So, you’ve been doing some homework on central stations, and you’ve noticed that a handful of them are Five Diamond Certified by The Monitoring Association (TMA).
That’s good! It means you’ve found some of the highest performers in the industry. Out of more than 3,700 monitoring centers in North America, only 200 of them meet the certification standards of TMA’s Five Diamond program. In other words, only Five percent of monitoring centers are able to meet TMA qualifications.
What is a TMA Five Diamond Central Station?
A Five Diamond Central Station is a monitoring company that has demonstrated its ability to uphold the highest levels of service quality and technological capabilities to provide the greatest quality service possible.
Five Diamond central stations adhere to the “Five Commitments of Excellence” as prescribed by The Monitoring Association.
What is The Monitoring Association?
The Monitoring Association is a non-profit trade association comprised of industry experts and thought leaders who represent professional monitoring companies around the world. They work to uphold the highest performance and reliability standards in cooperation with international law enforcement, fire officials, insurance providers, equipment manufacturers, and government and regulatory agencies.
For the last several decades The Monitoring Association, formerly known as the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) has developed industry standards that are followed by central stations across the nation, each of which are approved by nationally-recognized testing laboratories such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL), FM Approvals, and more.
What are The Monitoring Association’s Five Commitments of Excellence?
Each Five Diamond central station adheres to Five Commitments of Excellence that are strictly enforced. The commitments are as follows:
Commitment to random inspections and quality criteria standards:
The first commitment that Five Diamond central stations make is a submission to random inspections that are made by a nationally-recognized testing laboratory. Because third party inspectors have the infrastructure and existing qualifications to provide such a service, TMA relies on these organizations to conduct the inspections and advance the regulatory literature regularly. TMA only works with well-known testing laboratories that have earned consumer trust with years of proven experience. Some of the laboratories are FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL, and Underwriters Laboratories.
Commitment to the highest customer service levels:
Second, Five Diamond central stations commit to providing the highest levels of customer service. This not only manifests itself in the positive interactions between an operator and subscriber, but in the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall service provided.
In the event of a life-threatening emergency or property-loss scenario, it is absolutely essential to have an operator who is competent to provide emergency response and can do so with speed and precision.
Five Diamond central stations are also committed to ensuring that your security systems are correctly installed, diligently monitored, and properly maintained. One way AvantGuard monitors the quality of installations and consumer-product knowledge is by measuring your alarm factor score against comparable companies in your industry.
Another way AvantGuard ensures the highest quality of customer service is by hiring highly-skilled, and even many multi-lingual operators to reduce wasted time in call transfers. In fact, about 30% of AvantGuard operators can speak more than one language, offering faster support to your increasingly diverse customer base.
Commitment to ongoing job-related education and testing:
Another aspect of earning a Five Diamond certification is regularly training and testing of seasoned operators to ensure that their knowledge of, and adherence to, industry standards remains intact.
All certified operators must go through a regulation-quality training course which is continually updated so they are trained in the latest industry improvements. Another aspect of this particular commitment includes participation in TMA trainings, educational opportunities, meetings, conventions, and certifications. AvantGuard remains active in TMA by having its president, Justin Bailey, participate on its board of directors.
Commitment to raising industry standards:
The fourth commitment that Five Diamond central stations adhere to is the continual improvement of industry standards.
AG’s commitment to innovation is central to our culture of going above and beyond the standard of excellence. We’ve created the AG app that helps technicians test and manage their accounts from anywhere. Our AG Chat service reduces false alarm dispatches and improves response times. Our Dealer Dashboard helps dealers manage their accounts and provides tools within to make their accounts more efficient and profitable. Inside the dashboard is the MLS tool that helps dealers retain customers who put their houses up for sale as well as provide new leads for those who are moving into a newly purchased house.
Commitment to lowering the incidence of false dispatches:
The final commitment that a Five Diamond central station makes is to develop methods of decreasing false dispatches. False dispatches cost cities millions of dollars every year in lost resources and are the single largest problem created by the security and fire-safety industries.
By offering services like integrated video verification monitoring, AG Chat, and requiring verified responses, AvantGuard makes reducing false dispatches a priority.
Renewing The Five Diamond Certification
As a central station meets these five criteria, they must regularly re-apply and qualify for the Five Diamond designation each year. This makes the certification a rigorous and highly regulated process, ensuring that central stations don’t temporarily adjust their operations to look good, while lowering the bar after receiving the certification.
The commitments that a Five Diamond central station adheres to ensure that technology investments are made, standard training practices are always be in place, and regular improvements to daily operations are implemented.
Why You Should Choose a Five Diamond Certification Security Provider
Simply stated, a Five Diamond central station has proven its dedication and ability to care for your customers’ lives and property. When it comes to managing emergencies, getting help to subscribers, and relieving the pressure from local dispatch agencies, a central station that has earned the Five Diamond designation has earned an elite rank in its industry.
To learn more about what a Five Diamond central station can do for you, reach out to one of AvantGuard’s monitoring specialists today.
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