Tips on How to Lead the Conversation and Set the Right Pricing
We’re going to talk about pricing. Once again, before we start this blog, we want to remind you of the disclaimer at the beginning of this blog, you MUST abide by the rules and regulations of your profession. We’re simply providing general marketing advice. None of what we say is legal advice or advice coming from a notary. These are all the opinions of a marketer. States usually tell you how much you are allowed to charge per signature. We’ve been told by notaries that we work with that some states put a limit on how much you can charge for your travel fee while others do not. It’s up to you to abide by every rule and regulation applicable to you. By applying any recommendations or tips in this blog or any of Notary Public Digital Marketing’s other educational and marketing materials, you are agreeing not to hold us liable in any way.
Now that we’ve restated that fact, let’s jump in. One of the weak points we see with the notaries we work with is how they handle incoming phone calls from people inquiring about their notary service. Sometimes you pick up the phone, and the first thing someone asks is “What’s your price?” Let’s say you’re used to charging a low $25 travel fee because people who usually call you are fairly close by. You may be tempted to give the caller your standard price off the bat, not realizing that they are actually calling from very far away, and it’s going to cost you double in gas and double your time to take care of the customer. This is why it’s important to get all the facts before you give your customer a quote.
Let’s get into the 4 questions you must ask before you quote. These 4 questions will help you lead the conversation. If any caller asks you off the bat how much it would cost, just tell them that you have to ask a few questions first.
Where are you located? This information helps you estimate how much time it’s going to take you to drive there and back. It also helps you estimate how much gas it’s going to cost you to drive there and back. You probably know most of the little town names in your area, but just in case you don’t, we would have Google Maps open so you can type in the name of a small town you don’t recognize. If they ask you where you are located, we usually recommend you answer with “Well we’re mobile, we come to you, where are you located?” In general, you want to advertise the mobile aspect of your service first, that’s where the money is. If they insist that they want to drive to you, then you can talk about the walk-in service if you even offer that at your home. There’s an art to knowing when to transition from offering the mobile notary service to settling for the walk-in service. We have a few notary clients who are masters of that naturally, but it’s a skill that we also coach our clients on.
What’s going on? What’s your story? Obviously, you want to confirm exactly what documents need to be notarized, but you can do this in the next question. First, you want to know the story behind how they got to the point where they needed to call you to have that document notarized. For example, we’ll recount a real phone call that came from one of our Google Ad Management clients in Los Angeles. This is a phone call that he got during the holiday season. Sure enough, he asked the caller what was going on, and what was the story, just like we coached him. She proceeded to tell him a long story about how her 2 kids were supposed to go visit their family members in Mexico for the holidays, but how the airline employee was telling her that she needed a notarized minor travel consent form because her daughter was still 17. The mother hadn’t thought about that, she fully trusted her son who was in his 20’s to go with her daughter on this trip, but the airline employee was telling her that they may get turned away at customs without this form. She proceeded to explain how she was freaking out that they were going to lose their plane tickets, and how other notaries on Google hadn’t picked up her call since it was already about 8 pm. Furthermore, she needed someone to come right away, because the plane was going to take off in about 2 hours. Now if our notary client had just asked what type of document needed to be notarized, he wouldn’t have known all of these additional details that helped him understand the urgency and specifics of the situation. Having gotten the full story, he understood that it was extremely urgent as the plane was going to take off within two hours. He also understood it was extremely important as they would lose their plane tickets if the situation weren’t handled. He also understood that it was going to be a late night call as it was already 8 pm, and it had to be done the same night. He also understood that it would take him extra time to get through airport security, albeit the fact that the airport was going to arrange for a security member to meet him out front and escort him through quickly.
Understanding all of these details, he was able to charge a much higher travel fee (over 100 dollars) than he normally would. The lady said yes to his price without hesitation, because what’s 100 dollars compared to losing a lot more than that between two plane tickets? Not to mention the disruptions to their itinerary for their trip. Our notary client jumped in his car and booked it to LAX airport. If the lady didn’t need it done within such a rushed time frame, and if she didn’t need it done so late at night, he would have charged less on the travel fee. So remember to ask this open-ended question that gives the caller the opportunity to tell you all of the details, not simply the name of the document, so that you can price accordingly.
Confirm the number/types of documents and the number of signatures - After you’ve gotten the details of the story, you just want to confirm the number of documents and the number of signatures. Some callers will be a little sneaky, and make it seem like it’s just one document that needs to be notarized, tricking you into quoting them at a lower price. Then you arrive and realize it’s not just a Power of Attorney, but also a Healthcare Directive, and something else on top of that. Even if it’s only one document that they’re calling you about, they can also be sneaky and make it seem like they just need one signature, when really their document requires multiple signatures. So make sure you confirm the number/types of documents and the total number of signatures. In a state like California where the per signature fee is $15 (at the time of writing this blog), this can add up. You’ll get the occasional call where someone needs 10 signatures. 10 signatures times $15 per signature is $150 plus the travel fee, so make sure to ask and confirm the number of signatures.
And does this have to get done today? - This question is important, because it helps you assess the level of urgency and if the caller is on a time crunch. If a caller is telling you that the document absolutely needs to be notarized in the next 30 minutes, because it’s already 4 pm, and they have to get the document mailed out before 5 pm, you can bet that most other notaries out there won’t be able to accommodate them. If they tell you that they specifically need you to be at their home at 7 pm because that’s when their husband gets home from work, you can bet that most other notaries won’t be willing to accommodate them at such a late hour. Usually, a customer in one of these situations is willing to pay more. They aren’t price hunting like a caller who has several weeks to take care of their document. We’ve had plenty of notaries that we work with us tell me that they actually were given healthy tips on top of what they quoted, because they were able to accommodate customers quickly who were in an emergency situation. So if you know that the customer needs it done on super short notice, or they need it done after hours later that evening, you can charge a higher travel fee than normal (depending on your state,) and they will still be grateful just for the fact that you were able to accommodate them. When you are running Google Ads, you will especially have a great number of callers who are calling you in this type of emergency, rush situation. The kind of person who clicks on the first Google result which is always the Google Ad, is the kind of person who isn’t shopping around so much. They literally just want to book with the first person who is able to accommodate their time crunch, rather than shopping around to save 20 bucks and risk not getting a notary to show up in time. So if you are running Google Ads with us, definitely don’t forget to ask this question.
These are the four questions you will ask every single caller to help you decide what to quote as far as your travel fee. These four questions will also help you lead the conversation, rather than having the caller lead the conversation. Write these questions down and have them handy when you get a caller until you memorize them.