There are many things to consider when hiring the best security company for your business. This blog will focus primarily on the differences between hiring a locally / Canadian-owned security provider versus an internationally owned conglomerate. There are many pros and cons to consider. Do you want personalized service that is tailored to your unique needs, or do you want a one-size-fits-all generic solution? Do you want an internationally recognized brand, or do you want a provider that will prioritize your needs over profitability? This is an industry insider’s perspective of what could be in your best interest.
Service Expectations in the Canadian Marketplace
What level of service can you expect from the different security providers in the Canadian marketplace?
When hiring a locally owned security provider, in most cases, you can expect a more personalized experience. Locally owned providers tend to tailor their solutions to your unique needs; they generally will listen to your concerns, formulate a plan and tailor their security solutions to your specific site and requirements. However, when dealing with an international conglomerate, you can expect a “one size fits all solution”. This will typically get the job done, but will lack the perks and benefits of a local provider.
Access to Decision-Makers and Response Time
With a locally owned security provider, you typically work directly with the decision-makers, or at worst, you are one level of management away from a decision-maker. This rule applies 24/7, meaning that at midnight on a holiday weekend, you are just one phone call away from an immediate solution to an incident. Conversely, with an international conglomerate, you are dealing with several layers of local management, who then refer your concerns to the regional management, who then refer your concerns to their national management, who then may need to consult their global head office/management. This can take time, and in an industry where time matters, this can often greatly disadvantage an international conglomerate, which then results in a lower quality of service to you, the end user. That international brand may come at a cost, generally manifested in a lack of customer service combined with rigid corporate structures that may result in delayed decisions and approvals.
Focused Local Expertise vs. Scale Uniformity
Often, local companies focus on service; it’s their key market position, and the good ones take pride in this. This can translate into a high-quality execution of service within their niche. Conversely, the international conglomerates can offer a broad range of services but often lack the depth of expertise in the local nuances. These are the differences between a focused approach and a scale approach. When dealing on a scale, the conglomerates prioritize uniformity over customization, which generally leads to a one-size-fits-all approach. This can sometimes be out of touch with the local requirements or needs.
Quality vs. Quantity: The Open-Shift Problem
Additional factors for consideration include the focus on quality versus quantity. Conglomerates streamline services and emphasize standardization, so they spend less time focused on your needs but rather focus on market acquisition, shareholder values and global growth. I’ve personally seen this manifest itself in the form of regular and ongoing unfilled shifts. Their target is increased stock value and not what’s in your best interest. While locally owned companies are solely focused on your success and needs. The conglomerates regularly shrug off open shifts as an accepted part of doing business, whereas a locally owned company would never take that viewpoint. With a locally owned company, a single open shift would be considered a significant service failure and would never be shrugged off as the cost of doing business. It is something they would avoid at all costs and is not commonly seen, despite what the conglomerates might portray.
Culture, Accountability, and the “Same Guard Pool”
Although companies often hire from the same guard “pool”, the locally owned companies have skin in the game, and that directly translates into a customer-first culture that ensures a smoother delivery of services without open shifts or labour disruptions. Chasing global profits over local client needs generally leads to inconsistent quality. Your needs will always be secondary to shareholder interests; this is not the case with locally owned providers. Additionally, conglomerates experience higher employee turnover with poorer online employee reviews due to a lack of personal staff engagement and a lack of focus on the local workforce well-being. This can lead to lower morale and a feeling of disconnect from the company’s leadership. Generally, local companies mean less turnover.
Community Impact: Keeping Dollars in the Region
Further areas of interest can include a buy local component, where the money you are spending on security stays in the region. By supporting the local economy, you are keeping the money within the community, which can promote further job creation and economic growth, whereas with a conglomerate, that money leaves Canada and fuels another country’s economy. Local businesses are more likely to reinvest in the community, supporting local causes and initiatives.
Relationships and Site Prioritization
Lastly, a very substantial consideration comes in the form of relationships and relationship building. Local companies tend to focus on you, the local customer. Conglomerates tend to have a larger footprint and focus on the broader client base. They target and benefit from enterprise-level customers that may have offices across the continent or the world. It is in their best interest to focus the majority of their attention on these international customers, but this is a detriment to the local customers. For example, on a busy Friday night, if multiple guards call in sick, the conglomerate is going to fill the international customers’ sites first as they have a bigger spend and value. Whereas with a local provider, your site is more valued, and your relationship is a priority. This translates into the local provider generally doing whatever it takes to ensure the smooth delivery of service. Simultaneously, the conglomerate shrugs off your open shift as the “cost to do business” or “that’s just the industry”.
Management Presence and Oversight
Moreover, the conglomerate will have much larger portfolios with fewer Client Service Managers who prioritize your service based off of your spend and size. It’s not unusual for months (or even years) to go by without seeing a management presence at your site when serviced by a global conglomerate. Conversely, with a local provider, you can expect a regular and ongoing management presence at your sites, as they value relationships, and your best interest is directly in their best interest.
Making the Decision: What Motivated Your Provider?
These are very important considerations when deciding which security provider you want to partner with. When choosing a provider, you should ask yourself, what motivates this company? Are they motivated by impersonal transactional engagements as a result of their scale? You want someone who is motivated by what’s in your best interest, because keeping your best interest in mind equates to their best interest, resulting in mutual success. Your provider should take a team approach, resulting in mutual success for all involved.
Putting Customers First
What sets Iron Horse Security apart in the security industry is our belief that our people are our greatest strength. We are more than uniforms and patrols—we are a team of professionals working together to protect what matters most to our clients, the public, and one another. Our growth has never been about scale alone. It’s been about staying true to our core belief:
Our people make the difference.
To learn more about our security solutions, contact us.
