BY ADT

As the year finally draws to a close, many of us have hopefully made plans to get away for the holiday season. Whether you’re going away, if you’re working, or just staying at home this December you need to make sure you are ready for a safer end to the year. Below are a few items many customers often leave these to the last minute, or forget about them completely:

• Not testing your alarm in advance to make sure everything is in working order
• Waiting until the last minute to have your alarm serviced 
• Not informing your security company when you go away on holiday
• Not updating your customer profile, especially keyholder information and other holiday instructions
• Not notifying your neighbours, neighbourhood watch or residents’ association that you are going away

Alarm testing
Fidelity ADT recommends testing your alarm system at least once a month. You test your alarm by phoning our control room and requesting that your alarm is placed into test mode. You can ask the operator to explain the process to you. You should do this at least a month before you go on holiday in case your alarm is faulty and needs any repairs.

Service calls

Your alarm system is like your car; it needs to be cleaned, maintained and serviced regularly. This is to prevent dust, insects, rodents or faulty equipment from causing your alarm to malfunction. If you test your alarm regularly you will easily know when something is malfunctioning and can book a service call in time. We’d love to help you a day before you go, but we’re usually fully booked in advance.

Holiday instructions

When you go on holiday, it is important to ensure that your security company knows you are not there. They also need to know if anyone will be staying at your house or if you have someone coming to your home regularly to check up on things – we need to know who to expect at your home. It is also important to make sure your contacts are updated – if we need to phone your cousin Bob, we need to know.

Updating information

Up-to-date customer information is vitally important for our reaction officers to make sure that we can get in touch with the correct people, whether for a medical emergency or if you can’t be reached. We also need to know if your puppies have grown up and how you’d like us to enter your property. Remember to contact us to update your customer information.

Tell your friends and neighbours

Your neighbourhood watch, residents’ association, friends, neighbours or family should be told when you are going away. They can help act as additional eyes to watch over your home while you are away and can assist your local security company to identify whether something is not right at your home.