Monitoring Center of the Year

Guardian Protection focuses on its customer and employee connections to differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive industry.

Guardian Protection of Warrendale, Pa., has been in the industry since the 1950s. But while the core mission of protecting life and property hasn’t changed, much about the company has. In the past five years, the company has embarked on a corporate revolution, transforming monitoring operations and company culture and instilling a strong message of connection with employees, customers and their communities, says Jason Bradley, vice president of care and monitoring operations at the company. Those efforts have reaped rewards, as Guardian Protection was named the 2019 TMA Monitoring Center of the Year for the second time in four years.

“We’ve got such a strong focus today on creating an environment that really surrounds our people, our culture and our business and that’s really driving a new future for us,” Bradley says.

Guardian Protection has revamped its culture in both big and small ways over the past several years, filling the monitoring center with high-level performers and sincere customer service. In addition to simplifying a number of processes, doing away with monitoring uniforms, implementing a 24/7 convenience store as an adjunct to its discounted on-site cafeteria, launching an electronic employee suggestion box, and planning surprise food truck days, the company began celebrating its annual monitoring center employee appreciation week five years ago. A week full of food, prizes, games and contests, last year’s event had a “roller coaster” photo booth, a Post-it Notes decorating contest, and an escape room event, Bradley describes.

Among its approximately 50 monitoring center specialists, there is an average tenure of six years at Guardian Protection. One transformational change management made thanks to low employee attrition is implementing individual training. Having done away with traditional classroom environments, new-hire training is conducted in a one-on-one setting, allowing the company’s dedicated trainer the ability to pace the learning for individual needs. 

“We have found that the process is exceptionally accelerated because we can identify the learning styles of our new family members right away and tailor that accordingly,” Bradley says. “This allows us to train employees to provide the right level of service for our customers, but it also allows that employee to feel confident and when they feel confident about what they do it is a powerful thing. Empowerment and trust play a big role in what we do.”

Though Guardian Protection places a strong emphasis on a positive work environment and connection with employees, according to Bradley, equally — if not more — important are those customer connections. “While hardware in homes and businesses can be similar and often identical, it will be the positive customer experiences gained from professional sales, installations and monitoring that are significant differentiators for us,” he says.

In 2018 after an employee suggestion, Guardian Protection rolled out its We Care program, which has been beneficial in motivating and rewarding the company’s team members for their customer connections, according to Bradley. The program encourages monitoring specialists to take extra steps to provide positive memorable experiences for their customers.

“It’s not just about responding to a customer in a statistical fashion. We want to meet our customers and encourage our teams to connect with them. We don’t use ‘call handle times’ as a meaningful metric. Instead we encourage teams to connect with and communicate together as humans,” he says.

About 18 months ago, the company implemented another tool to empower its team members and create those connections by investing in quality management software by Verint. The software provides increased review and metric capabilities for the quality assurance team and grants operators detailed live access to feedback and scoring of customer communications. That immediate feedback isn’t seen as negative, Bradley explains, but rather as a way for monitoring specialists to drive themselves forward to better connect with their customers. In fact, according to Bradley, Guardian Protection is proud to say that customer attrition due to the monitoring experience is almost non-existent. 

In terms of community involvement, the company continues its Crime Watch sign program, now in its 24th year, which donates weather-durable crime watch signs at no charge to law enforcement agencies upon request. The company’s Guardian Kids ID program is another free service, which spreads the word about child safety and gives parents tools to help keep children safe. A Pet Sticker window decal program, free for customers, sends decals to visually alert fire department personnel of all occupants of a home, including the non-human. 

In addition to its many marketing and community education programs, Guardian’s mission of protecting people and building meaningful relationships bleeds into the company’s involvement in charitable events. Each year, dozens of team members participate in and come up with ideas to give back to the community. 

For example, in 2018, volunteer team members delivered several hundred presents to each of the 163 residents at Merakey (formerly known as Allegheny Valley School), a non-profit organization that provides a home and services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, coupled with multiple physical disabilities. Volunteers delivered presents to every individual on campus, while singing carols along the way. Guardian Protection has been involved with Merakey for 22 years. 

The company also has a long-standing involvement with the Pittsburgh chapter of Variety, The Children’s Charity, dedicated to empowering local children who are disabled and disadvantaged. Since 2008, Guardian team members have participated in walk-a-thons, bake sales, raffles and more to raise funds for the organization. In the last few years, employees raised enough to underwrite the cost of five adaptive bicycles and two adaptive strollers for children with disabilities. 

Aside from its performance statistics, its processes and streamlined operations, it is all of these connections — these everyday connections that management and monitoring employees work at and foster each day — that are a part of what makes Guardian Protection this year’s TMA Monitoring Center of the Year recipient. “The reality is that this award is not for a company,” Bradley says. “Companies really don’t win awards. Given that the people within a company make that company what it is, this award [is] for every member of our monitoring team who works tirelessly to make a difference. It is our people that truly make us who we are and this is their award.”