Are you still putting together net sheets the old way? Think again, because the industry is changing fat. We surveyed around 150 title agencies nationwide to see how they are using net sheets in innovative ways.
A large number of title companies have employed digital net sheets to deliver a better customer experience and loyalty while also making the process much easier to handle on their side.
Right now, a majority of the title companies are supplying net sheets using Microsoft Excel or Word documents. They spend a lot of time calculating title rates, settlement fees, prorations, impounds, and putting the document together.
Supplying your customers with net sheets is a necessary part of your business, but manually compiling net sheets is also time consuming and interruptive to the day-to-day workings at a title company.
Sloppy productivity due to manual net sheets could come from numerous factors that could be hidden or obscure in nature. This is what we set to find out in this survey.
We interviewed 156 title companies and asked them a series of 9 questions. This blog gives a brief summary of the survey findings that reveal the way title companies are using the net sheets. Here are the key insights we have derived from the survey.
Net Sheets are Interruptive and Hurt Productivity:
We asked a couple of questions to the participant companies about the way their customers can request a net sheet and the delivery method by which these net sheets are sent to their customers.
Net Sheet Request methods
How can your customers request a net sheet from your business?
- Call us
- Email us
- On our website
- Text us
We found that more than 80% of title companies rely on Emails and Calls for their customers to request net sheets. The person processing that request must suspend ongoing activities to attend the calls that hurt the productivity of the company.
Delivery methods employed by companies to send sheets also face the same challenge.
Net Sheet Delivery methods
How do you provide a net sheet to your clients?
- Fill in a printed template by hand
- Word Docs
- Spreadsheets
- Digital net sheets from the third party
A staggering 51% of respondents said to be using spreadsheets to provide net sheets to their clients. Putting together spreadsheets is time consuming and affects the productivity of the title company.
Net Sheets can be Odious and Prone to Human Error
The second revelation we got from the survey was the fact that title companies do not really enjoy preparing these net sheets. The following questions make it clear that not only making net sheets are boring but also prone to human error.
Net Sheet Custom Fees
Do you offer discounted fees to customers?
- Yes, but at a fixed rate
- Yes, at a variable rate
- No
More than 90% of the customers receive custom prices for their closing orders. It is obvious that a lot of net sheets are made for customers which can be odious.
The next question further solidifies our findings.
Net Sheet Revision Count
How many changes do you make to a net sheet on average?
- No changes
- 1 to 2 changes
- 3 to 5 changes
- 5+ changes
90% of the net sheets receive up to 5 changes which amount to a lot of calculations and probability of error as well.
Most title agencies don’t track Net Sheet ROI
This is the most important finding we fetched from our survey. Most title companies do not stress on tracking their ROI with net sheets. This is made clear with a couple of questions we asked.
Net Sheet Conversion Tracking
Do you count the number of people who do not place an order after requesting a net sheet?
- Yes
- No
We found that 79% of the respondents do not track conversions from net sheets. It is complemented by a lack of productivity tracking as well.
Net Sheet ROI Tracking
Do you count the number of net sheets processed in a month?
- Yes
- No
Only 23% of the title companies have admitted to be tracking their ROI. It is hard to track net sheets made with spreadsheets and word docs.
Apart from these, we have also uncovered that most of the title companies do not provide their partners the ability co-brand their net sheets. We have also seen that the overall turnaround time also increases when manual spreadsheets and word docs are used to make net sheets.
The best solution to ease these bottlenecks could come from allowing the customers to generate the net sheets themselves. This is why digital net sheets are a better option. If you are a popular title company that is always busy, you can save a lot of time and boost conversions by using digital net sheets.
How to build a better net sheet workflow?
This brings us to the question, how do you build a better net sheet process? What important points should you consider? If you are also wondering about these questions, then we have compiled a three-pointer rule to create net sheets.
Net sheets should not interrupt the title company’s workflow
Customers can generate and download DIY Net sheets from the title website. Title companies can use third party digital net sheets and let customers create co branded net sheets themselves. Additionally, if the net sheets are co branded it saves a lot of time for the partners as well. We've put together this free and handy co-branded net sheet template for you.
Compiling Net Sheets should not be an odious task
A net sheet generating system that provides fee schedule tracking could make it much easier to use. This is possible with a digital net sheet. These net sheets also provide standard templates and digital delivery to make things even simpler.
Net Sheets should help your business
Digital net sheets also allow tracking customer activity along with tracking orders in real time, making ROI tracking easy and effective. Tools like Title Clinch and Elko can help you provide digital net sheets and title quotes.
Want to see the results yourself? Download our comprehensive digital net sheet survey here. We hope you found the insights useful and figure out yourself if your net sheet workflow is helping or hurting your business.
