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January 11, 2012

Rude notaries?

Filed under: Etiquette — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 12:56 am

Rude notaries? 

At 123notary, we have 6000+ notaries on board, and we talk to most of them at one time or another.  We take pride in how dedicated and professional our notaries are.  Our notaries answer emails promptly, and have a high rate of answering their phone.  But, once in a while we will get a complaint of rudeness.
 
Who are these rude notaries?
Rudeness is a two-way street.  Most of the time, if a notary is accused of rudeness, the borrower or signing company was unreasonable with them or harrassed them.  Is it the notary’s fault?  In my opinion, a professional should try to maintain their cool at all times.  The defining line that separates the men from the boys is how well you handle a difficult situation with finesse.  Can you calmly handle a difficult client?  Can you smoothly work your way through a difficult situation?  Can you keep your cool when others around you are screaming?  Its difficult to know what to do when a notary is accused of being rude.  I usually keep these incidents off the record, and only in my private records.
 
Incomplete information?
What bugs me the most, is that when I get a complaint about a rude notary, I  only see text such as, “The notary was rude”.  My question is, what did the notary say?  What did you say to them first to provoke this reaction?
 
Notaries who hang up on clients.
We get regular complaints that the notary hung up on someone.  Was the client rude? Did the notary have a cell phone that routinely drop calls?  Was the notary just being a jerk?  Sometimes clients call after hours and the notary doesn’t want to be bothered. 
 
Antagonistic emails
Be careful with this one.  Nobody can remember what you said, other than the fact that it was polite or rude.  However, if you write a rude email, it can be forwarded to me — and that is proof that you really are rude!
 
Threatening clients with lawsuits
When a notary and a client get in an argument, some notaries quickly start threatening clients with lawsuits.  This is really unnecessary and rude.  It reflects poorly on us and on you.   You should not threaten someone with a law suit unless you have serious damages which you can prove.
 
Criticizing the company you are working for.
If you work for a signing company, its not good manners to criticize them or their borrowers. If they are horrible people, just don’t work for them anymore!  If the borrowers are horrible, just try to put up with them.
 
Summary
99% of our notaries are fantastic, and this blog entry doesn’t apply to you. If put in a difficult situation, try to be polite and then refuse to work for the difficult company again!  Don’t criticize people (even if they deserve it), and don’t write threatening emails.  Just do your job, and go home!

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January 4, 2011

How to handle rude clients

As notaries, your job is to make sure that documents get signed and returned to the correct party in a timely fashion. Getting documents signed is easy. It is dealing with difficult clients that is the hard part. So, what do you do when a client is rude?

You can politely apologize about whatever they are complaining about. You can try to refer them to the Lender or Title company if there is a problem with certain documents as well. The main thing is to assure them that you are “just the notary” and your job is to make sure the documents get signed. If there is a problem with the documents, please take that up with the party who is responsible for the error.

Or othertimes the rudeness will be completely unrelated to the documents. The borrowers might have a rude dog that goes yap yap yap, and growls at you right around your toes. This can be very disconcerting for those of us who are cat people and not dog people. Dog lovers don’t normally respect the fact that not everybody likes dogs. They can become very rude right away if you voice any dislike of their dog’s hostile behavior. I personally think that people who have viscious dogs were antagonistic dogs in their past lives and don’t realize how unpleasant dog behavior can be.

It is common for borrowers to be rude to other family members and to just make rude conversation to the notary. It is best to ignore this behavior. It is best to respond to rudeness with politeness.

The biggest mistake that notaries make is to reciprocate rudeness. This is where they get complaints. The borrower can be rude to them and get away with it, but if the notary is rude back, they get in trouble. It is the same with me. My clients are often rude to me and regard that is their inalienable right. But, if I throw it back in their face, then I am the bad guy! Then, there are notaries who are rude when writing commentary about signing companies on social media. Be careful — people are watching. There are a lot of signing companies who are fed up with rude notaries and will use any excuse to blacklist you!

Basically:
Be a good Christian and turn the other cheek
If you are not Christian, then do as good Christians would do, and turn the other cheek
If the situation gets out of hand, it might be time to walk out on the signing and contact the signing company. We all have limits.
In short — turn the other cheek, but don’t get cruscified, otherwise people will say, “That Joe the Notary… he SIGNED for our sins: yes he did, yes he did, yes he did!

.

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