Employee Comments Set ADT Apart, But Not in a Good Way

Less than a year ago we had a very interesting comment posted on the FrontPoint blog – and the person identified themselves as an ADT employee. The comment seemed credible to us at the time, based on what we knew about ADT, and what we had heard – especially from former customers who had left ADT and signed up with FrontPoint.Here’s the post that describes the comment we received, and here is the gist of what the poster had to say.

Hey, just some general commentary on the relative levels of ADT customer service from a current employee in sales:

• Relative install quality can vary greatly from district to district, and even installer to installer. Some installers and districts within ADT are very good, and some are horrible. Very inconsistent.
• My experience with ADT 800 numbers is that they are built to confound and confuse customers. Always try to reach local district offices if possible, not brokers mind you, but company district offices.
• Since going public, ADT has done nothing but increase rates, fees, and drive up subscription costs on existing customers to try to protect profit. They are doing so at the expense of never-to-be-regained market share/customer loss.

I’ve been at this company working for close to two years now, and I’d never consider their alarm systems for my house. In my experience once the systems are installed, they work pretty well, but the costs far outweigh the benefits of a cheaper, just as effective solution from a local vendor.

But There’s More… As I said last year: wow! But now we have some additional insight into ADT as a company - and as an employer. The source for this information is 24/7 Wall St., an online news service. Here is a description of 24/7 Wall St. from The Atlantic: the publication sounds credible to me, based on who republishes their stories.

Douglas A. McIntyre and Michael B. Sauter are editors of 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware-based financial news and opinion operation that produces content for sites including MarketWatch, DailyFinance, Yahoo! Finance, and TheStreet.com.

The Nine Worst US Companies to Work For Last year 24/7 Wall St. published an article on “America’s Worst Companies to Work For,” and ADT made the list. Here’s the article, with some relevant excerpts below.

In order to identify America’s worst companies to work for, 24/7 Wall St. examined employee reviews at jobs and career community site Glassdoor. To be considered, companies had to have a minimum of 300 reviews. Based on the reviews, Glassdoor scores companies on a scale of one to five, with an average score of 3.2 for the over 250,000 companies measured. Of the more than 300 companies with more than 300 comments 24/7 Wall St. identified the nine publicly traded companies that received scores of 2.5 or lower.

More than 300 employee reviews? That certainly sounds “statistically significant” (i.e. a credible sample size). What ADT Employees Said

Employees at ADT regularly complained about weak, disorganized management that treated them poorly and micromanaged. Several reviewers complained about the quality of the sales training, noting that the company appeared to expect new employees to figure things out on their own. Based on the reviews, ADT appears to focus on getting new clients at the expense of both employees and existing customers, with one representative noting that the decision makers “could care less about customers after sale.”

Explanation for High Cancellation Rates? For years, one consistent perception of ADT is that they are essentially a sales and marketing organization, and that they are just not sufficiently focused on achieving high levels of customer service – or customer satisfaction. And perhaps that helps explain why ADT is growing so slowly, and has annual customer cancellation rates near 14%... well above the industry average. That means they lose one in seven customers every year! Bigger Should Mean Better As big as they are, ADT should be better than the industry. While we don’t mean to pick on ADT, we do wish they did a better job taking care of their customers, as that improvement alone would probably give our industry a better reputation. But ADT is not the only large company with service problems: just look at the cable operators like Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner. Some of those home service providers are among the most hated brands in the country! And now they want to offer home security, too… No Company is Perfect We recognize that no alarm company – or any company, for that matter – is perfect. We all make mistakes, and we all have much to learn from our customers. And, it appears, there are also companies who have a lot to learn from their employees. But the best companies are the ones who are committed to soliciting and listening to constructive criticism, and then acting on it. And you test the level of that commitment – and the results - in how a company is reviewed, both internally and externally. It’s no secret that companies with happy employees almost always provide better customer service, meaning happy customers. FrontPoint is dedicated to making our company a great place to work. So it should be no surprise that when you search online for “FrontPoint reviews” you’ll find plenty of great news. As the leader in wireless home security, and the #1 ranked home alarm company in the US, FrontPoint is committed to your safety and security – and that means honest sales and advertising, no hidden fees, the best technology at the best price, and world-class service. Now that is peace of mind.