The days are numbered for predictable home watcher schedules

What eMerge Americas can teach us about the future of home watching

Lesson #3 of 3: the days are numbered for predictable home watcher schedules

Up until now (2015), home watchers live a relatively predictable lifestyle. Their scheduling process is mostly a function of times that are convenient to them, setting up their recurring visits well ahead of time. We’ll call these ‘scheduled visits’.

Let’s fast forward to the future, say 2017, and if eMerge Americas taught us anything we’ll see that the life of the traditional home watcher has been disrupted significantly. The homes they have been watching are all now very connected to the Internet. Everything from windows to electricity to water usage is being monitored remotely. If something goes awry, the owner, and maybe even the police, gets notified about the problem at the same time as the home watcher.

However, now the alerted homeowner will expect the home watcher to make their way to the house immediately to see what is wrong and take corrective action. We’ll call these ‘reaction visits’.

It isn’t hard to foresee how reaction visits will become more the norm and therefore of more importance to the homeowner than scheduled visits. Sure, scheduled visits will still take place, but the home watcher will no longer be able to take for granted that Wednesday mornings are always going to be free to play a round of golf.

Oh, and the homeowners will want to get continuous, instant updates as well. The new Facebook/Instagram/Twitter savvy owner will want photos and videos of everything that is going on. If a router needs to be reset or a Wi-Fi device needs to be reconnected, they’re going to expect the home watcher to do it.

So the life of a home watcher my start looking a little more like the life of an ER doctor, and if the current crop of home watchers doesn’t rise up to the challenge, a new group will.