We get it. You’re busy.
A lot of people in title find themselves doing the same repetitive work over and over and over.
But, through the beauty of automation and templates for communication, title and escrow companies have seen a reduction in the amount of busy work they have to do.
Still, title and escrow companies often ask us, “What are best practices for creating and using templates?”
This is an important question because you want the elimination of redundancy that templates can offer but you don’t want your emails and texts to look templated. Even templated messages need to feel personal.
Templates allow you to get more done with less work while still having the human touch. Here are 3 tips for using templates in your communication:
- Template your most-used emails and text messages
- Use visuals
- Use minimal text
Templates and Email Automation Save Title Companies Time
Templates are great because they save time and eliminate redundancy, but keep the personal touch.
Why do the same tasks over and over again? Templates allow you to perform redundant tasks with the touch of a button or with automation, instead of manually typing out a whole message each time.
Imagine how much time you could save if you could template your most used emails.
The average closing that we have seen in the title industry includes 5 big steps. If you can template emails for these 5 steps in the process, it will help the consumer know what I call the “3 Ws.”
- Where they’ve been
- Where they are
- Where they’re going
These messages can be conveniently templated with visual timelines and other images that help the consumer feel engaged.
But, again, we often hear concern from title companies that templated emails sound templated -- that they lack the personal touch.
No worries! There is a way to personalize templated messages.
If your templating software is integrated with your title production software, your template can pull in the consumer’s name, address, and any other pertinent information (click here to see our current integrations and a demo of CloseSimple on each).
If you can’t integrate your template with your title production software -- if you’re simply using Gmail, Outlook, or another email provider, don't worry. Just put a space in the necessary places and remember to fill in the name and other personal information as needed. That will save you a lot of time for each file you work on.
We don’t want you to become less personal. Using templates should allow you to keep the same personal touch, but without all the work.
Visuals Make for Effective Communication in Title
Templates allow you to input a .jpeg so your realtor and consumer can visualize the timeline of the closing process. When Domino’s came out with their pizza tracker and when Amazon and other online retailers began using tracking during the shipping process, customers could track the progress of their items as they worked their way through the delivery process.
To learn more about how companies like Domino’s and Amazon have changed the game for title and escrow companies, check out our eBook, Game Changers: Title & Escrow “Customer Experience” Playbook. The main take away from Domino’s and Amazon’s trackers is that they show people where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going.
CloseSimple can automatically do this for you, or you could go “old school” on it and insert a .jpeg image in your email or text message template. This will allow your client to see from the timeline visual that they are on step 2 of a 5-step process, for example(helping them know where they’ve been, where they are, and where they're going).
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Including visuals (such as the CloseSimple timeline shown above) in your templates are important because “our brains can process visuals up to 60,000 times faster than text.”
Minimal Text Makes Communication in Title Simple
In title and escrow messaging, the old adage applies: KISS (keep it simple stupid).
When was the last time you read through the entirety of a long email?
Probably never!
Nobody likes long emails.
The average email open rate is only 21% while the average text message open rate is 98%. And, 90% of texts are opened within just 3 minutes of being sent!
Templated emails don’t need to include a lot of information. We recommend that you use minimal text in the actual email but include at the end a link to your company’s website where they can read more if they want.
If the information in your email requires responses from your consumer, obviously you need to keep that kind of information in the email. In that case, we recommend bullet pointing, and whenever possible, cutting the email shorter and directing the consumer to your website for more information.
If you are interested in seeing how CloseSimple can help take your communication to the next level with automated and templated emails that can be sent directly from your title production software, feel free to check out a demo on one of our integrated Title Production software or schedule a live demo here.
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