Q&A with ServeManager Client National Court Research

National Court Research Inc, based in Stockton, California, has been using ServeManager since fall of 2015. Today, company representative Dyan Delgado takes our Q&A to share what it's like to incorporating ServeManager into business workflow, how it's helped them retain and land new clients, and their biggest benefits.

Tell us about National Court Research Inc.

We began as a one person show 28 years ago. Now we have a network of process servers, programmers, network specialists, court-runners, and staff throughout the United States.

We began as a local vendor for Lexis Nexis and Thomas Reuters. Our region was San Joaquin and Central California. We have expanded from a small region into all areas of the United States.

Our Clients

We service Government, Private Corporations, Medical Facilities, and Pro Per clients.

Jobs Per Month

We work from 500 to 2000 jobs per month and out of that 1200 are service of process and will see a 40% increase in service of process jobs in the next six months, due to new contracts/clients.

What key benefits has ServeManager brought to your company?

GPS

This allows attorney(s) to prove all attempts with the courts, and have a higher rate of case successes on case prosecutions, and settlements.

Mobility

ServeManager mobile is seamless. It allows our process servers to be in the field, enter notes, attempts, and either print their field sheet or see the mobile field sheet. Also, the GPS is a no brainer, meaning there is nothing to do, you just move from the desktop version to the mobile version and the GPS is automatic.

Routing

Along with the aforementioned, the routing in the system allows all of our process servers to route their assigned jobs and not guess at the addresses. This alone removes the worry of lost time in the field and allows our process servers to concentrate on the job at hand (SOP).

How have GPS, in-field updates, and client transparency changed your business and workflow?

This has been essential to our clients because our clients have to defend the service of process in court, and prove to the court that our diligence has been met, especially on substitute services. This means showing the court the GPS part of each attempt and allowing the court to affirm that our diligence has met the state requirement, thus proving the validity of each serve.

The in-field updates for our clients is crucial, because they use our field notes for their case files. It also enables our clients to update their client on what is going on in the service of process. Prior to us being the vendor, their previous vendor did not update, nor had the ability for in-field updates. Our clients had to log into a stand-alone system, but 90% of the time field servers took over a week to enter notes into this system. We document in the field and our notes are sent to our clients immediately.

I have to say, in the beginning our clients were overwhelmed with our in-field updates, but after a little bit of time they found all in-field notes helped them with their cases, and it makes them more productive.

What was it like incorporating ServeManager into your workflow?

A couple years ago, I ran across a buddy in Los Angeles during a court reporting gathering, and both our wives are involved in the court reporting industry. He and I are involved in the SOP industry. He let me know he switched from his stand alone platform to this new program called ServeManager. He popped open his laptop and let me check it out. I was amazed, because it has everything I needed, in one spot. I decided to try ServeManager and was amazed.

It took me and my staff around one week to fully understand, play with, and test the system, and to totally understand and become proficient with ServeManager.

We incorporate ServeManager with our flow, from receiving the orders from our clients to assigning the jobs to our field servers. Our team (who is in different locations) can and does collaborate on the stats, jobs, and job audits.

The largest hurdle, for NCRC as a whole, was the trust factor. We had to provide our information and entrust our clients' jobs to ServeManager. With that said, we researched the encryption and other security involved in protection of our data, which made us as a collective feel 100% trust with ServeManager.

What were some of the main problems ServeManager helped you solve?

The routing system solved time management for the process servers which is a huge asset. And in turn it not only helps with time but also helps with the financial flow without wasting time and gas, etc.

With the volume of cases we receive each month, ServeManager has solved the problems with keeping track of all the cases and process servers.

How has ServeManager changed the way you collaborate with other process servers?

Prior to using ServeManager, we had to constantly be on the phone or email and use different platforms. That, in itself, took a lot of our time. Now that we use ServeManager, we can shoot the process server a note, or collaborate on the job, and not only does it make things better, but we can track all the communications on each job.

What has the process been for getting your clients to use ServeManager?

Our clients are Child Support, Public Defender, State Agencies, and Large/Medium/Small Corporations, and they all asked, "So how can you track every job, and how secure is our information?" We provide the information about ServeManager platform and show our live cases which are similar to their cases. We contrast and compare to how their current process serving firm handles their cases, communications on cases, flow of attempts, and proof of services. Once we provide the comparison, our possible clients become our CLIENTS. The reason? The majority of old school process service firms, use cumbersome systems, which they either created or is another platform that not client-user-friendly.

We contrast and compare to how their current process serving firm handles their cases, communications on cases, flow of attempts, and proof of services. Once we provide the comparison [with ServeManager] our possible clients become our CLIENTS.

The biggest concerns our clients had were communications, status of their jobs, and follow-ups. For instance, one of our government clients had a previous process service firm they had used for 14 years prior to us being awarded the contract. One of the main reasons we won the bid was detailing our use of ServeManager, which allows our client to get live field notes, updates, and proof of services almost on a daily basis (as opposed to the previous process server, who did not provide them with timely updates, service notes, and proofs of service). Now they are utilizing our service. This has made their job 100% better. Now, they are able to prove the diligence on each case in front of the court, and no longer are they losing cases due to SOP defects, etc.

Using ServeManager has cut down on wondering what’s going on with their cases, as they receive Job Statuses via email when their cases are being attempted, served, or whatever.

Our clients’ responses have been eye opening. Why? We are used to embracing new technology, security and accepting new changes as they present themselves to us. However, many companies (especially government agencies) have a tendency to not embrace up-to-date technology, which has an impact on all facets of their ability to provide their services to the clients they represent. After providing actual services using ServeManager, our clients were very happy, and embraced our services as the new way to do things.

After providing actual services using ServeManager, our clients were very happy, and embraced our services as the new way to do things.

How has ServeManager changed your relationship with your clients overall?

Our clients absolutely love the change over from the old way of doing things. Incorporating live updates, notes, and collaboration into their cases has been embraced 100%. We have earned our clients’ trust by providing our services through ServeManager, proving them with true transparency.

Has ServeManager helped you in acquiring new clients?

ServeManager has been a great marketing tool in our request for proposals, in that we can actually show possible clients our ability to provide them our service and how we will accomplish our service to them. It’s been a great marketing tool.

Has ServeManager helped your clients with provability?

Our clients depend on our in-field notes and attempts/serves to prove their cases in court, because each case provides not only the notes but backs the attempts up with GPS.

Want to tell your ServeManager story?

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