We all schedule appointments, but how good are we at it? Things have changed since I was a Notary, but the basics are fundamentally the same. Here are some issues to consider when scheduling.

1. The risk of cancellation
Most Notaries keep information on their clients. A good business knows as much about its clients as possible. If you are a hotel, you should know who wants a newspaper, who likes a single room, who has breakfast and when, and especially who is a trouble maker. That can help the hotel to make decisions about how to conduct its business. If a Notary has clear notes on cancellation rates of clients, who pays late, and who lies about how many pages are involved, that can help you make decisions.

Overbooking or booking solid might not be a good idea if you have reliable clients. But, when I was in business there was a 25% cancellation rate, and that cancellation is when you squeeze in that burger. On the other hand, if you book too solidly and then you hit traffic, your entire night will be set back and you will get complained about.

If you have high paying clients that you don’t want to lose, allow more cushion time before and after appointments. But, for cheap jobs you have to focus on volume and cramming them in makes more sense. But, that is up to you, and if you goof, you might lose clients.

2. Rescheduling techniques
If you reschedule an appointment for a future date, try to avoid scheduling it at a time when you will have conflicting job requests that haven’t come in yet. Remember — you don’t know who will want you to do what or when. But, you can calculate based on what is normal, regular, or likely based on past data of job requests. So, if you are normally busy week nights around 7pm, do your rescheduling earlier or later than that or on the weekend. Remember, that rescheduled jobs sometimes don’t even pay you even if they agree to. If you need to go back to a job for a mistake other than your own, since it is so hard to get paid traditionally for those revisits, it might make sense to get paypal-ed before you set out if you can.

3. Waiting for a call from the LO, Lender or Signing company
Sometimes you can’t reschedule until you get the go ahead. In that case, wait until you get the magic call, and then decide. But, don’t let these guys bully you around. Once again, when you sell your time, you have prime time, shoulder hours and off hours. The type of time you give them should depend on what they are paying you. Don’t sell the filet minon for the price of chuck otherwise you are a chump!

4. Confirming
Don’t forget to call the hiring party, and the signers to confirm the appointment. Make sure that names on the ID match the names on the document, and that the date, time, place, where to park, if they have a table, and that the dollar amounts match up. Most signers don’t do a thorough job confirming, so have a check list of everything you need to ask or could ask that makes sense.

You might also like:

Notary Public 101’s guide to confirming the signing
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19976

Discounts for early booking? Hotels do this, why shouldn’t you?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19072