It continually amazes me that after over 20 years in the security business, people visit our store and tell us that they have been burglarized for the third time. Call it bad luck but it keeps us in business. Seth Godin recently wrote an article about "Helping Your Customers Avoid Taking Responsibility." Within the article Seth writes about how society would rather blame someone or something for their bad luck. It seems logical to me that we'd rather push the responsibility elsewhere instead of looking in the mirror and admitting that there's no one to blame but ourselves. Book a family trip to a tropical location in hurricane season and if the weather is lousy, blame the weather gods.
We find that the same is true with security and safety. Many people feel that break in's happen to everyone else. Burglars are not too discriminating, they just look for opportunity. Some of us moved to a new city to get away from a high crime rate or maybe we're fortunate enough to live next door to a policeman. (Some might argue this point being a blessing.) Burglars don't care because, if you leave them an easy target, they'll find a way to make a visit. Don't blame it on bad luck, blame it on not being prepared. Seth goes on to say that if a business can figure out how to communicate that "it's not your fault" then people will be grateful and they will return.
Heck, if that's all we need to do then our marketing manager needs to figure out a new story line. We know, our customers know, and the Boy Scouts know, that being prepared helps prevent burglaries. Our pitch is that we're in business to take action and prevent crime before the dirty deed happens. We have gobs of information on our site to help our customers make the right choice in protecting what is most valuable.
We're here to help the people that want to help themselves. You'll find that we want to help you take responsibility for your own safety and security.
