Finding: 70 percent of agents have procedures in place at their offices to safeguard client data.
Real estate professionals know that protecting client data is of the utmost importance, and that fact is made clear with NAR’s finding that almost ¾ of all agents reported having procedures in place to ensure that client information stays out of the wrong hands.
Agents also leverage the ShowingTime Appointment Center to help keep clients safe. With the ShowingTime Appointment Center’s electronic lockbox integration, agents can ensure that only the right people have access to a home. Detailed reporting also makes it possible to share complete historic access information.
As an earlier study noted, agents are increasingly looking to technology to encourage safe, smooth transactions. Of course, we know from the seemingly daily announcements of security breaches that tech can be a double-edged sword, allowing for client data to be captured by the wrong people just as it can keep it secure. That’s why it’s vital that agents do their due diligence in researching technology to ensure that it’s designed to protect its users.
Finding: 53 percent of real estate professionals use a mobile app for the purposes of providing agent location updates or to report an emergency situation.
The next finding again points toward a notable shift in agent adoption of technology to proactively enhance safety, with the response rate up from 47 percent in the 2018 version of the study. Of the available solutions, the iPhone’s Find My iPhone feature was the most commonly used app for the purposes of providing an agent’s location information, with 34 percent of agents saying they use the feature to allow colleagues to track their whereabouts.
Finding: 66 percent of agents report that they follow personal safety protocols with all of their clients.
In another positive finding from the study, the 66 percent of agents who reported that they adhere to safety protocols as they conduct their work represents a four percent increase compared to last year’s results. Clearly, agents are taking their safety to heart, and that’s a good thing for everyone.
As the year begins to draw to a close, now’s the perfect time to consider ways you can enhance your own safety protocols in the year to come. If you’re using a ShowingTime solution to manage your showings, you’re already taking a big step toward ensuring your safety and the safety of your clients; click here to learn a few ways that ShowingTime is helping agents and their clients stay safe.
Are you a real estate agent looking for tools that will help you save time? Learn how the ShowingTime Appointment Center frees up time to allow you to focus on other tasks to grow your business.
