EDUCATION Safes and Vaults and Combos — Oh My Take safe classes at ALOA 2019 to increase your profitability. Jim Hancock, CML, CMST L 54 isten carefully… can you hear that? Turn off all your phones, radios and iPods and listen closely. Now can you hear it? My guess is possibly not. That sound you were being directed to listen for is the sound of lost profits and possibly lost clients boarding the train to Competitor Town or Do-It-Yourself-Ville. Now, I realize I am not ad- dressing everyone. Many of you do not miss the opportunity to derail that train and capture every customer you can. But some of you let these chances pass you by be- cause a potential customer is wanting a task performed that you don’t have the skills to do, or you have such limited knowledge that you have the good sense not to butcher a job. For the latter, I applaud that decision, but I still chastise you. I also chastise the former for not taking advantage when the opportunity arises to learn new skills. I am not sure why, but for many years — since the formation of SAVTA — ALOA pretty much ignored safe-and-vault-related classes at the annual ALOA Conven- tion. Did the regime feel it would force people to join the second organization by not offering those classes? I dunno. Did anyone in charge at that time think that safe and vault work was above the skills or knowledge of a locksmith versus a “safe technician?” I hope not. Did they use simple economics and decide some of the equipment was just too expensive for those rekeying that $10 lock to afford and maintain? Again, no clue. But here is what I do know: In almost 50 years in this industry, I learned from my grandfather early on that to be successful, you learned as much as possible about all aspects of your chosen profession so you can offer more services if one aspect dwin- dled. You set your mind to the fact that your ability to learn or increase your skills were only limited by how much time and effort you were willing to put into it. And finally, if you could spend $500 on an item that could potentially yield three or four times that in pretty short order, you found a way to spend the money. Reinvestment in Safe Education Beginning in 2015, ALOA started adding safe-related classes back into its annual convention schedule. We have held basic servicing, manipulation, moving and rigging, KEYNOTES APRIL 2019 sales and basic opening. We have had some wonderful sponsors and partners procure for us used equipment to enable this training at ALOA. We have brought in several instructors that are indeed the SMEs (subject matter experts) when it comes to the aspects of safe work. We have several more who would love to come and teach you time lock service, safe deposit locks and several other areas of work, but it’s hard to schedule them when I can’t get enough people in the seats to cover the fees. We are by no means trying to infringe on the SAFETECH training or turn any- one into a safe technician per se. But, as before, when most of us “old guard” grew up doing a bit of everything and learned to do the simple combo change or the drill and repair to provide better service and expand the customer base, it is a bit concerning to me. Especial- ly when we get surveys back that say, “Why don’t you do more safe classes” and “Why aren’t there ever new classes?” and so on. So, once again, ALOA 2019 approaches. It is approaching as fast as those trains waiting to be boarded for all the places where you don’t make the money. You are at that point where you can make the choice to stand by the depot and watch them pull away or show customers what you can do. It’s a pretty safe bet that you will have the chance to learn some new skills and vault ahead of your competitors. And if you be- came a proficient safe technician along with being an excellent locksmith, wouldn’t that be a winning combo… oh my. m Hancock, CML, CMST, s ALOA’s educat ion nager. You can reach m at [email protected] or 4) 819-9733. WWW.ALOA.ORG
