Member Article

Huddersfield business reveals when to buy burglar alarm

In readiness for National Home Security Month (October), Huddersfield-based Ti Installations carried out an online poll quizzing participants about burglar alarms.

The survey asked: When would you be most likely to consider getting a new or replacement security alarm installed in your home? The reason for this question was because, having analysed alarm enquiry rates from the past 12 months, there were distinct peaks at certain times of the year.

Eager to understand if this was just a coincidence, or reflective of a wider trend, the Huddersfield squad of security experts analysed the findings.

The poll results showed that the most popular time was Autumn (Sept-Nov), with 40% of the votes. Winter (Dec-Feb) was the season of choice for 20% of respondents, with 10% stating they’d invest in Spring, and nobody considering alarms in Summer. Interestingly 30% of participants said the time of year wouldn’t influence their decision making.

So do these statistics align with Ti’s review of work from the past 12 months?

Joint managing director Kris Johnson explains: “If we look back over the commercial and domestic projects we carried out last year, there was the biggest peak of security alarm enquiries and installations in January. This is probably linked to the marketing collateral we put out at the time, and the media coverage of post-Christmas crimes. Office for National Statistics figures also show that robbery of business properties and domestic burglaries demonstrate Winter peaks and Summer troughs.

“What is encouraging from our poll, however, is that overall, people quite rightly start thinking about their home security in advance of the Winter season. This decision making is no doubt prompted by the dark nights drawing in. That’s why we’re talking to customers about home security now, and we’ve even launched a special offer for a wireless alarm installation, which will run from now until Christmas.

“It must be noted that figures (up to March 2015) from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) encouragingly showed that, for the offences it covers, the number of incidents of crime against households and resident adults had fallen by 7% on the previous year’s figures. It also represented the lowest estimate since the CSEW began in 1981. This illustrates that improvements in society, and smarter decision making among home and business owners, is having a positive impact. But for as long as crime statistics exist, on any level, it’s important to keep your property safe.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .