*Most clients don’t find out their security vendor has checked out until something already went wrong. The signs are usually there for months first. Here’s what to watch for.*
1. You Only Hear From Them When the Invoice Is Due
*A vendor that's actually managing your account reaches out on their own, with updates, with questions, with a heads-up before something becomes a problem. If the only email you get is the monthly bill, nobody is actively watching your site.*
2. Officers Change Every Few Weeks
*A new face on your site isn't just a scheduling detail. It means whoever is standing post doesn't know your building, your people, or what "normal" looks like there yet. High turnover isn't a quirk of the industry. It's a sign of how a company treats its officers, and it shows up in the quality of coverage you get.*
3. Supervisor Visits Are Rare, or Don't Happen At All
*Ask yourself how often you've actually spoken with a supervisor from your security company, not the officer on site, the person managing the account. If the honest answer is "almost never," there's no one checking whether the program is actually working.*
4. When Something Goes Wrong, You Get Excuses Instead of Answers
*Every security program has an incident eventually. What separates a real partner from a vendor is what happens next: do they own it and fix it, or do you spend the next week chasing down what actually happened?*
5. You've Stopped Expecting More
*This is the quiet one. When a security program has been mediocre long enough, it stops feeling like a problem. It starts feeling normal. If you can't remember the last time your security company genuinely impressed you, that's worth a second look.*