Have you given yesterday’s post some thought?  What possible connection am I making between this film and managed video?

Should parents have cameras installed in their children’s bedrooms, made viewable from their favorite restaurant?  Should a public view monitor be made available to all babysitters so they can monitor the well-being of children in real-time?

This is not what I had in mind…although perhaps there is a niche here to fill for some video provider…

The connection I was suggesting has to do with the essence of the babysitter’s situation.  The caller exploited the babysitter’s vulnerability – namely the fear of the unknown.  This is not an indictment of the babysitter, but rather a reality of the situation.  She did not know how the children were at that moment because she hadn’t recently checked.  The children were sleeping upstairs.  She assumed that they were safe.  Only when the caller called did she realize that she and the children were not safe. 

An interesting question arises – Had the caller not phoned to taunt her, how long would she have gone before realizing the danger?

Customers of traditional DVR and VHS video systems must deal with a similar reality.  As long as nothing happens, why worry about whether all of their video systems are operational?  Assume everything is fine, right?  It is only when something happens that they find themselves hoping that their systems were operational. 

Traditional CCTV customers have reported that as many as 50% of their traditional video systems were not fully functional when they did an audit – rendering their investment useless.

A key element of Managed Video as a Service is the ability to monitor the status of all cameras and recorders in real-time, with proactive system notifications alerting the customers of any issues.  When the proverbial caller calls, customers of MVaaS know in advance that their systems are working.  This is something that Jill Johnson could have used.

A typical restaurant is staffed 95 hours per week. The countless weeks I was in my restaurant each of those hours certainly proved out in the P&L. Customers had an extraordinary experience, labor was kept in check, mistakes were at a minimum, waste was non-existent and gross profit was above average. However, these hours are not sustainable. If I stepped away, would the P&L prove sustainable?

I will focus several subsequent posts on how I reduced “employee theft” in my restaurant using managed video. Let’s be very clear – I’m not talking about a premeditated theft of $20 out of the register. Instead, I am referring to a more dangerous and habitual operational problem that bleeds the top line, bloats food and labor costs and ultimately erodes gross profit to unacceptable levels.

In the 1979 version of When a Stranger Calls, babysitter Jill Johnson (played to perfection by Carol Kane) is repeatedly called by a person whom she does not know. The caller, in a calm and deliberate manner, continues to ask her “Have you checked the children?” Obviously concerned by the harassment, Jill Johnson calls the police for help. Who wouldn’t?

For those of you who have not seen the film, you may view the climax of the scene below. Great seventies film-making!

What you may not know is where this post is heading. What does this have to do with Managed Video? Any guesses?

When a Stranger Calls

As the pizza shop owner contemplated options to shrink his work week while maintining control over his investment and operations, he looked at a number of alternatives.  Hire a GM (too expensive), reduce hours of ops (not profitable enough), continue working 80+ hours per week (not sustainable). Then he looked to video as a potential solution. 

Questions of primary interest were: can I view the store from the internet whether I am at home or traveling; can I have multiple views within the store including the seating areas, kitchen areas and the counter; can I store video to aid in training my people to improve customer service, improve through-put and production and ensure that my register and sales match at the end of the day; and can I buy this on a subscription basis so that I don’t need to invest captial in the solution.

Next time: the answers.

Managed Video for the Small Business – Getting your life back

Retail business owners face a myriad of challenges.  Payroll, inventory control, human resource issues, marketing and a litany of other daily functions consume your day.  Cash flow is always tight and accounting for every dollar is paramount to staying in business, given the razor thin margins traditionally found in the retail market.  

But that is the easy part.  Hiring trusted employees, training them, retaining them and motivating them to project the brand image you have in mind is more difficult.   It is one of the reasons why retail owners never go home. 

I spoke recently with the owner of a single store pizza franchise.   For the first six months of ownership, he was personally on-site from opening to closing, seven days a week.  In simple math, that is 84 hours per week.  He told me how deploying Managed Video gave him his life back…