My heart ached as I, like many of you, watched the tragic news of REALTOR(r) Beverly Carter unfold. Since her heart-rending story, I have now heard of agents planning to only showing homes and hosting open houses with a buddy, going forward. I have seen many offices revisit and revamp safety procedures. There has been a renewed quest to be armed with some form of protection, whether a lawful taser gun, pepper spray or a firearm. I have also witnessed many agents beefing up the apps on their cell phones and other mobile devices to be more easily found in a time of distress.
I believe these things are all important but as we all know, it only takes the ONE time that we did not have a buddy with us, we leave our phone in the car, our taser device was forgotten at home or we missed one of the steps to our realty firm's safety policy. My brain began to rattle as I pondered what is an additional measure to protect the safety of fellow agents, both men and women. Eureka! I think there is an additional way that we can all use to take even better precautions.
Google Glass eyewear, the various Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatchs and the soon-coming Apple Watch are all wearable devices that can promote efficiency in business due to their hands-free technology that savvily use cameras and voice commands to function. But as real estate agents, we can use such devices beyond business administration and parlay them into the very devices that can help keep us safe.
This is particularly true because for many, wearing a watch becomes a seemingly permanent fixture on our bodies - we feel naked without it so this can naturally become an indispensable smart gadget that we truly never leave home, car, or office without.
Here are just a couple of ways on how wearable smart devices can help:
1. Subtle Way to Stay Connected to the Outside World
Walking into a real estate property alone can many times be like walking into an abyss that has cut you off from the outside world so it is important to use technology to stay connected. You can wear a smartwatch that is hidden by your suit jacket sleeve. Also, you can rest a pair of Google Glass smartglasses atop your head like they are the latest styled sunglasses, that can in many cases go undetected by a predator, especially if you have enough hair that can cover the lense. Of course, in a time of distress you will want to flip those bad-boys down to make sure the camera is not obstructed by hair.
2. Shrewd, Virtually Indetectable Way to Alert Others
With these smartwatches and smartglasses, we can discreetly send pictures and even video to our office, family and the police if needed. No need to search and fumble for or take out a clunky phone or mobile tablet. These wearable smart devices let us make calls or send messages with little detection from a possible assailant with just taps of our fingers or voice commands. For example, instead of programming your office number as "ABC Realty" program it as "Water Leak" or some other organic term that you might say during a home showing that would signal your wearable device to call your office (or whomever is your first resort) if there are signs of something or someone shady.
3. Wearable GPS Locator
Have you ever hurriedly hopped out of your car, accidentally leaving behind your cell phone or tablet device? I sure have! Maybe its because you have what feels like a zillion things to do and your mind is off on the next task. Well, even in those instances our safety should not be the first casualty of being a little scattered. We can be better tracked by our loved ones in the off chance that we leave our cell phone in the car, on the kitchen counter in the home being shown or the attacker steals it with these potentially less noticeable, wearable tech gadgets.
Sidebar: I wish our REALTOR(r) lapel pins and name tags had cameras with the ability to make calls and send messages too (really putting us in the Star Trek age) - a girl can dream!
The holidays are approaching so let's give ourselves the gift of safety. Instead of opting for the next phone in our favorite brand's series (that probably will only offer miniscule changes from our current smartphones especially if you are a serial phone upgrader like me :-/), let's opt for a wearable smart device that just may save our lives while still helping us to effectively manage our real estate sales and businesses on the go.
Follow me on Google+ to see my tech tips every Tuesday. Here's to your success!
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