Staying in touch with customers is important for any company; but for Farsight, a leading remote monitoring station, it is vital. For us to provide the effective remote security monitoring services that we are renowned for, it is essential that we maintain open and transparent lines of communication. Farsight is committed to vigilance and that includes notifying customers when something is – or could soon be – compromising the security of their site.
We do that using notifications – via SMS and/or email – from our market leading fault tracker system, YourSight.
In this article we highlight how, when and why we communicate with our installer partners and remote monitoring customers.
Why? To minimise risks to security
Customers choose remote monitoring because it makes their site much, much more secure. They know that security professionals are on hand to respond to alarms from their site 24/7, as a result it can also have positive consequences on the cost of insurance. When an incident occurs, the fact that it is visually verified by a security professional means that it often holds more weight and becomes a priority for emergency service response.
If we cannot remotely monitor a site effectively then that site is at risk and its insurance may also be compromised. So we’ve worked hard to make sure we let installers and end-users know, when we know, if there is an issue potentially putting their site at risk.
Similarly, if an incident occurs we need to act swiftly following a set remote monitoring security response agreement – contacting the key holder, emergency services if required and issuing an audio warning if we’re able. As detailed in our security terms glossary, an incident is when the security operator identifies something happening at a site that requires immediate action. That can include criminal activity or simply activity that could cause costly damage.
In this scenario, we need to have clear lines of communication with customers to ensure a rapid response.
That’s very much ‘in a nutshell’ but it summarises why it is so important that we effectively communicate with installers and end-users to let them know if there is a fault or incident occurring at their site.
When? When a fault or incident occurs
As detailed above, we follow a pre-agreed response process if an incident occurs. This involves contacting agreed parties and acting swiftly to put a stop to the incident.
However, we also need to contact installers and/or end-users when a fault occurs at their site.
Potential faults include:
- poor lighting
- site audio not working
- Excessive alarming and false alarms
- Camera image distortions or obstructions
- Blind spots
- Loss of connection
All of the above hinder or outright prevent our ability to remotely monitor a site – potentially leaving it vulnerable. Essentially that means if there is a fault at a site we may not be able to identify an incident when it happens – or in the worse case scenario even receive the alarm in the first place.
When a fault is raised at a site, our security operators follow a set process to make sure the nominated parties (individuals you’ve chosen) are notified. They add the fault to YourSight – our custom built fault tracking portal – and YourSight sends a notification.
We follow-up on these faults, as long as they remain open in YourSight, to ensure the nominated parties are aware of the issue. After the initial notification we send a further three notifications every seven days to flag up that the fault has not been closed in the system.
How? Via YourSight
The nominated parties are notified either via email and/or SMS depending on the level of your remote monitoring service and the communication preferences you have selected in the system. You choose how you want us to contact you, to make sure that we’re reaching you in the most appropriate and effective way. Our operators will flag up urgent faults, so these grab attention first.
The number of notifications a nominated party receives depends on the number of sites they manage and the number of faults occurring at those sites.
At the heart of it all: YourSight
At the centre of our communications with customers and installers is YourSight – a cloud-based fault ticketing system that can be accessed via an app on a range of mobile devices as well as desktop.
YourSight makes communication easier. It allows Farsight operators to log and close faults much quicker – freeing up their time to do what really matters: monitoring and responding to alarms.
You can find out more about how YourSight works to help you to manage faults in our blog: CCTV Fault Finding Guide: How can you understand if your CCTV and security systems are working effectively?
Staying in touch with customers is important to all businesses but for ours, possibly even more so. That’s why we invested in developing the bespoke YourSight platform. It means we can keep our communications with customers and installers streamlined – sending them the messages that they really need to know about to keep their remote monitoring security systems optimised for effective remote monitoring to protect their business assets, premises and people.
This video, as part of our animated service explainer video series, shows just how YourSight works and keeps our customers’ in the loop on their security systems including faults and incidents, so that they can proactively maintain and optimise their security.
What our customers say about YourSight
Contact Us
If you are fed up with being kept in the dark on what is happening with your site security, or you would like to find out more about how working with Farsight, our team would love to help. You can contact us using the form below or request a call back here.
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