BUYER'SGUIDE PLUS
Technology information to enhance your productivity.

Pagers
MUCH MORE THAN THAT TIMELY BEEP

BY MICHAEL ANTONIAK
It wasn't too long ago that the termspager and beeper could be used interchangeably.

However, with recent advances in paging technology, beeper only begins to describe the functions and features now available in pagers.

The basic paging function--an audible or vibrating alert when someone wants to reach you--remains the common denominator in all paging products. But depending on which model you choose, today’s pagers will also keep track of your calls, alert you to pages you haven’t viewed, or allow you to send and receive messages.

“It’s a simple solution that gives clients and the office a way to reach me whenever they need to,” says broker Emile Cloutier at Gateway Real Estate/Better Homes and Gardens, Ashland, Ore.

A numeric pager, like Cloutier’s Motorola unit, which displays a phone number when someone wants to reach you, may be all you need. But whatever your needs, you can find a pager to match your work style--from wristwatch pagers to ultracompact two-way communications systems complete with microkeyboard. If paging is a secondary requirement, you may also find a cell phone, personal digital assistant, or notebook computer equipped for double duty as a pager.

Most real estate practitioners, however, would sacrifice something else in their mobile arsenal before they’d consider surrendering their pager. In an industry where a timely callback can mean the difference between gaining or losing a potential client, a pager is the de facto standard tool of the trade.

“I might leave the house without my glasses before I’d think of leaving without my pager,” jokes Bernie Ferrone, residential sales specialist with Prudential C. Dan Joyner Co., Greenville, S.C. “I think I could live without my cell phone but not without my pager.”

Ferrone estimates he receives between six and 10 pages each day on his NEC MessageMaker, a numeric pager that alerts him when anyone leaves him a voice mail message at the office.

“I believe in returning phone calls immediately,” he explains. “I think it’s important that people talk to me rather than just leave me a message. I know as soon as someone calls, and I can get back to that person as soon as I'm free.”

For those who want to know more than a phone number, alphanumeric pagers allow callers to leave text messages along with their phone number. Those pagers can also be used to take advantage of paging news services, where available, for updates on the latest headlines, weather, and sports, or stock market activity throughout the day.

Depending on the model, the included text function can range from a cryptic message a few words long to a full-blown letter. For those who want to communicate this way, the pager screen size, maximum message size, and memory are all important considerations.

Better alphanumeric pagers feature an LCD screen with several lines of text display and the memory to accommodate lengthy dispatches. Top-of-the-line pagers add two-way communication capabilities and other options such as voice mail messaging, fax reception, and the sending and receiving of text messages or E-mail.

Rusty Goodman, an independent residential sales specialist with Patterson, REALTORS®, of Tulsa, Okla., relies on an alphanumeric pager he purchased through his local AT&T wireless service provider. “It seems most clients these days want an instant response whenever they call,” he observes. “I carry the pager everywhere. It’s been an awesome tool.”

Its value has as much to do with the capabilities of the pager and paging services as with how Goodman puts them to work for him. Callers can “leave their number, leave a text or voice message, or even download software off the Internet that lets them send messages directly to me,” he says.

On occasion he’s used the paging service as a mobile voice recorder. “If there’s something I need to remember when I’m out of the office, I’ll just call myself and leave a detailed message, which I can retrieve later.”

In fact, he finds that the combination of his pager’s size and the services available through it makes it practical to carry his pager when other mobile tools might be too cumbersome.

“This is a rural area, and I spend a lot of time traipsing through fields and climbing over barbed wire fences. I take it everywhere.” His experience leaves him with one closing bit of advice: Invest in the replacement insurance against loss offered through your paging service provider. “I’ve probably lost my pager six times over the last four years,” he explains. “I want to make sure I never have to be without it.”

Any pager user can relate to that sentiment: Once you rely on your pager, it’s hard to imagine how you could remain productive away from the office without it.