In fact, this is one of the core principles in Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence”. The rule of reciprocation is something you should always keep in mind, whether you’re a title agency owner, title officer, marketing manager — pretty much everyone who has to deal with people and depends on long-lasting, fruitful, client relationships.

Your business depends on attracting new real estate agents and lenders to send closings your way. Your business also depends on retaining (or not allowing to leave) these clients.

Either way, the rule of reciprocation is true today, as it’s always been. And in working with over 1000 title companies who already signed up with TitleCapture, we realized that the successful ones are the ones who actually “give, give, give” in advance.

Ok, so… “Give.” But what?

The rule here is that the more value you offer and the more frequent your clients or potential clients will use that value (preferably in a repeated manner), the more they will reciprocate and stay loyal to you, as their service provider.

Let’s take an example to illustrate this. When a real estate agent visits your office and you give them a branded pen, the value here is quite small. They will use the pen once (maybe) and then they may lose it or just throw it away.

When you hold a lunch-and-learn, teaching them about something… Now, this is much higher in value because it actually teaches them something, helping them grow. It’s very likely, however, that they will soon forget who taught them what, and your value was limited to that timeframe around the actual event. It’s good, but still not ideal.

What you need is something that “gives” repeatedly.

Shameless plug aside, the best thing we could think about (and built a business around) is the concept of a title company app or platform your real estate agents and lenders can use any time that’s branded with your title company logo, allowing them access to estimate tools they actually use frequently. That’s TitleCapture and you can learn more about it by allowing our staff to give you a free, online demo.

The key is to allow your clients FREE access to your branded platform. This is your “gift” to them. And, trust me, they will reciprocate. Our studies and interviews with the 1000+ title companies nationwide that signed up with TitleCapture show that the client who use these “gifts” are the ones who stay the most loyal and bring in constant business.

“I know what to give my clients, now what?”

Well, you have to do two things: 1) attract new clients and 2) retain existing ones.

Now, I do plan on going deeper on how title companies can do effective marketing in later posts, but here’s just a little primer to give you an idea.

Let’s consider you want to attract new real estate agents to work with your title company. So, when you have the branded TitleCapture platform, you should attempt to attract them by using the Seller Net Sheet or Buyer Estimate feature in the app as a driver.

You could go to Facebook and target job titles associated to real estate agents, in your geographic area. Use a cool, relatable image and post a message that sounds something like:

“Top producing real estate agents know how to serve potential sellers and win the listings. The SECRET ingredient is having a Seller Net Sheet estimate tool that screams professionalism and impresses sellers.

Our FREE Seller Net Sheet tool allows you to do just that. Fast. Accurate. Easy to use. Click the button below and register for your free account to start using it now.”

Or something along the lines… See an example below:

And you can use LinkedIn ads, Google Ads and Google AdWords, etc.

When a new user signs up, your title reps will get notified by our platform and can reach out.

Now, when it comes to retaining your existing clients, things get easier, because you already have a relationship with them, so all you need to do is reach out to your best 20-30 real estate agents for each office and personally sign them up and walk them through your new estimates tool. They will absolutely love it.

Now, this is one way to offer value, but not the only one, so please use the comments section below to let us know what YOUR title company is “giving” to its’ clients and how they reciprocate!

The post The Secret to Attracting and Retaining Realtors and Lenders to Work with Your Title Company first appeared on titlecapture.com.

If you’re a title company rep or closer, don’t be afraid to share it with your boss. It’s going to greatly benefit both you, the staff, as well as the title company’s bottom line.

Now let’s get into the meat of things.

We all know that companies providing services, in order to attract and retain more clients, need to offer the absolute best customer experience.

It’s a known fact. Our company, TitleCapture, and its flagship product, the branded title company platform, help title companies provide a stellar experience to real estate agents and lenders. But we’re not talking about that in this article… So let’s move on.

No matter how much technology, no matter how many bells and whistles, gimmicks and tchotchkes you’re giving your clients, at the end of the day 80% of the customer experience is a result of your staff’s interaction with your clients.

That’s where the battle is fought. And if your staff is not able (or willing) to go all-in and offer that experience, you’re doomed. Your clients are simply going to pick up their toys and go visit your competitor down the street. And that’s a FACT.

So then HOW do you make sure your staff is on its A-game when it comes to serving your clients? How do you make sure they’re motivated? How do you build a positive internal culture that impacts your bottom line?

Simple.

Treat your employees the same way you treat your favorite customers.

Of course, you have to respect your staff, listen to them, talk about their future and provide them with opportunities to grow. Sure, you have to do all of that. Being a great leader and also making sure there’s accountability and transparency in place are the basic things that contribute to a great internal culture.

But I’m not here to give you a lecture on all of that.

Instead, I want you to focus on something that’s probably more important. Something that takes up 8 hours of their day, every day, and it could make or break your staff. And that’s their WORKFLOW.

While reading Cindy Koebele’s book “Obsess To Success” (you can find it on Amazon – I highly recommend it), I came across a very funny example, where she talks about how, at her former employer — before she started her own title company — she had to manually stamp return addresses on envelopes. Everyone hated doing that and when the staff asked for branded envelopes, they were turned down. Everyone felt that the company didn’t want to invest in professionalism and staff happiness, and the results is she (and maybe others) simply quit as soon as they could.

You need to be able to identify and remove the frustrating items in your title company employees’ workflows. The stuff they would rather juggle chainsaws instead.

While conducting a survey and talking to hundreds of title companies, using the TitleCapture branded platform, we were very surprised to learn that almost 50%… yes, almost half… of title companies didn’t care if their real estate agents or lenders actually used the estimate tools available in the platform. Wow!

Why is that? Because their staff, the title company employees, simply love how easy and fast it is to generate and send out branded Title Quotes (and Seller Net Sheets, if their clients ask them for one).

Compared to the wacky excel files, the settlement software (where you have to open a file first, in order to get a quote), our platform seems a breeze to them and when they get used to using our tool, they just can’t let go. I’ll tell you a funny story, in another post, about a “mutiny” inside one of the large title companies, when they let their staff know they were thinking of canceling TitleCapture.

Those title company employees are happy. And guess what, when they’re happy, they tend to do a better job overall.

Start listening to what their pain points are and be open to provide solutions. Show them you’re loyal to them and you respect them, and they will, in turn reciprocate with their loyalty toward the company and its’ clients.

If you want to see how our platform will make your staff’s lives so much easier, schedule a 30-minute online demo with our friendly staff. It’s going to blow you away, guaranteed.

The post How to Motivate Your Title Company Employees to Provide the Best Customer Experience first appeared on titlecapture.com.

This is no news really! All title companies have this same problem. Whenever your Realtors are out and about with their buyers and sellers, your title reps are home. Why? Because Realtors usually work when buyers and sellers have TIME to see them, to see properties, and this is usually during week-ends and off-hours.

What to do?

Step 1: Use technology! Have an app!

First of all, let me tell you that there are already other, younger, hungrier, title companies out there that are already using technology to their advantage. Others need to catch up, or it will become about survival, more than growth.

Here’s the basic solution. Have a title company app that works for you 24/7 and gives your Realtors EXACTLY what they need, at their fingertips.

Let’s take an example:

Suppose Realtor Bob is with a buyer, visiting a home. It’s Saturday afternoon and the buyer is super-excited about the home and asks Bob the following question: “Hey man, I want this. How much will this cost me? I want the full breakdown!”.

Now Bob, unable to call your title company up can’t provide his buyer with the settlement costs and recording fees. He may be able to pick up a pen and a calculator and figure out the buyer’s monthly mortgage costs, but … really? How’s Bob going to look like to his customer? Old-school, that’s how.

Imagine you had a title company app and Bob pulled his iPhone tapped on your app and did a full buyer estimate with closing costs and monthly mortgage costs, the works. Then he taps again and sends the buyer an email with the estimate. Pretty neat! It could actually seal the deal right then and there…

Besides, your title company app would also offer Seller Net Sheets, regular Title Quotes (for Lenders) or Preliminary HUD forms. It’s all up to you really to increase your bottom line.

Step 2: Determine your Realtors & Lenders to have YOUR app on their phones / tablets / desktops

It’s not sufficient to just have the title company app. It’s also necessary that your agents use it. Just like in the example above, Bob needs to have the app on his phone’s homescreen.

TitleCapture makes it easy for any app user to save the app on the homescreen, therefore having your title company logo on the device they interact with almost constantly. When they start using your app, they will become addicted to it, we guarantee this. When you have them in that state, chances are you’ve won an agent for life.

The post Your Realtors are Working and You’re NOT in the Office! first appeared on titlecapture.com.