Background

Merchants Security Service has been a trusted security partner in Dayton, Ohio since 1901. A family-owned business for four generations, Merchants Security is known for its strong ties to the community and its commitment to safety and service. Under the leadership of Jim Houpt, the company has navigated more than a century of change in the security industry.

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Challenges

Even with a stellar local reputation, Jim was feeling stuck.

• Clunky, Outdated Software: The company’s 13-year-old platform was so unintuitive that Jim himself refused to use it. “It was too hard to get the reports I needed—if the owner doesn’t want to touch it, that’s a real problem,” he shared.
  
  
• Overtime That Ate Into Margins: Overtime had crept up to nearly 10%, with no real tools to diagnose where it was coming from or how to stop it.
  
  
• Employee Stress and Turnover Risk: Officers lacked clear, real-time schedules and communication tools, making their jobs harder and adding friction that could lead to burnout and turnover.
  
  
• Inability to Scale: Without reliable data, Jim had no way to confidently pursue growth opportunities. “We actually paused our growth because we didn’t want to take on more until we knew we were solid,” he explained.
  
  

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The Decision to Change

Jim’s search for a better solution began unexpectedly, sparked by watching his own son easily navigate modern apps. “I thought, if a kid can do this for onboarding, why can’t my team have tools this easy?” he said.

When Jim found Belfry, he was intrigued by the modern, mobile-first approach. After demos and in-depth conversations with Belfry’s founder, Jordan Wallach, Jim decided to take the leap, despite Belfry’s status as a newer player in the market.

“It was a leap of faith, but it paid off,” Jim said. “Belfry was always honest about what they could do and when, and they delivered every time.”

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Solutions

A Platform Everyone Can Use

Unlike the clunky legacy system, Belfry felt intuitive and straightforward, like a consumer-grade app rather than a piece of industrial software. This meant:

• Officers adopted it quickly, with minimal training.
  
  
• Managers felt empowered to use the data, not just tolerate it.
  
  
• Jim himself could jump in and understand exactly what was happening – no more feeling out of touch.

“It’s like using a banking app. There was no learning curve, just common sense,” Jim shared.

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Real-Time Data: No More Profitability Blind Spots

Before Belfry, overtime was a mystery – nearly 10% of total hours with no clear root cause. Worse, Jim had no real visibility into whether certain clients were good or bad for business.

The old software system offered no meaningful reports. It was hard to use and impossible to customize. As a result, Jim and his team were reactive instead of proactive. They didn’t know if a client was costing them money instead of making it. They couldn’t easily see how many hours were going unbilled, or if a site’s overtime was a short-term blip or a structural problem.

When they switched to Belfry, that changed overnight. Belfry’s intuitive dashboards and live data gave Jim actionable visibility into:

• Which accounts had persistent overtime problems.
  
  
• Which officers were clocking excessive hours that threatened margins.
  
  
• Which clients were draining resources instead of adding to the bottom line.
  
  

Armed with these insights, Jim made a bold move: he fired their third-largest client. It was a $750,000/year account that, as it turned out, was eating up more resources than it was worth.

“Belfry showed us exactly what was going on,” Jim said. “We realized we were bending over backwards for a client who just wasn’t profitable. It was scary to let them go, but within three months, we had replaced all that revenue and added another $1.2 million in new sales.”

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Seamless Communication & Officer Empowerment

Belfry also transformed how Merchants Security’s officers work:

• Instant schedule updates and location-based check-ins reduced stress and confusion.
  
  
• Automated alerts if an officer didn’t check in, enabling fast response and client reassurance.
  
  
• Officers felt more in the loop and respected—key to retention in a high-turnover industry.

“If people are stressed and uncomfortable, they leave. Belfry has reduced that stress for our team,” Jim said.

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A Partnership for Long-Term Growth

For Jim, Belfry isn’t just a vendor, it’s a trusted partner. Regular calls with the Belfry team allow Merchants Security to help shape future updates and share feedback.

Bigger picture conversations have emerged too, like how regional security firms using Belfry could band together to compete with national providers.

“That’s the kind of big thinking that excites me. Belfry’s always looking at what’s next, and that’s exactly what I want in a partner,” Jim said.

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Results

Overtime Reduced from 10% to 5%
Real-time data and proactive scheduling cut overtime in half – saving about $7,500 every week.

$1.2M in New Business in Three Months
Jim’s team replaced a major unprofitable client and added more than $1.2M in new revenue – proof that hard decisions backed by data pay off.

This shift from gut feelings to data-backed decisions has become a competitive advantage for Merchants Security Service. No longer held back by profitability blind spots, Jim’s team can:

• Identify high-margin opportunities and double down on them.
  
  
• Avoid burnout by proactively managing overtime before it snowballs.
  
  
• Confidently say “no” to clients who threaten long-term sustainability.

It’s a level of financial clarity and operational control they simply didn’t have before—and it’s now a cornerstone of how they run the business every day.

Happier, More Engaged Officers
Clear communication and mobile tools made daily life easier for officers – boosting retention and morale.

Reinforced Client Confidence
Instant alerts and real-time data mean clients always know that Merchants Security has their sites covered.

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Conclusion

For Merchants Security Service, Belfry wasn’t just an upgrade – it was a catalyst for transformation. Jim Houpt put it simply:

“Belfry is the backbone of our company now. We took a leap of faith, and it was the best decision we could have made.”