There have been a lot of comments to my blog on the CBS (call before showing) electronic lockboxes. Pam brought up that many agents in her area of Tennessee don't know how to use the code, which has been a horrible problem. Rather than give up using the CBS lockboxes, which offer so much in terms of both appointments and security, we take a proactive approach to the agents who haven't learned to use them.
When we'd ask, "Do you know how to use this code?" the vast majority would say Yes, or Of Course. Part of this response was apparently an ego problem, so we started asking, "Would you like us to review the process with you for using this lockbox?" and get more agents wanting instructions. There are two problems - 1) the agent doesn't know how to input the code into their keypad; and 2) the agent tries to use that 7 digit code instead of their 4 digit personal code in the lockbox. We always suggest that they put the code into their keypad while they're alone in the office or at home, before they are out with clients. Then, they can forget about the code, and open our lockbox exactly the same way that they open every other one.
We'll suggest they input the code into their keypad while we're on the phone - then we can be sure they're doing it step by step. They're excited when they hear the confirming beeps and glad to know how to use them. If they're not showing until the next day, we tell them that we'll keep the same code on the box until the following day (we can change the code whenever we want, for security purposes), and they should repeat this process again the following morning (the permission to use code is disabled in their keypad at midnight every night), which will then be repetitive - and gives them an opportunity to call us again to go over it, before they embarrass themselves in fromt of a client. In several years of using these, we've only had one agent once that none of us could walk through the process, and we referred her to the MLS help line.
