2025 Fire & Life Safety Industry Report: Trends for Enterprise-Level Businesses

We’re pleased to announce the 2025 Fire & Life Safety Industry Report is now available to download.

We launched the first version of this report in 2024 to highlight some of the trends and challenges fire professionals are seeing within the industry. We cast our net even wider for the 2025 edition, surveying more than 400 fire professionals to gain a deeper understanding of what’s happening in our field.

We noticed two things right off the bat: First, a quarter of respondents were from mid- to large-sized companies (with 101-250 employees). Second, while many who completed the survey were Inspect Point users, 36% were not. This gives us a good look at the industry from the vantage point of firms that have modernized and others that are sticking to more traditional methods like paper and spreadsheets.

In this article, we’re taking a deeper dive into the report’s insights around those mid-to-large businesses—and how technology can help them grow even more.

Customer Acquisition Boils Down to Proposals

How much does time impact your customer acquisition?

A lot.

You’ve heard the term “time is money,” but we’d like to introduce something new: “time is customers.” The data shows us that the more time a company spends building and sending proposals, the lower their proposal acceptance rate becomes.

For example:

• Businesses that spent an average of 105 minutes on each proposal had an 11%-20% acceptance rate.
• Businesses that spent an average of 143 minutes per proposal had a 1%-10% acceptance rate.

 

Meanwhile, businesses that spent an average of 60 minutes on their proposals had a 41%-50% acceptance rate, while those who spent an average of 74 minutes saw proposal acceptance rates of over 51%.

The big takeaway is that a fast, accurate proposal is key to securing more jobs and additional customers. But why are proposals taking so long? There’s something to be said for communication overall, as 40% of field service managers surveyed reported regularly hearing customer complaints about poor communication and slow response times. But we think there’s something else afoot.

We’ve built a scenario plenty of fire inspection firms will probably recognize: An inspection team identifies a deficiency. They get a report to the service team. The service team creates a proposal by manually inputting information. 

That’s all time-consuming, and it points to another issue:

Paper.

Yes, Enterprise-Level Businesses Still Use Paper (Sometimes)

Twenty-nine percent of mid-sized businesses reported that managing paper records and documents was a serious challenge. This isn’t necessarily a surprise; the industry has long been resistant to change, and paper, to be fair, went a couple of thousand years as the dominant way to keep any kind of record. We’re committed to helping the fire inspection industry modernize and embrace technology, but we know it will take time.

With that said, turning to pen and paper poses its own hazards to almost any business. Handwritten documentation creates its own unique workflow, often starting with a technician’s writing—how often have you squinted at a bunch of squiggles and wondered what they were trying to convey?—and causing problems down the line as it is used to make estimates, work orders, invoices, and more. There are just too many places where information can be misinterpreted or incorrectly entered.

But here’s where it gets really interesting: only 25% of the aforementioned companies having trouble with paper were actually exclusively using pen and paper and/or spreadsheets to manage their inspection and/or service operations. In other words, three-fourths of the fire inspection companies that have made the switch to software are still having paper problems.

So, where are the paper jams coming from? 

We are likely looking at a subsection of companies that have modernized but still use paper as a stopgap in some areas. Specialized software often doesn’t play well with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to the extent that businesses may be transferring important information to paper so that it can be entered in one application or another—and then dealing with the problems that reliance on paper can involve.

The right software will help your fire inspection company grow, but we know it helps if said software can get along with your existing ERP. Inspection Point integrates with a number of popular tools, and we’re always partnering with more. We also have an open API that you can tailor to work with your existing tools. 

Additionally, the proposal problem above—along with paper issues—is easily solved by switching to software like Inspect Point. When you’re on the Inspect Point platform, your techs input information as they finish inspections, and that data is instantly transferred to the team building proposals. Once said proposals are accepted, creating a work order is just another click of the button. Everything gets done faster, and really, everyone’s happier.

Hiring Remains Priority #1

The industry still faces a considerable shortage of technicians, with 75% of companies with at least 101 employees calling staffing a serious challenge.

What does this mean for the current group of fire inspection technicians?

They may find themselves saddled with heavier workloads, leading to less thorough inspections and a host of emerging safety issues. On top of that, too much work on any one person’s plate can lead to burnout and even an eventual departure from the industry, further shrinking the pool.

With that said, retention appears solid at the moment, with only 7% of overall respondents stating employee turnover was causing problems. But without changes, the fire inspection industry may be looking at further contraction down the years as techs retire and the pool of newcomers does not grow. 

We believe the key to that change is modernization. While Inspect Point can’t hire technicians for you, it can turn your business into a streamlined, well-oiled operation—making it attractive to industry veterans and newcomers alike. 

Our platform automates scheduling, reporting, and customer management tasks. It generates proposals and allows customers to accept them digitally. All that time owners and managers might be spending jumping between applications or trying to translate gibberish on a Post-It winds up back in their hands. What do they do with that time? 

They develop training programs and focus on marketing. They build and strengthen relationships with new and existing customers. In other words, they grow the business.

What Other Challenges Does the Industry Face?

While we focused on mid-to-large businesses in this article, the actual report focuses on businesses of all sizes. It contains data around the aforementioned hiring, communication, and paper challenges, as well as a deeper dive into how companies collect payment, how they’re structured, technician pay, and revenue outlook, among others. 

It’s a free report, so go ahead and download it to read when you’ve got a few minutes.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to champion technology and all the benefits it can bring to the fire inspection field. A more modern and streamlined business isn’t just good for owners and employees—it means swifter, more thorough inspections that improve safety for all.