You don’t want to hit the hold-up alarm or panic button for every customer raising their voice. You know from experience that most situations are the result of frustration, hard days, and customers who don’t know how to process their anger and so do it with employees who can’t argue back. Even so, some of these situations can still escalate. A customer doesn’t know when to stop, or an employee gets triggered and engages in escalating the situation. Good security, including a CCTV camera system, can help reduce both incidence and escalation.

People Behave Differently with Cameras

When people know they’re being watched or recorded, they tend to use a different set of behavioral guidelines. Part of this is thinking twice before acting out. The other part of it is performative. People behave slightly differently when they have an audience and may be more receptive or thoughtful to suggestions from others regarding their behavior. Of course, part of this relies in holding a home field advantage. It’s your place of business, so the crowd is yours, so to speak.

Security & Insurance

We don’t want to live in a world where everything is watched, but it does make a lot of sense to be able to watch your own business. The primary reason to get a CCTV camera system is still so that you’ll have evidence of trespassers, thieves, shoplifters, or in the worst-case scenario, robbers.

CCTV cameras also useful when it comes to insurance purposes. You’ll likely pay a reduced premium if you have one. Not only this, but insurance claims for theft and other crimes are made much easier by having recorded evidence.

Behavioral Deterrents

Back to our first point, however, CCTV cameras can remind customers to be responsive and less confrontational. Most people don’t like the idea of their bad behavior being evidenced. You shouldn’t call the CCTV system out. The best challenge to a customer is still, “Can I help you find something?” It redirects rather than forcing the customer to play on the defensive. That’s how a deterrent works most effectively – simply be being present and changing the nature of the situation, rather than in directly creating confrontation.