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Hi Robert, tell us about Manukau Lock and Alarm!

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I'm Robert Linton, owner of Manukau Lock and Alarm. We set up shop in 1998 and it's just grown and grown! Now we have seven employees, and service both commercial and residential markets, mostly across the North Island as far as Wellington.

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I grew up in Manurewa, went to Hill Park Intermediate, and love our community!

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Can you retell a story of crime where Manukau Lock and Alarm provided a security solution?

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Absolutely, I have a story:

The audacity to break in, have a conversation and steal from a 92-year-old lady.

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Lovely older lady (92) arrived home, had just been shopping. She went for a nap in the conservatory, and got robbed in broad daylight. She opened her eyes to see a random intruding lady standing there, where the intruder then went on to ask the elderly resident if she’s seen her phone, telling her she has lost her phone. She had a conversation for about 5 minutes. And before this, this thug just robbed her house. Very sad.

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The elderly lady’s neighbours got wind of this situation, and recommended our services to the resident, where we installed a security camera system as we had done in their place. We installed cameras that can be monitored by her daughter that lives out of town.

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Any tips to protect your property from the robbers?

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Lock your front door if you’re out the back. People walk down the street in a high vis vest posing as a worker and rob your house. That happens more frequently now, especially as crime has doubled about twice in the last few years.

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Have security cameras installed at your home that can be monitored by a smart phone. The technology is quite advanced these days, the camera will send an alert to your phone when it senses movement. I highly recommend this, not just for elderly residents but for all families. Especially great for the bach, or when away.

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What about dairy owners, there's been lots in the news with ram raids.

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If you are a dairy owner, get panic alarms as well as cameras, inside and outside. We don’t typically deal with the liquor and dairy store owners. The ram raid stuff isn’t really our market. We’ve seen increases in school break-ins. I would say to schools, have camera monitoring systems at schools. Upgrade the alarm systems. We’ve got four schools we're working with in doing this at the moment.

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Is customer loyalty still relevant in business, is it important?

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Relationships are very important. We have great customers. Just the other day we had a gentleman from an organisation for the disabled who needed something done urgently. We were there within 10 minutes. He was over the moon, he personally called me to thank me for our service. He just was so appreciative. We drop things for our loyal customers and we just make it happen, we’re very dependable.

 

We do a lot of auto work - we had a customer come into our shop the other day. “I need a new key cut for this vehicle.” He says, “you know me, why would I go anywhere else!?

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What one piece of business advice would you have for other to-be business owners?

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Honest communication is key (no pun intended)! If you can do it you can do it, if you can’t you can’t.