Browsing Month April, 2007

Poked and Prodded til Black and Blue

April 24th, 2007 → 11:04 pm @

I’m not going to mention names because they are actually unimportant. What is important is the questions and the intent behind the questions.

Are you real? Such a simple question; but I had a hard time giving an answer. How do you mean real? Flesh and blood, born in the USA citizen, or what? Seems that it was actually put forth as an insult and not a question.

I think it’s great. What can we do to help? Another simple question but this time I had an answer. More like a prepared speech than an answer.

I seem to have an audience that is pretty much split down the middle right now. I have had at least six phone calls in the last week from people that I would consider to be important players in the field services business. Both the critics and the supporters used a common tactic – they both poked and prodded until they got what they were after.

The critics were mostly upset with the results of one of my newest projects, the RepReportsâ„¢ Internet searches over at www.TheRepReport.com. Seems like they are shocked that so much public information has been made so public.

The supporters bruised me up a bit too. It seems like they appreciate the opportunity to warm themselves in a little sunshine but they wanted enlightenment on persona and motive.
I checked to see if there was a full moon or something going on that I did not know about. Something like a nationwide shortage of Valium or something like that. I didn’t find anything going on that would cause the sudden increase in interest. My best guess, my only guess actually, is that some readers have turned into participants.

I would like to see you spend as much time as you can looking through the RepReportsâ„¢ at www.TheRepReport.com. It will not take you long to see the wealth of information contained in the searches. The technology that helped create the RepReportsâ„¢ is similar but far superior to the tools I have used for years to help build my field services business. If you’re starting from scratch or expanding an existing business, these tools can help you a lot.
If you need help using these tools or need help building your own tools, you can e-mail me. This is not a good week to call.

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Twenty Seven Companies to Contact For Work

April 19th, 2007 → 10:59 pm @

My day started early with two inspections and returning with the results and pictures before 10am. Easy enough – I was back before 8am. Some inspections actually have an expiration time printed on the form. They paid a little extra for the turn-around rush so it was a good way to start the day. If you have not contacted Clear Capital yet, it would be a smart move for you to do so.

I had a little breakfast and spent a few minutes reading e-mail and left about 8:30 with a route consisting of sixty-eight inspections of all types. I knew I would not finish but the route was prepared with the starting point being at the address farthest away. I do my routes that way pretty often because I know that even if I do not finish the route, the remaining addresses are much closer to the house.

I finished forty-one today and will leave early in the morning to get the other twenty-seven. I had quite a bit of a challenge finding properties six and seven on the route. It took a little over an hour to find the properties and finish the inspections.

Property number six on the route actually had two street addresses – one facing one street, and one facing another street – it was a corner lot, of course. I have never seen this before and I kept driving by the property knowing I was close. I finally noticed the two sets of numbers on the eave of the house. Property number seven is still a problem. The paperwork had a house number of 625 and the owners last name. When I found 625, it was actually a long dirt driveway with all the houses marked 625, A through F, all kin, all with the same last name. We called the company that sent the request asking for at least a first name to help us out. I’ve mentioned many times how your phone calls motivate me to do even more to help. Last week and so far just about every day this week, I’ve talked with people that have taken some positive steps forward in the business. A few are inching forward cautiously which is ok too; in fact I recommend it. Today I actually had the time to help a caller prepare a startup plan step by step. I asked to be updated next week so maybe I can tell you a bit more then. The positive conversations motivated me to wake up some of my robots. In one of my recent posts to the blog I mentioned the bots, or robots, that I use to help me with my business. Since I felt motivated to try to make up for my lack of entries last week, I had one of the bots go find some BPO companies that might have some related work for you. Just because these companies specialize in BPOs does not mean they do not have other needs. In fact, I do not do BPOs but I do work for six of the companies on this list. Here is a list of twenty seven companies you might check with to see if they need help in your area. I don’t think I even have all of these companies in my manual yet so be sure to let me know what you find out so I can determine if they need to be in the manual.4REO

Advanced Collateral Solutions

America’s Infomart, Inc

Asset Valuation and Marketing, Inc

BPO Direct

BPO Tracker

Broker Price Opinion

California REO Management Clear Capital Coast to Coast eMortgage Logic, LLC First American REO Servicing

Go BPO

Goodman Dean

Harbor Asset Management Services

Instant BPO

Integrated Asset Services

Keystone Asset Management Land America Default Services National REO Services, Inc

W-M Realty Services

I have started a new web link category at TheRepReportâ„¢ to hold these Broker Price Opinion Companies links and others that I will be searching for. You can find them under the HOME – Web Site Links buttons at TheRepReport. I will also be creating RepReportsâ„¢ for all of the BPO companies – eventually.

I had a very nice, long conversation with a recruiter at CRM today. They are using TheRepReportâ„¢ to find reps and I was told that they have had calls from reps that saw their job postings on TheRepReportâ„¢. So, all is working well. The companies are finding you, and you are finding the companies.

How about a good laugh? I called the vendor recruiter at a company I did work for a few years back. I called to see what their status was in my area and was told they would send me a vendor package by e-mail right away. After two days, I e-mailed the recruiter to say I had received no e-mail – I even looked in my junk mail box the spam filter uses. Nope! Nothing there either. Hmmmm. Their computer must be down. I know they wouldn’t lead me on. I know they wouldn’t lie. It’s not too late to do it today. You still have one hour and two minutes. See ya’.

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Field Service Robots

April 9th, 2007 → 10:22 pm @

I know you’ve seen movies or read stories where the basic plot is robots taking over the world.  In the last few years there is a slightly different twist that has computers subjugating dumb robots and having them do all the dirty work.

I am probably hastening the demise of the human race by not only accepting modern technology, but on the contrary, using it to its fullest extent.  Actually  i should say using the technology as far as my mastery of it allows.  That really means that I never move above beginner level.  OK, on with the story.

For several years, I have had little programs running all over the internet picking up tidbits of information for me.  These little programs are called bots, short for robots.  I guess you could call them my field service robots since they have been looking for field service related information over the years.

Some new capabilities now offered by Google and Yahoo have allowed me to replace my bots with some far superior superbots!  I want to tell you about three superbots I have over at TheRepReport™ and why you should be interested in them.  By the way, I have given a name to all my superbots that collect information about the field services business.  I call them RepReports™.

All of the RepReportâ„¢ superbots use Google’s and Yahoo’s thousands upon thousands of already indexed web pages to bring in hundreds of links for field service related terms.  Why should you care?  Because it is a very good way to keep up with the industry, who is doing what in the industry and possibly find new opportunities.

Lets use the Industry Terms RepReportâ„¢ as an example.  One of the industry terms I have it looking for is ”Merchant Site Inspection”.  It will bring in any use of that term that it finds on the internet.  I’ll bet you, you can find a couple of companies to call to see about doing merchant site inspections for them.

Another RepReport™ is bringing in info on lenders.  Why?  If you can follow some of their actions, you may pick up a clue or two about lost opportunities or new ops on the horizon.

Any of course, there is the Service Companies RepReport™.  We just gotta know what these guys are up to.  You can figure that one out for yourself!

Have fun with the bots – they are under the Info Center button on the menu.  What you see at TheRepReportâ„¢ is just the beginning.  The uses are unlimited and the additions to the list of RepReportsâ„¢ will probably never end.

Which brings up another subject.  I am looking for help with TheRepReport™.  If you are interested in contributing a couple of hours a week doing some computer, internet, RepReport™ stuff, I could really use the help.  Give me a call if you are interested.

I guess its official now.  I’m going to remove any reference to “busy times” and “slow times” from my manual.  It’s beginning to look like we’re going to stay busy pretty much all the time.  Remember last week I mentioned that we were sent hundreds of FEMA inspections and we jumped on them and had them all returned pronto.  Well, …. they must have been impressed.  We received hundreds more.  We’ve been working long days every day except Sunday and I don’t know when it might end.  Today: (68•7.50)

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