Do’s And Don’ts In Responding To A Clothing Alarm Part 1

 

You may be considering the important decision to invest in Checkpoint tags to prevent the theft of clothes from your store. If you do decide to take this important step you will certainly make your store more profitable. But did you know that there is more to do once electronic article surveillance antennas are installed and you have placed security tags on clothes?  In order to have an effective plan for clothing security you will need to train employees on how to properly respond to alarm activations. I have been involved with Retail Loss Prevention for a long time and I have witnessed positive and negative results from EAS alarms based on how employees respond to those alarms. When a store has an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) system installed the company will provide initial training but it is incumbent on the store to conduct ongoing training to its employees.  In this article I will be addressing the DO’s and DON’Ts of EAS alarm response when security tags on clothes trigger an alarm.
     

Let’s begin the discussion with a review of what clothing security tags are and how they work. Checkpoint tags for clothes are designed to be pinned to clothing and only removed with a special detachment key. Any attempt to forcibly remove the tags or pry them off of a garment damages the product and undermines the reason someone would steal the merchandise in the first place. Clothing security tags are designed and built to emit a radio frequency signal that can be picked up by an EAS antenna when carried within the receiving range of the antenna. Once carried into that range or field a tag will cause the antenna to sound an alarm. It is this alarm that employees respond to in order to recover merchandise. There are times when the alarm itself is enough to cause a criminal to drop the item they were going to steal. In many instances it is how effectively an employee responds to the alarm that determines whether merchandise is recovered.
     

I mentioned that my point in writing this is that there are proper ways to respond to a clothing alarm and there are certainly ways NOT to respond. Employees get initial training when a system is installed and after that it is up to the store owner or supervisors to conduct ongoing training.  It is important to train correctly and these are my tips.
     

DON’Ts to EAS alarm responses:

• Don’t approach the person with an accusatory tone or aggressive stance.  Aggressive attitudes tend to elicit a similar response which can escalate a situation.

• Don’t automatically take a person’s bag, purse or backpack from them.  

• Don’t accuse someone of trying to steal, even if a receipt check or bag inspection results in recovering merchandise.

• Don’t assume that if garments have Checkpoint tags on them that they have been stolen.  The receipt check could reveal the cashier failed to remove clothing security tags.

• Don’t make a scene.

• Don’t stand in front of the person with whom you are interacting. If they are stealing they may stop for an alarm, however if they feel you are finding something they may assume you are going to put them in jail and they may try to run. You could be pushed out of the way, possibly getting injured in the process.

• If you make a recovery due to a clothing alarm, don’t follow the suspect into the parking lot to get a tag number from the car. I have seen people back all the way to the end of a parking lot, endangering other drivers in order to avoid their license plate number being seen.

 

In part 2 I will be discussing the steps an employee should DO in the event of a clothing alarm. The old saying goes that you attract more flies with honey than vinegar, and the same principle applies to recovering merchandise when Checkpoint tags sets off an EAS antenna alarm. Train employees on proper responses to alarms and see how much your clothing security can pay off.

 

Clothing security is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.