How Hankin & Pack Personalized Closings and Built a Brand Clients Trust
About
Hankin & Pack is a regional law firm with offices across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The firm’s mission is to innovate residential real estate closings. Starting with just four employees, the company experienced rapid growth over its first eight years, surpassing the 150-employee mark. Hankin & Pack’s commitment to innovation, along with its vision to become the most referred real estate law firm in the nation, led the company to seek a new technology partner.
Challenge
Before partnering with Qualia in 2020, Hankin & Pack found it challenging to fully leverage technology in support of their rapid growth and evolving client needs. The firm was seeking ways to enhance efficiency and deliver the personalized, modern experience that leadership envisioned for its customers. **Software Stuck in the ‘Caveman Era’** “The title and escrow industry has a tendency to be stuck in its ways, the caveman era so to speak, and the software we were using at the time was right there with it,” said Jordan Edgerton, Vice President of Closing Operations at Hankin & Pack. Antiquated technology meant they had to rely on manual processes and unsecured emails for external communication, creating a potential security risk for their clients and business. “A closing includes your most sensitive information, and back in the day, all information used to be exchanged through email. Especially over the last six years, email fraud has grown exponentially,” Edgerton said. **Lack of Collaboration and Remote Access** The Hankin & Pack team faced other challenges, too. The firm’s previous software did not support collaborative or remote workflows. “Our previous software didn’t allow for multiple people to work in the file at the same time,” Edgerton said. “Not having remote access would have been an absolute nightmare if we were still on our old software when COVID happened. Using a VPN was unreliable and slow.” **Labor-Intensive Administrative Burdens** As the firm grew, labor-intensive administrative tasks consumed a significant amount of employee time, making it difficult to maintain a high-quality customer experience. “If I'm expected to do 100 administrative tasks today and simultaneously be on the phone with all of our customers, it's impossible for me to deliver the right client experience,” Edgerton explained.
Solution
Jon Hankin and Ken Pack were eager to improve and keen for a superior technology solution. They chose Qualia as their partner to move beyond outdated methods and build a modern, secure, and personalized closing process. “We knew that if we were going to truly innovate residential real estate closings in the way that we wanted to, we needed a partner and a software that shared those goals with us,” Edgerton said. **A Secure, Cloud-Based Platform** Qualia’s secure platform virtually eliminated the firm’s reliance on email for sensitive information. “Qualia Connect keeps our customers in the loop while securely and safely housing their most sensitive information during one of the most important transactions of their lives,” Edgerton said. Since transitioning software, 90% of their communication now goes through Qualia Connect, which gives their clients a more secure experience. **Scalable Remote Operations & Output Gains** Qualia's cloud-based platform empowered the firm's employees to work from anywhere, a capability they did not have with their old software. The ability to have multiple people working in a file at the same time improved efficiency, productivity and the flexibility needed to support the company’s exponential growth from four employees to 150. “Because of Qualia Connect, we were able to boost the efficiency of our employee’s output by 25%,” Edgerton said. **Automation for a Personalized Experience** Qualia's automation tools, specifically Smart Actions, helped the firm take away countless administrative tasks from their employees. So far, Hankin & Pack has implemented over 150 Smart Actions to automate routine communications and document generation. For example, a single automation replaced a labor-intensive, seven step process for sending an earnest money deposit receipt to a client. Edgerton explained how these automations gave his team more time to focus on what matters. “Automations are not taking away the personal touch,” he said. “They’re actually giving your employees more time to give a personal touch”. They also use Branding within Qualia Connect to build trust with their clients. “When people get on our website and see that the logo and color matches their secure platform for their closing, they realize, ‘Okay, this is not a scam, this is not fraud,’” Edgerton explained. Looking to the future, Hankin & Pack is excited to let customers choose their preferred channel of communication, including Qualia Texting. While email has an average open rate between 20-40%, text messages have an incredible 98% open rate. “Some clients might never answer their phone but they'll respond to a text in 30 seconds. The new Qualia Texting feature will be a game changer,” Edgerton said. Hankin & Pack plans to incorporate Qualia Texting into their contact strategy, and use SMS notifications instead of email for non-confidential, order-related messages.
Results
By partnering with Qualia, Hankin & Pack has created a modern, secure, and highly efficient closing process that sets a new standard for customer experience. The firm has successfully scaled operations by giving employees the tools they need to be more productive and providing customers the personalized attention they deserve during one of the most important transactions of their lives.
