[Image placeholder: photo of a SecureOne officer at a Chicago property. Jim to supply]
A lot of the calls I get from Chicago property managers start the same way. They've asked three or four security guard companies for a price, the numbers came back all over the place, and they can't tell why. One bid is a few dollars an hour lower than the rest. Another is full of language that doesn't say much.
That's normal, and it's fixable. The bids you get from security companies in Chicago are only as good as the request you send out and the questions you ask before anyone puts a number on paper. We've been answering these requests since 2002, so here's how I'd run the process if I were sitting in your chair.
Write a request that describes your property, not just your hours
A request that says "one unarmed guard, 24/7, quote by Friday" will get you a price. It won't get you a plan. And when every company is guessing at what you need, you end up comparing guesses.
A Loop office tower with a staffed lobby and a freight dock needs something very different from a West Side warehouse with a long fence line or a retail strip that gets busy after dark. Mention the seasons. A post that's simple in July can look very different in January, when it's dark by late afternoon, snow piles up against doors and fences, and the officer walking your exterior overnight needs a warm place to step inside.
Here's what I'd put in every request:
- The property type, size, entrances, parking and loading areas
- Hours of coverage, including holidays and seasonal changes
- Incidents over the last year or two, even the small ones
- What you want the officer to do: access control, patrols, lobby or concierge duties, opening and closing
- How you want reports delivered and who should get them
- Insurance requirements from your lease, lender or management company
Insist on a site walk before anyone prices it
Any serious Chicago security guard company will want to see your property before it writes a proposal. If a company is willing to price your site sight unseen, that tells you how much attention it plans to pay once the contract starts.
Treat the walk like an interview. Is it only a salesperson, or someone from operations who will actually manage your account? Do they ask about your blind spots, your tenants, your vendors and your after-hours traffic? You should come away feeling they understand your building, not just its square footage.
When we walk a site, we're already thinking about the post orders. That's the document that tells an officer exactly what to do on your property on day one, and it should be written for your property, not pulled from a template.
Read the bid line by line
When the proposals come in, it's tempting to sort them by hourly rate and stop there. The rate matters, but it's only the start.
Start with what the officer is paid. The bill rate covers the officer's wage plus training, supervision, insurance, payroll taxes and the company's overhead. When one bid comes in far below the others, something on that list is getting cut, and very often it's the officer's pay. Underpaid officers leave, and turnover means new faces on your site who don't know it. It's fair to ask each company what the officer on your post will earn.
Then look at supervision. Who checks on the officer, how often, and is that billed separately? Our field supervisors visit sites weekly. That's part of how we work, not an add-on.
Look at holidays and overtime. Chicago properties often need extra coverage around Thanksgiving, the winter holidays and big summer weekends. Find out which holidays bill at a premium and how the company handles a request on short notice.
Look at reporting. Ask for a sample report. We use Vision Insights, our reporting platform, so clients see incident documentation and patrol logs in real time instead of waiting for someone to type up notes. A good question for every company: will I get a report every morning for the night before, automatically?
Finally, read the contract terms. Check the length, the notice period to cancel and whether it renews on its own. We don't require long-term contracts, because I'd rather keep a client with good service than with fine print.
Get licensing and insurance in writing
In Illinois, security companies are licensed as private security contractors by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Every officer also needs a Permanent Employee Registration Card, known as a PERC, which involves fingerprinting and a background check. Ask each company for its agency license number, look it up yourself, and ask how it confirms PERC status for every officer it sends.
Then ask for a certificate of insurance that shows the limits you need, and read the exclusions. Some policies leave out certain property types or services, so make sure the coverage matches what you're buying. We carry above-average insurance coverage and policy limits, and we're glad to send the certificate with our proposal.
Ask who picks up the phone at 2 a.m.
A bid won't tell you what happens when something goes wrong on a Saturday night, so ask. Will you reach a local manager who knows your property, or a national call center? How fast can a supervisor get to your site? How does the company fill a post when an officer calls off sick in the middle of a snowstorm?
Some large national security guard companies run their Chicago accounts from regional offices in other cities. We keep local management in every market we serve, so decisions about your site get made by people who know it.
Call references who look like you
Ask for two or three references from Chicago clients with properties like yours, and actually call them. Ask about reliability, communication and how problems were handled when they came up.
Referrals are how most of our business grows. About 76% of our new clients come to us through referrals from existing clients. One of them, a major transportation company here in Chicago, told us: "in 8 years with SecureOne I have never had a serious security related incident on my property."
Price is part of the decision, not the whole decision
I'll be straight with you. SecureOne is not the cheapest security company in Chicago, and we don't try to be. Our clients tell us they stay because of our attention to detail, the technology behind our officers and how quickly we respond when they call.
Run your bid this way and you'll see those differences on paper before you sign, whichever company you choose. That's a better way to choose among Chicago security guard companies than picking the lowest number on a spreadsheet.
Put SecureOne in your next bid
If you're collecting bids from security companies in Chicago, I'd like us to be one of them. Call us at (888) 834-5285 or request a quote at https://www.secureone.com/request-quote.html, and we'll set up a time to walk your property with you.
SecureOne Security Services, Chicago, IL 60605