Hi, Vikki here again and it's been too long since I have blogged.
There is no longer any reason to beat around the bush, we have been in business long enough ( 63 years) to worry about educating through scare tactics. There is reason to feel scared and hopefully our reputation of integrity will counteract negative opinion, perhaps not, but I am too old not to say it like it is.
CRIME is real, latest headline of serial rapist on the loose and just read an article yesterday about a homeowner who saw someone suspicious and risked her life chasing down a damn stranger in her car. The prisons have picked up the pace of releasing high risk offenders and if you think they are low risk you head is in in cloud.
I have written about this for a lifetime and the average consumer would rather still believe crime happens to other people than to spend less than their deductible on high security locks that are pick and bump resistant. It is called "real" security , not 'feel good' security and NO, it is not available in the big box stores. It requires calling a calling a security professional (not just any ole locksmith) which first demands your awareness that they exist. And for LORD SAKE, FIRST ask who they are, not how much they cost.
We have had and continue to have a successful run in business and sure, we would like you to call us,but I care more that you care at all even if it means calling someone else.
As always, protecting what you most value (hopefully),
Vikki Flam
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
RAISE MINIMUM WAGE-TRAINESS WILL NOW 'PAY' FOR TRAINING
Garcetti and all who support raising minimum wage do not address the inpact of the cost of training new employees. Imagine adding overtime to $20.25 on top of that and then waiting at least a year to begin getting back investment. Not possible without government subsidy for small business.
In our trade, locksmith and security, most of our competition alreay break the law by mis classfying employees as independent contractors and get away with it because there is no money for oversight.
Once again, the ethical business will be hurt along with you, the consumer, who will pay higher prices and negate the benefit of higher minimum wages.
One day there will be no trades, no expertise and only one person mobile trucks without the range of knowledge and product.
How about we start another trade school where the trainee 'pays us" tuition and gives up a paid
Trainee job?
Protecting what you most value,
Vikki
In our trade, locksmith and security, most of our competition alreay break the law by mis classfying employees as independent contractors and get away with it because there is no money for oversight.
Once again, the ethical business will be hurt along with you, the consumer, who will pay higher prices and negate the benefit of higher minimum wages.
One day there will be no trades, no expertise and only one person mobile trucks without the range of knowledge and product.
How about we start another trade school where the trainee 'pays us" tuition and gives up a paid
Trainee job?
Protecting what you most value,
Vikki
Saturday, March 22, 2014
FLAM'S-WHERE EXPENSIVE IS CHEAP!
"There is No Such thing as Cheap or Expensive,But Thinking Makes It So"Shakespeare, if he were alive today.
I am writing this blog today because we have heard from consumers, on occasion, that they would choose Flam's Lock and Key if we were not so expensive. What is expensive?
The subject of pricing, no matter what you sell,always has been and always will be,relative.
WHY IS FLAM'S SO EXPENSIVE?
We only 'appear' expensive because our service call is more than 80% of most other locksmith's you may call,but when you compare the bottom line, not the service call line, we are cheaper.
More important,we choose a higher price point for our trip charge so we can maintain our standards of excellence and stay in business.
Some of these standards that are for your benefit include:
1. Maintaining a shop location and paying rent so we can offer you more choices than a mobile
only service. We want you to touch and feel, not just listen over the phone. We also want to
offer products like high security locks because you can only get your proprietary keys cut at a shop.
Flam's physical location also allows us to cater to commercial clients, property management
companies, homeowners associations and quality residential clientel,
We were also raised with old fashion values that taught us that having a physical location lends
greater credibility to our reputation and integrity. Sixty years in business proves this advice was
correct.
2. We believe in hiring the best and most experienced and ethical employees and paying them
more. It adds to our cost but less to yours' because they can problem solve and you can trust
they are a good fit to work in a culture that demands excellence, continuing education and
integrity.
We don't pay them as independent contractors, like most, to avoid paying workers comp
insurance avoiding matching social security taxes.
3. We charge what it cost to pay for a truck, insurance, repairs and travel time ( we actually
don't charge enough to cover these costs) so we can stay in business and honor your
warranties.
WE DO THE RIGHT THING!
5. WE DON'T WANT EVERYONE'S BUSINESS and yes you read that correctly. We choose
to eliminate price shoppers who have no appreciation for the difference between a locksmith and a
'security professional' and who are not concerned with the reputation of who hands them there keys.
These are the consumers who pay the most and learn that 'cheap is expensive'.
WHY ARE FLAM'S PRICES SO CHEAP?
So now that you know why we may charge more you may wonder why we are less expensive.
1. We charge enough so you are not ripped off with the lure of a cheap service call which is made
up by charging you 4 times more for product and labor.
2. We maintain a location so you can bring things in for repair without needing a trip charge.
3. Remember that standard about paying more for experienced and ethical employees?
Well, they can repair and not just replace, they will not pretend your lock can't be picked so
they can make more by replacing it, they will get the job done faster because they can, keeping
your labor costs down. They can problem solve and tell you the truth because they know about
more products.
4. We don't send out independent contractors who make commission and don't protect you
against liability.
5. We maintain our State Contractors license's, require our employee's to have their Consumers
Affairs License so you know we are not sending criminals or sex offenders. Yes, you read
correctly again, most locksmiths do not do background checks. We know of one sex offender
currently in business and another that employed him for 12 years.
"There is No Such Thing as Cheap or Expensive, But Thinkng Makes It so"
There is such a thing as good and bad.
Protecting what you most value!
Vikki Flam
Friday, November 1, 2013
IS YOUR LOCKSMITH SAFE?
No one ever accused me of not being straight forward and this blog topic is no exception.
At Flam's Lock and Key your security is our business and the lockmith you choose is your first step in protection, but do you know if the person coming to your home or business is a REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER? Yes, that's right, for over 12 years an established locksmith company employed just such a person and it was only after his own daughter was a victim that he found out.
How do you know if the company you trust does background checks before they hire? How do you know if they follow the law and require each employee to apply for and obtain their consumer affairs license which requires finger printing?
How many of you ask if their locksmith is licensed and simply believe their verbal answer without asking them to email or fax copies?
If you still only care about what appears to be the cheapest price, think again; this same registered sex offender now owns his own company but just operates without a license because he relies on your naivety.
I hope this blog promotes awareness and smarter consumers. At least in our industry there are required credentials you can ask to see. Shop smart, smart safe.
Protecting what you most value,
Vikki Flam
At Flam's Lock and Key your security is our business and the lockmith you choose is your first step in protection, but do you know if the person coming to your home or business is a REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER? Yes, that's right, for over 12 years an established locksmith company employed just such a person and it was only after his own daughter was a victim that he found out.
How do you know if the company you trust does background checks before they hire? How do you know if they follow the law and require each employee to apply for and obtain their consumer affairs license which requires finger printing?
How many of you ask if their locksmith is licensed and simply believe their verbal answer without asking them to email or fax copies?
If you still only care about what appears to be the cheapest price, think again; this same registered sex offender now owns his own company but just operates without a license because he relies on your naivety.
I hope this blog promotes awareness and smarter consumers. At least in our industry there are required credentials you can ask to see. Shop smart, smart safe.
Protecting what you most value,
Vikki Flam
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Friday, October 11, 2013
Celebrating 60 years event
Thank
You! Because of you, Flam's Lock & Key is celebrating 60 years in business.
To celebrate, we want to cordially invite you to our Customer Appreciation
event being held October 24 from 10 to 1.
Being
in business for 60 years, we have seen security evolve in such amazing and
hi-tech ways. As your local security expert, we pride ourselves on staying
current with technology and regulations keeping you and your business safe and
secure. To help us celebrate our past 60 and future 60 years, the ASSA ABLOY
Security Professionals Showroom will be on site to show you the latest in
security technology.
The ASSA ABLOY Security Professionals Showroom (SPS) is the latest addition to the ASSA ABLOY fleet of mobile innovation showrooms and displays products from 5 different group brands: Adams Rite, Arrow, HES, Medeco, and Securitron. Offering hands-on time with ASSA ABLOY's newest products, during the SPS tours you will preview the newest product innovations from ASSA ABLOY including
The ASSA ABLOY Security Professionals Showroom (SPS) is the latest addition to the ASSA ABLOY fleet of mobile innovation showrooms and displays products from 5 different group brands: Adams Rite, Arrow, HES, Medeco, and Securitron. Offering hands-on time with ASSA ABLOY's newest products, during the SPS tours you will preview the newest product innovations from ASSA ABLOY including
- Full suite of Arrow Revolution
which are aesthetically pleasing Touch Screen Locks, with voice guided
programming
- Arrow levers with classroom
intruder function for K12 applications
- Medeco's Smart High Security
Solutions with patented key control
- Fire, outdoor, and windstorm
rated solutions
- Stand alone Medeco loss and
liability products that retrofits existing hardware
- Smart magnalocks with
integrated camera and motion detector from Securitron
- New electrification options for
aluminum storefront doors by Adams Rite
- ASSA ABOY latest product Aperio
which provides real-time wireless access control with audit trail
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Will You Be the Next Victim of Crime? Your Odds Just Increased
CNN Justice: " Supreme
Court won't delay release of California inmates"
For those readers who follow my blog you know my intent is not to promote our business, but with the impending release of 10,000 prisoner's I would be remiss to ignore passing along this information.
Thousands who have not completed their terms have already been released from L.A. county jails ( over 23,000) and county officials say some have been convicted of violent crimes. Statistics show that 99% of these felons will be back in jail with 3 years.
With that said, will your family, home or business be victim to the resulting crime that sends them back? For all of us, our odds just increased!
For heaven sake, I don't care who you call ( actually I do) but you can no longer wait to install high secruity locks or keep your head in the sand. Your Alarm is your second line of defense not your first.
It is easy to be numb to warnings of disaster but like a hurricane warning will you be the one who waits for the tree to fall on you before you act?
We may be in the Security business but we are human beings who care first!
Protecting what you most Value,
Vikki Flam
For those readers who follow my blog you know my intent is not to promote our business, but with the impending release of 10,000 prisoner's I would be remiss to ignore passing along this information.
Thousands who have not completed their terms have already been released from L.A. county jails ( over 23,000) and county officials say some have been convicted of violent crimes. Statistics show that 99% of these felons will be back in jail with 3 years.
With that said, will your family, home or business be victim to the resulting crime that sends them back? For all of us, our odds just increased!
For heaven sake, I don't care who you call ( actually I do) but you can no longer wait to install high secruity locks or keep your head in the sand. Your Alarm is your second line of defense not your first.
It is easy to be numb to warnings of disaster but like a hurricane warning will you be the one who waits for the tree to fall on you before you act?
We may be in the Security business but we are human beings who care first!
Protecting what you most Value,
Vikki Flam
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Increase in Crime and Sherman Oaks and 11 other areas
STOP AND READ ME-YOU ARE WORTH IT!
It is Vikki again and most of you know that my blog is usually not intended to promote Flam's Lock and key, however today is different and here are the reasons:
Yesterday I received a neighborhood crime alert from Public Safety First that reported a significant increase in violent and property crimes in Sherman Oaks and 11 other areas. This is for the period July 14 through July 20.
I was pleased to get the alert but when I read this I was once again concerned as as your security expert because that the article advised visiting Public Safety First for information on how to make your neighborhood safer.
I have blogged before on the importance of knowing that we are the security professionals, not the police, not big box store employees or scam locksmiths.
It is OUR job to keep abreast of over 2,000 security products, including high security locks and to know that it is the entire door that provides security, not just your lock. It is our job to protect what you most value and that your
pysical security (not our alarms) is the first line of defense.
It is your job to keep your head above the sand and to know who to call BEFORE you need a security professional and not after. Crime will only get worse when prisoners are released. It is also your job to shop integrity and not price as integrity ensures the best price, not to mention you don't want to hand your keys to a stranger.
Flam's has been blessed to be a part of Sherman Oaks and the rest of the Valley for over 60 years and 3 generations and simply and perhaps corney we just care!
Whether it is to scedule a goup security event or upgrade your home or business security just know we have an educated team to protect what you most value.
Yours in Security,
Vikki
It is Vikki again and most of you know that my blog is usually not intended to promote Flam's Lock and key, however today is different and here are the reasons:
Yesterday I received a neighborhood crime alert from Public Safety First that reported a significant increase in violent and property crimes in Sherman Oaks and 11 other areas. This is for the period July 14 through July 20.
I was pleased to get the alert but when I read this I was once again concerned as as your security expert because that the article advised visiting Public Safety First for information on how to make your neighborhood safer.
I have blogged before on the importance of knowing that we are the security professionals, not the police, not big box store employees or scam locksmiths.
It is OUR job to keep abreast of over 2,000 security products, including high security locks and to know that it is the entire door that provides security, not just your lock. It is our job to protect what you most value and that your
pysical security (not our alarms) is the first line of defense.
It is your job to keep your head above the sand and to know who to call BEFORE you need a security professional and not after. Crime will only get worse when prisoners are released. It is also your job to shop integrity and not price as integrity ensures the best price, not to mention you don't want to hand your keys to a stranger.
Flam's has been blessed to be a part of Sherman Oaks and the rest of the Valley for over 60 years and 3 generations and simply and perhaps corney we just care!
Whether it is to scedule a goup security event or upgrade your home or business security just know we have an educated team to protect what you most value.
Yours in Security,
Vikki
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