False Alarm Reduction Achievement Award
Winner
Guardian Protection Services, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nominated by: Sue Clark, Program Specialist 1, Montgomery County Police Department
Rationale: The customer service department of Guardian Protection Services, Inc., under the very capable direction of Eugene Kaminski, has provided outstanding service to both the Montgomery County False Alarm Reduction Section (FARS), as well as to their Montgomery County customers. The county alarm law requires alarm companies to request police dispatch using the FARS assigned alarm user registration number. If the monitoring company cannot provide that user registration number, no dispatch will occur. As such, it is imperative that registration numbers exist and that they are relayed correctly.
The FARS receives daily telephone calls from Christine Coller-Davies in their efforts to check on the status of registrations for their customers, whether they are new or takeover accounts. The customer service department sends letters to new customers reminding them of their alarm registration responsibilities under the alarm law. They also send letters reminding customers of any renewals that may be due when they have an account takeover from another company. Guardian Protection Services, Inc. has a high volume of new home sale alarm installations and the time lapse between when the contract is signed and when the home is actually built and move-in ready could be many months. This adds to possible confusion that may arise over whether a registration exists or not.
Guardian Protection Services, Inc also provides monitoring for smaller alarm installation companies and GPS does an excellent job assuring those customers are registered properly before placing them online for dispatch.
Ms. Coller-Davies sends weekly faxes of new customers to ensure that they have the appropriate registration number before placing those customers into service for monitoring. Mr. Kaminski, team leader in customer service for Montgomery County, takes it upon himself to request a customer list, above the yearly list the FARS sends with the license renewal application, to ensure that all of his customers are registered as required. He also utilizes the Maryland State Property Tax records to verify customer property sales and notifies this office promptly of a change in ownership, as specified by the Montgomery County Code.
Guardian Protection Services does an outstanding job of ensuring that their customers will receive the public safety response they expect as indicated above. For this reason, we believe they are deserving of the Industry Achievement Award.
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