Partners in Safety
5Security Steps for Companies

Establishing call-in procedures can lower risks.

Real estate companies are often in the best position to help keep practitioners out of harm's way, say crime experts interviewed by Today’s REALTOR®.

Here are five ideas they say you might try to keep safety first in the minds of your salespeople.

1.Establish safety measures. Initiate office safety strategies such as the buddy system.

• Have salespeople sign out of the office and indicate where they’ll be.
  
• Have a registration book for office visitors. In large offices, issue an in-house ID tag or access card to salespeople and staffers that can be worn at all times.
  
• Establish a secure location in your office where staffers can go in case of a threatening situation.
  
• Put safety policies in writing and make sure everyone follows them.
  
• Make sure private offices and work areas aren’t accessible to visitors. The less outsiders know about the inner workings of your office—where salespeople sit, nooks and crannies, and back doors—the better chance you and the salespeople have to escape in an emergency.
  
  2.Switch open houses. If safety is a concern, have salespeople partner at open houses or have a male salesperson substitute for a female, says J.J. Bittenbinder. He notes that more females than males are attacked. Bittenbinder is a former homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department and a nationally recognized personal safety expert.
  
  3.Make periodic checks. Visit or at least call open houses where practitioners are working.
  
  4.Know where your salespeople are. Establish a call-in system, requiring salespeople to call the office at specific times. If your office is closed on weekends, arrange for salespeople to call one another.
  
  5.Create a secret language. Ray Botterbush, a real estate practitioner who is vice president of Botterbush & Associates Inc. and deputy sheriff of Madison County, Ill., recommends using a voice stress code, a secret word or phrase that is not commonly usedbut can be worked into any conversation so that salespeople can indicate if there's a problem.—Francyne Rosenstock