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If the real estate agent is to survive and thrive in the near future, the agent must remain in the middle of the real estate transaction. This can only be achieved if the consumer of real estate services is convinced that the agent is bringing a valuable benefit to that consumer. One way to produce such a benefit is for the agent to provide a wide selection of services to the consumer when and where the consumer wants them delivered. To the degree that these services result from combining firsthand, in-the-field experience with compiled database information in order to give meaning, depth and significance to such information they will be perceived by the consumer to have value provided, however, that the agent (and therefore, the reformatted, packaged information) is readily accessible to the consumer. Last month we looked at how the notebook computer, because of its portability and superior computing power, facilitated our ability to provide information to the consumer pretty much when and where they wanted it, as long as we had connectivity via phone lines. But is the consumer willing to wait for us to "plug in?" The answer to that question can be found in the answer to this question: "Is the consumer willing to wait for us to get to a land-line telephone in order to communicate with us? Of course not. Today's real estate agents carry cellular telephones and pagers so that their customers, clients, office staff, other agents, lenders, title companies, personal assistants and others can communicate with them, and vice versa, almost instantly. If we understand that in order to satisfy consumer expectations, tomorrow's agent is going to have to be a mobile, virtual office and that voice communication (i.e. "telephone" or "telephone-like") is just one part of that virtual office, then we can begin to understand the necessity to incorporate the characteristic of mobility into the other areas of our virtual office. And whenever we're talking "mobility" we must by definition be speaking of wireless communications. Wireless communications (as the term is currently used in connection with the real estate industry, and excluding program radio and television transmissions) can be grouped into three basic categories: Cellular voice, Data, and Paging. Cellular voice communications are the most familiar to us, since we utilize this type of wireless communication through our cellular telephones. Wireless Data Communications fall into three sub-types: circuit-switched data, cellular digital packet data ("CDPD") and Hybrid CDPD service. Finally, Paging services tend to be either numeric or alphanumeric (also called "text" paging). Soon, however, paging will also be categorized as either one-way or two-way paging. As you can see, existing categories tend to be based primarily upon what is being transmitted and the method of such transmission. However, the lines are getting blurry as in the example of cellular telephones that are now being equipped for digital transmission. Such phones can be plugged in to a notebook computer utilizing a special cable in order to receive data such as fax and e-mail transmissions. Once done, the phone is simply unplugged and used again as a cellular phone. Suffice to say that whatever the technological differences in transmission methodologies, devices exist and will most likely continue to be developed to combine the features necessary to transmit information in whatever forms the marketplace requires. This leads us to the point where we must ask, "How can wireless communication capabilities assist us in providing our services to meet the expectations of our customers and clients?" If we agree that today's consumers are more sophisticated and more assertive than at any time in the past, and that these consumers want timely, accurate information when and where they need it in order to make prudent decisions, then the answer to our question may very well lie in looking at what we're offering today that isn't exactly responsive to the consumer's needs. For instance, if you look at a typical business card of an active, full-time agent you are likely to see a catalog of phone numbers. There is the office phone, also perhaps a "direct line" at the office, a fax phone number, voice-mail number, and probably a home phone number. On the surface this would appear to be telling the consumer, "I'm reachable. You can communicate with me!" To the consumer, however, this can also be interpreted as "Catch me if you can." In fact, one of the complaints most often heard from consumers concerning their real estate agent is that they have difficulty getting in touch with the agent (or can't get the agent to return calls). Wouldn't it be more convenient for the consumer if there were only one phone number on the card, and it could be used whether the consumer was telephoning, faxing, or e-mailing the agent at home or at the office? This capability exists today. One number which is assigned to an intelligent electronic mail box, is all that is really needed. If the incoming call is a voice-phone call, it is not only identified as such but can also be routed to the home or office based upon a preset program or a dynamic change entered on the run. Likewise, a fax is recognized as such and either routed to a predetermined fax destination, or stored until you wish to retrieve it on whatever fax machine is handy at the moment. The same type of flexibility exists to handle e-mail transmissions. You can be notified (via pager) that an e-mail message has been received (some pagers can even display the Subject line of the e-mail message) and you can then either have it transmitted to your notebook computer directly (or to a pager that plugs in to your notebook computer where the e-mail message is then assembled, downloaded and displayed) or send it to a fax machine where the e-mail is printed. This type of unified, flexible, intelligent messaging not only enables the real estate agent to receive a variety of different communications in the most efficient manner given the circumstances, it also provides the customer or client with the greatest ease and choice of communication mechanisms to fit what they're doing at the time. If the consumer is on-line at their computer and happens to think of a question regarding a proposed transaction, the consumer can simply send an e-mail message to their agent. However, when will the e-mail be received and viewed by that agent? E-mail is great provided one checks it regularly and even then, unless you remain OnLine all the time there is a time lag between the instant transmission and the eventual retrieval of the message. However, if the e-mail is received, automatically forwarded to the electronic mailbox, then relayed to a pager that informs the recipient of its arrival and the subject, then a much more timely response or acknowledgment to the sender becomes not only feasible but a commonplace occurrence. There is yet another application of unified wireless messaging that is not quite available now but which will most assuredly become available in the very near future, involving MLS data. If we begin with the premise that any application you can achieve utilizing a telephone land line, you can also achieve via wireless communication (whether it is a special device built-in to the notebook computer, a digitally equipped cellular telephone attached by special cable, or some other "wireless" device interfacing with the computer), then it follows that we should not only be able to access the MLS via wireless communication, but the MLS should also be able to access us, just like an incoming cellular phone call. Further, if the incoming transmission goes to our intelligent, unified, flexible electronic mailbox we have a variety of notification options. If our notebook computer is on, we may very well have an icon or dialog box pop up on the screen informing us we have an incoming MLS transmission (price change or new listing pertinent to an entered prospect, perhaps). If we are not "on-line" we may very well receive a pager message that an incoming MLS message is waiting to be retrieved. In summary then, the key to the real estate agent's ability to bring added value to the transaction is the ability of the agent to spend time in the field gathering and accumulating firsthand knowledge in order to apply it to the analysis, formatting, and packaging of database information so that the client can use it to make prudent decisions. And in order to do this without diminishing the accessibility of the agent or the providing of services that have typically been available only at fixed locations such as the agent's office or home, the agent is going to have to have the ability to remain connected while in the field. This mobile connectivity is achieved through wireless communications capabilities interfacing with the information management and communication tools of our trade. |
