When the year end holiday season arrives there is always a need for seasonal security guards and staff. This is particularly true for shopping malls and freestanding stores where parking lot security, theft and robbery concerns are real threats. Every business has a unique set of needs ranging from in-store security to control shoplifting to premises security to thwart parking lot robberies or assaults, car jacking and other common crimes.
Types of Seasonal Security Services
Holiday Retail Security
During the Christmas shopping season your retail store could turn into a five-finger-discount playground if you do not take the proper precautions to protect your inventory. Many store owners shy away from hiring security guards during the holiday season. They erroneously believe that their temporary part-time help will help keep an eye on things while the seasoned sales people stay busy at the registers. You should not be one of them. Chances are, the very same people that you hire for the two busiest months of the shopping year might be helping their partners in crime walk straight out of the door with hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in unpaid merchandise.
Holiday Security Guards Help to Deter Employee-Aided Theft
Author Robert Klara has written an Adweek article on employee-aided thefts account for a whopping 35 percent of retail store holiday losses. Both uniformed and plain clothes security guards can help thwart these attempts. They accomplish this by taking note of the mannerisms of your employees throughout their shifts. If one or more of your employees has friends hanging out at the store longer than to just say hello, the security guard will watch the friends closely to see if any attempts are made to bring the friends in the back of the store, and out the back door with your goods. The guards will also watch out for employees who repeatedly wait on the same customers who ultimately do not ever purchase anything. Both uniformed and plain clothes security guards are also well-versed in additional signals that alert them of employee-aided theft intention and execution.
Holiday Security Can Also Deter Random or Planned Shoplifting Acts
Uniformed holiday security professionals can easily intimidate amateur shoplifters desperate to impress their friends and family members with gifts rthat they cannot afford. However, plain clothes guards are thoroughly trained to inspect the mannerisms of each and every customer in your store, without their presence ever being known. If you own a larger store, it is a good idea to have one or more of your holiday security guards watching your cameras, and one or more on the sales floor at all times. If you own a smaller store, one behind-the-scenes and one mingling sales floor guard should greatly deter a significant number of would-be shoplifters.
Holiday Security Makes Your Customers Feel Safer
It is not just shopkeepers such as yourself that get more than a little uneasy during the holidays. Your customers are also aware that thieves lurk around malls and retail stores in the attempt to pick-pocket, grab whatever they can out of unattended purses, and even hold them at gunpoint when they leave the store with multiple bags. You can be one step ahead of your competitors if you take the time to hire a uniformed guard or two to put your customers minds at ease while they are in your store. Although you might not immediately reap the rewards, this simple act of customer protection could transform a lot of your new customers into loyal, repeat holiday shoppers.
The demand for Seasonal Security Details to provide retail store security, parking lot security, and general protection of customers in malls, strip centers and parking lots is at it's peak between mid-November the end of the calendar year. Retail store security needs include unarmed security patrols, armed guards in jewelry stores, and plain clothes security officers for loss control and low profile customer protection.
Atlanta Retail Security Services
As a major city, the needs for security guards and services in Atlanta often require very well trained officers and staff. Beyond the common shoplifting and car burglaries, there are frequent concerns about parking lot car jacking and armed robberies, and armed robberies of high-end retail stores. Thieves and armed robbers know that holiday shopping means easy opportunities to steal high dollar gifts, and rob shoppers and stores with very full cash registers.
Retail Security for Malls and Stores
As a retail shopping mall or store manager, your first responsibility is to protect the safety of your employees and customers. You probably have manned, close-circuit cameras and alarms within your facility. However, if you do not have armed guards on duty throughout the inside and outside of your establishment at all times, your other loss prevention and bodily harm protection methods could render virtually useless. Find out now why you should always have retail store security guards in place to help prevent theft, and deter criminals from physically harming or abducting your customers and employees.
Parking Lot Security
It is no secret that criminals often linger in dark parking lots, waiting for customers to leave stores or malls with arms full of shopping bags. Some areas criminals use to hide in are alcoves along the outside of buildings, and behind bushes, trees and automobiles. Outdoor cameras might catch the criminals robbing, abducting or physically harming mall and store employees and customers. However, if you do not have parking lot security on stand-by to catch and detain the criminals, you will be liable for failure to properly secure your property. In this event, you could face civil judgments ranging in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars range.
Loss Prevention Security
Where uniformed guards offer blatant security that deters criminal activity, plain-clothes guards offer a whole different level of protection. Plain-clothes guards can elevate retail store security by catching both customers and employees in the act of stealing. Many security guards also receive advanced training in customer behavior that precedes stealing. Therefore, they can often position themselves in the store to make the customer uneasy enough to leave the store empty-handed.
Child Abduction Protection
Whereas some criminals want to steal purses, wallets and paid-for items out of the hands of customers, other criminals have a totally different intent. These criminals want to steal children and sell them on the black market. Trained mall security patrols employees are always on the lookout for people perusing families or women with babies and small children. They can often tell these intentions by the body language of certain men and women. They can then closely watch these people, and call for back-up when they feel that a potential kidnapping might occur.
Employee Safety
Your opening mall or retail store employees come in to work long before any customers are there. Closing store or mall employees often leave in the dark of night, well after all of your customers have left for home. You can drastically elevate your employee safety by hiring mall security patrol officers that also come to stores to meet the employees when they get off, and walk them to their cars.
By their very nature, homes and businesses store a lot of
valuable goods that can easily be sold for cash or exchanged for goods or
services. In fact, one well-executed robbery can take an individual or company
for everything that they are worth. On the other hand, some criminals simply
want to destroy a property out of sport or spite. Still other criminals harbor
malicious bodily intent against employees or guests of a residence or business
complex. Security guard companies exist to provide consumers with an extra
level of home or company protection. Uniformed, plain clothes and patrolling
security guards perform different functions within their discipline. They all
must also undergo specific security guard companies training to attain and
retain their positions.
Security Guard Companies Service Offerings
By their very nature, homes and businesses store a lot of valuable goods that can easily be sold for cash or exchanged for goods or services. In fact, one well-executed robbery can take an individual or company for everything that they are worth. On the other hand, some criminals simply want to destroy a property out of sport or spite. Still other criminals harbor malicious bodily intent against employees or guests of a residence or business complex. Security guard companies exist to provide consumers with an extra level of home or company protection. Uniformed, plain clothes and patrolling security guards perform different functions within their discipline. They all must also undergo specific security guard companies training to attain and retain their positions.
Uniformed Security Guards
Uniformed security guards offer the maximum visibility presence of all security guard company services. They protect properties and events that have a high potential of being robbed or frequented by persons with bodily harm or property damage intent. Store security guards are usually armed because of their high-profile presence. Typical events and venues covered by uniformed security guards include warehouses, banks, affluent neighborhood entrances, hotels, casinos, shopping malls and commercial office complexes. Uniformed security guards are also hired for temporary protection at concerts, political rallies, weddings and private parties.
Plain Clothes Security Officers
Used mainly in retail stores, plain clothes security officers provide virtually unnoticed loss prevention protection. These types of guards play varying supporting roles, including mall security guards, mystery shoppers and in-store private investigators. Some highly established plain store security guards also teach business owners how to select employees that have a low probability of becoming internal thieves. Plain clothes security guards also function as effective undercover agents at high-profile events, office complexes and high-traffic warehouses.
Security Guard Patrols
Security guard patrol services deter individuals from wrongfully entering a residence or business' gates, doors and windows. Patrolling guards usually inspect entryways at regularly scheduled times to uncover signs of unlawful intrusion. Some security guard patrol services use remote activity devices to monitor specific areas of the business. In fact, these contemporary methods allow the security guards to remain out of the public eye until a theft or bodily harm or property damage attempt is made. These types of guards also investigate disturbances, respond to alarms, and monitor visitors and employees for signs of theft or disorderly conduct.
Security Guard Licensing for Firearms Training and Certifications
Some security guard companies require their employees to undergo an in-house certification process before securing employment. This procedure usually entails passing a criminal background check and illegal or controlled substances test. Additionally, many security services professionals must also attend classes on performing all aspects of their jobs, and pass subsequent testing to become gainfully employed. Armed guards must receive their state-mandated firearm training and gain licensure from the state in which they live to function in that capacity. Most security guards must also attend yearly classes and hands-on instructional events to remain employed by their firms.
Plain Clothes Security Officers
Used mainly in retail stores, plain clothes security officers provide virtually unnoticed loss prevention protection. These types of guards play varying supporting roles, including mall security guards, mystery shoppers and in-store private investigators. Some highly established plain store security guards also teach business owners how to select employees that have a low probability of becoming internal thieves. Plain clothes security guards also function as effective undercover agents at high-profile events, office complexes and high-traffic warehouses.
Security Guard Patrols
Security guard patrol services deter individuals from wrongfully entering a residence or business' gates, doors and windows. Patrolling guards usually inspect entryways at regularly scheduled times to uncover signs of unlawful intrusion. Some security guard patrol services use remote activity devices to monitor specific areas of the business. In fact, these contemporary methods allow the security guards to remain out of the public eye until a theft or bodily harm or property damage attempt is made. These types of guards also investigate disturbances, respond to alarms, and
monitor visitors and employees for signs of theft or disorderly conduct.
Security Guard Licensing - Firearms Training & Certifications
Some security guard companies require their employees to undergo an in-house certification process before securing employment. This procedure usually entails passing a criminal background check and illegal or controlled substances test. Additionally, many security services professionals must also attend classes on performing all aspects of their jobs, and pass subsequent testing to become gainfully employed. Armed guards must receive their state-mandated firearm training and gain licensure from the state in which they live to function in that capacity. Most security guards must also attend yearly classes and hands-on instructional events to remain employed by their firms.
