Not All My Clients Are Tech Savvy
I don't expect all my clients to be technology wizards. Some of them are far from it. From time to time, we encounter a client who doesn't own a smartphone, a laptop or a tablet computer, who lacks the ability to send text messages or email. These clients may be living on a fixed income, or they may just choose not to spend their money on technology items. Some folks prefer "snail mail" and their perfectly good plain-Jane phone, without any Internet capability.
I know agents in urban and suburban areas who will poke fun at a consumer or client who lacks tech skills. I'll admit that I've been frustrated at times by quasi-Luddite consumers myself. But over the years, I've become much more forgiving of tech-averse folks for a number of reasons.
I find it far more annoying to realize that there are many real estate agents who aren't exactly tech experts themselves. I expect a real estate agent to be technology-aware and technology-literate, to offer consumers multiple ways to communicate, including email and text messaging capabilities. I also expect other agents to know how to scan and send a document into Adobe .pdf format, or know how to use a product like DocuSign to transmit electronic signatures.
For some consumers, the presence of the latest and best tech tools in their home is unnecessary and expensive, unless they happen to have a home-based business. This explains why many people are still using antiquated fax machines that churn out grainy, hard-to-read faxed documents.
Another problem for some consumers is the mediocre-to-bad broadband service and annoyingly-slow internet connection speeds that you'll find in many rural and semi-rural areas across the United States. What good is it for a consumer to order a smartphone or tablet computer or other Web-enabled device if they can't a decent wireless signal in their area?
For example, I buy and use electonic lockboxes for my office in the Minneapolis - Saint Paul metro area. But using and updating those lockboxes requires a decent Internet signal. My electronic lockboxes are pretty much worthless in northwestern Wisconsin, where cell service is marginal to nonexistent.
If you have no regular need for Web-enabled devices, there's no reason you'd be expected to own them. And if those devices lack the capability to make your life easier, due to the absence of cellphone towers or fiber optic cables, why would you buy them?
It seems to me that the technology gap between those who are increasingly skilled at using technology and those who have no tech skills is widening rapidly. There are certainly other factors in that technology gap, including age, income and population density. But regardless of the factors behind that gap, real estate agents have an obligation to serve everyone. And in some instances, that means searching for a way to serve the client who is not tech-savvy.
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