Security & Loss Prevention

Video surveillance is a proven tool for increasing security and helping prevent losses due to vandalism, theft and unfounded liability claims. Georgia CCTV outperforms traditional surveillance systems by enabling you to

Increase the productivity of security/LP personnel
Proactively identify suspicious activities
Involve the entire organization in security/LP

Increase the productivity of security/LP personnel

Georgia CCTV dramatically reduces expensive and time-consuming travel. Instead of going to an affected site to watch and copy video of an incident, you can quickly view, search and share video via the Internet. Less “windshield time” means more time to spend on more productive security/LP activities

Involve the entire organization in security/LP

When video is accessible throughout an organization, it isn’t just the security/LP team that’s keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior. Many hands make light work, and many eyes make a safer, more secure business environment.

Training

Georgia CCTV allows you to leverage remote video to enhance your ability to train and grow your workforce. The ability to save video clips and easily share them with your employees enables you to

Spread best practices
Create training libraries
Coach and mentor your team

Spread best practices
Share examples of your best-performing locations with the rest of the company. Georgia CCTV enables you to easily identify and share relevant video with the rest of your employees. You can provide recognition for your best employees and help educate your organization at the same time.

Create training libraries
Augment your training with video of specific processes or events using real video from your business. Capture both the best examples of your process and the likely exception cases, helping new employees understand exactly what to strive for and what to expect in their roles.

Coach and mentor your team
Feedback is much more effective when you can sit down together and review exactly what happened in a particular situation. Georgia CCTV provides the “game film” that you can use to understand the context behind how a manager reacted to an unexpected customer need or how the kitchen operated during the lunch rush.

Marketing

Traditional video systems are almost never utilized by people in the marketing department. Georgia CCTV provides marketing professionals with easy-to-use, instant access to what is really happening in the business, enabling them to

Understand customer demographics
Analyze customer behavior
Shorten the feedback loop on new promotions

Understand customer demographics
Use Georgia CCTV to determine who is buying your products and whether your advertising is reaching your target audiences. Improve your understanding of your customer base by looking across all of your sites and observing who purchases which products.

Analyze customer behavior
With Georgia CCTV, you’ll be able to observe customers and their reactions to end-caps, signage and other marketing and promotional material. Move beyond anecdotal customer research by systematically assessing behavior across a large number of locations.

Shorten the feedback loop on new promotions
Reduce the time and effort required to get feedback on pilot marketing programs. Dramatically improve your insight by observing execution of new programs across multiple locations from your office.

Fradulent Transactions

Merchants find themselves dealing with fraud on many levels including checks, credit cards, and the ever growing popularity of gift cards. Here are a few examples of fraud using these payment methods:

Credit Cards:

Merchandise purchased with lost, stolen, or counterfeit credit cards.
Merchandise purchased using debit card fraud.
Fraud artists observe consumers when PIN is entered.

Checks:

Merchandise purchased with bad, stolen, or counterfeit checks.
Checks easily produced by photocopier or PC with standard printer.

Gift Cards:

Dishonest employees can "launder" gift cards, steal them outright, or switch or convert cards.
Customer walks away with 0-value card while the employee pockets the card with the monetary value.
Gift cards given in exchange for returned merchandise have helped perpetrate chargeback fraud.

Facts: Fraud costs U S companies $6.6 billion per year. Chemical Bank of New York reported a 50% increase in fraudulent checks last year. Wells Fargo admitted that transactions involving fraudulent checks rose an alarming 500%.

Solution: The U.S. Department of Justice says to combat business fraud it is advisable to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera systems at checkouts. Additionally, use employee training to inform staff of the known methods of check-cashing fraud and illegal card use that involve collusion with sales clerks and inform them of the consequences of participating in such offenses.

Sources: Dan Malachowski, Salary.com / Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. / Scripps Howard News / National Association of Convenience Stores / Rutgers University / U.S. Department of Justice

Vandalism & Burglaries

Vandalism-Damage to businesses property or vehicles is expensive, time consuming, and aggravating.

Vandalism-Damage to customer's property or vehicles drives business away to "safer" competitors

Burglaries-After hours or Break-ins/theft

Comprises 3% of US business crime cost approximately $14.7 billion per year

Burglary amounts to $858 million in Florida's business crime cost

Robberies-Armed demand for cash

Fueled by the ever growing drug problem

Motivated by the ability to get quick cash

Overloaded criminal justice system

Armed robber's only fear is of being caught

Armed robberies average over $2,000 per incident

Fact: "Security is no longer a luxury to many businesses. With theft costing U.S. employers billions of dollars a year, and assaults / threats of violence against Americans at work numbering about 2 million cases a year, workplace security has emerged as a key concern of companies seeking to protect their employees, assets, and data. --" Scripps Howard News 2/09 --

Shoplifting

Shoplifting is the second largest source of inventory shortage according to the National Retail Security Survey. This one area alone accounts for 34% of retail businesses Annual Shrinkage and Loss.

Shoplifting amounts to 34% of annual inventory shrinkage.

Less than 1 in 50 shoplifters are ever caught.

Estimated at $10.5 billion per year just from retail businesses in the United States.

Shoplifting losses have increased steadily each year.

Increases may be due to growing presence of organized retail crime rings and shoplifting gangs working as a team.

FACT: #1 Reason Given for Shoplifting: It Was Easy, No Risk!

Solution: People will not steal if they know in advance they are being watched. With the implementation of digital surveillance cameras and a public notification system including strategically located video monitors, warning signs, and notices, customers realize that they cannot steal without being seen or getting caught.

Businesses know the importance of protecting their inventory as pointed out in a recent article which stated; "The retail industry today is very competitive and retailers cannot afford to give up profits to thieves. Dishonest employees and shoplifters tend to go the path of least resistance and will target a retail location that has not invested in technology to prevent theft".

Employee Productivity

Lost productivity during regular hours = unnecessary overtime pay. Here are some of the reasons why business owners always agree that employees work better under supervision.

Survey of time wasted by employees in an 8 hour day:

Assumed by Human Resources = 0.94 hours a day.
Suspected by Human Resources = 1.60 hours a day.
Employees Admitted to Wasting= 2.09 hours per day.

In fact, employees admit to wasting 2.09 hours per day. Here are the top time wasters:

Surfing Internet (personal use) 44.7%
Socializing with coworkers 23.4%
Conducting Personal Business 17.1%

Spacing Out
Running Errands off Premises
Personal Phone Calls (business and cell phone)
Planning Personal Events
Arriving Late / Leaving Early 1.0%

FACTS:

1. In the US, honest employees stole over $759 billion dollars in wasted time last year.
2. In Florida, honest employees stole over $44.4 billion dollars in wasted time last year.

Employee Theft

Employee theft accounts for 47% of businesses Annual Shrinkage/Loss = $14.6 Billion.

All Businesses Inventory/Merchandise Out The Back Door
- Taken Home for Personal Use
- Giveaway to Family and/or Friends
- Coworkers Do It, Why Not Me?

Retail Businesses Shrinkage at the POS/Cash Register
- Ringing Up Sales on the No Sale Key
- Fictitious Voids or Refunds
- Keeping All Exact Change Purchases
- Sweet hearting for Friends and Family
- Short Ringing/Under Ringing/No Sales

FACT: Employees Steal When 2 Things Exist: Need and Opportunity!

Restaurant Kitchen Cameras

Much of the food theft and mischief that occurs in restaurants happens in the kitchen, so there is no better way to monitor and maintain control of your restaurant than to watch the kitchens as well as other areas with security cameras. Cameras in the kitchen area can be used by managers to ensure quality control in the kitchen, monitor staff, watch the food in the freezers and more. These cameras can also help to prevent mischief from occuring that could later lead to customer problems, sicknesses or even lawsuits. Kitchen restaurant security cameras can be used to provide visuals for the wait staff in larger restaurants as well so they can see when their orders are ready to serve.

Security Cameras for your Restaurant Kitchen

The kitchen of your restaurant houses much of the most expensive equipment as well as your valuable recipes and employees. The kitchen can easily make or break your restaurant, so it is important that you watch it carefully. When looking to install cameras into your kitchen you should consider all of the important areas. Many kitchens have rear entrances or exits that should be covered by cameras for security reasons, providing video footage of anyone entering or exiting and anything they take with them. When positioning the camera, it is a good idea to ensure that the camera is not going to be washed out by backlight when the door is opened during the daytime hours. Other important areas of the kitchens might include any wine cellars, food coolers, and preparation areas. You should also carefully weigh the importance of each of these locations against the budget for the restaurant camera system. Below we will discuss each of the possible kitchen security camera locations as well as things to keep in mind during the installation of these security cameras.

For entry and exit doors in the kitchen, you should position your camera so that it will see the faces of employees as they walk into or out of the door, however with exit doors it is sometimes good to have the camera mounted at an angle from the door, this is because of the fact that during the daytime, the light behind the person that is entering will cause a shadow or backlight condition to occur, this can cause the image to appear dark across a person's face and it will make it very difficult to distinguish characteristics. A method to avoid this is to use a camera mounted directly above the exit door, to instead catch people as they are exiting. With a camera in this configuration, it will use the light from outside instead of it causing a backlight condition and will deliver a great quailty image every time.

For chillers, coolers or wine cellar areas, the cooler temperatures and increased humidity can cause damage to any normal indoor style cameras, so security cameras that are designed for outdoor areas should be used. These outdoor cameras are sealed against the weather, so the cold temperatures or above average humidity levels will not be able to reach the electronics of the security cameras. The best cameras for these environments are generally bullet or armor dome style outdoor security cameras. Armor dome cameras are great for ceiling or sometimes wall mount installations, while the bullet cameras can be mounted on the ceiling or on the wall as well and usually have infrared IR capabilities for night vision.

The food prep area of your restaurant kitchen can also be covered by security cameras to help provide an added layer of quality control for the food that is served to your customers. This also allows you to monitor dish washers, bartenders and cooks to ensure that your employees are doing what they are supposed to be doing while they are working in the kitchen area. These cameras can also prevent retaliation from employees on customers, as well as provide evidence of theft of food or alcohol, which is unfortunately common in kitchens. These cameras can also be used to alert necessary wait staff that orders are ready, by placing cameras overlooking food pickup locations, then placing monitors at wait stations throughout the restaurant.

The Kitchen area of a restaurant is a great place for restaurant security cameras, as it can be used to provide high resolution coverage and recording for managers or employees to be able to watch for theft, as well as monitor the productivity and accuracy of order fulfillment. With this additional information, managers and owners of these restaurants can easily make staffing decisions and ensure customers will receive the best quality of service throughout their visit by ensuring quality control of the food that is prepared.

Operations

No other video system provides the opportunities for improving operations and increasing profits that Georgia CCTV provides. The ability to quickly and easily view your entire operation enables you to

Improve productivity
Enhance customer experience
Ensure brand consistency

Improve productivity
Do your operations have the right number of employees deployed in the most productive manner? Use Georgia CCTV to optimize staffing levels by analyzing patterns of employee work versus idle time. Also, watch your employees performing procedures such as production and customer check-out and make adjustments to your layout and your processes to maximize operational efficiency.

Enhance customer experience
With Georgia CCTV you’ll know if your business is clean and inviting, if customers are being greeted at the door, and how long they are having to stand in line – even if you’re not on site. With visibility into your entire operation, you can make sure that customers are getting exactly the experience that you want them to have.

Ensure brand consistency
For multi-location brands, the key to customer satisfaction is consistency. Georgia CCTV helps you keep your operations consistent no matter how many stores you have, by enabling you to view and compare multiple stores at one time using a single video system.

Human Resources

Georgia CCTV helps human resources personnel by providing an easily accessible visual record that can be used for

Documenting employee behavior
Investigating “he-said, she-said” allegations
Ensuring adherence to regulations

Documenting employee behavior
Sometimes, things just don’t work out and people have to be let go. With Georgia CCTV, your company can protect itself from lawsuits by keeping a video record documenting the pattern of behavior that led to the termination.

Investigating “he-said, she-said” allegations
Companies have a legal duty to take allegations of employee harassment seriously, but they need to balance this duty with protecting the rights of innocent employees who may be wrongly accused. When two or more people have differing views of the same situation, video can provide objective documentation of what really occurred.

Ensuring employee adherence to regulations
Every workplace has rules for employee behavior. Video helps companies enforce employee regulations fairly and consistently – even across multiple locations. From wearing the appropriate uniform or washing hands before starting work, to locking up at the end of the day, video can help keep employees on the right track.

Customer Service

Customer service is the #1 factor in a customer's decision to return as a regular customer. Poor customer service costs U.S. companies an estimated $35.4 billion in lost business each year. Surveys show that poor customer service is the leading complaint, even ahead of prices, cited by customers who stop buying a company's products or services.

Providing good customer service and maintaining customer loyalty typically depends on how ably employees wait on customers, take product orders, work the phones, offer technical assistance, and nurture business relationships.

96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain directly to management. Additionally studies have shown that just 1 unhappy customer will tell approximately 9 other people and 13% of them will tell at least 20 other people.

Bottom line: 90% of customers who experience poor service will not complain and will not return. Too bad that more and more businesses are loosing their focus on customer service in light of the fact that the American public loves good service.

The death of customer service has diminished loyalty and fueled an increase in cyber buying. Former customers are going away to competitors or sitting down at a computer, typing www.anythingyouwant.com, and ordering it for delivery. Customers are giving up the practice of begging a sales person to help them.

Facts:

One typical incident of poor customer service, on average, results in the loss of a minimum of 10 customers.
Southland Corporation (7-11 Stores) claims that 68% of customers who quit coming to the store, quit due to the attitude of their employees.

Solution: Georgia CCTV systems with audio can be used in customer service training and will increase employee awareness. Employees who know they are being watched are significantly impacted, resulting in behavior changes and improvement in customer service. Studies show that video and audio monitoring combined with training, coaching, and supervision significantly improves employee performance.

Vendor Theft

A major source of inventory shrinkage occurs when vendors short deliveries or steal merchandise during the course of delivering and stocking their company's products. Whether this shortage is accidental or intentional, the impact can be significant.

Vendor fraud is one of the easiest ways someone is able to steal from a business without being detected as they become "trusted" suppliers with willingness to stock shelves as a "courtesy."

Truth is that when the vendor stocks the shelves, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the existing stock and that which has supposedly just been delivered.

U S Businesses losses from vendor fraud amounts to $107 billion or 5.5% of total shrinkage however the National Association of Convenience Stores estimates that vendors account for between 15% and 20% of inventory shrinkage.

According to Rutgers University there are 4 common types of fraud:

1. Short Deliveries - The vendor is not delivering the correct amount of inventory on the shipping invoice.

Small amounts of inventory removed from packaging or boxes

2. Delivery Reloads:

Delivery person removes merchandise from recipient once delivery is completed.
Delivery person waits for the inventory to be counted and then removes the merchandise from the store

3. Inventory Swapping - Vendor steals directly from the stockroom. Swapping is a common technique where delivery person exchanges good merchandise and replaces it with bad or outdated merchandise.

4. Over Charging - Vendor steals by directly taking cash from the store. This happens if payment for the delivery is done on-site rather then billed later. The delivery person may alter an invoice by adding additional inventory or changing the final price resulting in an overpayment that he pockets.

Solution: The implementation of a custom designed digital video surveillance system with specific attention to monitoring the stockroom delivery areas and back door. This combined with awareness training for employees and managers along with a specific "receiving" policy will prevent vendor theft.

Workers Compensation

Workers' compensation is the oldest social insurance program; it was adopted in most states during the second decade of the 20th century. It is a no-fault system, meaning that injured employees need not prove the injury was someone else's fault in order to receive workers' compensation benefits for an on-the-job injury. In fact many injury claims are falsified or exaggerated and may not have even occurred on the job.

Carelessness, recklessness, and a general disregard for safety, rules, and procedures are accountable for more than 50% of the workers compensation claims in the United States.

On an average day in the U.S., 17,000 workers are injured. Costing the US economy more than $110 billion per year.

A total of 5.2 million injuries were reported in private industry workplaces according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2.6 million of the injured required recuperation away from work.

Workers compensation insurance premiums average 2%-3% of payroll.

Workplace injury and illness stemming from substance abuse cost more than $100 billion a year.

70% of illegal drug users are employed.

Alcohol related problems cause more than 500 million lost work days per year.

Drug and drinking related problems are one of the leading causes for the rise in workplace violence.

Solution: The implementation of a custom designed digital video surveillance system:

Promotes adherence to safety policies and procedures and can be used to monitor and insure that all policies are followed to avoid injuries and claims. In the event an injury does occur, it provides pre-accident and post-accident recorded evidence for determining the cause and effect of any such injury and subsequent worker compensation claims. Provides undisputable evidence of what exactly occurred, thus promoting honest communication between all parties involved. Assures parties all involved that the process is positive, and legitimate thus promoting a successful outcome, which limits and prevents costly litigation down the road.

Time Management

American workers are wasting more than twice the time Human Resource managers expect. Daily average in fact now more than 2 hours per day - per employee." -by: Dan Malachowski, Salary.com

For many American workers today, time's a wastin' - literally. According to a new survey by America Online and Salary.com, the average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time. As a matter of practice, companies assume a certain amount of wasted time when determining employee pay. However, the America Online / Salary.com survey indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed.

State of Florida - 2.2 hrs. - $44.4 billion

WASTE MANAGEMENT

The biggest distraction for respondents? Personal Internet use. 44.7% of the more than 10,000 people polled cited web surfing as their #1 distraction at work. Socializing with co-workers came in second at 23.4%. Conducting personal business, "spacing out," running errands, and making personal phone calls were the other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace.

Top 10 Time Wasting Activities%

1 Surfing Internet (personal use)44.7

2 Socializing with co-workers23.4

3 Conducting personal business6.8

4 Spacing out3.9

5 Running errands off-premises3.1

6 Making personal phone calls2.3

7 Applying for other jobs1.3

8 Planning personal events1

9 Arriving late / Leaving early1

10 Other12.5

Employees say they're not always to blame for this wasted time, however. 23.4% said they wasted time at work because they feel as if they are underpaid.

Top Time Wasting Excuses%

1 Don't have enough work to do33.2

2 Underpaid for amount of work23.4

3 Co-workers distract me14.7

4 Not enough after-work time12

5 Other16.7

CATS VS. MICE

Are workers really expected to work 8 hours per day? According to a Salary.com follow-up survey of Human Resource managers, companies assume that employees will waste 0.94 hours per day. They take this into account when they do their compensation planning. However, those managers privately suspect that employees waste 1.6 hours per day. In fact, employees admit to wasting 2.09 hours per day.

WHO WASTES THE MOST TIME?

Men vs. Women: Men and women waste about the same amount of time per day. This, despite the fact that most HR managers surveyed suspected that women wasted more time at work than men.
Youngsters vs. Seniors: As the following statistics show, the older people are, the less time they waste at work:

Year of BirthTime Wasted Per Day

1930-19490.50 Hours

1950-19590.68 Hours

1960-19691.19 Hours

1970-19791.61 Hours

1980-19851.95 Hours

Salary Dollars Wasted column reports the total value of all salary dollars actually paid by employers, for which work was expected but not actually performed by employees.

The calculation assumes that employers expect, and therefore allocate no salary dollars for, the first 0.94 hours of wasted time per employee. Calculations also assume a standard five-day workweek consisting of 8 hours per day, and a U.S. average salary of $43,795.33 per year (Q1 2010). Census data for non-farm workers employed in each state (Q1 2010) was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Restaurant Dining Rooms

Covering Restaurant Seating Areas with Security Cameras

Many restaurants are starting to monitor the customer seating areas of their restaurants with security cameras. These cameras can provide many benefits to vigilant owners. Security cameras that are well placed in the dining room of your restaurant can be very useful in alerting you and other personnel when customers are leaving, letting the management or servers check to ensure that the bill has been settled, and to begin clearing the table for the next customers. Beyond the obvious, these cameras can also be used to monitor the wait staff, providing valuable information on how the staff are working and how customers are fairing with their dining, so you can dispatch managers to the tables of disturbed customers, or dispatch a server if it appears that customers are not receiving care that meets your standards.

Security Cameras for your Restaurant

Security cameras inside your restaurant will help provide evidence and recording, so that if employees break the rules, or customers skip out on their check, you will have video footage. Restaurant owners looking to provide this level of security should also take into account the lighting level, and traffic patterns, to ensure appropriate coverage.

If your restaurant has lower light levels, then IR Infrared style cameras should be considered, as these cameras can provide much better coverage during these low light periods, even seeing when it is completely dark. These IR indoor dome cameras provide color video during the daytime, and then they switch to black and white mode in low light conditions allowing the camera to illuminate the area in front of the camera with invisible IR light for great night vision. However, if light levels are normal, and lights are left on at night, then daytime color style restaurant security cameras such as our standard indoor dome cameras can be used.

When considering cameras for your restaurant, take into consideration the entrances and exits. Cameras placed in these locations can deliver the best picture for identification of personnel and customers if needed later. However, in the case of front door areas, ensure that the camera will not be positioned in a backlight condition. During daylight hours, light coming through front windows behind customers that are walking in, will reduce the brightness of the faces of customers, because the camera will adjust to the brighter outdoor area. Therefore, cameras in the entryways should be positioned to look instead at the faces of customers, but positioned to reduce backlight conditions.

Also, you should consider placing cameras above your cash registers, this will allow you to keep track of cashflow into and out of the registers, as well as monitor credit cards. Especially as economic times get tough, more and more stories of credit card fraud increase, and often authorities rely on restaurant security cameras for evidence. Most restaurant owners and managers think that their employees wouldn't do that, but statistics show that restaurants have higher levels of employee theft than even retail stores. Restaurant Security cameras placed to in such a way to cover the registers can help to deter this theft, and certainly provide evidence while possibly even alerting managers to the existance of any problems.

If you still have a budget remaining after coverage of entries and exits and registers, the dining area of the restaurant can provide additional value-added information to restaurant managers and owners. Wideangle cameras placed in the dining room will help you track the customer load and properly allocate your resources. These cameras will also assist managers in watching for customers who are waiting for their server or are dissatisfied with their food. This can allow you to promptly respond to problems, leading to better customer experiences. When used appropriately, restaurant security cameras used in this method can help improve the entire customer perception of your restaurant, while still providing the security that you need