To start off I'd just like to say that I am Russian, and when I was there, or here, no one knew where I was located at any give time anyways! =D I think you guys give the Russians way too much credit haha!
Now to business, we do closings for Signature Closers and AmRock (Title Source). I like working for both companies. We don't do many closings for Signature Closers because it is next to impossible to reply in time with availability. In our area, if I'm not holding my phone, or looking at our mailbox for a notification from Signature Closers, it is virtually a guarantee that by the time I open the email/link/app to and say yes to an appointment it is always taken.
We do hundreds of closings a month, Amrock is a big part of that, Signature Closers, we may get to do a couple, because as I've mentioned, I can never reply fast enough. And sometimes, when I accept a closing, I do it so fast that I even can't believe how quickly I selected everything, and yet, still the "We are sorry" message comes up.
It happens so often that it is sometimes discouraging to even try and say yes. For example, if I open my email and I see the notification came in even one minute ago, I won't even bother replying because I know it will be gone. We have been doing closings for Signature Closers since June 2016. Since then we have done 56 closings. In that time I don't think we had a single notary error. It would be nice to at least be considered qualified enough to not have to fight tooth and nail for each appointment.
On average we will get around 20 closing notifications per month. Most of them come to our email accounts, sometimes they come up on signing catch, and sometimes they don't. Out of those 20 we are usually available and could do at least half of them, but if I reply yes to all, I might get one or two. That's why I say sometimes it is discouraging to try.
In my opinion, any effort made by the Title Company to help signing agents communicate is awesome! It would be nice to be able to say that we are available and that's it, before selecting which agent is going to do the signing. This kind of info is secondary to whether the appointment can be done or not. I think one downside to Signing Catch is that you have to select multiple fields before you can accept the order.
First and foremost, can the order be covered? The agent clicks one button to "Accept/Yes" (This is how it works with the AmRock app) then that order should be held so no time is wasted on selecting who, what, etc. One downside with the AmRock app is that you can't assign a different agent once you accept the order. Each agent has their own app and they are not interconnected. So in this case, Signing Catch is better, if only we could select the agents after we secured the appointment.
The only company that we work with that allows us to update ourselves which one of our agents will be conducting the closing is ServiceLink. I can go to our portal on their website, and select from a list of pre-approved agents which one it will be. Further, they recently released EXOS wich is an app that can sync with our calendar. This means that their system can see if we are available without asking us. I just get a notification that I received an order for this time and date. My calendar gets updated with this closing and through the app I can get all the info. So cool! One con, they can only sync with Calendar apps, which means that we have to make sure all of our other appointments are on our calendar so that the app can see correctly the availability of our schedule.
Regarding "Glimpse", not sure one way or the other, I guess I would need to use it a bit to really have some feedback about it. I can say that the AmRock app makes things convenient by simply asking to check in if we are "On Time" or "Late". This notification pops up 30 minutes before the closing appointment. One click, and the title company knows that everything is on schedule. After the closing is complete, one click to state that the closing is complete, and another, for funds, if expecting to collect. The last click comes either that same day or the following day for "docs dropped off". In the app, the execution button for all of the steps is in the same location and the verbiage on it changes as you go through the four steps (confirmation with client, check in, completion status, and drop off docs).
I don't know how many agents would agree with me, but I think having to identify the tracking number for the Title Company after every closing when they are the ones providing us with a shipping label is frustrating. Unfortunately, out of all of the companies we work with, AmRock and ServiceLink are the only ones that don't ask us for tracking info.
Lastly, if the goal is for Title and Lender is to know if the signing agent is at a closing, a simple check in button in the app would solve that problem. Less for us to do after with sharing the location, then turning it off, then on again, seems like it could be a hassle with many orders. I will still install it and try it. Maybe there is something to "Glimpse" that I'm not seeing....
Would love to hear from Signature Closers how the appointment notification process works. It seems like the orders just appear for everyone at the same time and it's first come first serve...
Is there a system for making orders available beyond proximity to location and fee?
Simon Ofrikhter, NSA |
