Fitness is now available to Monitronics employees all day, every day.

The exercise room has moved to first floor two doors down from the Ouachita Conference Room and includes a treadmill, elliptical machine, two balance balls, work-out and walking videos, stretch bands, hand weights, and a scale. An air bike and recumbent bike will be delivered by Monday and there’s a new Wii Fit that can be checked out from the loss prevention desk on the first floor of the main tower (you’ll need to sign a waiver of liability before checking it out).

This is part of the commitment by the company to help employees meet fitness goals and stay in shape and is one piece of a wellness initiative called “MI Health.”

“MI Health is a targeted strategy to promote a healthy and dynamic work environment [since] part of our company mission is ‘to provide our Monitronics’ team with a positive and fulfilling work environment,’” said Sherrie O’Keefe, director of human resources. “We believe that MI Health will help create an even stronger work environment than we enjoy today.”

As part of MI Health, O’Keefe is sending out an employee survey next week to obtain information about what employees would like included in the program. There is a whole pallet of possibilities and O’Keefe said she wants to start with those that Monitronics employees most want implemented.

‘Tis the season to be a good neighbor and Monitronics is donating $10,000 to eight local charities. Each year, the Monitronics Christmas committee divvies up the funds and these are the recipients this year:

* Dallas VA Medical Center: $2,000
* Farmers Branch Elementary School: $2,000
* Metrocrest Social Services: $700
* North Texas Food Bank: $900
* Little Elm Area Food Bank: $900
* Irving Cares: $2,000
* SoupMobile: $1,000
* The Carrollton Health & Rehabilitation Center: $500 in gifts for the patients.

In addition, human resources donated $1,500 to AMVETS and tech support donated $1,250 in drills to Habitat for Humanity.

Every company of every size deals with customer complaints.  When you Google Monitronics, you’ll notice that we’re not immune to unhappy customers expressing their frustrations.  And we don’t want customer’s to be silent, because what makes the difference is how Monitronics helps customers. Responding to customer concerns is important to us.  That’s not “I want your business” lip service either.  Just ask Esther Curiel of Austin, Texas.  She gave a poor review on the Monitronics Facebook fan page.  Here’s part of what she said:

“I wish i could say that i’m a fan of yours, but i can’t….i just want you to fix the alarm system i paid for. I dont want to have to pay all these BS charges you’re tacking on for your mistake. I want my children to be safe. That’s all. Good customer service goes a long way. There are a lot of social networking sites out there. Word of mouth goes a long way too. Do the right thing guys.”

It’s not that Esther posted something on Facebook or Twitter that got our attention. It was Esther’s perception of Monitronics and the fact that her security system needed work. We value our reputation and want our customers to enjoy their Monitronics alarm monitoring service. We understand. We make mistakes. But we also strive to make them right. Here’s what happened with Esther once we made contact with her and asked how we could make the situation right.

“You guys direct messaged me back [on Twitter] and asked what had happened and what you could do to help, so I told you what was wrong with my alarm. You got back to me and went step by step the whole way with me. You sent someone out a couple of days later—he did a great job and was really nice.  You could work on the courtesy of the initial customer service experience, [but] you all did a fantastic job and everything went smoothly.”

Thank you, Esther. This is the heart of Monitronics and is our core values in action. We strive to get it right the first time and when we don’t, we want to hear from you. Check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/monitronics or our Twitter page at www.twitter.com/monitronics and let us know how we are doing with your account. We want to know. We want to help make your situation right as best possible.  Outcomes like Esther’s may not always happen, but we’ll do our best.