Automobile Dealership Security Implications of Inflation

Automobile Dealership Security Implications of Inflation

History shows rising inflation and crime have close ties, guide your dealership to weather the storm with these tips

It is no secret that inflation has been occurring across the United States, impacting individuals, families, organizations, small businesses, and, unfortunately, crime. Inflation has historically had a statistically significant influence on crimes committed for monetary gain in the United States. With high costs and tight inventory impacting organizations, dealerships need to play it safe.

Focusing on elements of the business you can control, such as inventory on hand, is a reliable way to strategize. Thinking laterally about inventory and protecting existing stock through proactive security can minimize exposure to these soft market conditions, meaning your team can focus on selling and not damage recovery. Below we will explore what that means, how it works, and how to best put it into practice.

Protecting Existing Inventory

During these challenging times when various risks are out of your control, it’s vital to focus your efforts on something you can control. This could be the inventory you already have on hand versus inventory stuck in the supply chain. To best do this, turn your attention to leveraging existing resources. Dealerships that recognize their risks can tighten the security on vehicles in the lot and allow their teams to focus on what’s in front of them so it can be sold and profited on while reducing the need for replacement inventory due to losses.

Since we know that inflation and crime are correlated, we must try to combat inflation-related symptoms by recognizing risks and working to mitigate any loss prevention risks on existing stock. Traditional security solutions like guarding and surveillance often make this difficult.

As inflation continues to linger, dealerships nationwide have felt the massive impacts on their business. An article by AutoSuccess explains that the market has taken an enormous hit. Supply and demand play a major role in this as well. Because the low new vehicle inventory has been impacted by such high inflation paired with low levels of incentives for consumers, many would-be buyers are being priced out of the market. The economy is the second leading factor impacting dealer business at a massive 46%. Remember what we said about inflation and crime?

For example, did you know a catalytic converter can be cut out in under 60 seconds? Let’s say your dealership has a video verification solution in place. First, the monitoring center receives a warning. Then they look for the video feeds, rewind, locate the timestamps, and send it to the police. Meanwhile, the robber has stolen three to four converters during that time and is long gone. However, there is a way for dealerships to protect their assets and protect their inventory with a cost-effective security method proven to deter crime before it happens. Enter, proactive video monitoring (PVM).

A Better Solution

Proactive means you are doing something before it’s too late. This is unlike the reactionary steps taken by traditional guarding, monitoring, or surveillance which come too late to secure an asset against a threat. By following our three stages, monitor, intervene, and report, our team of intervention specialists will issue a LIVE audio warning to any individuals who should not be on the site. They will call out what they are wearing, where they are located, and what mode of transportation they used to arrive. The point is to ensure the would-be thief understands we’ve caught them and know we mean business. In 98% of these instances, the intruder is startled and flees.

So, how does our solution provide these results? We’ve constructed a purpose-built platform where we leverage intelligent, AI-based algorithms to filter out nuisance alarms and provide actionable notices to our group of highly trained intervention specialists. This powerful blend of AI and humans empowers us to detect and prevent crimes and deliver businesses with operational efficiencies, ranging from streamlining high guard costs to decreasing costly (and irritating) false alarms.

Best Practices

With crime on the rise, it’s more critical than ever for businesses to invest in their security infrastructure. By partnering with the right security vendor, like Netwatch, it will be easy to implement best practices across your dealership as an experienced team will be able to design a comprehensive camera layout of the site based on past incidents, high-risk areas, and knowledge of technical specs, and more.

Our team of experts will monitor as your upgraded system learns the regular activity on-site during testing, and dealerships can rest assured knowing that PVM is watching and protecting your site after deployment.

Pivoting your dealership to weather a market downturn is a tremendous commitment and risk. Sticking with approaches that align with how your business operates and succeeds to date, such as upgrading security solutions that protect your assets, not just surveil them, can be the strategic move that makes all the difference.