How to Choose the Best Commercial Fire Alarm Company?
When you’re searching for a fire alarm service provider, you want to make sure that you’re choosing the best commercial fire alarm company to service your system. How to choose the best commercial fire alarm company starts by evaluating each contractor based on their:
- Certifications
- Past Performance
- Safety Ratings and Quality Control Measures
- Fire Protection Service Offerings
- Fire Alarm Pricing
Performing this evaluation will help you select a commercial fire alarm service provider that’s experienced and provides high-quality service.
Certifications Required to Service Fire Alarm Systems
Make sure fire alarm service providers have technicians that hold National Institute for Certifications in Engineering Technologies (NICET) in fire alarm protection engineering technology available for the project. NFPA 72 specifies the qualification requirements for servicing fire alarm systems. It’s also a good idea to make sure that technicians have at least 5 years of experience servicing fire alarms. The best commercial fire alarm company will employee NICET certified fire alarm technicians with at least 5 years of experience.
Fire Alarm Service Past Performance References
Evaluating past performance references for similar projects is key to choosing the best commercial fire alarm company. You should require the company to provide you with at least 3 similar projects along with the customer’s contact information. Then you can call the customer and find out whether they were satisfied with their fire alarm services. Additionally, check that the fire alarm company has at least 5 years of experience servicing fire alarm systems.
Service Provider’s Safety Ratings and Quality Control Measures
Working with an unsafe company puts your facility at risk for all kinds of issues. To eliminate that risk, check the company’s OSHA 300 records for the past 3 years. Additionally, find out whether the fire alarm company has a quality control plan in place and what it entails. A fire alarm company who has several team members with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Quality Management Certification demonstrates that they take quality control seriously.
Fire Protection Service Offerings
Since finding the best commercial fire alarm company is the focus, make sure the company provides fire alarm service, repairs, and monitoring. You may need a fire alarm upgrade or a new install in the future, so it’s a bonus if the company provides those services too. Also, there are many benefits to hiring a one-stop shop fire protection company including saving money. These companies can service all your fire protection systems which decrease the cost by bundling services.
Fire Alarm Service Pricing
Carefully evaluate each fire alarm service quote that you receive. Be wary of hiring the fire alarm contractor with the lowest fire alarm service price. Quite often, these companies’ employee inexperienced technicians because they cost less than a seasoned fire alarm technician. Therefore, their fire alarm service pricing is low. But, their lack of experience makes them more prone to making mistakes and improperly servicing fire alarm systems. This could cost you more because of fire code violations due to noncompliance. Also, service costs will increase if additional technicians need to come back and perform system repairs because the inexperienced technician didn’t properly fix the issue. Unfortunately, there’s a high probability you’ll be paying a lot more for the lowest priced fire alarm service than initially quoted.
Simply choosing a fire alarm service provider that claims they’re the best could be potentially damaging and costly for your facility. There’s no guarantee of what kind of fire alarm services you’ll receive from them. Before hiring a fire alarm company, exercise due diligence. Examine each fire alarm contractor’s certifications, past performance, safety ratings and quality control measures, service offerings, and pricing. Then you can decide whether they’re the best commercial fire alarm company for your facility.
Categorized in: Education, Fire Alarms, General