Why is Jeremy mean? Why does he give so many quizzes? Why does he take away people’s certifications? We are amazingly great Notaries and don’t need to be quizzed and deserve $200 jobs, etc. So, what gives?
I (Jeremy) realize that people who hire Notaries have a lot to lose if they hire a bad Notary. I also realize that the other notary directories out there have mostly really awful Notaries who don’t answer their phone, don’t communicate well, and don’t know how to be good Notaries, let alone good signing agents.
Next, picture yourself having to deal with thousands of apathetic Notaries who put more effort into coming up with excuses and avoiding doing what they are asked to do rather than cooperating. Then, add a regular supply of vicious jerks who go out of their way to be as hostile as possible and then blabber all over Facebook saying what a jerk I am. I am just doing my job, but get pelted with hostility the minute I ask anything of my Notaries or have any rules. I do not have the freedom to set down any terms and conditions that are enforceable without being relentlessly attacked. If you were in this position, how nice would you be, and would you even last?
123notary’s business model has always been about identifying and marketing quality Notaries. Most Notaries think of themselves as high quality, however, in my point of view, only a handful are. When I talk to someone for five minutes and have to repeat myself ten times, or find that whatever I say gets scrambled, this is what I call bad communication skills. When I ask simple notary questions and get resistance, that is a sign of a bad attitude and lack of motivation. When I give a notary quiz email and half the answers come back wrong — which is average. That is bad. We are showing you to fancy title companies who want to get good Notaries from our site. Generally the title companies are happy with us as a rule. But, I want to give title the best Notaries possible and filter through my notaries on board to find the best ones to identify as being good — or at least give higher placement to.
Additionally, the ones who have my certification icon are notaries who in a sense I am personally recommending. After retesting certified members and seeing how they don’t respond to emails and they can’t give straight answers to easy questions, I am thinking, how can I recommend these people? I want solid people to recommend who are professional, answer questions in a straightforward way, and know their stuff. This shouldn’t be hard to filter out, but when you boil it down, you might only get a few dozen people who match this requirement.
I want to market my certification like I did in the old days. But, people stopped respecting it. After I retested people, I too started to disrespect my certification. Unmotivated, stubborn people who did not know their notary procedures at all, and who were unwilling to study had my certification. Even with an open book test and study guide, many people just didn’t read the study guide and failed. A basic misunderstanding of the most basic notary principles and aspects of following directions were the problem. It is not rocket science to be a Notary. But, for most of our Notaries — it might as well be.
In short — I am trying to have the best site possible, but am dealing with a crowd of thousands of apathetic Notaries who don’t know their job and don’t give a damn. My value system does not match the majority of the Notaries.
The bottom line:
(1) I want to attract work for decent Notaries. And if I can’t differentiate a great Notary from an average one, that means more work for Title to sift through them. If most of the notaries on my site don’t know how to be a safe and good Notary, in my mind, why would anyone want to hire them or use our site? This is why I put so much emphasis on free courses, studying, quizzing, etc. That way in my mind notaries who pass deserve to get hired and paid well. Unfortunately only a handful are motivated enough to pass.
If we were a directory with only bad Notaries, or where you couldn’t find hardly any good Notaries, people would not get much work from our directory. Think about it. Those that hire want quality, especially if they pay well.
(2) I want my certification to be valued like in the old days. If people who used to be good, who forgot their stuff, and have become old and sluggish are the only ones with my certification, no wonder people don’t value it anymore. I feel sad taking my certification away from so many people. But, they will only value it when so few people have it, that it becomes an identifier of the cream of the crop. Then people will want it again, but whether or not they will be able to pass the test is doubtful.
(3) When I quiz by phone I have to make 200 calls per day. I have to get each call done fast to get to the next. When a Notary holds me up with sluggish answers, giving me the runaround or antagonizes me, I lose my temper because I really don’t have time or patience. Then, the notary typically gets on the internet and tells everyone how rude I am and I normally kick that notary off my site or mark them up as being a problem. Notaries do not understand that after being talked back to dozens of times per day I am long past the end of my fuse. Talking back to the police is not a good idea and they will not be nice to you if you do it either. Please remember that I am quality control and NOT customer service. If I am screening you, there is no benefit to not being polite and cooperative.
(4) I want to have the best directory possible as I said before. If you cooperate with me by being nice and studying, you can share the fruits of the quality. Otherwise you probably won’t do very well on 123notary in the long run and you are the one who loses the most. A few hours of studying to save your career doesn’t sound unreasonable.
(5) About 5% of Notaries email me and say that they are on my site and that they too are tired of really bad Notaries. For each supporter I have, there are twenty in the opposition who are pro-horrible Notaries and want the industry to have nothing but the worst, because they don’t see the worst as being bad, but think that it doesn’t matter. You just stamp a form and throw a package in the FedEx — that is all there is too it, and anyone who thinks differently is a prick. Those values do not attract quality clients and to not attract me either.
(6) Those “good” notaries who value knowledge who are on my side typically do not spend much time on social media. They are too busy working. Those who are not working are the majority on all theses Facebook groups that bash me. If they would spend as much time studying as they do commiserating with other jerks, they might get ahead.
I just want to have a site I am proud of with notaries who are conscientious, and can handle any type of work-related situation. If that doesn’t gel with you, then I can’t help you!
You might also like:
What are Jeremy’s favorite blog entries?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=18837
Testing Carmen on a bridge in 2003
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=21264
My bad karma testing people by phone
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19447
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