A relatively new wrinkle in the market is the appearance of do-it-your-self security products, often sold through big box retailers.
While this trend may have caused some initial consternation among the established alarm industry, or it has just been ignored altogether, some companies, both big and small, have gured out the upside of DIY.
Mike Chaudhary is the CEO of Toronto-based Alarm Guard Security Services, the largest of ADT’s Canadian dealers. (ADT Canada was acquired by Telus last year.)
Chaudhary has been an ADT dealer since 2003 and in 2016 started a sub-dealer program, providing support and services. “We teach them [dealers] from the get-go and work with them on a daily basis,” he says.
The outlook for professional monitoring rms looks good, he says, particularly for forward-look- ing companies who capitalize on opportunities to upsell clients.
There are a lot of legacy alarm panels still left in the eld and smart dealers will be able “to ll that technology gap… At the end of the day, it’s a customer market. The custom- er is going to get a lot of bene ts with this new technology,” he says.
Chaudhary has also established a business which caters purely to the DIY client, DIYProtection.ca. In Chaudhary’s view, the market for this remains an underserved one: retirees, cottagers and people who live in more remote areas. For the latter especially, it can be cost-prohibitive to send out a professional installer, “so it’s a big opportunity for us.”
Chaudhary tested out the business model for more than a year before launching the website in 2019. Customers can buy security systems that are pre-packed and pre-programmed. Everything can be shipped in one box and sent via an overnight courier. Once the user sets up the system in their home, they call in to activate it. Professional monitoring options are also avail- able for those who desire a more complete offering.
“It’s working very well,” he says of the new business. “We’re seeing exponential growth, month by month.”
Parks Associates’ Abdelrazik says their research indicates solid growth in the smart home and DIY security market, with about 29 per cent of U.S. consumers adopting at least one smart home device. But the DIY model is still a disruptive one, says Abdelrazik, with many dealers wrestling with the question: “‘How am I going to sell a DIY system — something that’s self-installed. And how is that going to compete with what I’m currently offering?’ Deal- ers want to be in the home. They want to be installing the security system themselves.”
Source: http://bit.ly/37RtAQ5
