I love this, and I agree!!  Many people I see running around in yoga pants and workout clothes at the courthouse.  While I might do a dressy shirt and skinny slacks with high heels or boots) - I look like I am out working; I look like a paralegal.   (I hope).  Excellent slant on the complex courthouse-level searches. I have come to realize they are par for the course and actually find more challenge in them than the easy ones. 

It comes down to customer service,, being professional, being courteous, and being willing to look out for someone else in a different part of the state.  I am constantly trying to send friends work.  We are all here to help each other.  I know many clerks who will throw me a favor like a plat or a Lis Pendens simply because they remember me and I was kind and maybe helped someone out in the courthouse finding something - I try to be gracious.  Kindness and detail in this business goes a long way, as well as responsiveness.  As a former vendor manager, I would call several people and many times the most responsive abstractor got the job. 

The concept is simple:  Do a good job; be pleasant, and love your clients and they will come back.  No one wants to contract out to a complainer or a whiner or someone who gripes about every job.  Put your best face forward and - always stop to do a fellow abstractor a kindness if you can.  It will come back to you for sure.