Mark Hillenburg
Executive Director of Marketing
The concept of OnDemand™ Monitoring was new when we started talking about it a couple of years ago, but it's really starting to come on. There is not a month that goes by that I don’t see something in an industry magazine about OnDemand Monitoring or something similar.
I think that it’s really coming from the concept that there, again, is a certain segment of the population that does not want to sign long-term contracts. This segment may overlap the DIY market somewhat, but there is also some traction here with traditional customers and what the industry is calling MIY, or Monitor-It-Yourself.
Karyn Hodgson, Senior Editor, of SDM Magazine writes in the 2017 State of the Market report that "Dealers are preparing for changes coming as a direct result of the changing consumer…. What is going to be coming is on-demand monitoring, especially with the Millennials, who are more apt to self-monitor with an app or be able to click a monitoring option that they turn on and off.”
That is exactly what we are talking about here.
Tricia Parks of Parks Associates says, “This is much more of a slow climb than a fast change, however. The price of professional monitoring is a classic inhibitor to its adoption. Innovations and trials to determine the effect of no contracts, ad-hoc monitoring, and individual device monitoring are occurring. It is likely that ad-hoc situation monitoring will appeal to a set of households.”
Morgan Hertel, Vice President of Technology and Innovation for Rapid Response Monitoring, sees these options becoming more common, saying “On-demand monitoring services where subscribers will be able to purchase monitoring on a per-day/per-week rate will increase in 2017 and some manufacturers will add this directly into their traditional product/service offerings.”
Pam Petrow, President of Vector Security and President of The Monitoring Association, previously CSAA, also senses changes in the wind. “Consumers’ willingness to take on responsibility for some aspects of monitoring will continue to change the industry. Whether it is a DIY with full self-monitoring or some subset of events they self-monitor, this will impact the next evolution of [the] monitoring [industry].”
What they are all talking about, we do today. In fact, so can you. OnDemand Monitoring is pretty straightforward. Once you have acquired a customer, they will pay a small monthly premium to you for the use of the app. That app then controls their alarm system arming and disarming and as many other features, as you deem, and then you set the price per day that you want to charge when they want to use your monitoring service.
Not too dis-similar from Uber™ where the consumer only pays for the service of the car when they want to go somewhere, with OnDemand Monitoring the consumer is only paying for monitoring when they think that they may need it. Maybe the husband or wife is out of town on a business trip. Maybe the whole family is on a vacation for a week or two. Maybe there has been an uptick in crime in the area or they will be in a meeting all day and can’t respond to any potential situation.
Your customer can schedule the monitoring in advance or at the time that they need it. We handle the credit card transaction, we deposit it directly into your account, and we send a message to the central station to start monitoring this account. When the selected monitoring time is concluded, we send a message to stop the monitoring. Then we actually stop sending any signals to the central station so you are not getting Central Station traffic that you are not being paid for. (Unless you want them, then you can get them.)
Like others in the industry, we think that this type of monitoring can be profitable for dealers, by revealing new customers which may lead to more and more fully monitored systems. Imagine you can connect with a customer when they are just starting out, maybe, in a rental property. Did you know that 1/3 of dwellings in the U.S. are rentals, and they are greatly overlooked in our industry? You get them initially as a customer with maybe your DIY product, and then you install a full system for them when they buy their first home or start a family.
Many of you have customers you've had for decades or their whole life. But, with OnDemand Monitoring, you can claim a new customer before someone else has the chance.