“Since original title agency licensing or last renewal is the business entity or any owner, partner, or director a party to, or been found liable in any lawsuit or arbitration proceeding involving allegations of fraud, misappropriation or conversion of funds, misrepresentation or breach of fiduciary duty?

This question (or a variation of it) is common on license renewal forms. And many agencies answer it incorrectly.

How does your agency handle title agency licensing renewals? Do you pay attention to each step of the process, or to you simply have an admin jump online and check off “No” as the answer to all the questions?

If you simply check off “No” when the answer is actually “Yes,” you are opening your title agency up to some serious issues. Perhaps you simply made a mistake, thinking that failing an audit of an escrow account by a state department of insurance isn’t a breach of fiduciary duty. But it might be construed as such. If you failed to disclose a proceeding, you are liable to be fined and might even forfeit your license.

Consider the worst-case scenario: you are caught by the state department for answering a question incorrectly. Not only must you deal with the immediate repercussions of your incorrect answer, but you must also now self-report to multiple states, an act which will in turn result in a second, more intense round of fines and investigations.

The title agency licensing renewal process is a tricky business. To do it properly takes a great deal of care and consideration. It’s so much easier to brush the process off and give approximate information, hoping everything will pan out for the best. Unfortunately, if your agency makes a false move, it leaves itself vulnerable to some extremely onerous consequences.

So what do you choose? Do you spend a great deal of time and effort making sure you deal with your license renewals properly each year, or do you fill out the forms hastily and hope it all works out for the best?

There is a third option. You could let the title agency licensing experts at S2T handle the process for you. S2T has literally written the book on title agency licensing, and we have ongoing contracts with agencies across the country that help them remain compliant on their licenses.

Many professionals are still operating under the misconception that Six Sigma process optimization techniques aren’t useful in services industries such as title insurance. I don’t have an assembly line, they think, so how could Six Sigma help me?

This misunderstanding is damaging to title agencies because it keeps them from reaping the benefits of an effective Six Sigma campaign.

The fact is that Six Sigma is especially effective in a title agency setting, where many players must work together harmoniously to complete each transaction. Inefficiencies can be easily overlooked in the flurry of activity surrounding them. Those managing a title agency are usually aware that their agency needs an improved business model—they simply don’t know where to begin. A Six Sigma consultation is an excellent way of getting the very roadmap an agency needs to guide itself through the improvement process.

Six Sigma is a codified method of pinpointing errors in an organization’s processes so that those errors can be address and eliminated. For a title agency, an error can be caused by anything from an unnecessarily slow turn time, to a surplus or dearth of personnel in a certain department, to an employee’s confusion over the appropriate course of action under a certain set of circumstances.

A Six Sigma consultation begins by identifying and listening to the “voice of the customer.” In this case, “customer” not only refers to clients, but also staff, management, and vendors—basically, anyone with a stake in the process. A forthright assessment from all those involved in common transactions is invaluable—and all it takes is a little prompting and a good faith show of receptivity. Gaining a global understanding of an organization’s “corporate culture” can be extremely illuminating for those trying to understand the organization’s shortcomings.

Once a business has an idea of what exactly drives customer satisfaction, it can begin examining the ways it is failing to provide full customer satisfaction. The ultimate goal is the total or near-total elimination of errors. For title agencies, the most obvious, common problems—slow turn times and a low volume capacity—usually have a number of underlying failures causing them, and these underlying causes differ drastically from agency to agency. Six Sigma is at its heart an analytic method (its name, after all, comes from a statistical term), so it turns to quantitative methods to identify these underlying causes. Extensive data analysis shows weaknesses and flaws in the process. In addition to the qualitative information gathered by speaking with employees on all levels of an organization, the consultant must gather comprehensive data and pore over it for signs of variability and inefficiency.

Wastage is insidious for those in the title industry because often agencies don’t even realize how inefficient their process is. The quality control process must address an agency’s full potential—not just the full potential of its current way of doing business. Six Sigma consultants know when to fix a broken system and when to suggest scrapping the old system and replacing it with something more effective in the long run.

When hiring a consultant to perform Six Sigma for your title agency, it is imperative to find a consultant who has intimate knowledge of the title industry, because many of the potential improvements might involve new technology, platforms, or outsourcing options about which a consultant outside the industry probably wouldn’t have any knowledge.

To learn more about how Six Sigma can bring your agency to the next level, call S2T. Our consultants would be more than happy to explain how many title companies across the nation have already used Six Sigma techniques to improve their profitability, even during a downturn in the housing market.

The 4-Step Software Rollout Plan

It’s probably obvious that when you introduce a completely new software platform at your company you should have a training plan ready. But what you might not have realized is the importance of establishing such a plan when you’re rolling out a newer version of something familiar—such as Office or email software.

The truth is when migrating to newer versions of software, training can help prevent productivity loss. Beyond that, short training sessions can help users maintain their skill sets while highlighting new features that can boost their capacities of using the software.

Without further ado, here’s our four-step software rollout plan:

Step 1:
Identify users’ specific needs within the software you’re deploying.

Your employees’ time is valuable and limited, and you can demonstrate your understanding of this by personalizing their experiences. For example, PowerPoint can be a valuable tool for all employees within a company, but it’s used differently by various roles and departments. By allowing your employees to understand their real usage of the application, you can not only prioritize training topics, but also determine your training priority for different users and departments.

Step 2:
Communicate to those who will use the software why they and the company need it.

Some people just resist change—a frustrating fact for those who are introducing something new. If your users understand the purpose behind the change, however, they may be more likely to embrace it. And the more willing they are to accept it, the more likely they are to pay close attention to training. Further, this is an opportunity to listen. By addressing specific concerns, you’re also mitigating fear or discomfort among those who may not be as technologically minded as others.

Step 3:
Plan training early and time it accordingly.

Ideally, your users will be exposed to their new software prior to deployment. Webinars and demonstrations of new features are great ways to get them excited and helps reinforce that open communication you encouraged in Step 2. With that being said, you don’t want to train them months before they’ll actually be using it. Instead, time your training closer to deployment and make sure you’re targeting the right users. If it’s a totally new software, you may want to segment them into appropriate training groups when possible, as referenced in Step 1.

Step 4:
Anticipate and limit IT-support needs by preparing for life after deployment.

Every rollout needs its champions—primarily those who can help others use the software. Identify your coaches and subject-matter experts prior to deployment and have a plan in place for your users to ask for their support. Training a few of these experts in advance can make the process considerably less expensive in the long run, as it can help to prevent mistakes or the need to hire outside help. You may even want to consider having a coach or two on your help desk for a temporary period for relevant questions. And always have additional learning opportunities ready for your users, so they can target specific parts of the software where it matters most to them.