Business
Business Spotlight: Expert Security Solutions
A local company re-brands with their customers in mind! Expert Security Solutions, formally Phone Experts Security, is evolving and it’s about a lot more than just a new look!
“Having determined what we didn’t want to look like and listening to our customers feedback, we decided to make some bold changes that set us apart from all our competitors and give us some key differentiators.” – Brad Dufresne
We recently sat down with Expert Security Solutions’ owner Brad Dufresne and spoke about the company’s renewed focus on security solutions and how it all began.
Q: When did The Phone Experts first begin to focus on security solutions and what was the catalyst for that?
A: The Phone Experts Security was born in 1995 out of a need that we saw for a local, reputable company to provide security systems for small and medium commercial businesses. At the time we were doing a lot of network cabling for computer and telephone systems and we were often asked if we could wire for security, so it seemed like a great fit for our business.
Q: Did you always plan on offering residential security solutions as well or did that come later?
A: While we never ruled out the prospect of providing residential security it wasn’t our focus; but we would regularly receive requests for security quotes from the consumer market, so we eventually started to sell and install in that segment as well. Back then our greatest obstacle to being competitive in the residential market was our ability to finance the customers over 3-year terms. Providers like ADT and VOX were able to do this, but we lacked the capital. The only way we could compete was to provide the hardware and installation at or below our cost and rely on revenue from monitoring to attain profitability.
Q: Tell us more about Expert Security Solutions- why the re-brand and why now?
A: The re-brand gives us the opportunity to tell customers we aren’t just a phone company that sells security, and it allows us to retool and redefine who we are as a security provider. We got to take a hard look at the industry and make decisions about what we didn’t like about the industry and offer customers a better product and service than what’s typically offered in both the consumer and commercial markets.
Q: How will you be offering better products and service- what does that mean to you?
A: The products and services we offer are tailored to what our customer needs are and ensuring they are protected. We are a security company that provides security products that go beyond what the average alarm company will provide at a price point that is fair to both the customer and the company. The installation will be completed by professional well-trained technicians who will exceed the customers expectations. We are constantly evaluating products to ensure that we are current and relevant with respect to changing technologies and we are constantly evaluating our customer service – we want to provide exceptional customer experiences.
Q: Tell us more about what went into re-imagining Expert Security Solutions; what did you discover about your business and your customers?
A: We started by asking ourselves questions like; Why we are in business, How do we differ from our competitors, What level of service do we provide, What image we want to convey and Who our customers are and Who we want our customers to be?
The answers we came up with provided us with a clear sense of what we want to be.
Then we created a value statement. This was created by our security team, specifically for the security division;
“We are a local company that cares about protecting what you value most, through innovative and personalized security solutions, while providing an exceptional customer experience.”
We want to create loyal clients that refer others and exceed our customers expectations while providing quality customized security.
Q: You certainly did your research! So where does all this bring Expert Security Solutions? What’s the way forward?
A: Having determined what we didn’t want to look like and listening to our customers feedback, we decided to make some bold changes that set us apart from all our competitors and give us some key differentiators.
The three pillars to our change and future success are the following:
No Contracts for Monitoring
We believe this is our key differentiator and the one that holds us the most accountable to our customers. When customers sign a long-term contract for the installation and monitoring of their security it puts them a terrible bargaining position when it comes to ongoing maintenance and even for the quality of the initial installation. By having no contract for the monitoring, it gives the customer the freedom to leave us if we aren’t providing the services they anticipated. While this a huge risk to us, I love the potential implications because it makes us constantly review our products and services to ensure that we truly are providing the best products and services at a competitive price.
Customer Loyalty Program
We review our customer accounts regularly to ensure they have opportunities to upgrade to current equipment and new technology. We have incentives for new and current customers.
Ongoing Support
Our dispatch is local and our technicians are local too. This allows us to offer services like troubleshooting and service work faster than a company that isn’t local. Our technicians can be reached 24 hours a day for technical issues or concerns.
Q: Any final thoughts on the future?
A: I believe that our vision for Expert Security Solutions as a “customer first, continuous improvement, learning organization”, will set us apart from the competition. But our success will hinge on our ability to get word of mouth advertising out to the market, so people will want to buy from us and seek out our services when required.
Check out these other great products and services from The Phone Experts/Expert Security Solutions:
Expert IT Solutions– From cloud managed antivirus to our full suite of remote and onsite support options, Expert IT Solutions keeps your business concentrated on business not your IT infrastructure. We keep your data secure by using our online back up services, available to all business service clients, and offer multiple combinations of services to fit your business needs.
Consumer Solutions – Phone Experts Consumer Solutions, provides wireless and internet services across Alberta, this includes Optik TV solutions, and rural services. Offering the latest cellphones, smartphones, prepaid devices and tablets!
Business Solutions – Go where your business takes you! Enable business growth and success with the right solutions and services from Phone Experts Business Solutions, backed by network reliability and industry expertise. We keep your business connected on the go.
The Phone Experts/Expert Security Solutions
ADDRESS:
4724 – 60th St, Red Deer, AB T4N 7C7
PHONE:
403-343-1122
EMAIL:
[email protected]
I Testified Before a Senate Committee About the CBC
I recently testified before the Senate Committee for Transport and Communications. You can view that session here. Even though the official topic was CBC’s local programming in Ontario, everyone quickly shifted the discussion to CBC’s big-picture problems and how their existential struggles were urgent and immediate. The idea that deep and fundamental changes within the corporation were unavoidable seemed to enjoy complete agreement.
I’ll use this post as background to some of the points I raised during the hearing.
You might recall how my recent post on CBC funding described a corporation shedding audience share like dandruff while spending hundreds of millions of dollars producing drama and comedy programming few Canadians consume. There are so few viewers left that I suspect they’re now identified by first name rather than as a percentage of the population.
Since then I’ve learned a lot more about CBC performance and about the broadcast industry in general.
For instance, it’ll surprise exactly no one to learn that fewer Canadians get their audio from traditional radio broadcasters. But how steep is the decline? According to the CRTC’s Annual Highlights of the Broadcasting Sector 2022-2023, since 2015, “hours spent listening to traditional broadcasting has decreased at a CAGR of 4.8 percent”. CAGR, by the way, stands for compound annual growth rate.
Dropping 4.8 percent each year means audience numbers aren’t just “falling”; they’re not even “falling off the edge of a cliff”; they’re already close enough to the bottom of the cliff to smell the trees. Looking for context? Between English and French-language radio, the CBC spends around $240 million each year.
Those listeners aren’t just disappearing without a trace. the CRTC also tells us that Canadians are increasingly migrating to Digital Media Broadcasting Units (DMBUs) – with numbers growing by more than nine percent annually since 2015.
The CBC’s problem here is that they’re not a serious player in the DMBU world, so they’re simply losing digital listeners. For example, of the top 200 Spotify podcasts ranked by popularity in Canada, only four are from the CBC.
Another interesting data point I ran into related to that billion dollar plus annual parliamentary allocation CBC enjoys. It turns out that that’s not the whole story. You may recall how the government added another $42 million in their most recent budget.
But wait! That’s not all! Between CBC and SRC, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) ponied up another $97 million for fiscal 2023-2024 to cover specific programming production budgets.
Technically, Canada Media Fund grants target individual projects planned by independent production companies. But those projects are usually associated with the “envelope” of one of the big broadcasters – of which CBC is by far the largest. 2023-2024 CMF funding totaled $786 million, and CBC’s take was nearly double that of their nearest competitor (Bell).
But there’s more! Back in 2016, the federal budget included an extra $150 million each year as a “new investment in Canadian arts and culture”. It’s entirely possible that no one turned off the tap and that extra government cheque is still showing up each year in the CBC’s mailbox. There was also a $93 million item for infrastructure and technological upgrades back in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Who knows whether that one wasn’t also carried over.
So CBC’s share of government funding keeps growing while its share of Canadian media consumers shrinks. How do you suppose that’ll end?
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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to rein in the bureaucracy following today’s Parliamentary Budget Officer report showing the bureaucracy costs taxpayers $69.5 billion.
“The cost of the federal bureaucracy increased by 73 per cent since 2016, but it’s a good bet most Canadians aren’t seeing anywhere close to 73 per cent better services from the government,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Taxpayers are getting soaked because the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy is out of control.”
Today’s PBO report estimates the federal bureaucracy cost taxpayers $69.5 billion in 2023-24. In 2016-17, the cost of the bureaucracy was $40.2 billion. That’s an increase of 72.9 per cent.
The most recent data shows the cost continues to rise quickly.
“Spending on personnel in the first five months of 2024-25 is up 8.0 per cent over the same period last year,” according to the PBO.
“I have noticed a marked increase in the number of public servants since 2016 and a proportional increase in spending,” said Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. “But we haven’t seen similar improvements when it comes to service.”
The Trudeau government added 108,793 bureaucrats since 2016 – a 42 per cent increase. Canada’s population grew by 14 per cent during the same period. Had the bureaucracy only increased with population growth, there would be 72,491 fewer federal employees today.
The government awarded more than one million pay raises to bureaucrats in the last four years, according to access-to-information records obtained by the CTF. The government also rubberstamped $406 million in bonuses last year.
“The government added tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, rubberstamped hundreds of millions in bonuses and awarded more than one million pay raises and all taxpayers seem to get out of it is higher taxes and more debt,” Terrazzano said. “For the government to balance the budget and provide tax relief, it will need to cut the size and cost of Ottawa’s bloated bureaucracy.”
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