How to Effectively Choose a Guard Tour System

Your security team is tasked with conducting guard tours.

Here’s the kicker:

They have to cover over 1,000,000 square feet, with many entryways and restricted areas.

There’s no doubt your team is going to stay busy. This will never end.

Answer this:

Does your guard tour system give you the accuracy and efficiency you need to do your job?

If you’re not sure, no problem.

We’re going to give you the foresight you need when choosing the right system for your security operation.

Please, No More Wands!

Not too long ago, guard tours were conducted with a radio and pen and paper. Then, there was the introduction of wands. In 2014 there’s….

Are you waiting for the kicker? Good, it’s coming.

You can get into the present and go beyond the wands. Consider it a new beginning – a fresh start so to speak. You might have done some spring cleaning in another part of your operation, but now it’s time to really evaluate this guard tour system.

Look:

Aren’t you tired of mounting extra receptacles and screwing plates on the walls? Aren’t you tired of issuing wands to your staff only to have them aimlessly walk around “time stamping” during their shift?

Wouldn’t it be better if your security team had the ability to truly inspect those areas? Not merely walk by and stick a wand in a plate?

Unfortunately, guard tours are a drag. All the hardware it takes to implement one of these guard tour systems that we’re all familiar with...

It’s not cheap.

The dreaded implementation starts with the questions you must ask:

Who is assigned to each security zone?
How do you track their location and which wands they’ve been issued?
Are they touring locations at their own will or do they truly follow the schedule you assigned to them?
Most important, when and how often are they conducting their location inspections?

The next challenge is fostering a process to efficiently track tours in real time. Removing wands from your system can give you the peace of mind to answer all the aforesaid questions.

We think it’ll help you identify your problem areas and problem employees.

It’s important to understand:

Problem employees can certainly affect your ability to achieve efficiency and peace of mind.

With antiquated wand systems, a vital flaw exists:

The lack of documentation for managing your security staff. There’s no accountability. The data isn’t reliable, and there’s no way to regularly track, manage and understand how effective your processes are.

Consider this:

These are your employees.

Yes:

The people who have the responsibility of ensuring your facility, its employees and patrons are all safe. And this happens. Missed inspections.

To them, what’s a missed inspection when someone else is more than likely going to make their rounds later on, during their shift? What difference does it make to them after all?

Not being able to trust your staff just doesn’t feel good. How’s knowing that implementing the improper touring system can lead to your inability to control these occurrences?

Your system can prevent you from having the ability to spot problems in your operation and shortcomings in your team.

Here’s the thing:

You might be looking for your first system or a new one. Whichever the case, know this. If you don’t have the tools for the awareness needed to know if your employees are or are not working effectively – is going to cost you money in the long run.

Can you forecast the possibilities miles down the road?

It could lead to legal repercussions.

If someone snuck into your facility, left a package of explosives near a high traffic area where your team should be inspecting regularly, the legal proceedings could be disastrous.

Would a timestamp truly provide you with enough documentation to save your facility from writing more checks? We don’t know. That’s the problem...you don’t know.

By now you’ve recognized the need to remove wands from your touring system, now the question is: How do you fully validate whether your team completed a tour, and obtain all the vital details to cover your bottom line?

Here’s a viable solution you’ll want to consider when choosing your new or next system.

Upgrade Your Guard Tour System with RFID, Barcode, and QR Code Technology

Enhancing all your security tours with progressive technology is the solution. No more wasting your valuable time with pen and paper, unreliable information, cumbersome hardware, and wands.

Imagine using a software solution that’s easy enough to use, that provides you with proper documentation and accountability…well, that would give you the peace of mind you’re going for, right?

We have good news for you:

We know from experience that efficiency and ease of use are two must-haves when moving to new software.

Experience What Real Accountability Is Like

Innovative software available to you for optimized security, guard tours, and location inspections gives you the accountability you desperately need (we’re not saying this lightly either).

Security staff can conduct tours and include details with attached pictures, video, and even audio.

Let’s go back to the package of explosives.

Your security staff goes to this specific location you’ve now designated for today. Now that they’re touring this location at the appropriate times, they notice an unmarked package.

How do they handle this with the modern touring system? Using the new wand-less system they record the date and time of the location, take a picture of the suspicious package, record the details of the incident, and notify all need-to-know people.

Now:

How’s that for efficiency?

You have the total picture now. Awareness, documentation and accountability which is what makes up your highly efficient, highly effective security operation.

It’s official:

You have proof of guard tours and location inspections.

Ensure guards are held accountable for their scheduled tours and location inspections. No more ambiguity and useless hardware.

A system like this also gives you historical data for all tours conducted at your facility. Information about a guard tour is recorded and reported at the time of the inspection, in real-time.

With real-time data, there’s no time for questions of accountability and useless data.

Accurate documentation also gives you a way to analyze the enormous amounts of useful and valuable information you’ve got. All data is precise and can be used to improve your security operation.

The reporting features built into these solutions give your data purpose. Manage, analyze and use the statistics for executing guard tours and location inspections with absolute efficiency every single time.

For example:

Rather than having your security staff walk in circles, you can randomize their schedule and make it extremely difficult for a security breach to occur.

Data tells you a story. A story with the details you need to create the most efficient and effective security team ever!