You might have heard the term “commercial building” before. A commercial building is one that the owner or operator uses for commercial purposes rather than residential ones. A factory that makes goods is a commercial building, as is a store that sells clothing, a bank, a restaurant, etc.
You need security in any building, either a commercial or residential one. The building residents need to feel safe if we’re talking about a residential building. With a commercial building, the shoppers, workers, or anyone else within the structure should also feel secure when they’re inside.
We’ll talk about why improving commercial building security matters right now.
Theft Can Occur When a Commercial Building Doesn’t Have Adequate Defenses
It’s logical to improve commercial building security for several reasons, but theft is probably one of the main ones. Let’s say that you have a storefront. You’re selling clothing out of it, or toys, or any other goods that your company makes or stocks.
Shoplifting can cost you a great deal of money every year if you don’t have the proper security measures. You might have someone who walks in off the street, sees that you don’t have enough guards or cameras, and slips something into their pocket or under their coat. They might walk outside and run for it before anyone stops them.
Guards inside through the store can help you in this regard. They can stand by the registers or walk through the aisles and keep an eye on anyone who looks suspicious.
If you have cameras set up that work and can catch someone in the act, that helps too. The best retail security combines cameras and guards.
You should have a security center where all the camera feeds go. You can have someone there monitoring the cameras at all times. If the person behind those monitors sees someone shoplifting, they can radio the floorwalkers, who can then detain the shoplifter before they can leave the premises.
Your staff can then hold the shoplifter until the police arrive to pick them up. Having this system in place should prevent most retail theft, which will save you a great deal of money every year.
Warehouse Theft
Maybe you have a warehouse where you store your bulk goods or an assembly line where you manufacture them. Theft can occur in these places as well.
Cameras and security guards should be there too. You can have a similar setup to the one we mentioned in a retail environment.
Apart from that, you’ll want to have guards patrolling the warehouse and the grounds outside of it after closing time. Thieves might try to break in at night or whenever they perceive the warehouse’s vulnerability.
You can have dogs patrolling the property. Someone might think twice about trying to enter a warehouse if they see vicious Rottweilers or Dobermans nearby.
You can also have the warehouse behind a fenced-in perimeter. A tall fence with barbed wire or razor wire at the top should deter thieves.
You can install security lights that will come on when they detect movement. You can have guards with radios that can communicate with each other if they see something suspicious. Having all these measures in place will cost money, but at least you won’t lose merchandise to thieves.
Your Workers and Customers Will Feel Safer
If you implement highly visible security measures for your warehouse or storefront, you will also allow your workers and customers to feel safer when they visit you. Your workers will see the cameras, and that will not just deter them from stealing, but it will let the honest ones know that you’re watching out for them.
Cameras are not just there to prevent your workers from helping themselves to your supplies or finished products. They can also pick up any inappropriate coworker or customer behavior.
Your customers will see the cameras and guards and know that they can shop without anyone bothering them. They can ask the guards for help if anyone makes them feel uncomfortable.
Key Fobs
In commercial buildings with lots of activity, you might have full-time workers and part-time contractors coming and going all day, and they may not necessarily know every other individual working there. They might not feel sure that someone should be there if they’ve never encountered them before.
You can have a guard post down in the lobby or at the loading dock where you can issue electronic swipe cards to each person who comes in and out. You might color code those cards. You can have one color for the permanent workers and a second for temporary contractors. You might even have a third color for single-day guests.
You can have everyone show those key cards prominently by clipping them to their shirt or somewhere else that’s visible. That way, everyone can see a person’s status, and they’ll know that they should be there.
The key fobs will allow that person to enter certain spaces, but only approved ones. When a visitor leaves the building for the day, they can turn that key card back in to lobby security, and security can deactivate it. The permanent workers can keep their key cards so they can use them every day.
The swipe cards can make everyone feel safer, and they can also keep a record of where each person comes and goes throughout the day. The card log can tell where a person went, and the cameras can back up their movements.
If you have all these systems in place anywhere you have a commercial building, you should have a great setup for safety and access control. If anyone does something they shouldn’t, you can probably figure that out very quickly. You make theft less likely, and as a business owner or operator, that will save you money from your operating budget.
Setting up these security measures might seem tedious, but it’s worth it when you consider the peace of mind they will bring.
