I did some analysis about who does well on our site and who gets positive reviews vs. negative reviews. Basically, many factors could be considered predictors for who will get good or bad reviews. How often you login to your listing, how well you score on tests, and even how professionally you answer the phone by stating your name rather than saying, “hello” with your kids screaming in the background.
But, the most critical factor is one I never would have imagined to be true. We only started keeping track of who answers emails punctually a few years ago. And I never studied the results to see how it correlated with other information. A few months ago I did exactly that. I studied people who answered my emails vs. those that did not.
If you fail my quiz, but answered the email, you will do better in real life than those who did well on my quiz or test, but did not answer my emails. We send emails with quiz questions, and emails asking for information omitted from your listing such as information about certifications, insurance, types of loans signed, etc.
Those with positive reviews almost always answer my emails. Those with negative reviews almost always ignore my emails.
So, the question now is — how highly should I weigh the email answering data? How many points should that deserve in the database? I decided that the first offense will result in a tiny deduction of points, but if you keep it up, then you will lose a lot of points. Free listings who ignore us generally get permanently removed on the second offense although it varies.
Sending emails and tracking the results is time consuming. I have to create a record in the system which takes a minute. Then I have to send an email and then modify the record to indicate the date of the email, and the nature of the email. Doing this for 300 people a month takes 700 grueling minutes which is about 12 hours. You can imagine how tired I get. And then I learn that 80% of the emails were unanswered. I often remove free listings who ignore my emails because that means I have to call them to extract information from them which is very time consuming.
So, now you get some insight about life at 123notary. Additionally, people who want to hire you cannot hire you if you don’t respond promptly to emails. It is unprofessional and leaves people high and dry.
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I read them all honestly not to get better listing , but I find you interesting and a trend setter in this world of sheep.
I read everything that is before me including emails, documents, ingredients in everything!
Part of growth as a person is educating yourself by reading.
Comment by DeborahPlanet — March 31, 2021 @ 5:06 pm
Agreed with Deborah. Although I answer the emails directly to me more so than notifications for the site. I find your articles insightful and full of insightful tips to new notaries or NSA’s (me circa 2020) I am at an age where I can not obtain enough knowledge and fast enough for subjects I am passionate about or what I would like to become a SME on. I see new new notaries really young go and ask questions on these FB SITES that if they would take TIME to look at the site they joined – or read earlier posts their questions have been answered multiple times. Exhausting. You may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for me your insight and opinions are refreshing. Thank you for all the time you put into 123notary
Comment by Michelle Begley — April 2, 2021 @ 8:08 pm