following key objectives, the press release said. 

• Adopting a set of industry-wide best practices that are customer-centric and drive transparency. 

• Working with dealers, partners and other industry organizations on enhanced privacy and ethical standards for our industry. 

• Programs focused on privacy, ethics and transparency. 

ADT is also soliciting participation from other organizations who are interested in helping to drive the objectives. 

So, how do you think this initiative will help with data security? 

Let’s discuss!

I’ve written before about how ADT filed not just one, but two lawsuits against Orem, Utah-based Vision Security, accusing the door-knocking company of scamming customers. And I’ve also written about how Vision Security contends it is being unfairly targeted.

Now, a new settlement Vision has reached with the Idaho Office of the Attorney General paints a picture of Vision sales reps engaging in unfair sales practices in that state.

I reached out earlier this week to Vision attorney Sean Brown for that company’s comments on the settlement but I haven’t yet gotten a response.

However, according to the office of Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Vision reached a settlement with that state after being accused of violating Idaho's Consumer Protection Act.

The settlement requires Vision “to implement significant changes to the way its sales representatives interact with Idaho consumers,” according to a July 18 news release from the AG’s office. Also, consumers who paid extra fees because they were scammed may be entitled to a refund from Vision if they submit a complaint form to the AG’s office by Sept. 8, the release said.

Here’s more of what the AG had to say in the release:

"The purchase of a home-security system is a significant investment and consumers should feel safe knowing that the people selling them are providing truthful and honest information, without hidden fees or misrepresentation," Attorney General Wasden said.

Consumers reported to the Attorney General that Vision Security's door-to-door sales representatives misrepresented the terms the company's security system contracts, and that representatives failed to fulfill their promises to "buy-out" consumers' current security system contracts.

Consumers often ended up paying monthly monitoring fees to two companies or paid large termination fees to cancel one of their monitoring agreements. Additionally, Vision Security's door-to-door sales contracts failed to provide consumers with accurate information about the time allowed to cancel contracts.

The settlement requires Vision Security to make several changes to how it does business in Idaho. For example, the company's sales representatives:

*Must wear identification that includes the sales person's name and affiliation with Vision Security.
*Must inform the consumer of his or her three-day right to cancel the agreement.*Must not tell consumers that their current alarm monitoring company went out of business or is affiliated with Vision Security.
*Must not misrepresent the number of security systems Vision Security has installed in the consumer's neighborhood or misrepresent that a consumer's home is located in a high-crime area
 *Must not misrepresent the condition or operability of the consumer's current security system.
 *Must not promise to "buy-out" a consumer's current monitoring agreement.
 

Hmmm…this list reads a lot like some new revisions the Electronic Security Association made to its code of ethics this summer in response to some new sales scams that ADT and other companies have complained door-knocking companies are using.