Here are two essential things a shop owner must tell any new security guards they hire.
They should show them the products that shoplifters have targeted in the past
When showing the new security guard around their shop, the owner should point out the products that shoplifters have chosen to steal in the past. This is important, as whilst many people assume that shoplifters will always aim to steal a shop's most expensive goods, in reality, they may opt for cheaper items that are, for example, in a corner of the shop that the staff at the checkouts cannot see, or they might target products that can they can easily resell on the black market.
If they're told which products the owner has noticed people stealing in the past, the security guard will then know which areas of the shop they need to keep an extra-close eye on and will understand that they need to subtly monitor any customers who pick up these items and keep them in their baskets whilst browsing. The shop owner in this situation should also update their security guard whenever they reposition these particular products (for example, if they place these goods in special display cases when they're on sale) so that the security guard is aware that they must observe them in this new location, as soon as this repositioning happens.
They should tell them what signals they have instructed their other staff to use to indicate that there's a shoplifter present
Sometimes, simply because of where an employee happens to be working in the shop when a thief starts stealing items, they may notice this incident before the shop's security guard does. Because a security guard is trained to de-escalate and, if necessary, safely apprehend criminals, they should be the one to approach the shoplifter. However, if the staff shout over to the security guard, the shoplifter will obviously realise that they have been noticed and may then get aggressive or escape through the shop's nearest exit.
Given this, it is best for the staff to subtly signal to the security guard that a security incident is occurring so that the latter has a chance to reach the shoplifter before they escape. As such, the shop owner might, for example, prefer to have their staff say a code word or sentence over the shop's intercom system when an incident is occurring. For instance, they may have agreed to use the word 'orange juice' as a code for 'shoplifter' so that when there is a shoplifter on aisle 10, their staff can say something like 'Orange juice replenishment is required on aisle 10'. It's crucial for the shop owner to share this code word with the new security guard so that they know that when they hear it, they need to rush to the named aisle and deal with the thief.
Contact a local security guard service to learn more.
Share1 March 2021
At work we do lots of work on making sure the office stays safe. I try and teach some of those same lessons to the kids, like making sure we don't leave windows and doors open and that we lock the car doors when we come into the house. I don't want my kids to grow up paranoid, but I know it's much easier to maintain our home security if all of these little checks are automatic. I am keeping a track of all of the things I am teaching my kids about security on the site - and working out which lessons actually sink in! Read on and see how I'm going.