Business owners across the country need surety bonds to operate, and our transaction coordinators play a crucial role in giving them a stress-free bonding experience.
New to the surety industry? Check out our surety bond education pages to learn more.
While our bond clients interact directly with our service teams, it’s our behind-the-scenes Operations team that keeps the process running smoothly. Transaction coordinators are key members of this team, ensuring all official bond documents are issued correctly and on time.
Continue reading for an inside look at what transaction coordinators do and what skills we look for in new hires.
What Do Transaction Coordinators Do?
Our Operations team is made up of underwriters and transaction coordinators, who work together to get our clients bond quotes and eventually their official bond forms.
- Underwriters: Create quotes and determine premium rates internally or with external surety markets
- Transaction Coordinators: Log quotes and execute all bond documents
“The transaction coordinator role fits into the Operations team as the complement to our underwriting staff,” Pat Scholl said. Scholl is our Operations supervisor and has been with the company for over 14 years. The entire team collaborates daily to ensure a seamless process from start to finish for every client.
They work behind the scenes to keep the bonding process running smoothly. Their main tasks include:
- Creating bond documents
- Delivering bond forms to clients
- Processing renewals
- Issuing bond riders
“Everything the client sees that isn’t automated is executed by our transaction coordinators, whether that’s digital bonds, physical bonds, riders, continuation certificates or receipts,” Scholl said.
A Day in the Life
Since transaction coordinators are responsible for a variety of tasks, each team member holds a specific role. For example, one might focus on creating official bond forms, while another might primarily issue riders.
Don’t enjoy being on the phone all day? Transaction coordinators never speak directly with clients. Instead, they use our company systems to know what bond documents to issue, with supporting information from our other teams as needed.
“I come in and pull applications that have been paid for, and then I create and send out the bond documents. I also help with other tasks like riders or answering emails from the surety company directly,” Presli Barnes, one of our newest transaction coordinators, explained.
Barnes started with SuretyBonds.com as an account assistant intern, where she gained hands-on experience with bond renewals. Now, she applies that knowledge to creating new business bonds.
How Transaction Coordinators Work With Other Teams
Transaction coordinators take the information from our underwriters and client-facing teams to issue official bond documents. They finalize the information that other teams gather from the clients and surety companies. One of the most important parts of the job is making sure that clients never have to worry about getting their bonds on time.
The account managers and client relations agents, who make up our Production team, walk the client through what bond they need to purchase. From there, the underwriters work with our surety partners to get quotes if a credit check is needed. Once everything is confirmed, our transaction coordinators step in to prepare and issue the official documents.
Customer Care is our other client-facing team. They clarify information directly with the customers before Operations works on the backend to create the official bond form. This streamlines the bonding process by ensuring all documents are correct before our coordinators issue them.
Collaboration and Team Support
“Our team works closely with each other to solve problems and ask questions.”
Besides working with other teams, our transaction coordinators collaborate with one another to make sure our clients receive their bonds quickly and efficiently.
“Our team works closely with each other to solve problems and ask questions,” Barnes said. “We are a very tight-knit team!”
Beyond the job itself, the team values our thriving employee culture. They share in each other’s wins, both in and out of the office.
We were so excited to celebrate Barnes’s baby shower in July!
What Do We Look For in New Hires?
“Attention to detail is the biggest thing we look for. Willingness to learn is the next one,” Scholl said. “We always say that we can teach anyone how to bond, so we just need someone who wants to learn, and they’ll thrive.”
Since transaction coordinators handle a variety of tasks and legal forms, it’s important to be attentive and thorough. Our systems were developed in-house, so we don’t expect prior technical experience. We simply look for dedicated learners who are not afraid to ask questions.
“It can be difficult to learn at first, but if you give it 100% of your effort, you can really excel at this job!” Barnes said.
What Does the Hiring and Onboarding Process Look Like?
After submitting your resumé, we’ll call you in for an interview to initially get to know you and your skills. Next, we’ll invite you to shadow a few of our transaction coordinators to learn more about the position.
Once hired, you’ll continue to shadow other team members as you learn how to use our systems. Your supervisor will work directly with you to ensure you feel confident before taking on your role independently.
What’s the Best Part of the Job?
“My favorite part about the job is how much it changes,” Barnes said. “We get all kinds of new bonds in a day, and it’s so interesting to see how we can make the bonding process so easy.”
Every day, our coordinators learn something new. Each client and bond is different, and the team supports each other through new challenges.
“The best part about managing the team is the teaching aspect of it,” Scholl said. “It’s fun to see them being excited, overwhelmed, understanding and then confident in the short amount of time it takes to master our job.”
Operations enjoying a department dinner at Kampai Alley
If you’d like to learn more about our transaction coordinators, check out the Meet the Team pages on our website!