Confirm the Heck Out Of Everything- And Your Files Fly.

Train your processors to think like salespeople.

I used to get livid with people in this business that were apathetic, or non involved. I would be mad: HOW CAN YOU TRUST A TITLE COMPANY TO ACT ON OUR ORDER. My type “a” was showing.

Then I thought of a better way–let’s look at the process I use to work with my vendors (this is an early draft from my Operations Manual)

1. Stay Respectful of the Vendor at All Times. Especially when they ’screw up.’
2. Set deadlines: Make sure the deadlines are (a) 2 days from today and (b) 2 days before you need it; if you are on a tighter deadline, please communicate it and ask for help on the deadline & explain why it’s not the way we do things.
3. Send an order over via fax. Make a custom sheet that says what the request is for with your deadline.
4. Call to confirm it:
   

   “Hi, This is Chris, I just sent a request for insurance over to you for the property on X, did that come through?”

   “Yes It did”

   “Great, I appreciate that. I want to know–100%–when we will get that back so I don’t call you before then.”

   Usually, you’ll get a date out of them. If the date doesn’t work, propose a different one, then confirm.

   “OK, so we’re 100% that I will have this insurance dec page ready no later than Tuesday the 11th, at 1pm, right? Will you call me if there are any problems so I know in advance? Great. I’m going to send an email to you and the clients advising them of this commitment, thanks so much.”

5. Send out the email. “Deb at Amerinsure has committed to getting the insurance back by 2pm on Tuesday. She can be reached at X, and if there is any information she will need, please call).
6. If a deadline is missed (it won’t be NEARLY as frequent as before), You have notes, call, and insist that the item is delivered by the next business day, and that they send out info to the realtors.
7. ADD them to your database if not there and set a reminder. Also, put them on your email lists, and have a ‘vendor club’ for people that fulfil requests quickly.
8. 100% of the time, send ‘hank you notes to your vendors for doing what they said. Thank yous will get you business, and strengthen relationships.

Now–nobody is perfect,–not even close, having a policy introduces accountability. That makes things go WAY faster.